20 SEO Lead Tips for Your Real Estate Agent Website
Your real estate agent website can be a powerful source in bringing in a lot of buyer and seller leads if built correctly.
Below I will break down everything that we do in order to organically rank in the search engines for specific keywords for our website.
WordPress Build
The first order of business is to have a website built. I highly recommend hiring a firm who has experience in building specifically real estate websites using WordPress, a really good Theme and IDX Broker for MLS integration.
A good company who can set up this is Agent Evolution (FREE 30 Day Trial Below). You just need to get a functional site built so you can start on the real work.
If you already have a website great! You have a head start. Just be sure it has the necessary capabilities that we go over below.
Set Up Google Business
Go ahead and set this up right away. You will want to get local credits for SEO. By doing so, Google knows you are a professional with the ability to help local citizens with their real estate needs. This will help with the local keywords that you utilize throughout your content.
It is Free and Easy to set up. Click HERE. Be sure to fill out everything in its entirety including hours of operation, web links, about us page, phone numbers etc. Be sure to upload as many pictures that are relevant to your business as well.
Also and very important… Send the link to your Google Account to get as many reviews from past clients or your Sphere Of Influence.
On the home page in your portal, you will see “Your Business Is On Google.” Below you will have two links: View On Maps and View on Search.
Send the link View on Search to your past clients and sphere to get them to write you a (hopeful) Five Star Review.
This will show Google you are in this space and have an established reputation.
Google Ratings
Google is way smarter than any of us. Steer clear of fake profiles. If you are new to the industry, get your friends and family members to give you ratings.
Your review doesn’t necessarily have to be related to real estate. They can just explain your character like “She’s a very hard worker.” “He is always on time.”
Keywords Everywhere
Install Keywords Everywhere. It is FREE. You will see keyword searches, volume of searches, related searches, costs per click, etc directly into Google pictured here. This will help you come up with good and relevant headlines once you begin building out your pages.
Google Analytics
Be sure your web developer sets up and embeds Google Analytics into your website. It is FREE. This is very important so you can observe some very important detailed information pertaining to the insight of your website.
This becomes a very exciting tool as your site grows and Google begins to spit out the information below.
Number of Users
You will be able to see how many new and returning visitors have been at your site at any given duration (IE – Today, Yesterday, Last 7 days, Last 365 days).
Acquisition Of Users
This will show where your site users came from. Direct, Organic, Social, Referral and Other.
Device Used
You will be able to see the percentage of what device they were on at the time of using your site. Mobile, Desktop, Tablet.
Page Views
You will be able to dissect what page views your traffic is going to visit. A prime opportunity to double down on certain pages where you can create related blogs, etc.
Behavior
This will show how many pages were viewed, the average time on the page and the bounce rate to see how fast someone is leaving your page.
There may other analytical tools to help understand a more thorough sense of how your site is doing. And again, this is all free!
FIVERR Can Help With SEO
Set up a FREE account HERE. This is a fantastic source to buy inexpensive labor from professionals in their fields. You should consider hiring a writer on your team to help out. I usually pay around 5-8 cents a word.
This can help you expedite your SEO and ranking in a timely manner.
Warning – It is extremely important to find quality writers who do not plagiarize. I found that I was spending more time editing a post or community page than it would have taken me to just write it myself from scratch.
Also, Google will drop your rating fast if they catch wind of any plagiarism. So be sure who you hire is reputable.
Patience With Real Estate SEO
Throughout this process, it is imperative to be patient. This is comparable to say fitness and working out. You will have to believe in the process and continue for months on end to see real progress.
Assuming you follow the system below you will start to see real traffic in about 4-6 months. Keep in mind, this traffic and the leads generated will not cost you anything as they are organically ranked by Google.
So press forward, create content, believe in the process and the fruits of your labor will be promising.
Let’s Begin Building Your Agent Website
Once your website is set up, you should have 4 main tabs at the top of homepage page. Home Page. Search. Community. Blog. About Us.
Home Page
This is quite obvious. This will allow the user to get back to your home page and start fresh if need be.
Search
This is where you can have many subcategories listed below such as Map, Gallery, Just Listed, Distressed, Seller Financing, Pool Homes Under $200k, Zip Codes, etc.
This is where you will want to build hundreds and hundreds of pages with well-written content.
I suggest adding at least 2 of these a day with 500-1000 words per page.
A prime example would be Homes For Sale in 34134. You can write about the home types, schools in the area, area attractions, restaurants, etc.
Community Pages
I suggest adding at least 2 community pages a day. Write 500-1000 words per community using the community key words throughout. Be sure to have a clear title. And be sure the Meta Tags and URL are all in sync.
The Meta Tag is the 1-2 lines you will see below the headline when you do a Google search. You want this to be compelling to the reader so they click on your link.
Include at least 1 main photos and 2 photos within the content. When you are inputting the photos, you will see ALT. Type in the community description.
An Example:
Main Title: Sea Isles Condos For Sale Bonita Springs
Meta Tag: If you love the Beach and Boating then the Sea Isles Condos in Bonita Springs for sale may be ideal for you.
URL: sitename.com/sea-isles-condos
ALT PIC: Sea Isles Bonita Springs
Consider adding videos on each community. We just had an agent training on Tuesday and one agent reached out saying “I don’t want to be on camera.”
I explained, no problem. Use your phone and video the following: Driving into the community. Walking around the pool area. Walking around the tennis courts, clubhouse, etc.
Keep in mind your user will only benefit by feeling that sense of going into the community with your video especially if they have never been in there before.
I also told our agents it makes perfect sense to purchase a Drone. You can get a good one like mine now for like $850. Easy to fly. Consider droning every community as part of the video! You can check current pricing on the DJI Mavic Pro which is the one I have HERE.
Such a cheap investment to set you apart.
YouTube
Bottom line if you go the extra step and provide a useful video embedded into your pages, you will get more traffic. Be sure the headlines are comparable with your page and also add relevant content in the content area in YouTube with keywords.
I highly suggest you buy this Drone as mentioned. You have to understand that many people are not even in your area by looking at real estate. So if you are providing extra value, they are more inclined to work with you.
Video Tips
Most real estate agents doing videos just show the property they have listed. You’ve seen them. This isn’t what you are going to do.
You will want to give them a tour. Again, you don’t even need to be on video!
Example: Use your cell phone and record 25 seconds driving into the community. Then jump over to about 30-60 seconds of drone video. Then use your phone and do 20-second shots of each amenities like pool, tennis, clubhouse, etc. At the end, you can get on camera or elect to just have some wording in the actual video.
** If you really hate being on camera then do this. At the end of the video put your photo with your contact info and a one-liner saying: I hope this video was useful in getting a better idea of this beautiful community of _________. Feel free to call me at 555-555-7777 for a private tour.
Embed the video into that community page and that’s it. This helps tremendously as well to get listings in those communities.
** Now when you get a listing in that community, you will use all the keywords, add a video on that unit and put it on a Blog and post with a direct feed to the listing from MLS.
Blog
If you do not have any listings that is fine. There are plenty of items to write about to drive more traffic to your site. For example this blog I did on Bonita Springs History & Why You Should Buy Here. I added just a lot of personal information on when I moved to Florida and what my experience was like. Also a little information on the history of the area.
I think people want REAL. So the more real you can get in your community pages and blog articles, the better. ** I still need to do a video on this one! Coming soon.
Longer The Better
Google wants
- An incredible experience for the user.
- Helpful answers / content to the topic.
See if Google is able to rank sites that are very helpful for the user, then users will use Google. When they do this Google makes a lot of money selling ads because they have the user base.
So usually the long relevant content on the subject matter at hand wins. So if you are writing 200 word content on each community and your competitor is writing 600-1000 words, who do you think will rank higher?
Contact Us – About Us
Google came out in 2018 with an update talking about rankings of sites. They added that they want to see essentially credentials. Meaning, are you the agent best suited for that user when they are typing in information pertaining to homes for sale in Miami Florida?
In adding an About Us page, you will describe who you are. What you do. What your specialties are. Any schooling or certifications, etc. This will only help you.
Value Add
Google is smart. If your content is crap and people bounce off your site fairly fast, Google will know about it and therefore it will reduce your ranking.
So be sure your content is helping and educating people.
Real Estate SEO Links
Consider adding external links to restaurants or area attractions. ** Be sure these open into new windows.
Also, link pages within your site. This must be natural, however. So if you are writing about a community within a bigger area, then link to it. For example, we built a page for Fort Myers Beach. There are tons of communities within FMB. So when writing about Casa Marina located on Fort Myers Beach – We will link to it.
Real Estate SEO Backlinks
Honestly, we do not do a whole lot of these. But one site we use is Active Rain. This is a site for real estate professionals. So every time we add a new blog, unique page or community page, we will write a small blog on this site with a link to the page on our site.
Many spammy backlink techniques that were used in the past are a thing of the past and Google caught on. Some sites were penalized for it as well. So just be sure your backlinks are legitimate.
Discipline With SEO & Google
If you are adding 4 new pages a day, 5 days a week, over say 40 weeks you will have 800 pages on your site.
You can likely knock this out every morning for the first 2 hours every morning.
Can you imagine where your internet business will be in year two, three, five?
You will likely have a team dedicated to go out and selling which you are continuing on just building the machine.
In Conclusion
Google is smart. Work with her and not against her. If you follow this platform step by step you will rank higher and higher and eventually get traffic and free leads.
It is a fairly simple process, however, time-consuming. This is why many people do not do it. They spend their money with paid ads, Facebook ads, etc. Zillow or Realtor.
This can be your machine that will make you plenty of revenue for years to come.