Real estate is a tough market. 1000’s of new realtors emerge every day, creating more competition and making it harder for you stand out. If that isn’t enough, huge sites like Zillow and Redfin get all of the love from Google. When they’re not getting the love, other big brokerage sites are taking up the 1st page spots.

Make no mistake.

If you’re trying to rank on Google, there’s only one place to be: the first page. Anything after that you’re lucky if you get a few visitors a day.

After reading this guide you probably won’t be able to overtake a site like Zillow. The big G gives them too much preference. Lucky for you, there are some people, qualified people, that skip over Zillow.

No matter how much you try to automate it, real estate is still a business of people and customer service. Customers that want to buy or sell their house want to deal with an agent that will go to work for them and try to get them the best deal.

Zillow, while it takes up most of the traffic, it can redirect that traffic to only so many agents at a time per area. Therefore, it is still worth it for you to rank right after the other major real estate aggregator sites. Truth be told, that’s those are the only positions you can compete for in real estate.

If you see value in ranking on the first page right behind the main aggregators then this guide is for you.

Key Components for Ranking Your Real Estate Website

There are three important factors you need to understand if you want to rank your website.

• Keyword selection
• On Site optimzation
• off site optimization

Targeting the right keywords for your realtor website

Going after the right keywords is important when it comes to ranking any site in any industry. The broader the keyword, the more likely it will have higher competition and the less likely you’ll rank on page 1. To take it a step further, even if you do rank on page 1, it may not be as relevant.

Let’s say for example that you try to rank for the keyword “real estate”. In the US, that’s over 3 million searches. It would be great to get that much traffic.

Let’s take a look at the competition:

You’re competing against realestate.com.au, wikipedia, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and MarketWatch.

Good luck with that.

Moreover, if you look at the results, you see that Google’s interpretation is all over the place. While some of the links refer to getting a real estate agent, or buying or selling real estate, others refer to the real estate industry or some real estate tycoon.

Assuming you do make the first page, what good is to a real estate agent in Texas that someone in California is typing in real estate to learn about how to invest. Absolutely.

(NOTE: Want to save time and hire a real estate seo expert? Click here to schedule a free SEO audit.)

Choose Buyer and Seller Real Estate Keywords

A long tailed keyword usually has a definition that is associated with the number of words in the phrase. However it simply is a keyword that by itself doesn’t have as much search volume. It just so happens that most of the time, the two conditions go together.

The great thing about long tail keywords is that they show more intent by the searcher. Now, let’s not confuse intent with buyer intent. Most searches can be broken down into two types:

• Informational
• Commercial

Information keyword intent can be something like “How is the school district in Austin Texas”. This is a person curious about Austin TX, possibly because they want to move there. However they aren’t quite ready to buy a house in Austin Tx.

Do you know who is?

Someone that types, “houses for sale in austin texas”. That is commercial intent. Those are the types of keywords that you want to rank for.

Target Suburbs Instead of Major Cities

Some cities are way more competitive than others. Even the example of targeting “houses for sale in austin texas” can be harder to rank. The reason is that more people know about this seo tactic. People with bigger websites and large marketing budgets.

So what’s the workaround.

Get even more long tail. Target suburbs in the city and combine that with the commercial intent phrases. These are the most common types of phrase combinations that work for real estate:

• suburb + “realtor”
• suburb + “real estate”
• suburb + “houses for sale”
• suburb + “condos for sale”
• suburb + “sell my home”

etc.

You can do the same for rent, move the words around, but that’s the gist of the keywords that you should be trying to rank for initially. Eventually you’ll want to rank for informational content as well, but as a business to maximize your ROI in SEO, you’ll want to rank for the commercial intent terms first.

Optimizing Your Real Estate Pages for Right Keywords

Ok, so you have your keywords. What’s next? On page optimization.

On Page Optimization of Real Estate Site

On page optimization is a fancy way of saying that you want to have the right mix of keywords in the page that you’re targeting. Key elements on the page to pay attention to are:

• URL
• Meta title tag
• Meta description
• H1 tag
• Content

How to Add and Mix Up Your Keywords

URL – You’ll want to add the keyword that you’re targeting in the page address that you’re targeting. For example:

http://realestatesite.com/austin-homes-for-sale.

You dont necessarily need the exact keyword. If you have one that’s similar, like austin-real-estate, that can work as well.

Meta Title Tag – This is the tag that tells Google what the title of the page should be in your google search. So if you search on google, it will be the part that’s highlighted in Blue. If the search result has your keyword, it will be highlighted and stand out.

Meta desription – This is important because it’s your chance to “sell your click” to the user. If you have any rebates, or specials, you have 160 characters of space where you can entice the browser to click on your search result instead of others. Other larger sites aren’t taking the time to optimize this, so you have an advantage here.

H1 Tag – H1 is a heading tag. It’s usually used for titles and makes the font larger. If you use WordPress on your site, it’s usually the title of your post.

Content – You want to use your keywords in your content but you don’t want to make it seem forced.  To do so, you’re allowed to use LSI’s, the fancy seo word for synonyms.

If you’re not still not sure about using LSIs, here’s an example for “homes for sale”

• houses for sale
• townhouse for sale
• apartment for sale
• condo for sale

Write Good Content About the Neighborhood

Since you aren’t already targeting a neighborhood, it’s your job to sell it. You’ll want to talk about all of the things that people need or would want to know about the neighborhood. How safe is it, the home values, activities nearby, the school system, etc.

This serves two purposes:

It makes you look like an authority. No one wants to buy or sell a house with an agent who doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

It gives you something to write about. The longer a post, the better Google will consider it. As long as the post is written well enough and has good information, Google will be more likely to give it some love.

(NOTE: Want to save time and hire a real estate seo expert? Click here to schedule a free SEO audit.)

Off Site Optimization of Your Realtor Site

It’s really important to have your site properly optimized for seo. If it isn’t it doesn’t matter the amount of links you send it, it won’t rank as well.

Having said that, links are still the most important factor in ranking your site. Sure, you can write tons of content and you will get rankings. Some keyword phrases have very little competition and will show up in the search engine results.

However, you aren’t a writer. You’re a real estate agent. Your job is to work on selling houses and to do so you need some traffic.

Add High Quality Backlinks To Your Site

Links to your site are a way of lending authority to your site. The more different sites link to your page, the more Google believes that you are an authority and they reward you as such with rankings.

Not all links are created equal. If a site is crappy and links to you site, it can cause more harm than good. Each site has metrics that help you determine whether it is spammy or not.

That’s outside the scope of this discussion, but there are sites that you can read in depth about that have more knowledge about the subject.

• moz.com
• ahrefs.com

Anchor Text That Targets Your Keyword

Anchor text is the actual word that is linking your site. So if I have a link to wikipedia, in this instance my anchor text would be “wikipedia”. When creating anchor text, you’ll want to have a mix of anchor text that has your url, your brand, and the keywords that you are targeting.

If you use a target keyword too much, Google will look at it as unnatural and may very well penalize your site.

The best use of your target keyword anchor text is by using the the LSIs as was suggested for content.

Other Ways of Targeting Your Website

There are other ways of maximizing internet exposure to you realtor site. If you have a physical location, you should take advantage of Google Places and Citations. Citations is the process of being properly registered in all of the local directories. This show’s Google that you’re a real business. It also improves your odds of showing up in the NAP pack, which the listing of local businesses that show up in Google results.

Social Signals From Your Website

The way people interact on the internet continues to evolve. Google does favor your page if you have interaction with Social Media. Through social media, you can acquire more links and shares and thus make your site stronger in the eyes of Google. You need to make sure you have a property in every major social media network and web 2.0 property out there.

In Conclusion

Real estate seo isn’t rocket science. It is a methodical and systematic way of gaining traffic to your site and it’s not to be overlooked. The internet is where people are, and if they can’t find you then you won’t have as much business as you need or want.

You have to be patient to see results, easily 3 to 6 months. Some markets may take longer as they are extremely competitive. However, once you start gaining traction you’ll build a healthy pipeline of leads.

As they say in real estate, “location, location, location.”

(NOTE: Want to save time and hire a real estate seo expert? Click here to schedule a free SEO audit.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

AdWords accounts offer four main match types when it comes to keywords.

• Broad
• Broad Match Modifier
• Phrase
• Exact

Anyone new to paid search can get confused with what each match type is and how it works, so I can imagine how foreign it may be for a small business owner.

So while someone new to this area is trying to wrap those concepts around their head, they usually forget the often neglected but very important stepsister, the Negative Keyword.

Search is an ever evolving thing. AdWords changes their rules and platform every week. Sometimes it feels like every few hours. With the times, people have learned more and more about what types of words to bid for. Long are gone the days when you just threw a few hundred long tail keywords in exact match and got cheap clicks.

Not only that, but can you possibly think of every long tail keyword out there? Even if you do use some keyword research tools, build different ad groups, you’ll still see that some of the keywords are labeled low search volume and get very little to no impressions. Depending on which Google rep you speak with, it may be negatively impacting your account which makes your clicks more costly in the long run. Not to mention the clutter you’ll have with so many exact match keywords.

Enter Broad Match Modifer

Broad Match Modifier is similar to Broad Match, just much cooler. By adding a + sign in front of a keyword now your searches will come up for more related keywords. While in the past if you bid on “black shoes” in broad match, you may show up for “black sneakers”. Now we’ve eliminated that extra impression and possibly an extra click that wouldn’t connect with visitor.

What does it all mean?

Broad Match Modifier is perfect for finding new keywords you may have not thought of as a long tail keyword. It also makes the account structure less messy and easier to optimize.

While Optimizing includes things such as lowering or increasing bids, pausing keywords, and switching ad copy, there is one very important feature often overlooked; applying negatives.

Here’s an example of a keyword search I did for “plastic surgery atlanta”

[Read more…]

The internet has grown up since the late 1990’s. 20 years ago, most people could neither afford it nor had any idea what the internet was. Nowadays you have babies growing up playing YouTube videos on tablet devices.

As times change businesses need to learn to adapt. Before it was fine to have an ad on yellow pages or maybe a local ad in the newspaper. That and a nice looking business card and you were good to go.

Today’s business card of the internet is your website. Amazingly enough, many businesses either don’t have one, or have one that isn’t optimized properly. The funny thing is that building a website is actually cheap and easy nowadays, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Even though many businesses know they need a website, they are still confused as to what is it’s true purpose. I’ll tell you. It’s to sell. Period. Your website is your first virtual connection with a client. That can be the difference between you going out of business or crushing your competitors.

Here are three things that every business website should have.

1. Solid About Us Page

Some businesses state where there info is and how to contact them. While that’s fine, that’s enough. When someone is checking out your about us page they are probably showing an indication that they are interested. It’s good to not only have the basic info about your credentials but also to include what you do. How long have you been doing what you do? Are you a family businesses? Have you been in the neighborhood for a while? The more someone can relate to you, the more they’ll be willing to trust you.

2. Focused Landing Page

A landing page is the page a person who clicks on your ad lands on. If you are linking your ads to your homepage, you are already doing something wrong. Landing pages should have a clear call to action and as little information as possible that can distract a potential client from taking that action. For most businesses this call to action either comes in through filling out a form or through a phone call.

The phone number and form should be above the fold. While it’s cool and tempting to talk about the businesses in that page, 8 out of 10 times you’ll most likely get better results if you focus on the end results you can provide for the interested client.

3. Not Enough Calls to action

Some examples of calls to action are “Call Us Now” , or “Fill Out for a Free Quote”, etc. There should be some type of call to action on every single page of your site. While there are subtle and not so subtle ways of doing this, it shouldn’t be hard for a prospective client to get in touch with you . If they found one of your pages, and continue to browse, there’s an opportunity to make that sale.

I know I previously said three things, but I need to mention last topic that sadly plagues some business websites in 2015.

Moving images, movies, flash; those things need to go.

We live in the internet age and no one has time to wait for a website to load. If you site doesn’t load in less than 3 seconds, you’ve probably lost a potential customer to the competition. If it’s not mobile optimized, the repercussions will be worst in the long haul when it comes to conversions and search engine rankings.

While it’s great to have images depending on the type of business you have, those images should be optimized to be the highest quality at the smallest file size possible.

Consumers are smarter today, but the same principles of the market hold as they did thousands of years ago. Your job is to sell. Your website is just another extension of that.

Click here if you want access to a 5 day Adwords email course that will help you get clients

If you’re running AdWords campaigns for your business you already know it can be expensive. At the  same time you have to have exposure there, especially if you’re in a competitive market.

While many businesses have tried running AdWords, many have failed. Some have even said that it doesn’t work. The problem is that many businesses don’t know the basic rules of how to optimize. Here are three of the most common mistakes I see that are very simple to fix.

1. AdWords Extensions

Every few months AdWords adds more extensions to their campaigns. These extensions allow you to add your location, phone number, any reviews you may have. Other extensions also allow you to take up more ad space and help your ad stand out more. So far, most of these extensions have proven to increase your CTR. The higher your click through rate, the more clicks you get.

2. Location Targeting

AdWords has different levels of targeting. While it’s cool to show your ad in California, it doesn’t make sense if your business and your clients are in New York. Most local businesses really shouldn’t be promoting outside of their 20 mile radius. Set your location targeting to radius and set it at a distance from your business you believe your clients are willing to travel from.

The only exceptions are businesses that provide higher cost services where it’s reasonable to expect that a client may actually visit. In that case, those keywords that are combined with the name of the city or region can be placed in a campaign targeting a larger area.

3. Mobile and Desktop search work differently.

Both campaigns should be setup differently. That way you know which type of device is working better for your business. If you are targeting mobile, you should have a mobile optimized site and a call extension. As of this writing, Google has also enabled Call-Only ads.  These ads allow you pay just for phone calls  for the keywords you’re bidding on.

4. Ad Scheduling

It doesn’t make sense to have certain types of ads running when no one is ready to attend to them. It’s been proven that if you don’t get in touch with someone within the first five minutes of them filling out a form you are 70 percent less likely to get in touch with that person.

If you are more focused on phone calls, it would only make sense to have a person available to not only answer the caller’s questions, but set the appointment properly.

If you’re business is closed on a Sunday, and no one is tending to your leads, you are probably throwing away money.

These are changes you can make right now. You’d be surprised at how much money you may be losing right now by not focusing your marketing efforts on the right things.

Click here if you want access to a 5 day Adwords email course that will help you get clients