Real Estate SEO a Realtor’s Guide to SEO in 2023

Real Estate SEO is an ideal way to increase the traffic to your website and the number of leads you generate each month. As a Realtor, you know that you need a steady stream of leads who want to buy or sell homes to grow and maintain a thriving Real Estate business. SEO or Search Engine Optimization can help you achieve this goal.

So what exactly is Real Estate SEO

Real Estate SEO is the same as SEO or search engine optimization in that we do specific things to our websites to make it easier for Google to understand them, rank them, and send traffic to them.

SEO helps Google better understand our website as a whole and each website page or blog post. When Google understands our content better, they’re more likely to share it with potential customers searching for information related to our business. In this instance, they’re more likely to show it to people searching for information on buying or selling homes in your area. 

Search Engine Optimization is essentially your chance to tell Google exactly what type of customer you’d like them to send to you. It’s a great lead-generation tool if done correctly.

How do you do Real Estate SEO?

As with all SEO, we start with keyword research. Our goal in SEO is to choose keywords our ideal customer uses when searching for things related to our business.

We want to select the term with the highest search traffic and the lowest competition to have the best chance of ranking. I teach all about choosing the right keyword in my free Real Estate SEO training course and SimpleSEO for Real Estate (I teach a whole LOT and my secret method here).

Choosing the right keyword takes several steps. You probably won’t use the first one you brainstorm. It’s important to consider a few potential terms and then keyword research.

You’ll want to check the search volume (how many people look for a keyword each month) and the competition (who’s ranking on Page 1 for this term & how hard will it be for you to rank on Page 1).

You’ll want to go to Google, enter the keyword you’re considering using, and see who ranks on Page 1 to determine if this is a good keyword for you to use or not.

If you’re finding Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, or other websites like that in the search results, this is not a good keyword for you because your chances of ranking will be much lower.

You want to find other Real Estate websites, companies in your local area, etc. Keep trying keywords until you find one that other Realtors in your area show up on Page 1. Ideally, you want them to be high on Page 1.

What do you do once you have your Real Estate SEO Keyword?

You will use your keyword when you write your blog post or create your website content page.

You’ll want to use it in the title of your piece. If your keyword is a question, it might be the whole title, and that’s OK. You’ll want to write your blog post or content page.

Don’t worry about how often you use the keyword; write and provide value for your ideal customer. Make sure you answer their questions and provide the information they need.

After you’ve written the piece, go back and re-read it aloud and count how many times you’ve used your keyword. You’ve probably used it several times because your post is closely tied to your keyword.

If you have used it too many times, you’ll be able to tell because it will sound awkward. If you can edit it and use it again without sounding forced, go ahead.

Be sure you use the keyword in your first paragraph and, if possible, add it to your Header Tags (those are the big separators you see between my paragraphs. Use an H2 tag to separate the large ideas on your page and an H3 tag if you want to break those down further into smaller portions). 

Where else do you use your Real Estate SEO keyword?

You’ll use your keyword in your Title Tag, Meta Description, and Image Filename on your page.

• Your Title Tag should be a maximum of 60 characters, including spaces, and include your keyword & your business name if it fits.

• Your Meta Description is a maximum of 160 characters, including spaces, and should give more information about your topic. You’ll want to use your keyword in your Meta Description too.

• Use your keyword separated by –  in your Image File Name, and if you want to show up in Google Image Search, include your business name in the file name, separating the words with -. Use the dash that looks like a minus sign between each word. Google reads that as a space.

• Get my Real Estate SEO Quick Start Guide now - it has all this in it, so you don't have to remember. 

You’ll want to follow the same process on each page or blog post that you create to maximize the benefit for your Real Estate website.

Every new page or post that you create & optimize is one more chance for Google to show your content to potential buyers or sellers. Be sure you’re creating content that answers their questions and includes a call-to-action on each post so they know how to get ahold of you if they want to work with you.

You can make it as simple as Contact Me today for X (whatever they’re interested in as a Buyer or Seller). For more tips on how to use content to find buyers and sellers, check out this post. 

If you want to learn more about Real Estate SEO, get my free Real Estate SEO Quick Start Guide today. It covers everything you need to know and includes an easy-to-use SEO Checklist you can review before publishing your next blog post or website page.