In today’s digital world, it’s essential for all real estate agents to have an online presence as part of their marketing strategy with nearly everyone searching for homes these days heading to the Internet before doing anything else. The latest statistics show 90% of people start their home search online, so whether you’re selling properties among Colorado Springs real estate or anywhere else, you want those potential buyers to find you.
And, that’s where good SEO comes in. By now you’re probably at least familiar with the term which stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s a process that allows your website to gain organic traffic through search engines like Google, Bing, etc. It’s what gets your page closer to the top of the rankings, luring potential customers in. Implementing SEO techniques for a real estate site is referred to as Real Estate SEO, which uses a set of key words relevant to the site, optimizing them on major search engines so that when a potential new client types in those keywords when searching, your site will appear.
Keyword Placement
Before doing anything, create a list of the keywords you want to rank for, such as Austin real estate. These are terms that potential clients are most likely to type in when looking for a real estate agent or a home. You should have pages for all of them and you’ll want to place the keyword in multiple areas, including the page title, URL, several times on the page itself, the title of images and image alt tags.
Keyword Percentage
While it’s important to include keywords, you don’t want to go overboard, or Google will see it as keyword stuffing and your page will end up further down in the rankings – it looks unnatural and uninformative. A helpful article using a percentage of no more than 2% keywords is generally advised.
Be Aware That Slightly Different Words are Seen as the Same Word
Google has gotten smarter, for example, it now sees “houses” and “homes” as the same thing. If someone types in “Where are the best neighborhoods in Cincinnati” they’re going to get the same results that they would if they typed in “Where are the best communities in Cincinnati,” for example. The key is to create quality content that answers questions potential customers might have – that’s what Google and other search engines are analyzing and placing in the top of search results. If your articles and site pages do that, you’ll be well on your way to getting plenty of traffic.
Don’t Skip Mobile Optimization
Nearly half of all real estate searches begin on smartphones so you’ll want to make sure those potential clients can use your site easily on any mobile device. Consider speed, design, site navigation and usability which are all essential for rankings and conversions. If the site is too slow, viewers will quickly go elsewhere – it should load in under two seconds. If your site and/or its forms are too confusing, viewers will bounce back to search results and Google will notice, dropping your page in the rankings. You can run a test via Google to find out if your page is mobile-friendly, getting a list of any loading issues that may need fixing so that you can correct them.
