6 Essential Local SEO Tips For Real Estate Agents

Businesses rely on people knowing they exist. As a real estate agent, you know this well. Having the best inventory in the world makes no difference if potential clients don’t know you’re there. If you’re reading this, that means you understand how most of them will find that out. Now it’s time to take advantage of that knowledge by optimizing your Local SEO. Also known as Local Search Engine Optimization, mastering or even just improving SEO can not only help you beat out the competition but also dramatically grow your client base. Here are the 6 tips for real estate agents to optimize local SEO.

1. Identify Popular Local Keywords Clients Use When Looking for a Realtor

Imagine a client just told you what they want in a house. Maybe they’re interested in something modern in a nice neighborhood. Would you show them an older house in a bad area? Not if you’re any good at what you do. Keyword rankings work the same way. A keyword ranking is how high a website ranks when a user searches for something.

Ideally, your website ranks in the top 3 results for your target search term.  You should segment your target keywords into 4 categories to identify which ones you have the best chance of ranking in the top positions:

1. Generic – Most completive

2. Local – Somewhat competitive

3. Hyperlocal – Very little competition

4. Listing Specific – Almost no competition

But how do you know what local keywords potential clients are using? Thankfully, that’s easy. Google’s own keyword planner, https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/, is a great place to start.

Once you’ve done your research, incorporating those keywords into focused website content such as blogs or local landing pages can help improve your keyword rankings. Just make sure the content is high quality and not spam.

2. Design a User-friendly Website

Maximizing keyword rankings get clients to the door, but that alone isn’t enough to make them buy the house. As a real estate agent, you know the value of appearances and memorable experiences. The same is true for a user’s experience with a website. Consider the Laws of UX, designed by Jon Yablonski. One example is the aesthetic-usability effect or how pleasing designs make users believe they are more useful. You don’t even need to seek a high-end web designer to start. Free and easy-to-use website builders already exist. Sites such as Squarespace and Wix come with pre-packaged templates, tools, and customer support. All of this helps you to not only build business-oriented sites but user-friendly ones too.

3. And Optimize It For Mobile

These days, most people perform searches through their phones or tablet. Many website builders make it easy to take advantage of this. They provide tools to improve the mobile user experience. If you’re using a web designer instead, make sure to communicate your desire for a high-quality mobile version of your site.

4. Build Your Local Citations

At this point, you’ve done your research and developed your website, so what’s next? Name, Address, and Phone Number, otherwise known as NAP or citations. The number of times a business’s NAP appears on the internet, the higher it will rank in relevant search results. Spend some time putting your business information in places like Google My Business (an absolute must), Yelp, Whitepages, Realtor, and more. This will increase the chances of potential clients looking for a real estate agent to find you.

4. Grow Your Reviews and Ratings

One of the best tools to build a solid reputation as the go-to real estate agent in your local area is through reviews and ratings. Google My Business allows users to rate and review your business. Send satisfied clients a quick email thanking them for their business. As a bonus, include a link to your Google My Business profile.

You can and should do the same for Yelp and other similar sites as well. Over time, your reviews and ratings will grow, making future clients feel safe about coming to you for the services they need.

5. Taking Advantage Of Link Building

Link building is similar to citations in that you are not only seeding the internet with ways for people to find your site, but you are also giving Google more reasons to trust your site. Link building is one of the single most important factors to boost your local rankings for your target keywords. Find as many opportunities as you can to get links to your site or your site’s content out there on other sites. For local link building, develop relationships with local partners who also have sites that will link to your content because it provides their readers valuable and usable information.

6. Track Your Results

The final step in all of this is seeing how well these methods are working for you. A good way to do that is by using Google Search Console.

It will provide you with metrics for traffic to your site, search results that got users there, and more. Using this information to adapt or double down on certain methods can provide you an edge over other real estate agents operating in your local area.

Some Final Advice

Don’t try to do all of these at one time. Some will be easier to accomplish than others, and some will be easier to accomplish than others. While moving quickly is important, it’s better to focus on the quality of your content vs the quantity. As you begin to master one area, begin working on another. Over time, real estate agents who use these tips and focus on optimizing local SEO will see their efforts translate into higher local search rankings and a measurable increase in interested clients for your real estate business.

If you are a real estate agent looking to really leverage search engine optimization read our SEO for Real Estate Agents: The Ultimate Guide to SEO for 2021.