The Importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Real Estate Agents

Blog, Real Estate

Young couple and real estate agent looking at a laptop during a meeting in an office.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 44% of all people begin their home buying journey by searching online for property listings. So, what does this mean for real estate agents? It means it’s no longer enough to just have a website and publish content every so often.

In order to attract those home buyers searching online, realtors need to understand the value of search engine optimization, or SEO for short. SEO for real estate agents means showing up in a search engine results page (SERP) when people are searching for someone to help them buy or sell a property. 

Optimizing your website and content for real estate can be difficult. Real estate is a competitive industry. That means poor SEO leaves money on the table. If you optimize correctly, you and your business can be rewarded with large increases in organic traffic, website visits, and even leads. 

To begin optimizing for search engines, you need to rank for important keywords that drive qualified leads to your site. With so many people searching online for homes, the real estate agents who are able to master SEO will continue to bring quality leads and more revenue to their business.  

What Is Search Engine Optimization for Real Estate Agents?

Major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo provide search engine results pages. These search engine results pages are where websites and their pages are ranked based on the search engine’s algorithm. Every search engine relies on its own algorithm, but focus your SEO efforts on optimizing your website for Google. Google dominates the search market, accounting for over 88% of searches.

How Do You Optimize Your Real Estate Website?

To begin optimizing for search engines, you need to rank for important keywords that drive qualified leads to your site. So many people search online for homes. Therefore, the real estate agents who are able to master SEO will continue to bring quality leads and more revenue to their business.  Tools like Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, and AnswerThePublic can help you learn what terms your customers are searching for. 

On-page search engine optimization reflects changes a user can see on your website. Examples of on-page SEO include keyword research, optimizing title and meta tags, and image alt text. Local SEO refers to gaining new users from location-based searches. Optimizing for local SEO includes optimizing for local keywords, Google My Business profile, creating external link opportunities, and developing an online review and ratings strategy.  

What Are The Benefits of Search Engine Optimization?

In a competitive industry like real estate, it’s time to begin using search engine optimization to your advantage. Optimizing your website for search can help increase your website’s visibility and reach new customers. 

Search engine optimization is a big undertaking, so we recommend starting small. If you’re interested in learning more about SEO tactics, check out our blogs On-Page SEO for Real Estate Agent and Mastering Local SEO for Real Estate Agents. You’ll be impressed by how much web traffic you can gain – and how much your business can grow – by optimizing your online presence with simple SEO strategies. 

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