Local SEO Tips for Real Estate Websites

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The way we consume new information has changed. Gone are the days when we used to check yellow pages or rely on newspaper ads to find the relevant information.
We can now search in Google to find a relevant vendor, reliable product and trustworthy source.
That’s why SEO is a trustworthy marketing channel.

Important Stats

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• 61% of marketers believe SEO is the key to online success.
  
• SEO allows you to interact with potential buyers for free.
  
• Most of our Google searches have local intents. 46% of all Google searches feature a local intent.
  

Usually, big brands avoid local SEO. But 28% of searches with local intent gets converted into a loyal customer.
Being a real estate agency owner, local SEO will help you find new customers online for free. Therefore, you should not avoid local SEO.
You’re not like an eCommerce brand operating from Australia and selling products to audiences living in the USA.
If you are a real estate company owner based in Minnesota, your targeted customers are only people who want to buy properties locally.
Therefore, local SEO becomes even more critical for real estate business owners.
We are going to share a few local SEO tips for real estate websites.

1. Register Your Real Estate Business on Google My Business

Registering on GMB is the essential SEO tip that one should know to improve a site’s search engine rankings for local searches.
You need to register your real estate business on Google My Business (GMB). It will help your listing to appear whenever someone from your geographical area searches for a ‘real estate agent near me.’
A listing on GMB gets several actions — calls, website visits, and directions on Google map.
GMB actions lead to website visits the most.
Plus, a GMB listing gets a prominent place on SERP.

Users’ focus gets quickly directed to a listing, which gains the prospect’s trust for having a listing on Google.
64% of customers rely on Google My Business Listing to find details of the business.

A GMB listing also appears on Google Maps and help customers find direction to a business on Google Maps.
Using a GMB listing, you can get business details like:

2. Make Sure Website is Accessible

The last thing you want from your website is to make your site inaccessible and piss your visitors off.
Optimize the source code and make the loading speed quick for your site.
Loading speed is a prominent ranking factor that search engines consider judging a site’s potential. So, connect with a web developer and optimize your real estate website.
For crawlers’ accessibility, add robots.txt and sitemap to your site. You can also use sites like uptime robot to get real-time notification when your site goes down.

3. Improve Site’s User Experience to Improve Local SEO

SEO is becoming competitive, as more and more sites are coming online.
Many sites have persuasive copies and attractive layout of their pages to engage users.
Therefore, only sites with good user experience will thrive in local SEO.

• Focus on how you make users feel after they browse your website.
• Focus on navigation, add media like images and videos, and copy of your site.
  
• Focus on the intent of the buyers. Think about why they would be visiting your site in the first place.
  
• Add a chatbot on your page as well to interact with the prospects.
  
• Include a form on the page. It will help the users to get in touch with your real estate support.
  
• Ensure that your users can easily see the phone number, address and email id of your business. It will help the users to move forward with their inquiry quickly.

4. Think about Smartphone Users While Optimizing for Local SEO

Smartphones are responsible for almost half of the traffic online. So, avoiding small-screen devices impacts your reach online.
Mostly, people who are looking for a real estate broker won’t be using laptops and desktops all the time to search online.
A smartphone is our go-to tool for most of the activities. So, make your real estate site mobile-friendly.
Mobile-friendly site design creates a better brand image for a business. 57% of customers have said that they won’t recommend their site to others if the site has a poor design for mobile devices.
Plus, 30% of searches were made by people on mobile right before visiting the store physically.
That means people would expect to glance through your website or read the about us page while en route to your store. So, make sure your site is up to date for smartphones.
Google is also pushing mobile-friendly sites up in indexing. So, not making a site accessible to mobiles can directly impact the rankings.

5. Stay Consistent with NAP Properties of Your Real Estate Business

NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone number.
For your real estate business, fix these properties because they impact your local SEO quality.
These should be the same wherever you share them online. If you mention different details at different places, it creates conflict. Also, it will make your real estate business less trustworthy.
Concurrent NAP properties also help search engine crawlers verify the business.
If crawlers read the same details of your real estate business everywhere, they would consider your business credible. Otherwise, different details could make them feel like separate businesses, and they won’t rank all of them.
To create a concrete brand image in front of crawlers and prospects, fix your NAP properties. Be religious in sharing the same details everywhere, like social media profiles, directories, forums, and GMB.

6. Create and Maintain Profiles on Authoritative Real Estate Directories

Like Google My Business, there are other resources, known as directories. There you can create profiles, share NAP, and attract more buyers to your site.
These sites help you increase referral traffic to your real estate site. Plus, crawlers also look into these sites to find details of good vendors.
So, if you have a good presence, your local SEO will improve.

Take a look at this listing from Trulia.

7. Request Customers to Leave Feedback

Customer feedback is a sales magnet.
It’s similar to word-of-mouth marketing, which is the most effective marketing strategy, ever.
Customer feedback directly tells other potential prospects about what the business is all about.
It convinces other people whether they should go with the products or services or not. 73% of customers trust businesses with reviews online.
More positive feedback impacts customers’ buying decisions.
Also, Google My Business listing shows the number of reviews and star ratings of a listing.
Having positive reviews on Google My Business listing or other preferred listings is crucial. It can put you ahead in the real estate market in your geographical location.
Customer feedback can help you create additional content online.

8. Develop Real Estate Content for Local Audiences

Gone are the days when websites with fewer pages used to work.
Today, many businesses have a website online. So, for your real estate business, you should publish high-quality and relevant content on your site.
You cannot expect users to trust your business with the help of just one landing page where they can fill a form and get in touch.
Having just one landing page and asking customers to fill a form to get in touch is not enough. You cannot expect users to trust your business by doing that.
You have to cultivate an audience continually. It will convert the visitors into leads and lifelong customers using your site’s content.
You must publish:

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For E.g., Take a look at this Blog from City realty.

9. Optimize for “Near Me” and Long Tail Keywords

“Near me now” phrases have experienced 150% growth.
Most of the search queries are four words or longer. It shows that people are searching for specific answers.
And they are searching long-tail keywords, not specific or generic keywords regarding a particular subject matter.
Real estate keywords are usually more than four words. Most people search for keywords like ‘4 room flat in Dallas’ or ‘real estate agent near me.’
Based on your IP, Google will list down the results in your area.
For E.g., Take a look at this screenshot below.
The long-tail keywords have fewer search volumes than broader terms. But, the latter will only bring you a cold audience.
But people who search for long-tail keywords are very relevant and have higher buying intent. Check out the graph below.

10. Encourage Customers to Visit or Contact Your Business

Make sure you are leaving customers with something to act upon when they visit your site.
Having relevant content without any call-to-action is worthless. You are missing the tremendous opportunity to acquire new leads.
In the real estate business, most communication happens face-to-face. Therefore, implement website popups with forms. Help users to fill in their details, and make sure to contact them later.
For example: Take a look at this contact form from a real estate website.
You can also share your contact details and ask them to visit your place.
So, make sure:

• To highlight your business’ details prominently on your pages.
• To add forms above-the-fold.
• To always have a call-to-action on all your real estate business page.

11. Focus on Content Marketing to Scale Quickly

Content Marketing efforts can scale your SEO activities to another level. It can not only give you more sales but increase your brand’s reach online.
You can contribute to other sites and engage with audiences on different platforms to put your brand on the map.
Contributing content will create a good reputation for your brand. It will also help to build thought-leadership in the real estate niche.
You can collaborate with influencers and execute collaborative content marketing campaigns. It will create brand awareness.

12. Optimize Your Local SEO Keywords for Voice Search

Search engines are not going anywhere. But the way we interact with search engines will likely change tremendously within a few years.
Smart speakers’ market is rising every day. These days users can speak and search for anything online.
You don’t have to type anything at all to search for something online. You can speak to Alexa or Google Home to find you anything online.
As voice search is becoming mainstream, you have to optimize your site for it. Include keywords and phrases in your content that we casually speak while talking.
Voice search will make a huge impact on Local SEO in the coming time. People who want to find local shops and business owners online won’t go and type anymore. They will speak and expect the device to respond accordingly.
So, prepare and optimize your site for voice search to thrive in the future.

13. Add Schema Markup to Highlight Site Information

Schema helps search engine crawlers determine what a specific content on a site represents.
Schema markup is the best friend for local business owners. They can optimize their site to rank better on search engine results pages.
All businesses will have certain static content — like reviews, name, address, phone number, and the like. They will have some specific pages that they want to show it prominently to the customers.
They can show those details using schema markup. They can use RealEstateListing specifically for real estate sites.
For example: See how Zillow used the schema for their website.

Some Popular Real Estate listings: Country-wise

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USA

Zillow.com

Zillow can help you to rent a home, buy a home, or sell a home in the USA. You can also find the list of agents that may help you find your dream property. Not only finding a property, but the site also helps you to find the best home loan.

Realtor.com

Realtor.com lists all the properties for rent, sell, buy, or mortgage a property in the US. It provides you with the list of relevant properties with all necessary information. It also lets you get a suitable agent to take care of your needs.

Trulia.com

Trulia is a popular website for your real estate needs in the US. Here you can list your property to find buyers or tenants. You can also find the list of properties based on your need in your preferred location.

India

99acres

99acres is the place for all your real estate related queries in India. You will find properties for rent and sale. Also, if you are a property owner, you will be able to list your property to reach the right people. This website lists properties in all the major cities in India.

Magic Bricks

Magic Bricks is another Indian website that answers all your real-estate related queries. You will find properties put up for rest or sell by the owners and the builders. Also, you can list your properties to find tenants or buyers.

Housing.com

Housing.com gives you the list of properties for rent or sale near you. It shows the location of those properties in the map. You can also put up your property on the website to reach potential tenants or buyers.

UK

Rightmove.co.uk

Rightmove presents the list of properties on sale or for rent in your preferred location in the UK. You can find both residential and commercial properties here. Also, it gives you an idea of the latest price trend of the properties.

Zoopla.co.uk

Zoopla is a site to find your dream home in the UK. Based on your preferences, you will get the list of all relevant properties. You can buy, rent, or mortgage a property. Also, you can find an experienced agent to deal with your property search.

UAE

Propertyfinder.ae

Property finder is a popular website where people look for properties to take on rent or buy in the UAE. It gives a list of verified properties: both residential and commercial. Also, you get an idea of the recent real estate prices.

Brazil

Vivareal.com.br

Property finder is a popular website where people look for properties to take on rent or buy in the UAE. It gives a list of verified properties: both residential and commercial. Also, you get an idea of the recent real estate prices.

Canada

Realtor.ca

A Realtor helps you throughout your house hunting journey in Canada. It gives you the list of relevant houses, based on your search. Also, the team of experts helps you with valuable advice to help you get your dream home.

Centris.ca

Centris, a popular real estate website, helps you with your property search in Canada. The list you get here gets prepared after a thorough analysis of your search.

Malaysia

iProperty.com.my

iProperty is the last stop of your property search. It gives you all the relevant houses for rent or sale. It also keeps you updated about all the upcoming and recent property launches in Malaysia.

Propertyguru.com.my

PropertyGuru is the guru of all real estate websites in Malaysia, in true sense. You will find property for all your need: be it buying or renting. You get updates on new launches of both residential and commercial properties.

Singapore

Capitaland.com

Capitaland shows you all the relevant properties in Singapore. Based on your requirements, you can buy, rent, or lease properties from this website. This site also presents you the list of the best properties to invest in.

Indonesia

Rumah.com

Rumah is an Indonesian real estate website to help people with their real estate needs. Not only you get properties based on your search, but you get financial advice as well.

Australia

Realestate.com.au

Realastate.com will find you the property you're looking for in Australia. You will get enough choices to rent or buy from. You can also find shared accommodation on this website.

Flatmates.com.au

Flatmates.com is the best place to find shared accommodation. If you are a student and you need a shared room or flat in Australia in a budget, Flatmates is the website you need.

Final Words!
These are some important local SEO tips for real estate websites.
I hope you liked this article and have got some actionable tips to improve your SEO rankings locally.
Let me know what you think about the ideas discussed here. I’d love to know your feedback. So, please drop your thoughts in the comments below.
You can also get in touch with us to get the best local rankings for your real estate website using Local SEO.