You want to rank your real estate website on the first page of Google.
And you’re no SEO rookie — you understand that ranking on the first page for your target keyword phrase is going to take some time, it’s going to take some work, and it’s going to take some content creation.
But just how long is it going to take you to rank on Google? When can you expect rankings and passive traffic to pay you back for all your hard work?
That’s the question I intend to answer for you in this article.
But first… just how powerful is the first page of Google anyways?
The Power Of Google’s First Page…
What is the primary reason that anyone — real estate investors and agents included — want to rank their website in Google?
The answer is simple. Passive traffic. High-quality leads. And less money spent on advertising. With that, you can build a bigger business and establish yourself as the go-to real estate expert in your market. Financial predictability and businesses growth — that’s what high rankings promise your business.
But here’s the thing… ranking in Google isn’t enough.
Most online tools will consider your website as ranking if it’s within the first 100 results for your given keyword phrase. Answer me this, though: when has anyone ever clicked through 100 results after searching for something in Google?
Yeah… never.
Which is exactly why the first page of Google is the only place with significant click-through rates (1st position takes 35% of the clicks).
If your result gets to page 2, 3, 4, or 5, the click-through rate is negligible. In other words, if you want to live the passive-traffic and high lead-gen dream that SEO promises, you must be on the first page. Nothing else will get you the results you’re looking for.
Once you pull off getting your website on the first page of Google’s rankings, though, click-through rate isn’t the only benefit — the lead quality is typically much higher than those from paid advertising, meaning a high close-rate for pennies on the dollar.
Here’s what Tyler Ford (a real estate agent and investor) has to say about this.
Get Your Carrot Website Today and Start Generating Leads in No Time!
How Long Will It Take You To Get To The First Page?
Okay — so you know how valuable the first page of Google is. You understand that the lead quality is typically much higher, the leads are much cheaper, and they take much less work to generate (over the long term, of course).
Note: This isn’t to say that you should ignore paid advertising altogether. Many Carrot members use PPC and direct mail to get leads immediately but then invest in SEO for their long-term business sustainability and financial predictability.
But how long is it going to take you to rank on the first page of Google?
Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question with a simple number of months. Generally speaking, though, you should expect to see some type of positive movement with your rankings within 3-12 months, depending on a few different factors.
Here are the 4 biggest factors I’m referring to. Taking these into consideration, your website should take between 3-12 months to get near the first page of Google for your target keyword phrase, moving up and down that spectrum depending on…
The 4 Biggest Ranking Considerations
1. Keyword Competition
The more real estate investors or agents that you have to compete with for page one of your target keyword phrase, the longer it’ll take to see the results you’re looking for.
Of course, different keyword phrases will have different levels of competition. You can use Ubersuggest to check the competitiveness of various keyword phrases. While less competitive phrases usually also mean less monthly search volume (meaning less passive traffic), it is often easier to get your website ranking on the first page for those phrases.
So, if you want a few first-page rankings under your belt faster, then try targeting some longtail keyword phrases with lower search volume and minimal competition. Over time, you should still focus attention on highly competitive phrases (such as “sell my house fast “) since those generally have a high payoff once you’ve reached the first page, but don’t be afraid to start with the lower-hanging fruit.
Learn More: How To Find High-Intent Real Estate Keywords and Dominate Your Market’s SEO Rankings
2. Content Creation Consistency
With more content comes more opportunities to rank in Google. Think of it this way: every page on your website get crawled by Google’s bot and has a chance to rank in search results. It logically follows, then, that with more content optimized for search engines on your website come more opportunity to rank for a variety of high-intent keywords.
Often times, the real estate agents and investors who claim the first page of Google are the same ones who consistently publish new content… on their website, blog, and social media channels.
The more stuff you create and put out there, the more that Google likes your website. And so long as the content you create is optimized for search engines, every single page is another chance for you to beat your competitors. The more content you create and the more consistently you create it, the faster you’ll reach the first page.
Learn More: 4 Real Estate Content Marketing Strategies You Can Actually Use to Grow Your Business
3. Backlinks
What’s a backlink?
A backlink is simply when another website links to a page of your website as shown in the diagram below.
So long as the website that provided you with the backlink (Website A) is trustworthy in the eyes of Google (see the dangers of black-hat link building over here), that link will lend your rankings some additional gusto. The more quality backlinks your website has, the faster your pages will crawl their way to the top of Google’s rankings.
In fact, there’s a direct correlation between the number of backlinks and ranking position.
That’s not to say, though, that you need 35,000 backlinks to see significant results from your SEO efforts — trying to rank for real estate keywords in your specific market is far less competitive than the demands of most online marketers.
Sure, backlinks will increase how fast you rank your website, but they aren’t totally necessary for a beginning SEO strategy (citations are more important, actually — learn more over here).
Learn More: How Many Backlinks Does it Take To Start Ranking Your Real Estate Website in Google
4. Time
At this point, this last consideration probably goes without saying… but I’m going to say it anyways: the longer that a page exists, the more authority it gains. Period. There’s a direct correlation between how old a page is and how high it ranks in Google. The average age, for instance, of a position 1 ranking is almost 950 days.
In other words, and if you take anything else away from this article, understand that SEO takes times — there’s simply no way to get around it. When you’re trying to get a page on the first page of Google, the reality is that Google has already chosen 10 results for that first page and you have to beat those results — that takes time.
Related Video Content. Watch: “SEO for Real Estate Investors | How Long Does It Take to See SEO Results?“
It can be done, to be certain, and you will do it if you stick with it, but it’s important to know really what you’re up against. And the 4 above considerations should help give you a better idea of how long you should expect your website to take to get to the first page of Google.
As always, though, if you have any additional questions, hit us in the comments!