The real estate market thrives on movement, and in the digital age, that movement starts with a click. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports a staggering 93% of homebuyers utilize online resources during their search for a perfect property. But the online world isn’t just for buyers anymore. Motivated sellers, eager to get top dollar and streamline the process, are also turning to the web in ever-increasing numbers.
This digital landscape presents a golden opportunity: a platform to connect with both motivated sellers looking for a trustworthy investor and eager homebuyers ready to make a move. However, with countless real estate investors and agents vying for online attention, a strategic approach to search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial.
On-page SEO for real estate focuses on optimizing the elements within your website to improve its ranking in search results. By implementing effective on-page SEO strategies, you can ensure your website surfaces at the top when both potential buyers searching for their dream home and motivated sellers seeking a top-notch agent land on the search engine results page. Ready to unlock the power of your online presence and attract both sides of the real estate equation? Let’s dive into 16 actionable steps to optimize your real estate website for search engines.
You know how powerful SEO can be for your real estate business. With over 15 million users to our Carrot member’s websites and over 45,000 leads per month right now (as of the update of this post), a huge hunk from SEO.
On Page SEO for Real Estate: 16 Steps for Optimized Websites
Keyword Research: Unlocking the Language of Your Audience
In the dynamic world of SEO, understanding user intent is the key to crafting a website that truly resonates with your target audience. This is especially true in the real estate market, where both homebuyers and motivated sellers navigate the online landscape with distinct goals.
Decoding User Intent:
Traditionally, SEO focused on keyword volume – finding the most commonly searched terms. However, modern SEO delves deeper, prioritizing keywords that reflect user intent. This means understanding what potential buyers and sellers are truly looking for when they type their queries into search engines.
Homebuyer Focus:
For homebuyers, the search journey can involve a mix of informational and transactional keywords. Informational keywords might include:
- “Best neighborhoods for families in [your city]”
- “Tips for first-time homebuyers”
- “Cost of living in [your area]”
These keywords indicate potential buyers are in the research phase, gathering information and understanding the market.
Transactionally focused keywords, on the other hand, signal a buyer nearing a decision:
- “[Your city] homes for sale under $300,000”
- “Open houses this weekend near [landmark]”
- “Find a real estate agent in [your zip code]”
By targeting both informational and transactional keywords, your website caters to buyers throughout their search journey, establishing you as a valuable resource and trusted guide.
Motivated Seller Focus:
Motivated sellers also have distinct search intent. They might be looking for:
- “How to sell my house fast”
- “Free home valuation tool”
- “Top real estate agents for sellers in [your area]”
These keywords reveal sellers seeking guidance and expertise to navigate the selling process effectively.
Keyword Research Tools:
There are numerous tools available to help you conduct real estate-specific keyword research. These tools can help you identify:
- High-volume, relevant keywords: Tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush can provide insights into search volume and competition for various keywords.
- Long-tail keywords: Targeting long-tail keywords with lower competition can be a great way to attract qualified leads, especially for local markets. Tools like Ahrefs and Moz can help uncover these long-tail gems.
- Local keyword targeting: By incorporating local keywords like your city or neighborhood, your website becomes more visible to potential buyers and sellers in your specific area. Tools like Google Trends can be helpful for identifying local search trends.
By leveraging keyword research and understanding user intent, you can craft a website that speaks directly to the needs of both homebuyers and motivated sellers, attracting valuable leads and propelling your real estate business forward.
Trevor I’m having trouble getting my site moving up on google and generating leads. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I paid for my sets to be set up and tweaked by you but this one just isn’t doing anything. Thanks Tim
Hey Tim!
Great question man and we’re here for ya! First off, this is the perfect question for our weekly LIVE Carrot Mastermind Calls
On this weeks call make sure you’re on and throw that question at me and we’ll dive into your site and I’ll show you exactly what you need to do.
But, a few things:
1. Your sites are all still pretty darn new. So time will help the situation for sure.
2. You’re in a crazy competitive market… so it’s going to take more time and effort. Apply the link building sections of the 3 Lead Per Day training.
3. Get some citations going man!
I need to get a better H1 tag for my site, I am looking into this ASAP! Thanks!
I have been climbing up googles page one with all these great tips. I do need to go back and put in some more LSI keywords I usually just have one version of keyword repeatedly..
Michael! Awesome man!
Ya, it’s key nowadays to make sure to write in a natural way and have variations of the phrase in there.
Great job implementing man!!!!
This is great information. So much has changed with seo and especially with real estate since we lost the local 7 pack listings. Thanks!
I Trevor, still pretty new customer, but all this SEO stuff is beyond me. I have included our website and any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks.
Thanks for all the great info Trevor!
Of course Chris!!!!
Great tips! From my experience, On page Optimization is really working, and it is very powerful strategy to increase your rank and traffic. Keywords in the title, internal links,image alt tag are example of my activities that proves to be working. I want to try your tips too, thanks for sharing!
One of the best articles about SEO out there. Organic leads are by far the best return on your investment. This definitely helps you lay a solid foundation. Thank you Trevor!
Sweet! Thanks Zach! Go get ’em man! Hit us up if we can help w/ anything!
How do I get a Google +1 button on my website?
Hey Renee! Great question! We used to have the G+ button but google discontinued Google Plus as a service this past year so we removed it from our system for y’all. We’re keeping an eye out for ya! :-)