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In the competitive world of real estate, staying ahead of your competitors is critical. While some competitors may be generating more organic traffic, it's important to remember that sometimes quantity translates to quality.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the secret weapon that helps your real estate domain outperform your competitors and attract high-quality organic traffic. His strategic SEO efforts, including keyword research and implementation and leveraging Google Search Console, make all the difference in beating your competition.
Keyword research: SEO basics
Keyword research is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. Understanding what potential customers are looking for in the real estate industry is paramount. This includes identifying relevant keywords and phrases that potential buyers, sellers, and renters use when searching for properties.
With national portals like Zillow and Homes.com holding such a strong position, it can be too difficult for new websites to rank for the most searched real estate-related queries on the market.
Instead, your first step is to analyze the domains of successful real estate agents in your market to see which keywords and search queries are driving traffic to your website.
Here's what to look for:
- Competitor analysis: Analyze the keywords your competitors are ranking for. Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs can provide insight into your strategy and help you identify gaps in your own keyword targeting.
- Local keywords: Real estate is inherently local, so focus on keywords specific to your location. Include neighborhood names, landmarks, and other relevant geographic terms.
- Long tail keywords: While highly competitive keywords can drive traffic, it's often long-tail keywords that have higher conversion rates. For example, instead of targeting “homes for sale,” consider optimizing for “Victoria homes for sale.” [your city]Create content about “. victorian house. That way, you'll start seeing organic traffic from potential home buyers interested in buying homes in Victoria.
Implementing keywords to increase organic traffic
Once you've done comprehensive keyword research, leverage those keywords to optimize your real estate domain.
Here's how:
- On-page optimization: Incorporate keywords naturally into your website's content, such as property descriptions, blog posts, and meta tags. Avoid keyword stuffing as it can negatively impact your rankings.
- Quality content: Create valuable, informative, and engaging content. Regularly updating your blog with articles about local real estate trends, market insights, and neighborhood guides can help you attract and retain organic traffic.
- Mobile optimization: Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, as Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in search results.
- User experience (UX): A seamless user experience with fast page loading and intuitive navigation leads to higher user satisfaction and better rankings.
The value of organic traffic
While paid advertising can bring instant results, organic traffic has its own benefits.
- Cost-effective: Unlike paid advertising, organic traffic requires no ongoing costs. A high ranking allows you to continue attracting visitors without spending additional advertising costs.
- Reliability and reliability: Users perceive organic search results as more trustworthy. A high ranking means your website is a trusted source in the real estate industry.
- Sustainable growth: SEO efforts tend to intensify over time. As your domain authority and ranking improves, so will your ability to attract more organic traffic.
Google Search Console: A valuable SEO tool
Google Search Console is a powerful tool that can provide insight into your website's performance in Google's search results. Provides various features to optimize your site's SEO.
- Performance report: Monitor how often your site appears in search results, your click-through rate, and the keywords that drive traffic. Use this data to improve her SEO strategy.
- Index coverage: Identify and fix indexing issues that can affect your site's visibility on Google.
- site map: Submitting an XML sitemap helps Google crawl and index your website more efficiently.
- Mobile ease of use: Mobile friendliness is important for SEO success, so check for mobile usability issues.
Keyword research example: Debra Dobbs (one of Chicago's top agents for the past 15+ years)
Competitor traffic:
- How to get traffic from your competitors' websites: Debra Dobbs: Keyword research gives you an estimate of where your organic clicks are coming from.
- Debra Dobbs gets a lot of positions for zip code related keywords. Blog about postal codes So that you can start getting some of her domain traffic.
Blog post from January 11, 2024: Gain impression share for search queries containing “zip code”. With an increase of over 574% in less than 4 weeks, his average position for the keyword “zip code” went from his 60th place to his 24th place, moving up 3 places and achieving 7 organic clicks.
Note: In the past 28 days (prior to article writing), the Openhausrealty domain received over 1,000 organic clicks, but none included the keyword “zip code.”
In the competitive real estate environment, SEO is the key to beating out your competitors who can generate more organic traffic. Keyword research, strategic implementation, and leveraging tools like Google Search Console can help you build a sustainable and successful online presence.
Remember, in the world of SEO, quality and relevance often trump quantity. By optimizing your real estate domain for the right keywords, you can attract high-quality organic traffic, leading to greater success in the long run.
David Marden is a third generation real estate professional with over 20 years of experience and has coached Chicago's top real estate professionals. Connect with Marden on Instagram and his Linkedin.