If you’re an estate agency or have a business in the property industry and you want to attract potential buyers, vendors, tenants or landlords, having a website is essential. And optimising it for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is crucial too.
If you need some more convincing, here are some stats to think about:
These stats have also been exacerbated by the pandemic and the need for social distancing but it looks like the trend is here to stay.
So, as you can see, if your potential customers can’t find you online, you can’t expect them to go walking into their local estate agency branch.
Plus, there is a huge amount of competition in the property industry, so if you want to attract clients, boosting your rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs) couldn’t be more important if you want to get ahead of your competitors.
In this blog, we’ll have a look at what SEO for estate agents is, why it’s important and how you can boost your search rankings.
Search Engine Optimisation for estate agents is a marketing technique that will help you to make sure your website is visible to your potential customers when they’re looking for properties online.
This strategy will include everything from the technical aspects of the way your site is developed to the way your on-site content is written.
(Organic search results for ‘estate agents in sheffield’)
Wondering why you should care about SEO?
As we’ve mentioned above, more people than ever are starting their search for their dream home online. They’re not heading to their local estate agency or looking at ads in local papers any more. While this might be where the sale ends, the majority of property sales and rentals now start online in some way.
And, it’s not just home buyers or renters who are looking online, if you’re targeting landlords and sellers too, they’re likely to be searching for the best estate agency to meet their needs too.
You might have a great website, loads of content, high-quality photos and videos but, if no one can find you online when they’re searching, it’s all a waste of time
If you want to compete in your industry, ranking on Google for relevant terms is not just a nice-to-have anymore.
You need to capture the interests of your target market and that involves appearing above your competitors in the search engines results pages.
An effective SEO strategy can provide the following benefits:
Do you want to know how to boost your SEO strategy? Follow these simple steps to boost your strategy and hopefully help your customers find you when they’re searching.
Content and keywords are key elements of your SEO strategy. Quality content is Google’s key determining factor when it’s deciding how to rank your site. The pages that rank in the top positions on a search engine drive more traffic.
But you need to make sure the target keywords you choose and the content you create are relevant and valuable to your potential customers.
Relevant and valuable content will answer your customers' questions on Google as they move through the customer journey. For estate agents, this means finding the queries your buyers, investors and vendors are using and creating content that satisfies these queries and helps them progress to the next stage of the customer journey.
There are different types of keywords to look out for, each with a slightly different intent and at different stages of the customer journey. Optimising for a mix of these keywords will help you to reach your prospects more effectively.
To find relevant keywords and search queries for your business, you can use tools such as the Google Keyword Planner, SEMRush and Ahrefs.
Always make sure you’re using keywords naturally in your content and avoid keyword stuffing to give your content the best chance of performing in the search results.
Site speed is another key ranking factor when it comes to SEO. Google measures your sites loading speed and will penalise you if it’s slow. This can affect your rankings and hold your site back so it’s important to keep an eye on it and make fixes if you need to.
Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool is free and will show you where you need to make fixes.
What constitutes slow speed?
Ideally, your website needs to load within three seconds. Only 40% of consumers will wait more than three seconds before abandoning a website. So a slow website will lead to a higher number of people leaving your website (bounce rate) before it even loads and Google will determine your site as irrelevant and it will drop down the rankings.
60% of Google searches are performed on mobile devices. With more people searching online than ever, Google will penalise websites that are not optimised properly for mobile so making sure your website performs well on mobile will help to give your SEO strategy a boost.
For estate agency, it’s likely you’ll be selling properties in specific areas. A local SEO strategy is key here to make sure you appear when people search for terms such as ‘properties to buy near me’ or ‘properties to buy in {city}’.
Key local SEO strategies include:
Ensuring you have a local presence in search will ensure you appear when customers are searching in your area and can help you appear in Google Maps too so customers can find you easily when they want to visit a branch.
Backlinks are essential for building the authority of your site and improve search engine rankings.
Links from other sites in your industry acts as votes of confidence for Google and show that others find your site useful and authoritative too. Guest posting on other websites can help so if you have high-quality content to share, post this on other sites.
You could also try adding property listings to authoritative sites such as:
These will provide a link back to your site and help to build authority for your site.
Site structure is another important element of SEO. Search engines crawl your website looking for key information and how easy it is for users to find information on your website. Try not to have too many interconnecting pages because this can make it difficult for users to navigate and can have a negative impact on your SEO strategy.
Remember that internal links can help with SEO rankings too - just make sure there aren’t multiple links between one page and another. Internal links could be linking from a blog to a product page or from blog to blog.
Having a blog is essential for driving traffic to your website. We always recommend having a mix of content that’s optimised for SEO, answers your prospective customers questions and is related to your surrounding area.
Not only will this help you to build authority with Google and appear when potential customers are searching online, it will also help you to provide guidance to your customers once they’re on your site and make them more likely to convert with you.
Keywords such as ‘how to buy a property’, ‘do you pay estate agent fees when buying a property’ and ‘buying a property through an estate agent’ are all great examples of content you could write that would both help you to appear in the search results and satisfy users intent when they land on your site.
Social media provides you with a great way to build relationships with prospective and existing clients. People are spending more time than ever on social media so having a presence is key to building brand awareness and driving traffic to your website.
Photos and video content are critical when selling properties and channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest lend themselves perfectly to these content formats so consider using paid and organic marketing strategies on these channels. Social signals can signal to Google that your site it relevant and useful so can give your SEO a boost too.
The short answer is yes.
As you can see, SEO can provide a number of benefits for your business and the majority of your potential customers are now searching online, so you need to make sure you’re found otherwise they’ll go straight to your competitors.
If you’re looking for an SEO agency for estate agents, contact us at hello@logica-digital.co.uk.
Blog written by
At Logica Digital, we take the time to understand your business and customers to create a bespoke marketing plan that will deliver the best return on investment for your business. We always get results.
Call: 0114 551 1534
hello@logica-digital.co.ukWhatsApp: 07822011623
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Sheffield,
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