SEO Tips to Help Your Realty Website

 January 20, 2015

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a must for every website. It helps sites to rank well on the major search engines. As a realtor, you obviously want your site to rank highly so customers and prospects can find you easily. This can’t happen if your site is not optimized for search engines. Research shows that approximately 90% of buyers start their home search online. If they can’t find you as they search, they will never enlist your services. To make the most of SEO and improve your website’s ranking, use these tips.

Post Topical Content on Your Blog

When it comes to improving your site’s search engine rankings, quality content is king. You must create great content that is original and targeted to your customers. The content will attract more homebuyers and sellers to your site and its relevance and authority will improve.

When writing blog posts, use tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest to find the keywords people are using to search for services similar to yours online. Once you’ve found the most popular keywords, use one in every post. Repeat the keyword a few times in the page and try to use it in the first and last paragraph. Also use heading tags, italics, bold and other formatting text. Write your blog posts for your audience and not for the search engines

Share Your Content on Social Networks

No one will know how great your content is if all you do is write. After publishing a blog post, share it on social media to reach a wider audience. Also make it easy for your blog readers to share your content by adding social media buttons to your blog. Always create shareable content by writing about important real estate matters and industry issues. If you are planning to travel and won’t have time to write, schedule blog posts so that they are published automatically.

Make Your Site Responsive

A responsive website is one that’s easy to view on desktops and mobile devices; it reorganizes content to fit all screen sizes. If your site cannot be viewed on different mobile platforms, users will not visit it twice. These days, people use mobile devices on the go and bookmark sites that are relevant and responsive. Google also gives priority to mobile-friendly sites and ranks them well. A responsive design will not only increase the visibility of your website, it will help you to attract more prospects.

Create Relevant Links

When adding links to your pages, write entire phrases instead of writing “click here.” For example, you can use a keyword-rich phrase like “how to find foreclosed houses in Chicago.” This will boost your site’s ranking and the page you’ve linked to. You can also use keywords similar to those on the page. However, try not to use the exact phrases as this can activate spam detectors.

It is also important to create content other sites can link to. SEO gurus believe that such links give a site a lot of credibility. This is because search engines consider them third-party votes.

Describe Images Properly

It is most likely that each of your listings has several images. However, do they have descriptions or are they blank? Most realtors don’t know that images provide an immense SEO-boosting opportunity because of the image search features on search engines. By creating appropriate descriptions for each image, you give search engine spiders an opportunity to analyze them. Use a different explanation for the image title, alt text, and description. The description should explain what the image is about or how it is related to the content.

Ensure your realty site gains as much traffic as it can with these helpful SEO tips. Your clients will find you, your listings easier and faster and you’ll be happy you improved your realty website.


Ronique Gibson

By Ronique Gibson

Ronique Gibson is an Associate Architect and a LEED Accredited Professional, who has been in the design industry for over 13 years. She started her design blog in 2009 and today it has become a premier destination for helping homeowners with everyday lifestyle challenges. Her readers check in daily for help with their homes, DIY project ideas, recipes, crafts, and inspiration to beautify and enjoy their homes.