Getting your website to rank high in Google and other search engines is no longer easy due to the fierce competition. Most Realtors and real estate investors are wasting time and resources on outdated real estate SEO strategies.
After analyzing over 3000 real estate websites for SEO, we have discovered some strategies proven to help you drive more organic traffic and leads. In this guide, we are going to share with you ‘real estate SEO secrets’ that the top-ranked websites are leveraging:
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Hyperlocal marketing and keyword targeting
Hyperlocal marketing and keyword targeting are the reason that the websites like Zillow, Realtor.com, and Trulia dominate search engine results.
These websites have pages dedicated to even the smallest housing markets across the USA.
For example, Tampa’s Drew Park has only five homes for sale, but Realtor.com has a page dedicated to this neighborhood.
You will find all the useful information including median listing price, homes listed for sale in Drew Park, the condition of the market (whether it’s buyer’s market or seller’s market), the average number of days on the market, schools, and amenities.
For example, you are a real agent in the DMV area and you are targeting the following communities/cities:
- Bethesda MD
- Cabin John MD
- Garrett Park MD
- Kensington MD
- Silver Spring MD
- Rockville MD
- Olney MD
- Potomac MD
- Darnestown MD
- Laytonsville MD
- Clarksville MD
- Brookville MD
- Chevy Chase MD
- Chevy Chase DC
- Spring Valley DC
- Palisades DC
- Forest Hills/Woodley Park DC
- Shepherd Park DC)
- Columbia Heights DC
- Petworth DC
- Adams Morgan DC
- Georgetown DC
- Arlington VA
- McLean VA
You can create dedicated pages to each one of these communities/cities and target relevant keywords such as:
- Bethesda, MD homes for sale and real estate market overview
Try to make information easy to consume with infographics and visuals including images and videos. You can also add maps of the locations.
Now, research hyperlocal keywords within these communities and create dedicated pages for each one of them.
For example, the following are all neighborhoods of Bethesda:
- Wyngate
- Alta Vista
- Woodmont Tringle
- West Wood
- Bradmoor
- Whitehall Manor
- Westlake
- Ashburton
- Bannockburn
- Woodacres
- Woodburn
You can create pages with meta title – ‘Wyngate, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview’
You can provide the same information i.e.
- median listing price in Wyngate,
- homes listed for sale in Wyngate,
- the condition of the Wyngate housing market
- the average number of days on the Wyngate market,
- schools in Wyngate, and
- amenities in Wyngate.
We recently published an article explaining how to create effective community pages for a real estate website.
You can also consider targeting zip code-based keywords. Do a keyword analysis and create pages for the most popular zip code areas. For example, you can target the following zip codes in Bethesda:
- 20810, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
- 20813, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
- 20813, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
- 20815, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
- 20892, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
- 20811, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
- 20814, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
- 20816, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
- 20889, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
- 20894, MD homes for sale & real estate market overview
Internal linking
As you create pages for the cities, communities, and neighborhoods, it’s extremely important that you interlink these pages. Internal linking is good not only for SEO but also for user experience.
Internal links are links that connect different pages on your website to each other and make them interactive for users. While the main navigation of your website provides users access to other pages, you should leverage the community and neighborhood pages to boost internal linking.
Internal links make it easier for users to visit multiple pages on your website. It boosts user engagement and also increases the amount of time that users stay on your website. ‘Time on Site’ has become a huge SEO factor in the past few years. It’s an indication of your website’s relevancy and user-friendliness.
According to Moz, it also spreads link equity. You probably already know that backlinks from other websites to your website boost SEO. So, if one of the pages has received lots of backlinks and if you interlink that page with another page on your website, then the other page will also get a ranking boost.
You can easily see internal linking on all top-ranked websites including Realtor.com and Zillow. Take a look at the screenshot below:
The Bethesda page on Realtor.com has links to different pages including neighborhood-specific real estate overview pages, homes for sale pages, and homes for rent pages.
So for example, if your target market is Bethesda, you have created pages for hyperlocal markets, you can inter-link those pages. You can link the main Bethesda, MD page to Wyngate, Alta Vista, Woodmont Tringle, West Wood, Bradmoor, Whitehall Manor, Westlake, Ashburton, Bannockburn, Woodacres, and Woodburn, and vice-versa.
Increasing user engagement with real estate listings
Real estate listings are the most important feature of a real estate website. They will increase the ‘Time on Site’ as the users will browse through homes listed for sale in specific markets.
Here is how you can leverage this feature to rank your website high in search engines results:
- Showcase area-specific real estate listings on each community/neighborhood page
- Create ‘Related Listings’ widgets that showcase listings in adjoining neighborhoods. Take a look at the screenshot below.
We recently wrote an article on how to make your real estate listings SEO-friendly. Check it out to get more visibility for your listings in search engines.
Read more: Complete Guide to Real Estate Local SEO
Conclusion
You will see all top-ranked real estate websites to follow these SEO strategies. If these strategies are working for them, they will surely work for you as well. You should target hyperlocal markets (neighborhoods/communities) and provide useful and relevant information about the real estate market and listings for sale. Once these pages start ranking for your target keywords, you will get free traffic and leads.
