Real estate agencies can greatly benefit from investing in SEO services due to the unique characteristics of the real estate industry and the digital landscape. The internet has gradually become an immensely huge and diversified place where consumers can access instant information about any topic on various devices without having to talk to anyone and in the comfort of their homes. As such, in 2018, it’s vital that all real estate professionals and agencies establish and maintain an active online presence as part of their digital marketing strategy.
Consumers are now inclined to search for properties and the real estate information they need on the web. For a real estate agency to be successful, it’s important to make the most of what the internet has to offer. And regardless of whether you’re dealing with sellers, note buyers, cash buyers, or even renting out to your own tenants, you’ll need SEO to be successful online. Here's a comprehensive explanation of why SEO is essential for real estate agencies:
Increased online visibility:
The majority of potential buyers and renters start their property searches online. Having a strong online presence through effective SEO strategies ensures that your agency's listings and services appear prominently in search engine results pages (SERPs). This visibility increases the likelihood of attracting qualified leads.
SEO is a long term investment.
While you can get good traffic from paid advertising such as PPC (pay per click) ads, it will only get you results as long as you keep paying for it. If the money runs out or you stop feeding it, your website stops receiving traffic.
Cost-Effective Marketing:
Compared to traditional advertising methods, such as print ads or billboards, SEO is relatively cost-effective. Once your website is optimized and ranking well, you can continue to attract organic traffic without ongoing advertising expenses.
Contrariwise, when you invest in SEO, the traffic will keep coming for years to come, so long as you’re using SEO best practices. In fact, by the time you finish working with a real estate SEO professional, you will have an attractive, healthy website that brings in organic traffic with little effort.
Competitive Advantage:
The real estate industry is competitive, with many agencies vying for the same clients. Implementing effective SEO strategies can give your agency a competitive edge by ensuring that your listings and services are visible to potential clients before they see your competitors.
SEO helps build your brand in the process.
When you rank higher in the SERPs, it gets your brand in front of many more viewers constantly. On the other hand, PPC campaigns will only get you views when you’re paying. As such, SEO caters to your long-term branding, which today means as much as a transaction.
Real estate SEO will get you more targeted traffic.
With real estate SEO best practices, your website will attract more qualified visitors those who are already interested in your niche and those who are more eager to do business with you. PPC might also get you many visitors, but if they are looking for something you currently don’t offer, it will leave you with high bounce rates.
Long tail keywords can help you optimize for the traffic that’s best qualified for your agency’s interests. For instance, if you use a keyword like "vacant studio apartment", you will be competing with every real estate agency in the country and their ridiculous budgets. But with long tail keywords like "vacant studio apartments in Bryn Mount Washington, Pittsburgh", you’ll be dealing with less competition, albeit lesser volume. However, you will probably be the only website in the world that ranks for the phrase in a search.
Real estate SEO will help you target specific demographics:
If your marketing strategy targets specific locations, property models, price ranges, neighborhoods, etc., you should be taking advantage of your niche in your SEO strategy. Just as with the use of long-tail keywords to reduce your online competition, targeting specific demographics can help to improve the qualification of your average visitors.
A person searching for "buy a condo between Cleveland and Pittsburgh" certainly has more will to buy than the average visitor searching for "condos in Pennsylvania". This kind of specificity in keyword phrases and demographics is often used by visitors who are closer to a point of purchase and are therefore more effective.
Showcasing Properties and Expertise:
SEO not only focuses on keywords but also involves creating high quality content. Real estate agencies can use their websites to showcase properties, offer virtual tours, and provide valuable information about the local real estate market. This establishes your agency as an authority and resource for potential clients.
Adapting to Changing Consumer Behavior:
As technology and consumer behavior evolve, more people are turning to online platforms to research and make purchasing decisions. Investing in SEO allows your agency to adapt to this trend and capture leads from an increasingly digitally savvy audience.
It improves your social media marketing.
Setting up and managing new social media accounts can add a key dimension to your digital marketing strategy as a real estate agency. Using social media helps your site get more backlinks (links from other websites to yours) from authoritative sources. This will go a long way in helping your site rank better.
There’s no doubt that SEO is important for any business today, including real estate agencies. It offers enormous potential for businesses that want to increase the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. If all this sounds like a complicated process, consider hiring a professional SEO company to ensure a fluid and positive ROI for your SEO campaign.
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