All You Need To Know about Real estate SEO

The increasing competition in the real estate sector is making SEO a very important player in the realm of digital marketing. According to certain studies, it is believed that the real estate sector will contribute to 13 percent of the country’s GDP by 2025. Both the commercial and residential real estate sector is growing exponentially. The growth in the corporate environment has fuelled the demand for housing in India. It is not just the economic growth and large income that people enjoy today but the belief that real estate is a safe investment option that play an important role in boosting the real estate market.

Cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad have witnessed a handsome growth in the real estate sector last year. This shows the potential of the real estate market in India. But as a real estate dealer or a builder are you ready to utilize the upcoming opportunities in the year 2019? In this article, I will explain how you can make use of your real estate SEO efforts to tap the many real estate opportunities available in the year 2019.

What does real estate SEO mean? 

SEO(search engine optimization) is a tool that helps your website in reaching a top position in Google search results. Statistics show that websites that appear on the first page on Google search have 35% more click-through rate. That means that the first position on Google search gains more clicks and more leads. In the real estate scenario, this not easy to achieve since the competition is high. But once you are able to achieve this, you are in for greater rewards. You will be able to achieve 35 percent of your sale just using your website. Real estate SEO will help gain visibility amongst the right audience. You can attract the attention of genuine home buyers with the help of SEO.

The following data from Google will help you understand the average monthly queries that are made in the real estate sector in different cities.

Real estate SEO strategies can help you stand out in front of genuine home buyers. Just building a real estate website will not yield you the results that you desire. Go through these real estate SEO strategies from SEO experts to get the maximum result out of your website.

1)Make sure that your real estate website is mobile friendly.

It is expected that mobile phone users will reach about 4.5 million in 2019 and 70 percent of real estate search will happen on mobile phones. So what happens if your website is not mobile friendly? You will lose a great opportunity to reach potential home buyers. Google has considered mobile friendliness as an important ranking factor. The update like mobile first indexing is an example of that. If your site is not mobile friendly, it causes the user to exit your website and opt for another website which will in effect increase the bounce rate. Increasing the bounce rate will affect your SEO and thereby your ranking. Remember, if your website is not mobile friendly, you can be negatively impacted in comparison to your competitors.

You can make your website mobile friendly by either of these methods:

1)By creating a separate mobile version of your website

2)You can use plugins if your website is made on CMS platforms

3)Using responsive web design

2)Build a website that loads fast

In today’s time, nobody appreciates a website that takes a lot of time to load. 50 percent of your customers will be expecting your webpage to load within 3 seconds. In the real estate scenario, it is even more important to take care of the website loading speed. Slow loading websites make the users more frustrated and exit the site making the bounce rate of your website higher, thus impacting you negatively.

You can use online tools like gtmetrix to analyze page speed.

Below is the page speed report of the search engine giant, Google.

There are many methods to increase page speed:

1)By using CDN

2)By differing off-screen content

3)By using browser caching

4)Using CSS sprites

5)minifying javascript

3)Long term real estate keyword – more conversion:

Long tail keywords are 3 to 4 words long which are more specific to the searcher’s intent. Long tail keywords may have low search volume but have more chance to convert, because they resemble the user’s wish. For example, the keyword “gated community villas in Bangalore” is a long tail keyword which is more specific about the housing need of the user.

4)Real estate schema markup:

Schema markup founded by schema.org helps to mark-up the content on your website so that it is more easily accessible to search engines. Search engines like Google and Bing collaborate with Schema. Each category of website owners should use schema markups. You can use real estate schema markup to shift your website one step ahead of your competitors.

The above search results show how a rich snippet can stand out from the rest of the search results. The second result with the schema markup can attract more clicks even if its ranking is below the other one.

5) Build an excellent landing page

Your real estate landing page is what controls the home buyers decision. The performance of the landing page can determine the user’s actions. Build a landing page on an attractive template can really make a lot of difference. Use detailed and pleasing images on the page. Image of the property you want to sell should be available on the web page to make it more relatable.

Check what the digital marketing expert Neil Patel says about making a landing page that can convert your visitors into online leads.

6)Use live chat and sufficient call to actions

Implementing a live chat on the website can encourage users to engage more on the website. Call to actions on the page is necessary to convert the website visits into leads. You can use attractive buttons with significant color or contact forms for this purpose.

7)Add client testimonials

Adding client testimonials is a great way to build your credibility. Positive client testimonials can build more trust in potential home buyers.

8)Real estate blog posts

Updating the website with blogs that are relevant to your niche can contribute a lot to your SEO efforts. In your case, real estate is your niche. Thus, informative and helpful blogs related to housing can improve your authority on the specific topic which will help in the ranking process.

9)Focus on location-specific keywords

Focusing on location-based keywords can increase the CTR of your website. You will get more relevant home buyers where the chances for the conversion are high. Using general keywords as the main focus keywords are not always advisable since location is an important factor in real estate.

10)Simple navigation to detail pages

Your website is the only way that the user gets the information about the property that you are selling. There may be lots of pages with the details like building and location information and images describing the property. You may need to keep the navigations to all these pages as simple as possible. Avoid the chances of the user getting frustrated by being confused due to too much navigation.

11)Google My Business Page

Google my business is an excellent option to showcase your property details. Try maintaining a business page for all your property locations. You can embed this on the specific pages to give the user a clear idea about the property. Requesting your customers for positive reviews can help your reputation as well as your SEO efforts.

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