Don’t let these common errors keep potential clients from finding you online.
Success as a real estate agent is more than charisma and connections or even skill and experience. It’s about driving traffic to your luxury real estate website, and the most effective way to do that is by leveraging search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO in real estate is a powerful tool for increasing your ranking on Google and getting more visitors to your site. As you work to build the flow of organic traffic to your website through real estate SEO, watch out for these six common mistakes.
What is real estate SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is creating and organizing content to be understood and categorized by a search engine like Google. The better your SEO, the more a search engine will value your content and the higher your site will rank in the search results. A higher ranking means more traffic to your website.
Google uses various opaque algorithms to determine every website’s experience, expertise, authority, and trust (EEAT), which is why understanding SEO strategies can be difficult. The good news is that there are countless tools to help you grow your organic audience and steadily accumulate more warm leads.
However, the complex and ever-changing nature of SEO in real estate makes it challenging to juggle best practices with the other duties of your career. Many outsource this crucial aspect of their business by hiring trusted real estate SEO services instead of trying to do it themselves.
Mistakes to avoid in real estate SEO
If you are taking on your site’s SEO yourself, be careful to avoid the following pitfalls, as even the most savvy digital marketer can make mistakes. The good news is that they are easy to fix.
Real estate SEO mistake #1: Forgetting mobile
Mobile experience has become one of the most important means of accessing online content. Over 50% of web traffic comes through mobile devices. To be sure your users can learn what they need to know from your site, your website needs to be configured for mobile performance and optimization.
Pages loading too slowly is one of the main reasons websites get penalized in Google’s rankings, and Google undoubtedly factors in mobile loading speeds. Your web pages must load in three seconds or less to stay in Google’s good graces.
Real estate SEO mistake #2: Not keeping up with the times
SEO best practices and strategies change constantly, which makes real estate SEO an art and a science. While frustrating for business owners and online marketers, SEO remains essential. Unfortunately, many real estate professionals learned all about SEO five or ten years ago, set up their sites, and haven’t pivoted their strategies to keep up with changing algorithms and best practices.
For example, keyword stuffing, the practice of repeating keywords over and over, used to be rewarded by search engines. However, attempting to use this spammy SEO strategy today will result in lower rankings. While algorithm changes or SEO strategy might seem insignificant, even the most minor tweaks could improve the rankings of outdated sites.
Real estate SEO mistake #3: Only using text
With so much talk about keywords, many people forget about other types of content that can rank in SEO. Video content, podcasts, and graphics all play into SEO rankings. Some experts believe that video content can rank on Google even more quickly than text content.
It might be time to shift your marketing strategy. If you genuinely like creating written content, keep going and let your authentic voice shine through. But if not, explore other strategies and get creative: Contact podcasters to grow your reach through crossover audiences or start a vlog or an educational video series. These types of content do extremely well on all sorts of platforms while also giving your SEO a healthy boost.
Real estate SEO mistake #4: Competing with yourself
Because Google has to prioritize which page to rank highest if you have duplicate keywords on multiple pages on your site, your pages may slip further down in the rankings simply because they are “keyword cannibalizing” one another.
This common mistake can easily happen since using the same few words and phrases to describe yourself, your background, the area you serve, and your services makes sense. For example, you might use the keyword “luxury agent in (your location)” multiple times on your main website pages. It’s important to recognize that instead of increasing the chances of these pages ranking, you might be sabotaging your efforts this way.
You can avoid this mistake by assigning each web page its specific keyword to focus on. This will help search engines differentiate between your content and allow you to rank for various search terms simultaneously.
Real estate SEO mistake #5: Neglecting metadata and backlinks
SEO doesn’t just come down to what you can read or watch on the page. It also depends on the site’s backend, such as metadata and tags, and aspects that are even more difficult to control, like backlinks.
Correctly creating unique and descriptive title tags goes a long way in making your page searchable and highly ranked in search engines. Meta descriptions communicate directly with search engines to tell them which users might find your page useful. Making sure these explanations are accurate ensures your intended audience comes to your site and stays to consume your helpful information.
Another commonly overlooked strategy for boosting SEO is working to earn backlinks. Backlinks are links to your page from other sites. While it is understandably hard to control (you don’t have much of a say over other sites), it’s crucial to prioritize reputable backlinks in your overall marketing strategy. For example, if you’re featured in trusted publications, a guest speaker on a podcast, or a real estate expert at a conference, you can gain powerful backlinks to your website.
While tempting, purchasing backlinks can ultimately hurt you instead of helping. Stay the course to earn true features and legitimate backlinks for a much safer route to higher rankings.
Real estate SEO mistake #6: Ignoring the end game
Many real estate professionals see their real estate SEO rankings fall because… they’re overthinking their SEO rankings. They forget to prioritize user intent and experience because they’re too focused on their keywords and metadata.
Search engines reward sites that provide the best answer to someone’s question. If you post a blog about mortgage pre-approval, but the content is a cheap repackaging of the same few keywords, users won’t stay on your page very long, and Google will notice.
Creating a smooth and helpful online experience is the best way to marry your content marketing efforts with your real estate SEO strategy.
Real estate SEO + Luxury Presence
Luxury Presence is one of the fastest-growing digital platforms for real estate professionals. Our team specializes in agent websites prioritizing real estate SEO, leading to greater online visibility and lead generation. Our strategic, thoughtful content marketing will help you build your brand, close more deals, and expand your network. Get in touch to schedule a demo today.
