Did you know that 90% of people looking to buy a home use the internet to do so? Digital marketing for real estate is becoming increasingly competitive. Real estate agents are investing heavily into their SEO, paid ads, lead generation, web design, social media, and content creation. This is especially true for paid advertising such as Google AdWords. If your real estate website cannot rank in the top 4 on the SERPS, then you will likely be dominated by competitors using ads and investing heavily in organic local SEO. Let’s take a look at how real estate agents can be successful digital marketers in today’s competitive field.
SEO Strategies for Real Estate
Keyword Research
Which type of real estate do you practice? Keyword research can differ greatly depending on if you practice residential or commercial real estate. If you have a specific niche or location that you are targeting, it is important to use keywords that your prospective clients will be searching for. Three things to look out for when undertaking real estate keyword research are traffic, competition, and relevancy.
Website Optimization
Creating useful content on a steady basis is vital to ranking high on search engines. Ensure that it’s relevant to prospective property buyers. New content should implement synergy with your keyword research strategy. Existing content should be optimized using SEO improvement tactics. Individuals looking to purchase property usually value a user-friendly website experience. Keep this in mind as you optimize the “flow” of your site and sales funnel.
Link Building
Attaining backlinks is crucial for ranking well, especially in the real estate industry. These links need to be from websites that rate highly in quality, authority, and trust. Legitimate real estate agents have backlinks from a diverse group of websites, while still remaining relevant to their specific niche or location.
Local SEO
If we could assist you with only one digital marketing service, it would undoubtedly be local SEO. When prospective home-buyers search for properties, the biggest factor to their search is location; most real estate agents are familiar with this. If you cannot rank your real estate business for the geographic area you specialize in, you’ve got a big problem. Luckily, SunCity Advising is here to help. Local search engine optimization strategies differ based on the location you are targetting, and the size of your agency. SunCity Advising has helped many real estate agents optimize their websites, boost leads, and increase marketing ROI through effective local search engine optimization.
Is PPC Worth it for Real Estate?
Online Pay-Per-Click Advertising is more important in real estate compared to other industries. This is because paid ads can be delivered to prospective clients in certain locations when they are attempting to buy a property. In this sense, the power of targeted paid advertising is often underestimated in marketing for real estate. If not deployed correctly, however, your paid advertising campaigns can lose a lot of money. Google AdWords is generally the most effective online advertising platform in real estate. The SunCity Advising team employs experts in the PPC field specifically relating to the real estate industry.
Real Estate Agents Should Use… Social Media?
Many real estate agents make the mistake of ignoring social media. This is ironic because the brand of your real estate business is you. Your social media accounts represent how you do business. They build trust, credibility, and loyalty with your potential clients. It doesn’t even matter what kind of real estate agent you are; your potential clients will either be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. It’s likely that your consumers will be active on all of the above!
When real estate agents include intensive social media in their marketing strategy, improved branding and trust-building typically occurs. However, most real estate agents who take advantage of social media, only optimize their LinkedIn profile. This platform can be immensely effective at generating real estate leads and sales. In fact, SunCity Advising specializes in optimizing real estate LinkedIn accounts to generate massive amounts of relevant, interested traffic.
The ideal real estate marketing strategy should include more platforms than just LinkedIn, though. Facebook, Instagram, and even Yelp are crucial to achieving digital marketing success in the real estate field. SunCity Advising has access to social content management and research tools which utilize all aspects of real estate social media to increase leads and conversions.
Web Design for Real Estate
Many aspects of your digital marketing strategy will attempt to lead potential clients to your website, which represents the end of your digital sales funnel. This means that web design is vitally important to your real estate business. Furthermore, the mobile side of your website cannot be discounted. Almost 75% of home buyers use a mobile browser to look for potential homes. We have encountered a high number of real estate websites that range from below average to blatantly unacceptable; mobile optimization cannot be underestimated!
Flexibility is of the utmost importance regarding real estate web design. The SunCity Advising team has created websites for countless real estate agents intending to improve their site experience. From simple websites and landing pages to detailed sales funnels, our specialization delivers quality, converting sites with lightning-fast page speed. We often combine our search engine optimization strategies with web design tactics in order to achieve both the highest possible rankings and the most user-friendly customer experience.
Content Creation for Real Estate
Similar to social media, content creation is often ignored by real estate professionals. On the contrary, the SunCity team puts an emphasis on valuable content for real estate agents. Because PPC is so competitive, organic SERPS ranking becomes even more important in real estate. One of the key strategies to organically ranking is creating valuable relevant content on a consistent basis. SunCity Advising staffs content creators and curators that specialize in real estate-centric writing. A solid content marketing plan can lead to you becoming a figurehead in your local real estate market. Consistently producing blogs, articles, or videos establishes credibility and trust between you and your prospective home-buyers. People interested in purchasing a property generally do extensive research relative to simple online shoppers. They will pay attention to your content, factoring it into their home-buying decisions.
Extensive keyword research is required in order to be successful in creating real estate content. Once you know which keywords to use, the next step is structuring everything effectively. This includes correctly placed and sized headings, internal and external links, and much more. Furthermore, once you create a solid piece of real estate-focused content, you cannot simply leave it alone. Existing content optimization must be carried out in order to continue ranking for that page and others. All in all, content is truly king in achieving high search engine rankings in real estate.
Lead Generation for Real Estate
Lead Generation is one of the most impactful areas of digital marketing to real estate agents. The number of leads coming in on a monthly basis can make or break the career of a real estate agent. Leads can be generated through email marketing, social media, blogging, paid ads, and countless other methods. The SunCity staff has done the dirty work of running split tests for all of the different methods as they relate to real estate. Now we know what to recommend to real estate agents based on location, the current housing market, commission structure, and other variables. Generating leads that are both relevant and cost-effective can be a difficult task, but SunCity Advising has a proud track record of delivering real estate lead generation results that drive growth.
Building an online sales funnel can be a growth catalyst to any real estate agent. The four stages of an effective sales funnel include awareness, interest, decision, and action. SunCity Advising has helped countless real estate agents build a solid traffic generating and converting funnel. Just ask one of our real estate clients, Josephine!
Do you need real estate marketing help?
SunCity Advising’s success with real estate marketing speaks for itself. Whether you are a small scale agent or part of a large agency, a solidified marketing strategy is a valuable asset. If you have questions regarding how you can utilize SEO, PPC, web design, social media, lead generation, or content creation, contact us today.