Is your real estate website doing all it can to increase the number of visitors you have? There is a lot more to it than setting up the site, adding your bio and throwing together some neighborhood pages. If you want your site to be a success with lots of visitors and tons of leads, you need to enhance your website regularly.
Here are five things you can work on now to improve search engine optimization (SEO) and increase your real estate website’s traffic.
1. Make your website mobile friendly.
The statistics are in, and they show that homebuyers are searching for real estate on mobile devices. A joint study from the National Association of REALTORS® and Google found that:
– A staggering 89% of new home shoppers use a mobile device to search during the home-buying process.
– Mobile applications are used by 68% of new home shoppers at the onset of their search and throughout their research.
The report also found that homebuyers are likely to use mobile real estate sites while at home, at work, while waiting in line, at restaurants and in other people’s homes. Homebuyers visit real estate websites to contact a broker, compare features and prices, get directions, locate a listing agent, read reviews, and watch videos about a property—among other things.
Last year, Google changed its algorithm to rank mobile-friendly sites higher than those that aren’t designed for mobile. As a real estate agent today, you simply can’t afford to have a website that isn’t maximized for mobile use.
2. Target local keyword phrases.
Putting up the website is one thing, but you must focus on keyword phrases if you want to capitalize on traffic opportunities that come with good SEO. For instance, most home shoppers will begin their research for homes with a local keyword phrase, such as “Springfield real estate agent.”
Make sure your website is optimized for search terms, such as the following:
- Springfield real estate
- Springfield homes for sale
- Springfield real estate listings
- Springfield Realtor
- Springfield real estate agent
These words should appear on pages throughout your site in order to help drive more real estate website traffic. Incorporate the local keyword targets by working them into content that a prospective homebuyer will find useful.
3. Update your blog posts regularly.
The days of the 300-word blog post stuffed with half-relevant keywords are a thing of the past. If you want to stand out from other agents in your market, high-quality real estate blog content is one way to do it. You’ll be an SEO darling if you craft consistent, comprehensive and compelling content. Develop a robust editorial calendar for the year and include interesting, in-depth content your audience of potential buyers and sellers will want to read. It will keep them coming back for more.
When you blog regularly, this also provides you with things to share on social media, another important aspect of your online presence.
4. Showcase your most recent articles.
Include “teasers” of your blog content on your home page. Just as with your home page photos, you need to feature fresh content on a regular basis. So, be sure to feature new blog posts there regularly. Visitors who return to your site after reading something a few weeks earlier will expect new content. If you are not providing them with regular articles, market updates and other compelling content, they’ll move on to find another agent who does.
5. Include testimonials and reviews.
Some 88% of consumers read online reviews and trust them as much as a personal recommendation. If you want to improve your real estate website traffic, make sure testimonials and reviews are visible components of your site. These could include written reviews and testimonials from your clients, case studies of those clients, and even video interviews.
Keep in mind that you’ll have to do some work to attain client reviews. Make sure securing positive reviews is a part of your routine marketing plan. Each time you close a deal, get in touch with your clients and ask them if they will provide some praise for your work. You can suggest a phone call or an email exchange to make things easy for them. If they are very enthusiastic, they might agree to provide a video testimonial. Assuming they are happy with your services, most buyer and seller clients should be willing to at least give you a few-sentence review.
McKissock Learning is the nation’s premier online real estate school, providing continuing education courses and professional development to hundreds of thousands of real estate agents across the country. As part of the Colibri Real Estate family of premier education brands, McKissock Learning, along with its sister schools Real Estate Express, Superior School of Real Estate, Allied Schools, The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, Gold Coast Schools, The Rockwell Institute and Hondros Education Group, helps real estate professionals achieve sustainable success throughout each stage of their real estate career. Learn more at mckissock.com/real-estate.
