By Tyler Zey
Are you ready to get ahead on Google and dominate your local market? Then this blog is for you! Today I’m going to tell you how you can magnify your search visibility and start ranking on the first page of Google with one simple strategy.
But first…
Let’s briefly touch on why SEO actually matters (a lot).
The fact is, SEO traffic usually gives you the best converting visitors to your website. The customers typically end up staying longer, browsing more and buying more often. SEO visitors average conversion rate is around 14.6 percent where as other outbound methods (Facebook Ads and Google Adwords) convert around 1.6 percent (via SEJ).
Why?
Because ranking highly on Google makes you a more trusted source and increases your chances of landing high-quality leads. Plus, these leads cost way less than traditional pay-per-click campaigns.
Let’s get into it.
The trick to understanding SEO is getting to know Google and its goals. The purpose of a Google search is to provide answers and the websites with the best answers are going to end up ranking the best in search results.
And why does Google like certain sites?
When it comes to real estate I’m sure you’ve noticed that big portals like Truila, Zillow and Realtor.com have claimed the top spots on common real estate Google searches and with them, the biggest keywords for your market. There’s no fighting this, because big portals have proved themselves over time and they’re not going anywhere. So while these sites will remain credible sources and continue to rank highly for common keyword searches, there’s a place for you as well.
You need to find a niche. And the way to do this is to identify holes in the marketplace where answers are still needed.
Maybe you’ve got some ideas as to what a few of those might be, but to speed things up and get you on your way to pushing your real estate website to the first page of Google, here are the top three niches to hone in on:
Home Builders
If you Google home builders in your area you’re probably going to find a few different websites for companies that have built 6-10 communities around the area. These communities will be fairly new and chances are that Zillow and other big portals haven’t tapped them yet.
It’s a hole in the market.
Take, for instance, local luxury condo developments. We ran a case study targeting these specific condos and were able to produce 20-30 luxury leads per month. The home builder market can offer stellar keywords to optimize and get more quality leads.
Name-based searches
This would be your name + words like "real estate" or "reviews."
The quickest way to implement this is to add a testimonial page to your real estate website and optimize it for your agent name. You’d be surprised at how many people miss this! And it’s literally one of the simplest things you can do to get results.
Let’s take this a step further. For every keyword you decide to use, you’re going to need a complete page dedicated to it. You’ll want the keyword to be in the title of the page. You’ll want to write 1,000 words and use that keyword 1-2 percent of the time. You can also embed a video on the page and use the keyword in the title of that as well. Lastly, you’ll want to link to it from other web pages.
Recreational/lifestyle-based searches
As a local agent you can easily conquer terms that are neighborhood-specific or related to employee relocation. It’s far more difficult for the portals mentioned above to effectively address these niche questions.
Think about why people move to your area. Make a list of the corporations and big companies that exist. Your local expertise will absolutely resonant with buyers.
Now, using Google’s keyword tool, you can find out exactly what terms people are searching for and then create web pages for the top keywords. You can then repeat the same formula for the name-based searches.
If you’re struggling to write 1,000+ words for each page, try breaking it up into these three sections:
-300+ words on why people should move or relocate to your area
-300+ words highlighting the positive aspects of existing corporations
-300+ words about the top 10 things that show up on Yelp when you search for your area
You can also include a personal welcome video along with a call to action button telling leads how to get in touch with you. In addition, have 3-5 photos of the area for visitors to check out.
To stay current, set a reminder to update the page every quarter. This doesn’t have to be a complete overhaul. You can start by adding 100 words to one of your sections, another video, or talking about any news-worthy events that happened recently.
While there’s no denying SEOs competitive edge, it isn’t for these categories. You want to focus on providing amazing content about neighborhoods that can’t be found anywhere else. The smaller your neighborhood is, the quicker you’ll see your blog post or neighborhood page rise to the top of Google!
At Easy Agent Pro, we’ve made it easy for you turn any page into an SEO page with a “Fill-In-The-Blank” app called InstaFarm! Learn all about it in this video:
I’d love to hear your thoughts on SEO and if this formula is working for you!
