The Ultimate SEO Checklist for Real Estate Websites

Does your website tick all the boxes in our SEO checklist?

In today’s digital-first world, having an agent website is an absolute must.

But just because you have a website doesn’t mean people will find it — the internet, after all, is home to some one billion sites.

If you want the right people to find your website, you’ll need to employ search engine optimization (SEO) – and our checklist will show you exactly how to do so.

Why is SEO important?

Before we unpack how to optimize your website for search engines, it’s important to establish why SEO is worth doing to begin with.

Being first comes with a lot of perks and that rings true for search engine results pages (SERPs), too. In fact, the top three Google search results garner 54.4% of all clicks.

As you can imagine, getting the majority of clicks means a much higher chance of generating leads and conversions — and what agent wouldn’t want that?

Where does SEO come in? SEO makes it easy for a search engine to understand what your website is all about, so it can present it to people when they type in relevant search terms.

The stronger your SEO, the higher your likelihood of reaching the coveted top spots in SERPs.

Our SEO Checklist

Understanding why SEO is necessary is one thing, but applying it to your website is quite another matter.

Luckily, we have a list that you can use to give your website an SEO checkup. While you may need assistance from your website provider on some of the steps below, it’s a useful tool to evaluate your website’s search friendliness.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of enhancing a website’s visibility on Google.

On-page optimizations

Search optimization entails on-page tweaks that will help you boost your search rankings. Below are the most critical ones:

• Review your site structure
  User experience has become a key component of search optimization. If your website makes it difficult to find necessary information, visitors may leave or “bounce” out — and a high bounce rate is a red flag for search engines. The “Three-Click Rule” is a good mantra to follow; that is, no matter what information a visitor needs from your website, it should never be more than three clicks away.

• Update your XML sitemap
  If your website were a book and search engines were readers, an XML sitemap is the table of contents. Unlike a hardbound book, however, your website is a living document that sees pages added and removed regularly, hence the need to update your XML sitemap, too.

• Review your Robots.txt
  
  While the goal of SEO is greater online visibility, you may not want all your website’s pages to be displayed in search results (take your WordPress admin log-in page, for example). Search engine crawlers also consume a lot of server resources, which can bog down your site speed. Fortunately, your Robots.txt file instructs Google which pages on your site it should — and shouldn’t — crawl or index.

• Conduct keyword research
  For all the sophistication of today’s search engines, they are still largely keyword-driven. That is, they display results based on the search phrases that users input. So if you can anticipate which keywords people use to find real estate services in your area, you boost your chances of landing on page one. The good news is that Google has a keyword planning tool that lets you identify strategic keywords that you can optimize your website for.

  • PRO-TIP:
    Generic search phrases are the most competitive and hardest to rank for. Use qualifiers to create “long-tail keywords” that are more unique and thus less likely to be targeted by other agents (e.g. house for sale in Florida vs. 3 bedroom luxury house for sale in Sarasota).

• Insert your chosen keywords
  Now that you know which keywords to target, it’s time to integrate them into your website. By and large, this step does not require major changes to your site and its content — it’s simply a matter of implementing your chosen keywords into what’s already there. Areas where keyword optimization is most critical include:

  • Page titles
  • Headings and subheadings
  • Body text (especially blogs)
  • Page URLs
  • Meta descriptions
  • Image descriptions (a.k.a. alt tags)

• Check Google Analytics
  You can’t improve what you can measure. Google Analytics tracks website traffic, visitors, pageviews, and sessions, all of which are key metrics that determine whether your SEO strategy is working. Your website developer likely already installed the Google Analytics pixel on your site, so do check out the panel to see if it’s working properly.

• Double up on security
  Starting in 2014, Google announced that website security will become a ranking signal. Hence, sites that use Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), which encrypts data to protect visitors from cyberattacks, will be given an edge in SERPs. Finding out if your website utilizes this protocol is easy: its URL should start with https://

• Make your site mobile-friendly
  Acknowledging the ever-growing importance of smartphones and tablets, Google also made mobile-friendliness a ranking factor in 2015. This isn’t surprising — 63% of organic search traffic in the U.S. comes from mobile devices, after all. Responsive design can help your website become mobile-friendly because the contents will automatically resize and optimize themselves for ideal browsing on smaller screens. Viewing your website on a mobile device will confirm whether it has a responsive design or not.

• Optimize for speed
  Did you know that 53% of mobile users abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load? Or that conversion rates drop by 4.42% for each additional second of load time? Don’t keep visitors waiting – make sure your pages load in two seconds or under. To keep load times to an absolute minimum, you can use image compressors on your site.

• Be ADA-compliant
  People with disabilities (PWDs) buy and sell houses, too. The question, however, is whether your website helps or hinders their cause. Good user experience is a bonafide Google ranking factor and making sure that differently-abled people can access your site can only help your SEO as this reduces bounce rate.

User experience has become a key factor in search results rankings.

Off-page Optimizations

Of course, SEO doesn’t end with on-page optimizations. It’s important to note that Google’s job is to present the most relevant results for a given search query. Making your website’s content useful — in addition to other SEO techniques — will help you reach the upper echelon of SERPs.

• Start a real estate blog
  A house is perhaps the biggest investment people make, which is why buyers and sellers look for trusted information. Launching a real estate blog allows you to answer all of their questions and concerns, which in turn grows their confidence in you as an agent. In addition to enhancing your credibility, regularly posting new blogs gives readers a reason to keep coming back to your website – a ranking signal that helps your online visibility.

• Create a Google My Business account
  Most people use search engines to look for local businesses, which is why Google My Business (GMB) is especially helpful for real estate professionals. Aside from letting people leave reviews for your business — a major signal boost to your credibility — having a GMB account also increases your chances of appearing on Google’s coveted 3-Pack Module, which is given a prominent spot on SERPs. Be sure to add an accurate business name, address, and phone number to make it easier for prospects to reach out to you.

• Create accounts on other online directories
  While you’re at it, create accounts on platforms like Yelp and Foursquare. Such websites aid with discoverability and help with local search rankings since you add your business address to your profile. Even better, such platforms have high credibility which you can exploit by creating backlinks to your website.

• Be active on social media
  For starters, checking if an agent has a social presence has become standard due diligence for would-be clients. More importantly, you can share links to your listings and blogs on your timeline, which drives quality backlink traffic to your website.

• Write for other high-profile websites
  Of course, business directories aren’t the only great sources of high-value backlinks. You could also create content for other high-authority websites and link back to your own. These include other popular real estate blogs, industry publications (e.g. Inman), and other prominent real estate outlets.

Need help with SEO?

SEO is a critical part of digital marketing, but it does require quite a bit of expertise and effort. Luckily, Agent Image offers SEO packages so your website can work as hard as you.

For a FREE consultation, call 1.800.979.5799
or send a message here.