SEO is a rapidly evolving technique for digital marketing. To succeed in generating real estate leads online, you’ve got to keep up with the trends and changes in search engine optimization. Here’s what you need to know about Real Estate SEO for 2021.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is when you structure your content in such a way that it helps earn your site a higher place in the search engine results page, or SERP.
Although you always want to create content for your audience first, it’s a good practice to keep the search engines in mind.
You optimize your content by strategically using keywords throughout your titles, written articles, image alt text, meta descriptions, and more.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research includes finding the actual words that a person is searching for online. For example, a homeowner may search for “paint colors.” The words “paint colors” are a keyword phrase.
“Paint Colors” could also be considered a seed keyword phrase, or head term, the broad scale, the big picture. To get a better chance of the right audience finding you, you’d hone in on that seed keyword phrase with something far more targeted called longtail keywords.
Longtail keywords are a string of words containing the seed keyword phrase that narrows your content down to a specific niche, such as “paint colors for bedrooms,” or even better, “gray paint colors for bedrooms.”
Both of those phrases have the seed keywords “paint colors,” but each gets more clear. The more detailed and niche-specific you are with your keywords, the better the chances are that your content will show up to the right people – people who are online actively searching for gray paint colors for bedrooms.
In the end, let’s say you came up with a blog topic idea with the keyword phrase, “Paint Colors for Your Home in 2021.”
What is SEMrush?
SEMrush is a paid suite of products that takes SEO Audits, keyword research, tracking, and measuring to a much higher level.
This all-in-one tool offers many services, the most popular of which are keyword research, competitive research, and content marketing.
The keyword research will give you real-time information about how keyword phrases are performing and their values.
Competitive research is valuable because it allows you to play eye-spy with what your competitors are doing.
Here, you can find out what keywords they are ranking for, which of their posts are gaining the most traction, and what SEO areas are lending to their success.
You can then structure your content marketing strategy based on what you know is already proving successful for others in your industry.
What are the Most Popular Search Engines?
In the past, the term “search engine” only applied to places like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. But with the exponential growth of social media, search engines now include YouTube (the world’s second-largest search engine), Facebook, and Pinterest.
People aren’t just looking for the written word anymore. They’re after videos, images, and refined content that’s rich with valuable information.
What is Content?
Content is anything that you publish: anything – written articles or blog posts, videos, images, podcasts, and newsletters.
Content also applies to your social media posts, landing pages, and offers, such as eBooks, checklists, planners, and ultimate guides.
Your content, coupled with ratings and reviews, is the only thing that helps people find you online.
You may choose one preferred method of content creation. Maybe blogs are your thing, or you could be a natural on camera and would instead create videos.
But for the best results and to reach a broader audience, you’d find a way to incorporate all types of content across multiple platforms.
For example, you might write an article for your blog about gray paint colors for bedrooms, create a corresponding video on YouTube and then publish that video within your blog post, following up by promoting both the video and the blog post separately on social media.
Your reputation on the internet is based on the quality of the content you produce.
How Branding is a Part of Your SEO
What is your brand? What is your image? When people see you online, what is their impression? Your content promotes your brand, so establish a brand that people trust.
The more content you have online, the more visible you are. But the quality of your content will determine whether or not viewers become leads or clients.
If you consistently publish high-quality content that educates viewers, solves a problem, or provides a benefit, you’ll establish yourself as an expert in your industry.
If someone does a search for real estate agents in your area and they get multiple results – blogs, videos, images, social media posts – with your reputable brand, they’re likely to build trust and contact you when they’re ready to move.
Make sure the quality of your content supports your brand.
As a real estate agent, you should consider yourself an expert in all things house and home and share what you know – all the way down to paint colors, a beneficial topic for homeowners, home buyers, and home sellers.
But you can’t always post about properties. Real estate agents are specialists in their locality – and all of those things should be part of your digital marketing channels.
How to Use Search and Social for SEO Research
Go to Google and type into the search bar, “How to buy a house.” When you hit enter, you’ll see a section called, “People also ask.” Here, you’ll find actual search terms that people have entered, such as:
- Where do I start if I want to buy a house?
- How much money do you really need to buy a house?
- What do I need to do to buy my first home?
Now go back up to the search bar, put your cursor after the word house, and instead of hitting enter, hit the space bar. What you’ll see is a dropdown menu of auto-suggested topics, such as:
- How long does it take to buy a house?
- How to buy a house with bad credit.
- How to buy a house with no money.
You can take this even deeper. Go back to the search bar, after the word “house,” enter a space, and then the letter A, or B, or C. Go through the entire alphabet.
Each time you change the letter after the word house, you’ll get a different list of suggested topics and questions. The potential for ideas here for rich SEO content is limitless.
When people go to Pinterest, they’re looking for ideas. You, too, can use Pinterest as your idea engine. By doing a bit of poking around in the Pinterest platform, you can better target your audience; you’ll have a deeper understanding of your target market’s interests, such as paint colors for your home.
Like with Google, you can use Pinterest’s search function to drill down deeper into what viewers might be looking for regarding paint colors for their home.
After entering the seed keyword phrase into the search bar, which, in this case, is “paint colors for your home,” place the cursor at the end of the word “home” and watch what suggested topics Pinterest offers. You’ll find subjects such as:
- Best paint colors for selling your home.
- Paint colors for home interior.
- Paint colors for home exterior.
- Paint colors for homes in 2021. (people often search by year)
- Paint colors for home office walls. (perfect for during a pandemic when many people are working from home)
- Paint colors for the living room.
- Paint colors for bedrooms.
- Best paint colors by brand.
What you have here are the subheadings in your master blog post about “Paint Colors for Your Home 2021.”
If you really wanted to expand upon that idea, you could create what’s known as a skyscraper blog post.
Essentially, you’d write a full article about each of those subtopics. Then, in the skyscraper post, you write a brief description of each blog post, along with the link.
It’s like a table of contents for that series of articles.
Of course, you could also then promote your content on Pinterest.
Take Pinterest To A New Level
Create beautiful, engaging content on Pinterest that will grab your audience’s attention, and help you reach your goals in no time! Create, Automate, Generate.
YouTube and Tube Buddy
Tube Buddy is a free Chrome extension with an available paid upgrade. Open its keyword explorer, type in paint colors, and you’ll see a set of results similar to Google Suggest and Pinterest subtopics, but with strictly video results.
Go to the search bar, type in the seed keyword phrase “paint colors for bedroom,” and then look for all the subtopics and opportunities around that seed keyword.
Tube Buddy will score your seed keyword phrase by:
- Search volume
- Competition
- Optimization strength
- Number of videos in search results
- Number of monthly searches
- You vs. top-ranked videos
This score will let you know, matter-of-factly, if the keyword phrase you’re using will perform well on YouTube.
In this case, Tube Buddy says that “paint colors for bedroom” is a poor topic for making a video.
However, the platform also offers other suggestions on the right-hand side under a section called “Related.”
In this particular case, the suggested result with the most promise is “Farmhouse Paint Colors.” You could add the year at the end of your blog’s title for a blog post called “Farmhouse Paint Colors for 2021.”
Still, the subheadings you outlined from Pinterest can apply, perhaps with slight modification. However, Tube Buddy’s suggestions also present:
- Farmhouse paint colors for furniture.
- Farmhouse paint colors outside.
- Farmhouse paint colors by room.
- Farmhouse paint colors by brand name
- Modern farmhouse paint colors.
And now you’re working with a keyword phrase that you know will perform well on YouTube.
Where to Get More Content Ideas for Your Real Estate Website
Aside from Google, Pinterest, and YouTube, there are other resources online that are infinite pools of ever-flowing ideas.
AnswerThePublic.com is a free platform with an available paid upgrade. When you enter the phrase “sell a house” into the search, then click “data.” Next, you’ll see questions sorted in the categories of:
- Can
- How
- What
- When
- Where
- Which
- Who
- Why
Quora.com is another valuable resource for questions and answers related to many topics, including real estate and things related to buying, owning, and selling homes.
The Importance of Hyperlocal Content for SEO
If you’re a real estate agent in Las Vegas, then Las Vegas is your local area. Hyperlocal digs down into a particular area’s specifics, such as a master-planned community, zip code, or neighborhood. Hyperlocal topics could include:
- Best restaurants
- Best bars
- Free things to do with kids
- Best places to go on Valentine’s Day
- Where to see Christmas lights
- Where to find local Easter egg hunts
- Parades, festivals, and special events
- Area parks and recreation
There are multiple advantages to posting hyperlocal content. First, you’re promoting your brand. Second, you’re providing value to readers, you’re attracting an audience in the right locale, you’re establishing yourself as an expert in your community, and you’re making yourself more visible in search engines.
Even though these hyperlocal topics don’t pertain directly to buying or selling homes, they do establish trust with viewers who continually find your material in search results.
When that viewer is ready to buy or sell a home in your area, they’re more likely to reach out to you because they’re already familiar with your brand and quality.
The Bottom Line
You shouldn’t need to face the dilemma of trying to pull content ideas out of thin air, stressing yourself over what to publish to get discovered on search.
By understanding keyword strategies, doing some research, and then drawing on Google and social media like Pinterest and YouTube for ideas, you’ll have a steady stream of search engine optimized content that will boost your real estate SEO in 2021.
Create content that promotes your brand, answers questions, solves problems and satisfies searchers’ intent. Publish material that is real estate related, pertaining to all things house and home, and that’s hyperlocal.
