Real Estate Backlinks: A 2024 Guide
Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors for search engines. Essentially, backlinks are inbound links to your website from other external sites. The more relevant, high-quality backlinks you have, the higher your site might rank in search results. This article provides valuable information and strategies for real estate agents and brokers to build and optimize backlinks in 2024. Why Backlinks Are Crucial for Real Estate Websites Credibility and Authority Backlinks from authoritative industry sites and influencers establish credibility and authority for real estate websites. The more high-quality backlinks a site has, the higher rank it can get in search engines. Higher Rankings and More Traffic Studies show that the majority of home buyers start their search online, so higher rankings and more traffic mean more opportunities to connect with motivated buyers. Brand Awareness Backlinks also help increase brand awareness for real estate websites. When an authoritative industry publication or influencer links to a real estate agent's website, it exposes the brand to its audience. Referral Traffic High-quality backlinks drive referral traffic to real estate websites. When a site links to a real estate agent's website, visitors to that site may click the link to visit the agent's site. This free referral traffic provides new opportunities to capture leads and make sales. The Best Types of Backlinks for Real Estate Agents High-Quality Directory Links Submitting your website to real estate directories is an easy way to build authoritative backlinks. Look for highly relevant directories, regularly updated, and have a high domain authority. Guest Blogging on Industry Websites Writing guest posts for popular real estate blogs and websites is one of the most effective link-building strategies. Studies show that guest blogging can increase referral traffic and brand awareness in addition to earning high-quality backlinks. Sponsoring Local Events Sponsoring events in your local community, like charity fundraisers, networking mixers, or real estate seminars, provides an opportunity to build relationships and get your name and website in front of new potential clients. Creating Unique and Engaging Content Consistently publishing helpful content on your blog or website, like neighborhood guides, market reports, home tips, or real estate news, builds authority in the eyes of search engines and potential clients. Embed links within your content to pages on your website to improve internal linking. You should also promote your new content on social media to increase backlinks, referral traffic, and brand visibility. Creating a content calendar can help keep you on track. 6 Tips to Build Quality Real Estate Backlinks Focus on High-Value Sites Seek out links from authoritative sites in your industry like national real estate organizations, reputable media publications, and influential blogs. Links from these sites carry more weight with search engines and establish credibility. Build Relationships Develop relationships with other industry leaders by engaging with them on social media, commenting on their blog posts, and promoting their content. When the time comes to ask for a backlink, a pre-existing relationship increases the likelihood of success. Offer to write a guest post or provide an interview in exchange for a link. Reciprocity and mutual benefit are key. Create Linkable Assets Publish high-quality content on your site like blog posts, videos, research reports, and statistics that other sites will want to link to. Content that provides real value to readers and offers a unique perspective is more apt to be linked and shared. Diversify Anchor Text Use a mix of anchor text in backlinks pointing to your site. Over-optimization of anchor text looks unnatural to search engines and can negatively impact rankings. Use your main keyword, brand name, and generic text like "click here" or "read more" as anchor text. Use keyword tracking tools to find the best anchor for your link. Build Internal Links Link to pages on your site to pass authority between pages. This is an easy way to give pages a rankings boost and improve the user experience. When creating content, look for opportunities to link to related evergreen content on your site. Also, make sure your website's URL structure is fine. Monitor New Link Acquisition Track where your backlinks are coming from to ensure link quality. Look for unnatural patterns that could indicate a link scheme and take action to disavow those links. Keeping a close eye on new links helps avoid potential penalties and protects your site's reputation. Review links regularly using SEO tools like Ahrefs, Moz Link Explorer, or Majestic. Monitoring and Maintaining Your Real Estate Backlinks You need to monitor your backlink profile regularly to ensure maximum SEO benefits. It is recommended to check your backlink profile at least once a month. Some of the key things to check include: New backlinks acquired from high-authority domains. These can significantly boost your search rankings and traffic. Check for any broken backlinks and try to get them replaced or removed. Broken backlinks can negatively impact your search rankings. Look for any unnatural backlink patterns. Check the anchor text distribution of your backlinks. The anchor text should appear natural and not over-optimized. Check backlinks from low-quality spammy domains. These provide little to no SEO value. Backlinks from domains with a high page rank but irrelevant content. Although high PR, these links provide no contextual relevance and you might decide to remove them. While backlinks remain crucial for real estate SEO success, focus on serving your audience above all – not just search engines. Provide true value, and the links will follow. With a smart strategy and consistent effort, your backlink profile can become a powerful asset fueling your real estate business in the years ahead. To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog.

RealtyCandy Launches HomeValuation.ai Leveraging Plunk's AI-Powered Analytics as a Lead Gen Solution for Agents and Brokers
Next gen widget offers agents an easy way to integrate the highly effective lead generation tool on any website platform BELLEVUE, Wash., June 28, 2023 -- Plunk, the most comprehensive AI-powered home analytics platform in the US, has announced its partnership with RealtyCandy, a developer specializing in building innovative websites, applications, templates and lead gen solutions for thousands of real estate agents nationwide. Leveraging Plunk's real-time valuation and local market insights, RealtyCandy has developed a first-of-its-kind lead gen widget for real estate agents and brokers, made available through HomeValuation.ai. "Real estate agents and brokers have been presented with a growing number of technology solutions to help streamline and grow their businesses — but some require complicated integrations," remarked James Call, Founder and CEO of RealtyCandy. "So, we built an elegant and simple home valuation lead gen widget, leveraging Plunk's AI-powered home ticker and local market metrics." Once a new client enters their address into a HomeValuation.ai widget, the data is immediately captured. A second call to action — for local market insights — captures a lead's phone number as well and the agent is immediately notified by text. "I've been a real estate agent for twenty years and have never come across a lead gen tool this simple. It took me five minutes to sign up for a plan and paste one line of code into my website," noted Darren Winston, a luxury agent at Sotheby's International Realty. "Having an AI-based home valuation tool has been an effective way for me to bring past clients and new homeowners to my website." Watch a demo of how to use RealtyCandy's lead gen widget here, or for more information, visit www.homevaluation.ai. About Plunk Plunk is the largest and most comprehensive financial analytics platform leveraging next generation applications of Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and image analysis for the residential real estate industry. Plunk is revolutionizing the way investors, real estate professionals and homeowners value and invest in residential real estate. For more information, please visit www.getplunk.com. About RealtyCandy RealtyCandy provides unique website apps, templates and widgets to thousands of real estate agents nationwide. As a developer partner with IDX Broker, RealtyCandy also specializes in standard IDX Broker integration to create customized web pages and develop ways to enhance CRM and lead management tools. For more information, please visit www.realtycandy.com.