4 Actionable SEO Tips for Real Estate Pros

If you can believe it, we're halfway through the year. If you're the go-getter type, you may have asked yourself, "Where am I on my goals?" If you haven't gotten very far on generating more leads, growing sales or increasing website traffic, don't worry — we've got your back! It's not too late to crush your goals and make this year the best yet, by stepping up your SEO (search engine optimization) game.

Just what is SEO, and can it really help me?

Simply put, SEO is a process of getting FREE traffic from search engine results. It's a tool that helps those in need find what they're looking for. So, when users ask a question on search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, SEO gives you the opportunity to provide the solution in the form of content. If you're still wondering what SEO gets you, it attracts potential clients to your website which could = new business!

Specifically for real estate professionals, online search has become an increasingly important part of lead generation, with 44 percent of recent buyers ranking online search as their first step in the buying process. So, when it comes to your website, you want to make sure that you're nailing it with SEO best practices.

We'll spare you tips on decoding the Google algorithm, and instead provide you with four actionable real estate SEO hacks that you can easily implement today:

1. Use local keywords

Often real estate professionals focus on a certain region or city. When it comes to your website, you want to highlight that. Make your website a local resource by using phrases like:

• [City] real estate
• Living in [City]
• [City] real estate listings

This targeted language pairs well with relevant content like info on neighborhood attractions, school districts, crime rates, public transit, or anything else that will draw buyers to your market. Search engines try to provide relevant info to those searching, so be sure to use this to your advantage.

2. Write, write, and keep writing!

When your website is crawled (not as creepy as it sounds, honestly!), keywords help big time. But there are only so many placement options. You're competing in a world where millions of posts are published each day. While it's ideal to steadily pump out relevant and timely content, we get that you're busy helping clients buy/sell homes. Just write as much as you can, and provide value by writing about the pain points of potential buyers and sellers. Here are a few blog ideas that will keep you true to your brand and spark interest with your target audience. You can also find a lot of great content to share with your clients from realtor.com®.

3. Make sure your website is mobile friendly

It's no secret that mobile usability is very important. For the first time, worldwide mobile and tablet usage surpassed desktop in October 2016. It's especially important to real estate professionals, as NAR reported that 72 percent of buyers used a mobile website or tablet search device in their home search in 2016. Here are four valuable SEO benefits of mobile responsive websites:

1. It's search engine approved and is an "industry best practice"
2. Better user experience
3. It's less work
4. It costs less

4. On-page and off-page techniques matter

Now that the basics have been established, it's important to finish off strong with a few classic on-page and off-page SEO techniques. Don't fret if you don't know what this is—we'll break it down for you!

On-page SEO refers to techniques applied on your website so that it is optimized for search engines by using keywords on an actual pages and/or posts (as we showed you in hack #1 above), while off-page SEO refers to the use of keywords and other actions you perform outside the boundaries of your website with the goals of building your brand and pointing users to your website.

While SEO is not a one-and-done deal, using these simple hacks can boost your site's visibility while providing true solutions to the questions that plague your target audience.

Once those search leads start rolling in, what do you do? You create a great experience for your incoming leads by leveraging tools like Market Snapshot to offer listing alerts and local market reports, ListHub Pro's suite of powerful reports to steer and measure your overall online marketing success, and Fivestreet to route and consolidate leads easily and quickly. Click here to take advantage of the current savings available with these products.

This article originally appeared in the ListHub newsletter.