Elevate Your Visibility Online With a Lasting Digital Brand
Use a .realtor™ domain to establish instant credibility and top search results. Content sponsored by get.realtor. Building your digital brand is one of the best ways to increase awareness of your business and the services you offer. A powerful online presence will help you drive leads through your website, generate referrals and grow your network. There's no better way for a potential client to gauge what it's like to work with you—whether they're buying or selling—than to visit your website for a sense of your expertise and personality. That's why your website is the best place to start when you're ready to invest in your online presence. Tapping the Power of the REALTOR® Brand A great option for REALTORS® is the .realtor™ website, which comes as an exclusive benefit of your National Association of REALTORS® membership. As a REALTOR®, you get a .realtor™ domain name for free for one year (and $39.95 annually after that). In addition to your .realtor™ domain, you get access to a free website with a variety of ready-to-launch templates. A .realtor™ website immediately signifies credibility and high quality to potential clients. Plus, the .realtor™ website is easy to set up and intuitive to use, says REALTOR® Julia Uberty says. "The website was an easy way to integrate my buyer and seller systems into my website so my potential clients can get a look at what it would be like to work with me. The website has good flow, and having a .realtor™ website has helped with SEO when people are searching my name or for a real estate professional in Utah." Whether you choose a .realtor™ website or another option, it's important to keep SEO best practices in mind. Learning the basics of optimizing your site for search engines like Google will help drive more traffic to your website, generate inbound leads for your business and grow your brand awareness. Watch this free Google Training webinar to get started. Your Digital Brand Is a Long-Term Investment Investing in your online presence isn't just about short-term rewards, though. You can expect significant long-term benefits when you take the time to curate a digital brand. Your online marketing strategy boosts your visibility and accessibility to clients. As you continue growing your relationships, you'll increase trust and credibility and position yourself as a reputable leader within the industry. You'll have more flexibility to engage with your audience across a variety of platforms. Staying engaged on the social networks your clients and peers use the most will help you adapt more quickly to emerging customer preferences. You can take advantage of robust insight tools that typically come with social business profiles. This gives you a deeper understanding of what content is resonating with your clients so you can provide more. Staying engaged online is crucial to your success. It not only expands your audience reach but also gives you valuable insights into what people are responding to. Those insights are difficult to capture when using more traditional, offline methods. These data points are the building blocks of long-term career growth; you can create a sustainable path to success and not just a one-off moment of virality. If you want to launch or revamp your real estate website, claim your free .realtor™ domain and website and get started today. Related reading The Top 10 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand Online, from REALTORS® Who Know Boost Your SEO Rankings with a .realestate Domain Lead Gen for Every Career Stage: How to Scale Your Website with Your Business Friday Freebie: One Month of a .realtor™ or .realestate Premium Website

Paid vs. Organic Search for Real Estate Sites
You've spent weeks optimizing your real estate website and creating helpful content, but you're still not ranking on page one of Google for those competitive keywords. Don't worry, it's not your fault. Ranking organically on Google for real estate terms can take months or even years of work. If you want to start generating more leads and traffic right away, paid search is the way to go. Paid search, also known as pay-per-click or PPC, allows you to pay to have your website or ad rank higher in search results. You only pay when someone clicks your ad. Organic search, on the other hand, relies solely on Google's algorithm to determine your rank. The good news is you don't have to choose one or the other. Using paid and organic search together is the most effective strategy for real estate websites. Paid Search, What is it? Paid search, also known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is a way for businesses to promote their websites by bidding on keywords related to their products or services. When someone searches for those keywords, your ad may appear at the top of the search results page. You only pay when someone clicks your ad. For real estate sites, paid search ads can be an effective way to drive traffic and generate leads. You choose keywords like "homes for sale," "real estate agent," or "[location name] real estate" that people in your target market may search for. When prospective clients search for those terms, your ad pops up. If the ad catches their eye and they click it, they'll land on your website. Pay only for clicks: You set a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid for your keywords. If your ad ranks high enough to show, you'll pay the minimum amount needed to maintain that position, up to your maximum bid. You're only charged when someone clicks your ad. Check out most important real estate keywords now. Reach people actively searching: Paid search targets people who are actively searching for information related to your business. They're already interested, so they may be more receptive to your message. Measure results: Paid search provides detailed reporting to help measure the performance and ROI of your campaigns. See which keywords are most effective, how many clicks and impressions your ads are getting, and how much traffic is being driven to your site. Tweak as needed to improve results. Requires ongoing management: Paid search campaigns require regular monitoring and optimization to achieve the best results. You'll need to keep tabs on your budget, bids, ad copy, and keyword performance. As search trends change, you'll want to make adjustments to your strategy. Paid search can be an integral part of a real estate website's marketing plan. When leveraged effectively, it helps generate high-quality leads and builds brand visibility. However, to achieve success, paid search campaigns require time, money, and consistent optimization. Organic Search, What is it? Organic search, also known as natural search, refers to the unpaid results that show up on search engine results pages (SERPs) based on the relevancy to a user's search query. For real estate websites, ranking high in organic search results is crucial to generating traffic and leads. How Organic Search Works Search engines use algorithms and bots to crawl the web and index websites and their content. As people search, the algorithm determines which sites and pages are most relevant based on the search query and ranks them accordingly. The sites and pages that rank the highest, like on the first page of Google's search results, get the most visibility and traffic. For real estate sites, ranking well in organic search usually comes down to two main factors: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to optimizing your own website content for search engines, including page titles, content, URL structure, meta descriptions, image alt text, and internal linking. Off-page SEO refers to building quality backlinks to your site from other authoritative domains. More backlinks and higher quality content both signal to search engines like Google that your site is an authority on the topics and keywords you're targeting. The higher your authority, the higher you can rank in organic search results. Optimizing for voice search has also become increasingly important. Many people now search for "homes for sale near me" or "apartments for rent in [city name]." Make sure your site content also targets these types of local and voice searches. For real estate agents and brokers, a higher position in organic search results means more visibility to potential clients. According to studies, the top three organic search results get the vast majority of clicks for any given search. If you can rank on page one, especially in positions one through three, you'll be in a great position to generate new leads and clients through organic search traffic. Continually optimizing your on-page and off-page SEO, publishing new content, earning high-quality backlinks, and providing the best user experience are the keys to climbing the ranks in organic search. While it does take work, the rewards of first-page rankings and a steady stream of organic traffic and new clients can be well worth the effort. Learn more about real estate SEO at our complete guide on it. Pros and Cons of Each Approach for Real Estate When it comes to driving traffic to your real estate website, you have two main options: paid search or organic search. Both have their pros and cons, so you need to determine which approach aligns best with your business goals and budget. Paid Search (Pay-Per-Click or PPC) With pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you pay to have your website appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) when people search for keywords related to your business. Platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads allow you to target potential clients based on location, intent, and interests. Pros Quick results. PPC ads can drive traffic and leads almost immediately. Targeted. You can focus your ads on people actively searching for real estate or properties like yours. Measurable. PPC provides detailed reports on impressions, clicks, conversions, and costs so you know what's working. Cons Expensive. PPC ads can cost $1 to $50 per click depending on the keyword, and costs add up quickly. Requires ongoing optimization. PPC campaigns need constant monitoring and tweaking to maximize results and limit wasted spend Organic Search (SEO) With search engine optimization (SEO), you aim to rank highly in the unpaid, organic results on SERPs. By optimizing your website content, technical elements, and backlinks, you can improve your visibility in search engines like Google and Bing over time. Pros Free. Organic search is free once you've optimized your real estate website. Long-term results. SEO can drive sustainable traffic and leads for months and years to come. Credibility. Ranking organically builds trust and authority in the eyes of searchers. Cons Slow results. It can take 3-12 months of ongoing work to start seeing significant improvements in organic rankings and traffic. Constant work required. SEO is an ongoing process that needs continuous monitoring and updates to avoid losing ground. Unpredictable. Organic rankings can fluctuate due to algorithm changes and new competitor websites. For most real estate businesses, a combination of paid and organic search strategies works best. PPC can drive short-term results while you work on long-term SEO, and SEO helps reduce your reliance on paid ads over time. The key is finding the right balance based on your priorities. Key Takeaways: When to Use Paid vs. Organic Search When it comes to optimizing your real estate website, you'll need to determine the right mix of paid and organic search. Both have their pros and cons, so consider your goals and budget to find the optimal balance. Organic Search (SEO) Organic search, or search engine optimization (SEO), focuses on improving your ranking in the unpaid search results on Google and other engines. The main benefits of organic search are: It's free. You don't have to pay for clicks or impressions. It builds long-term value. Good SEO will continue to drive traffic to your site over time. It improves brand visibility. Ranking highly in organic search helps establish your authority and credibility. However, SEO also has some downsides: It can take time to see results. It may be 6-18 months before you achieve top rankings for competitive keywords. Google algorithm changes can impact your traffic. If Google tweaks its algorithm, your rankings and traffic could drop significantly. You're dependent on the search engines. You have no control over where they rank your site. Paid Search (PPC) With pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you bid on keywords and pay each time someone clicks your ad. The main benefits of PPC include: Fast results. You can launch a PPC campaign and start getting traffic within a day. More control. You have more control over where your ads appear and can adjust bids and budgets as needed. Targeting options. PPC allows you to target specific keywords, locations, devices, and more. However, there are some downsides to PPC: It can be expensive. Fees for competitive keywords and locations can cost $30-$50 per click or more. Traffic stops when you stop paying. As soon as you pause or cancel your PPC campaign, your traffic will drop to zero. Click fraud is possible. Some clicks on your ads may be invalid, costing you money. In summary, for most real estate websites a combination of paid and organic search works well. Use SEO to build up long-term traffic and authority, while employing PPC to drive immediate results and fill in gaps. Find the right balance for your needs and budget. Conclusion So there you have it. Organic and paid search both have an important role to play in driving traffic to your real estate website. Focusing exclusively on one or the other means leaving opportunity and money on the table. The key is finding the right balance between SEO and PPC to maximize your visibility and leads. organic search may take longer to gain traction but leads tend to convert at a higher rate. Paid search delivers immediate results but at a cost and conversion rates may be lower. By investing in both, you're covering all your bases. You'll drive more traffic, generate more leads, and ultimately close more deals. The world of online marketing can seem overwhelming but keeping it simple and focusing on what works for your business is the smartest strategy. Check out our other most readable article titled: Cracking the Code: A Guide to Real Estate Marketing Terms. To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog. Related reading SEO vs. PPC: Which is best for you? The Fundamentals of Real Estate PPC Services

Boost Your SEO Rankings with a .realestate Domain
Search engine rankings can make or break your online presence, and many real estate professionals are looking to juice their digital marketing in creative ways to stand out from competitors. More and more top-level domains other than the usual .com are emerging in online search results—including the .realestate domain. These domains enable professionals to highlight their expertise right in their web address, and that can help home buyers and sellers find you faster online. Search engine optimization is the key to unlocking the full potential of your online presence. While traditional .com domains have been the go-to choice for many kinds of companies and professionals, a .realestate domain offers a unique edge for anyone working in real estate. It's not just a web address; it's a strategic move to enhance your visibility in the competitive real estate arena. Even if you've mastered the basics of SEO, you can still improve your online visibility. It might be time to consider the not-so-secret weapon: a .realestate domain. Geospecificity and Search Engines Search engines love specificity. They thrive on understanding user intent and delivering relevant results. This is where the power of a .realestate domain comes into play. By incorporating location-specific keywords into your domain, you're signaling to search engines that your content is not just real estate-related but is directly tied to a specific area. For example, a domain like YourCity.realestate speaks volumes to search engines about the geographical focus of your content. Potential clients searching for real estate in that area are more likely to stumble upon your website, increasing your chances for more leads and referrals. Did you know that NAR members also get a custom .realtor™ domain free for the first year? A .realtor™ website is a great way to instantly let the world know who you are and what you do. Secure yours at get.realtor and set yourself apart from the .COMpetition! Learn From Pros Like You Most home buyers start their search online, looking for properties in specific cities, neighborhoods and school zones. With a geotargeted .realestate domain, like Lisa Kunkel's CranberryTownship.realestate, you'll position yourself as the local expert. That's more potential leads for you. With her .realestate domain, Kunkel, an agent with Keller Williams Realty in Wexford, Pa., has crafted a localized online experience that's both captivating and informative. "Registering the website and .realestate domain name has been a great help," she says. "I am on my fourth transaction in the area since I started using a .realestate domain in the past year." A Magnet for Buyers With .realestate, you can have as many domains as you want—and each one includes a free website that you can upgrade with features such as video and home search to attract buyers. Think about all the places your buyers search, and set yourself up as the go-to agent with a customized .realestate website for each. Plus, with your free .realestate website, you get a special neighborhood template designed for geospecific domains like Kunkel's. These built-in templates maximize your website's SEO potential and capture more lead traffic for your business. Don't miss out on the opportunity to revolutionize your online presence. Boost your search engine rankings with .realestate domains that help you become the go-to real estate professional in your area. Start your search today at get.realestate. For more information or to get your website, visit get.realestate. To view the original article, visit the get.realtor blog. Related reading Friday Freebie: One Month of a .realtor™ or .realestate Premium Website The Top 10 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand Online, from REALTORS® Who Know

[Best of 2023] We Asked 6 AI Bots to Recommend a Realtor. Here's What Happened
We're continuing an annual tradition of counting down our top 10 articles of the year. The following article was originally published in November and is #9 in our countdown. See #10 here. ChatGPT hit the scene in a big way this year, and ever since, people have been asking it all sorts of things — everything from explaining complex topics to home maintenance tips to recommendations for books or movies. That got us thinking — what happens when someone asks ChatGPT (or similar AI models) to recommend a real estate agent to them? And is this a marketing channel that agents should start thinking about? To find out, we asked six AI chatbots the same question: I'd like to buy a house in San Luis Obispo county. Can you recommend Realtors to me? Here's what we found. ChatGPT We started with the most well-known chatbot, ChatGPT. And, well, we struck out. Here's the answer we received: I'm sorry, but I don't have real-time access to databases or the internet, so I can't provide specific recommendations for real estate agents or Realtors. However, I can offer some general advice on how to find a good Realtor in San Luis Obispo County or any other area… We got the same exact response — to the letter — from Poe by Quora, which uses OpenAI's dataset. OpenAI owns ChatGPT, so we're not completely surprised by the similar answers. Fortunately, those two chatbots are the only two on our list without real-time access to the internet. That means our journey is about to get a lot more interesting… Bard Google's Bard chatbot harnesses the power of Google search, but it has yet to attain the same popularity as ChatGPT. However, of all the AIs, it gave us the most complete response. Not only did it provide a photo for each of the five agents it recommended, but also a link — three from LinkedIn, one Realtor.com agent profile, and one agent website, underlining the importance of maintaining a strong online presence. Bing Bing, the Microsoft-owned search engine, now offers an AI-assisted search option. When we asked it to recommend an agent, it offered a succinct list of five options. Only one was a real estate agent, however. The four other suggestions were brokerages, which may indicate that brokerages in our area have more time and budget to invest in their web presence than local agents. Interestingly, Bing provided a link and an example of a current listing for each suggestion. None of the links, though, directed us to that listing or even to the brokerage's or agent's website. Instead, each link sent us to a generic Realtor.com property search for our area. In order to contact any of the listed real estate pros, we'd have to Google (lol, sorry, Bing) them ourselves. Also, every link featured an ad above it, which was far easier to click on than the actual link. So if you're looking for a new place to advertise, perhaps buying ads for similar queries on Bing is worthwhile, especially for brokerages or teams — or for agents who don't have yet a strong enough online presence to be selected for an AI recommendation. ClaudeAI ClaudeAI, which was founded by OpenAI alumni and has investors in Google and Amazon, offered the most straightforward answer. It gave us plain text with no links or images, and a bit of homespun (lab-spun?) advice for finding an agent. Thanks, Claude. Perplexity AI Perplexity AI offered up five suggestions, only three of which were actual real estate pros — one agent, one real estate team, and one brokerage. The other two answers were websites (FastExpert.com and US News) that simply list agents in our area. Not exactly a recommendation — more like a recommendation to a place that kinda-sorta offers recommendations. Thanks, but no thanks. Let's disregard those two suggestions and look at the actual working professionals that Perplexity recommends. Each response comes with a link, but none of those go to an agent or company website. Instead, two links went to a broad search for local agents on Yelp, and one went — somewhat oddly — to this page on Google Maps. To finish things off, Perplexity threw in some random listing photos from the aforementioned sites for good measure. So What Did We Learn? Like most things related to AI chatbots, it's a work in progress. While we don't yet know if or when consumers will rely on chatbots to find a Realtor, agents who wish to prepare for that scenario should invest effort in ensuring their business can be found across a wide array of places online. Here is a list of actions to take, based on where the chatbots we queried pulled information from: Realtor.com links were very popular with the chatbots we surveyed. Make sure you have a complete agent profile there, including contact info and client testimonials. While no Zillow, Trulia, or Homes.com links were offered this time, tend to your profiles there, too, as there's no telling when a tweak to chatbot technology will change things. Claim your Yelp page, if you haven't yet done so, as some chatbots reference this site. LinkedIn was a major recommendation source for Bard, and was the only social media site consulted by the bot. Make sure your profile there is complete, and optimize it for SEO to increase the likelihood of being found. Make it a habit to ask for reviews from clients. Perplexity AI specifically mentioned that each of the real estate pros it recommended were highly rated. It also referenced Yelp, while both Bing and Bard pulled information from Realtor.com. Try to get as many reviews as you can in as many places as you can: portals, Google, Yelp, your website, etc. Make it a long-term goal to establish your agent website as a local real estate source. The one agent website that was linked to in this experiment belongs to a local Realtor who has spent considerable time and effort into building his site as an authority. He offers market updates, a podcast, resources for each community he serves, customer reviews, and more. Regularly update your site with quality content, and link to it anywhere you can: social media, portal profiles, your email signature, marketing materials, and more. Essentially, the key to being recommended by AI is having a broad internet presence. We can't be sure from where it will pull information, especially as the technology is updated, so having a well-maintained online presence seems crucial to catching the attention of AI. But don't stress too much about it. After all, the number one way consumers find their agent is still satisfyingly old-fashioned — by asking family and friends. Related Reading The Power of Local SEO for Real Estate Agents: 7 Ways to Optimize Your Online Presence 6 Expert Tips to Dominate the Online Real Estate Market as an Agent Influencer Approved: 6 Game-Changing ChatGPT Prompts for REALTORS

We Asked 6 AI Bots to Recommend a Realtor. Here's What Happened
ChatGPT hit the scene in a big way this year, and ever since, people have been asking it all sorts of things — everything from explaining complex topics to home maintenance tips to recommendations for books or movies. That got us thinking — what happens when someone asks ChatGPT (or similar AI models) to recommend a real estate agent to them? And is this a marketing channel that agents should start thinking about? To find out, we asked six AI chatbots the same question: I'd like to buy a house in San Luis Obispo county. Can you recommend Realtors to me? Here's what we found. ChatGPT We started with the most well-known chatbot, ChatGPT. And, well, we struck out. Here's the answer we received: I'm sorry, but I don't have real-time access to databases or the internet, so I can't provide specific recommendations for real estate agents or Realtors. However, I can offer some general advice on how to find a good Realtor in San Luis Obispo County or any other area… We got the same exact response — to the letter — from Poe by Quora, which uses OpenAI's dataset. OpenAI owns ChatGPT, so we're not completely surprised by the similar answers. Fortunately, those two chatbots are the only two on our list without real-time access to the internet. That means our journey is about to get a lot more interesting… Bard Google's Bard chatbot harnesses the power of Google search, but it has yet to attain the same popularity as ChatGPT. However, of all the AIs, it gave us the most complete response. Not only did it provide a photo for each of the five agents it recommended, but also a link — three from LinkedIn, one Realtor.com agent profile, and one agent website, underlining the importance of maintaining a strong online presence. Bing Bing, the Microsoft-owned search engine, now offers an AI-assisted search option. When we asked it to recommend an agent, it offered a succinct list of five options. Only one was a real estate agent, however. The four other suggestions were brokerages, which may indicate that brokerages in our area have more time and budget to invest in their web presence than local agents. Interestingly, Bing provided a link and an example of a current listing for each suggestion. None of the links, though, directed us to that listing or even to the brokerage's or agent's website. Instead, each link sent us to a generic Realtor.com property search for our area. In order to contact any of the listed real estate pros, we'd have to Google (lol, sorry, Bing) them ourselves. Also, every link featured an ad above it, which was far easier to click on than the actual link. So if you're looking for a new place to advertise, perhaps buying ads for similar queries on Bing is worthwhile, especially for brokerages or teams — or for agents who don't have yet a strong enough online presence to be selected for an AI recommendation. ClaudeAI ClaudeAI, which was founded by OpenAI alumni and has investors in Google and Amazon, offered the most straightforward answer. It gave us plain text with no links or images, and a bit of homespun (lab-spun?) advice for finding an agent. Thanks, Claude. Perplexity AI Perplexity AI offered up five suggestions, only three of which were actual real estate pros — one agent, one real estate team, and one brokerage. The other two answers were websites (FastExpert.com and US News) that simply list agents in our area. Not exactly a recommendation — more like a recommendation to a place that kinda-sorta offers recommendations. Thanks, but no thanks. Let's disregard those two suggestions and look at the actual working professionals that Perplexity recommends. Each response comes with a link, but none of those go to an agent or company website. Instead, two links went to a broad search for local agents on Yelp, and one went — somewhat oddly — to this page on Google Maps. To finish things off, Perplexity threw in some random listing photos from the aforementioned sites for good measure. So What Did We Learn? Like most things related to AI chatbots, it's a work in progress. While we don't yet know if or when consumers will rely on chatbots to find a Realtor, agents who wish to prepare for that scenario should invest effort in ensuring their business can be found across a wide array of places online. Here is a list of actions to take, based on where the chatbots we queried pulled information from: Realtor.com links were very popular with the chatbots we surveyed. Make sure you have a complete agent profile there, including contact info and client testimonials. While no Zillow, Trulia, or Homes.com links were offered this time, tend to your profiles there, too, as there's no telling when a tweak to chatbot technology will change things. Claim your Yelp page, if you haven't yet done so, as some chatbots reference this site. LinkedIn was a major recommendation source for Bard, and was the only social media site consulted by the bot. Make sure your profile there is complete, and optimize it for SEO to increase the likelihood of being found. Make it a habit to ask for reviews from clients. Perplexity AI specifically mentioned that each of the real estate pros it recommended were highly rated. It also referenced Yelp, while both Bing and Bard pulled information from Realtor.com. Try to get as many reviews as you can in as many places as you can: portals, Google, Yelp, your website, etc. Make it a long-term goal to establish your agent website as a local real estate source. The one agent website that was linked to in this experiment belongs to a local Realtor who has spent considerable time and effort into building his site as an authority. He offers market updates, a podcast, resources for each community he serves, customer reviews, and more. Regularly update your site with quality content, and link to it anywhere you can: social media, portal profiles, your email signature, marketing materials, and more. Essentially, the key to being recommended by AI is having a broad internet presence. We can't be sure of where it will pull information, especially as the technology is updated, so having a well-maintained online presence seems crucial to catching the attention of AI. But don't stress too much about it. After all, the number one way consumers find their agent is still satisfyingly old-fashioned — by asking family and friends. Related Reading The Power of Local SEO for Real Estate Agents: 7 Ways to Optimize Your Online Presence 6 Expert Tips to Dominate the Online Real Estate Market as an Agent Influencer Approved: 6 Game-Changing ChatGPT Prompts for REALTORS

The Ultimate Guide to Sitemaps for Real Estate Websites
A sitemap is a file that lists all of the important pages on your website, along with additional information about each page. Sitemaps are important for search engine optimization (SEO) because they help search engines crawl and index your website more effectively. This can lead to improved search engine rankings and increased organic traffic and can be helpful in fixing indexing issues. An optimized sitemap is especially important for real estate websites, which can often be large and complex. A well-structured sitemap can help search engines understand the hierarchy of your website and the relationships between different pages. This can make it easier for search engines to find and rank the most important pages on your website. What is a sitemap and why is it important for real estate websites? A sitemap is a file that provides a roadmap of your website's structure to search engines. It lists all the pages on your website, including their URLs, and can include additional information such as the last modified date and the frequency of changes. By providing this information, a sitemap helps search engines understand the organization of your website and its content. For real estate websites, which often have a large number of pages and listings, a sitemap is crucial. These websites typically have various categories such as property types, locations, and price ranges. Without a well-structured sitemap, search engines may struggle to navigate through the complex web of pages, potentially missing important content. An optimized sitemap ensures that search engines can easily crawl and index all relevant pages, improving the visibility of your real estate website in search engine results. How an optimized sitemap improves search engine visibility Sitemaps play a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency of search engine crawling and indexing processes for your website. Search engines employ crawlers to navigate the internet and discover new web pages. By providing a clear roadmap of your website, sitemaps facilitate the crawlers in locating and indexing all of your pages effectively. Moreover, sitemaps aid search engines in comprehending the structure and hierarchy of your website. They enable you to indicate the relative importance of different pages on your website and establish the relationships between them. This valuable information assists search engines in gaining a better understanding of your website's content and ranking it more accurately in search results. Furthermore, sitemaps serve as a means for search engines to identify and rectify any indexing errors. When a search engine accesses your sitemap, it promptly detects any errors such as broken links or missing pages. This allows you to promptly address these issues, thereby contributing to the overall quality of your website. Additionally, sitemaps facilitate communication between you and search engines regarding any changes made to your website. If you add or remove pages from your website, updating your sitemap to reflect these changes is essential. This ensures that search engines maintain an up-to-date index of your website, enabling them to promptly crawl and index your new or updated pages. Best practices for creating an optimized sitemap for real estate websites Creating an optimized sitemap requires careful planning and attention to detail. Here are some best practices to consider when creating a sitemap for your real estate website: 1. Organize your sitemap by categories and subcategories To make it easier for search engines to understand the structure of your real estate website, organize your sitemap by categories and subcategories. For example, you could have categories for property types (e.g., houses, apartments, condos), locations (e.g., cities, neighborhoods), and price ranges. Within each category, create subcategories if necessary to further refine the hierarchy of your sitemap. 2. Include all relevant pages and listings Ensure that your sitemap includes all relevant pages and listings on your real estate website. This includes property detail pages, search result pages, blog posts, and any other content that you want search engines to index. Remember to update your sitemap whenever you add new pages or remove old ones to keep it accurate and up to date. 3. Optimize your URLs When creating URLs for your real estate website, use descriptive and keyword-rich terms. This not only helps search engines understand the content of your pages but also improves the user experience. Avoid using generic and meaningless URLs, such as "www.example.com/page1," and instead opt for URLs like "www.example.com/houses-for-sale-in-new-york-city." 4. Use XML sitemap format XML (Extensible Markup Language) is the preferred format for sitemaps. XML sitemaps are easy for search engines to read and understand, and they provide additional information such as the last modified date and the priority of each page. Use a sitemap generator tool or a content management system (CMS) plugin to automatically generate and update your XML sitemap. Once you have created and optimized your sitemap, it's important to submit it to search engines. Here's how you can do it: How to submit your sitemap to search engines Submitting your sitemap to search engines is a crucial step in optimizing your real estate website. By doing so, you can ensure that search engines are aware of all the pages on your website and can index them properly. Here are some steps to follow when submitting your sitemap: 1. Generate a sitemap: The first step is to generate a sitemap for your real estate website. There are several tools available that can help you create a sitemap automatically. One popular option is to use a plugin if you're using a content management system like WordPress. These plugins can generate a sitemap for you and update it automatically whenever you add or remove pages from your website. If you are using the Realtyna WPL Platform, you can use the WPL Sitemap Feature to add your listing to your sitemap. 2. Verify your website: Before you can submit your sitemap, you need to verify that you are the owner of the website. This is done by adding a verification code or file to your website. The process for verification may vary depending on the search engine you are using. For example, if you're using Google Search Console, you can verify your website by adding a meta tag or uploading an HTML file to your website's root directory. 3. Submit it to search engines. Here's how you can do it: Google Search Console - To submit your sitemap to Google, first, create a Google Search Console account if you haven't already. Verify ownership of your real estate website, and then navigate to the "Sitemaps" section. Enter the URL of your sitemap (e.g., "www.example.com/sitemap.xml") and click on the "Submit" button. Google will then start crawling and indexing your website based on the information provided in your sitemap. Bing Webmaster Tools - Bing Webmaster Tools is a similar platform to Google Search Console, but for Bing search engine. Sign in or create an account, and then add and verify your real estate website. Navigate to the "Sitemaps" section and enter the URL of your sitemap. Click on the "Submit" button to submit your sitemap to Bing for crawling and indexing. Monitoring and updating your sitemap for optimal performance Creating an optimized sitemap is not a one-time task. Real estate SEO experts regularly monitor and update sitemap to ensure optimal performance. Here are a few tips: 1. Regularly check for errors Use the tools and plugins mentioned earlier to regularly check for any errors or issues with your sitemap. This includes broken links, missing pages, and any other issues that may prevent search engines from properly crawling and indexing your real estate website. Fix any errors promptly to maintain a healthy sitemap. 2. Monitor search engine performance Keep an eye on your real estate website's performance in search engine results. Monitor your organic traffic, rankings, and click-through rates to identify any changes or trends that may indicate issues with your sitemap or overall SEO strategy. Make adjustments as necessary to improve your website's visibility and performance. 3. Update your sitemap when necessary As your real estate website evolves, you may add new pages, remove old ones, or make changes to existing content. It's important to update your sitemap whenever such changes occur to reflect the current state of your website. This ensures that search engines have the most up-to-date information about your real estate listings and pages. Most of the SEO plugins will automatically update the sitemap when anything happens to pages. 3. Do not add No-index pages to your sitemap Sitemaps should include URLs that are Do-index, if you are using a robot meta tag to disallow Google bots to crawl your pages, you should not add these pages to your sitemap, otherwise, you will an error in Google Search Console. Conclusion: The importance of an optimized sitemap for real estate websites In conclusion, an optimized sitemap is a valuable asset for real estate websites. It improves search engine visibility and more. By following best practices and using the right tools and plugins, you can create and optimize a sitemap that helps your real estate website rank higher in search engine results. As a real estate SEO expert, I recommend you don't underestimate the power of a well-structured sitemap in maximizing the potential of your real estate website. To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog.

Key On-Page SEO Optimization for Realtors
Thank you to Real Estate Webmasters for sponsoring this article on RE Technology: In today's digital world, buyers are switching online to find their dream home. Refining your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is becoming even more crucial to put your property listings on the spotlight. On-Page SEO Fundamentals The components of on-page SEO include your website's content, keywords, meta descriptions, images, links, page speed, and URL structure. Imagine it as staging a property, and you want to refine each element to ensure that you attract potential buyers. With on-page SEO optimization, remember that content is king. Publishing high-quality, relevant content is essential to rank high on other search engines. Google aims to connect users with websites that will best match their queries, so irrelevant and poor content will only negatively affect your SEO score. Don't forget that page speed is also an important factor, which Real Estate Webmasters' Renaissance platform is known for. Real Estate Webmasters' PageSpeed results show full 100 scores. Keywords Meta Keywords are the words or phrases that most users are using on their search. Strategically placing them on headers, titles, and meta description is key so search engines can gauge the relevance of your content. Consider user intent when choosing your keywords and use long-tail keywords (long phrases) like "ocean view houses in Nanaimo, BC" to attract a specific audience. Additionally, you can utilize Google's Keyword Planner, or Ahref's Keyword Explorer to choose the best keywords for your campaign. Long-tail keywords' performance on search engines. Meta Tags The title tag and meta descriptions are the two most significant meta tags you should focus on. The title tag, or more known as the headline, should ideally be under 60 characters. Meta descriptions, on the other hand, provide a quick overview of what your page is about. It is better to keep it under 160 characters and to include a call-to-action (CTA). Image Optimization Image optimization in SEO is not just about the visual appeal, but about ensuring that search engines can understand your image easily. This entails load speed, and using descriptive file names and alt texts on your images. Furthermore, it is important to compress images, use relevant file formats and responsive images to get high points in this aspect. URL Structure Aim to have clear and descriptive URLs so that visitors and search engines will not have difficulties figuring out the content of your page. Here are some pro tips– keep your URL short and memorable, avoid special characters, and use lowercase. Don't forget to also include important keywords! Internal Linking Internal linking helps guide your visitors to different pages of your website. For example, a blog post about your services can link out to one specific offering or service. To take full advantage of internal linking, remember to use descriptive anchor texts, link to deep pages, and not to overdo it. Stuffing your page with links can be off-putting. How Real Estate Webmasters' SEO Pillar Structure supports internal linking. Conclusion Now that you know the basics of on-page SEO, try optimizing your website and see how it will improve your online visibility. Alternatively, you can reach out to Real Estate Webmasters for expert assistance with your SEO, PPC, and custom website needs. This is a condensed version of a blog that was initially posted on Real Estate Webmasters' website.

Monitoring Your Keyword Rankings
Thank you to Real Estate Webmasters for sponsoring this article on RE Technology: Understanding the power of SEO and keyword rankings is essential to stand out in the competitive real estate landscape. As more Realtors and potential buyers shift their searches online, mastering SEO is not just an option but a necessity. The top spot on search engine results pages trumps a prime billboard location, and being relegated to the bottom means less views on your property listings. Basics of Keyword Rankings Keyword ranking is part of search engine optimization (SEO), and it serves as a guide to the most relevant content based on users' search queries. It determines your search engine result pages (SERP) position, so it is also best to keep track of algorithm changes to maintain your ranking. When choosing keywords, always consider your target audience. Think about the terms and words they're most likely using in their searches and incorporate those in your final selection. Furthermore, refrain from using generic terms like "house for sale," and opt for long-tail keywords like "4-bedroom homes in [specific location]" or "lakefront houses in [city]." Tools for Keyword Ranking Monitoring tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics can be used to analyze your keyword performance and gain valuable data on keyword rankings, click-through rates, and user behavior. Google Trends, on the other hand, is helpful for insights regarding the amount of times your keyword was searched in a year. SEO audits, tracking, and constant adjustments are also essential for sustained success. Conclusion In conclusion, the Real Estate industry has drastically evolved and is now about visibility, relevance, and ranking. By focusing on SEO and keyword ranking, you position your business at the forefront of your client's minds and, ultimately, for success. You can contact Real Estate Webmasters if you're interested in getting professional help to elevate your online presence. This is a condensed version of a blog originally published on Real Estate Webmasters' website.

24 tips for analyzing a competitor's real estate SEO strategy
In today's digital age, the real estate sector is undergoing significant changes, and SEO plays a pivotal role in ensuring a real estate business's online success. To stay ahead, it's crucial to understand and evaluate your competitors' SEO strategies. This blog is a summary of the full version written on Real Estate Webmasters' blog page. Identifying Your Competitors Knowing who you're up against is the first step in a competitive SEO analysis. Define Your Keywords: Begin by identifying SEO keywords relevant to your real estate business. For instance, a Chicago-based agent might focus on "Chicago real estate" or "homes for sale in Chicago," among other keywords. Run a Search: Search these keywords online. The top five results are typically your main competitors. Broaden Your Search: Use varied keywords to discover more competitors. Use Tools: Tools like Ahrefs and SEMRush offer insights into your online competitors and other valuable data. With the right tools and approach, you can pinpoint your main competitors and set the stage for deeper analysis. Analyzing Your Competitors' Keyword Strategy Keywords are the backbone of SEO, and understanding your competitor's approach can offer valuable insights. Keyword Overview: Tools like Ahrefs or Moz can help identify the keywords your competitors rank for. High-Value Keywords: Focus on high-volume, low-competition keywords your competitors rank for. Long-Tail Keywords: These are less competitive and can be easier to rank for. Keyword Placement: Observe keyword placements on competitor sites for potential opportunities. By studying your competitors' keyword strategies, you can identify opportunities or gaps in your own approach. Investigating Competitors' On-Page SEO Tactics On-page SEO elements play a crucial role in how a website ranks in search results. Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Check how competitors use keywords in these areas. URL Structure: Good SEO often involves clear, concise URLs with keywords. Content Quality: Quality content is vital for ranking. Internal Linking: Observe how competitors link their pages throughout their websites. Images and Alt Text: Images offer another chance to improve SEO. A comprehensive understanding of your competitors' on-page tactics can guide you in optimizing your site for better search engine performance. Analyzing Competitors' Content Marketing Strategy Quality content drives SEO success, and understanding your competitors' content approach can be enlightening. Review Their Blog: Check the frequency and quality of competitor blog posts. Analyze Their Use of Multimedia: Multimedia can enhance engagement and SEO. Observe Their Content Lengths: Longer content tends to rank better — to a degree; highly optimized blog posts are at least 500 words for blogs you want to rank well. By evaluating your competitors' content strategies, you can craft a unique and effective content plan for your own business. Reviewing Your Competitors' Social Media Influence While not a direct SEO ranking factor, a strong social media presence can indirectly boost your online visibility. Assess Their Presence: Identify platforms they're active on, and what their engagement levels are like. Identify Shared Content: Observe the type of content they share. By gauging your competitors' social media influence, you can strategize your own efforts to complement your SEO strategy. Interpreting the Data: What Does it All Mean? Gathering data is just the beginning; the real value lies in its interpretation. Look for Patterns: Common keywords among competitors can be valuable. Spot Opportunities: Identify where competitors excel or lack. Evaluate Trends: Continually reassess competitor strategies for changes. By understanding and interpreting data from your competitor analysis, you can make informed strategic decisions about your own SEO efforts. Benchmarking Your Real Estate SEO Strategy To truly understand your SEO performance, it's essential to benchmark your efforts against your competitors. Ranking Comparison: Use tools to compare keyword rankings with competitors. Backlink Analysis: Compare the quality of backlinks to your competitors. Speed and Mobile Optimization: Evaluate your site's speed and mobile-friendliness — some tools you can use are GT Metrix and Page Speed Insights. Benchmarking provides a clear picture of where you stand, highlighting areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. Turning Analysis into Action Understanding your competitors' SEO strategies is about leveraging that knowledge to your benefit. It's about identifying gaps in their efforts, finding opportunities in yours, and leveraging new knowledge about SEO — like that found in Real Estate Webmasters' SEO forum. The aim is not to mimic but to surpass your competitors.

Simple Steps to Get Top Search Results
You Have the Power There's no denying it. People look for (and at) houses on the major search portals. Millions of people, every day. However, a very large number of those people are just kicking tires with no real intention of buying, selling, or relocating now, in the foreseeable future, or ever. It's also true that the portals have done an amazing job with their search engine optimization; people type in an address (or a city name) in the Google search bar and up pops the results from the major search portals, front and center. So, if there's zero likelihood your website will show up at the top of the search engine results for your own listings (because you most likely will never be able to trump the big portals), the question becomes, "What CAN I do to get to the top of the search results and in front of my perfect potential clients?" Revisiting SEO Let's first review what search engine optimization (SEO) actually is. SEO is the process of optimizing a website in order to improve its ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). This is important because higher rankings in search results can lead to more traffic to a website, which can translate into more business and revenue for you, the REALTOR®. There are actually several reasons why SEO is important: Increased Traffic: A higher ranking in search results can lead to more traffic to your website, as homebuyers and sellers are more likely to click on a website that appears at the top of the search results. Increased Visibility: A higher ranking in search results can make your website more visible, which can build trust and credibility with prospective clients. Cost-Effective: SEO is a cost-effective way to attract users, as it does not require paying for (often expensive) advertising. You may be thinking, "Isn't it way too late for me to start thinking about ranking on page one of Google?" (Yes, I did say page one – I'll get more into how you can do that later). There are several factors that can influence your website's ranking on Google search engine results, but I really want to focus on the one that you can do without any tools or experience necessary. You Are a Walking Encyclopedia As REALTORS®, we are very much focused on the homes we are selling, which makes sense since our main objective is selling homes. However, the homes themselves are just a part of the bigger picture. Homebuyers most definitely have personal wants and needs in the home they find most attractive to them and what they eventually will purchase. But what about everything else? What about the neighborhoods and how each of them has different amenities, or their proximity to local stores, for example? What about the parks, the events, the nightlife, the restaurants? People want to learn about the lifestyle they are buying, not just the house. And you are the perfect person to provide that intimate knowledge to them. You are a walking encyclopedia of everything there is to know about your town – and if you aren't, you should be making time to get to know it all, inside and out. So what does this have to do with ranking on Google? Everything! You have the ability to attract potential clients through the enormous, almost endless, amount of knowledge you have about your city/town which, with extremely simple tactics, you can see results in just days. And, unlike social media posts, your content will be found on search engines for years to come. PRO TIP: Claim your free REALTOR® website! The National Association of REALTORS® offers a lead-generating website and a free web address ending in .realtor™. It's everything you need to get started and it's free for the first year. After one year, it renews at $39.95/year. Gain instant recognition and credibility with the power of the REALTOR® brand. Learn more. Curate. Curate. Curate. I think it is important to provide a little backstory as to how I came to teach about gaining new business from ranking on page one of Google. In the summer of 2020, my family, along with all of you, were in the depths of COVID and found ourselves in a position to work remotely, indefinitely. So, we moved from Cupertino, CA to Napa, CA, because, well, because we love wine! But we didn't know anything about Napa, and as a new agent in a new city, I, even more than a "normal" buyer, needed to learn everything there was to know about where I was going to live. I began looking online, searching for what I could learn about the neighborhoods, proximity to various cities, schools, etc. What I found was very telling. None of the websites that came up on page one of Google, nor any of the YouTube videos I saw in the top of the search results were created by a local REALTOR®. So, I took it a step further. I curated the content I found, added in my own, at this point, limited knowledge, voice, and video, and created my own content about the neighborhood I was moving to, my favorite restaurants, the biggest local event in the city, and other topics around Napa. Within just a few days, my website was on page one of Google and YouTube. I didn't do any fancy keyword research, I don't have a degree in it, I just wrote like I am now – for the reader, not the machine. There's No Time Like the Present It may be debilitating thinking about where to start in this journey of local content creation, but don't let it paralyze you – as they say, "getting started is the hardest part" and there's no time like the present. Here are some starting points to help you get going. Consider what you, as a new resident in your city or town, would want to know. While what's important to one person or family may be different from another, there are many aspects that are universally consistent. These universal interests are what you should begin with. These include information about: Neighborhoods in your city or town Schools, colleges, and universities Medical facilities and their proximity Driving distance to nearby highways and large cities Local parks and hiking spots Pull from your own experience (and internal encyclopedias) to create your content (whether in written form and/or video) and start writing. Voice-to-text is also a fantastic way to really get going as it is quicker than typing (for most people). I'll be sitting with my coffee in the afternoon and will pick up my phone, open up my notes app and start talking. Before you know it, I have enough content to add to my website! The above content ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other things about your city or town that you can create content about, but for now, start with these and see what happens. It's well worth the time investment — the content has a much longer shelf life and will put you in front of many more potential clients as the local expert they are truly searching for. PRO TIP: Where to host your content The author of this blog post uses a web address ending in .realestate: www.livinginnapacalifornia.realestate. .realestate web addresses are sold by the National Association of REALTORS®. Most neighborhood names are available for only $69.95/year, and each comes with a free lead-generating website. Grab all your top neighborhood web addresses now, before someone else does! More info here. Suzanne Hawken has been a real estate marketer for the past 22 years, fourteen of which she has been specializing in content creation and social media, including holding the position of Sr. Director of Social Media Marketing at realtor.com from 2013-2019. Suzanne is the owner of UpRight Avenue, LLC, a marketing and brand strategy company located in beautiful Napa, CA.

How Alt Text Can Improve Real Estate SEO
Alt text, also known as "alternative text," is a brief description that can be added to an image on a webpage to describe its content. By providing descriptive alt text with relevant keywords for your real estate website, you can improve your chances of appearing in image search results for your target audience. This means that potential customers looking for real estate properties in your area are more likely to find your images in their search results. When search engines crawl a web page, they cannot "see" images the way humans can. Therefore, search engines rely on alt text to understand what the image is about and how it relates to the webpage's content. Including relevant keywords in your alt text can help search engines understand the content of your images and improve your search engine rankings. For example, if you are showcasing a property for sale, including keywords such as "real estate," "property for sale," and the location of the property in the alt text can help search engines understand the context of the image. Moreover, alt text plays a crucial role in image search results. Search engines use alt text to categorize and rank images in image search results. By providing accurate and relevant alt text for the images on a webpage, search engines can better understand the context of the page and how it should be ranked in search results. This can lead to improved visibility and traffic to the webpage, ultimately contributing to the SEO of the site. Tips for Writing SEO-Friendly Alt Text for Your Property Images Be Accurate: Alt text should be descriptive and accurately reflect what is shown in the image. Use keywords related to the property, such as the location, type of property, and important features. Avoid using generic or vague descriptions like "image" or "photo." Keep it concise: Alt text should be short and to the point. This not only makes it easier for users to read, but also helps search engines understand the context of the image more quickly. Avoid keyword stuffing: While it's important to include relevant keywords in your alt text, avoid stuffing it with too many keywords. This can be seen as spammy and hurt your SEO efforts. Use keywords in a natural, contextual way. Use hyphens or underscores: When writing alt text, separate words with hyphens or underscores instead of spaces. This makes it easier for search engines to read and understand the text. Don't use duplicate alt text: Avoid using the same alt text for multiple images on your website. Each image should have its own unique alt text that accurately describes the content of the image. To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog.

The World of SEO: A Perfect Guideline for Real Estate
If you're a real estate agent or an investor trying to expand your client base, it's time to start investing in real estate SEO. This guideline eliminates the need for intense marketing and expensive advertising. So, rather than spending countless hours on the phone daily writing long emails or depleting your marketing expenses, why not devote that time to enhancing your site's search engine ranking? If you just spend a little time every week developing and optimizing content using keywords strategically, your real estate business stands a higher chance of getting discovered on Google and other search engines. What Is SEO for Real Estate? Briefly explained, real estate SEO helps you appear on search engines anytime someone searches for a property online. Users always search while on the move due to the explosion of smart technologies and accessible internet connectivity. Online marketing for real estate firms is growing more competitive, and SEO, particularly local SEO, has become extremely essential. Now that we've established the significance of search engine optimization in real estate, let's move on to some strategies and ideas you can use to guarantee that your real estate listing website appears more at the top of search results for your targeted keywords. Best SEO Plan Ever? Keywords are the key! Research your keywords and create a list of terms that your potential clients could use while looking for local real estate services. There are several methods to include SEO real estate keywords in your marketing approach. You may, for example, produce blog entries that are search engine optimized. These keywords might potentially be used to create a paid social ad campaign or a Google Ads campaign. You may also use a keyword research tool to locate local rivals and strategize how to generate better content. Local SEO Is Your Best Friend How many times have you looked for something on your phone and selected the closest result? Countless right? As a rule, you should always keep it local at first. Then you can write about the locations you serve. Use local keywords, such as the name of your region or nearby cities. The key here is in the users' search phrases. In general, informational questions are all about discovering a certain topic or looking for services. Typical relevant search terms may be something like "homes for sale in New York" or "shops for rent in Atlanta." This will bring up all of the search results that are relevant to this topic. So this is how local SEO normally works: according to GoGulf, 46 percent of all Google searches have an achieved target, like seeking local information. In addition, 50 percent of people who did a local search on their phone went to view a listing within one day. It is evident that if you don't have a great local SEO plan, you're passing up a huge chance of growing your business without any hassle. Content Creation All the Way As stated by GoGulf, 86 percent of real estate firms in the United States and Canada currently use social media. Smart real estate organizations, for example, understand how to combine timely, relevant social media messages with longer-form blog material. This allows them to make their feeds more helpful, drive visitors to their site, and establish a reputation for being more than simply a collection of online adverts. When you combine blogs with high-quality listings and explanatory material, or even breakthroughs like VR property tours, you can begin to construct operations that captivate attention, build trust, and forge a digital brand with genuine lasting influence. So, make numerous pages with helpful information and use your keywords to provide answers to frequently asked questions in the region. The Most Recent SEO Techniques Because search engines are continually improving, so should our SEO strategies. What worked in the previous year might not work this year. Here are some of the most recent SEO techniques: Be mobile-friendly: All real estate websites that are mobile-friendly score higher on Google. Ensure that you have your camera ready to create social media videos. Share brief instructive films on YouTube and other social media with a link to your website. Everything should be encrypted: Encryption on websites is increasingly getting rewarded by search engines. This allows visitors to browse knowing that their personal data is safe. You can have that and even more with Realtyna's high-functioning real estate website hosting and other solutions. To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog.

Is Your Online Reputation Preventing You From Getting Clients? Why You Need Google Reviews to Earn New Business
You've probably heard the horror stories. Embarrassing party photos, inflammatory political screeds, an early morning mugshot – for an average professional, having these items pop up when somebody searches their name puts jobs, opportunities, and reputation in jeopardy. For an accountant or engineer, then, the right online presence might be as simple as Facebook and Instagram accounts set to private and an informative, professional LinkedIn page. Real estate agents don't have the same luxury. Playing defense online isn't enough to build the reputation you need, and will cost you leads, clients, and business. Instead, real estate agents need to actively develop a positive online reputation. If consumers search for you online and can't determine that you're a trustworthy, competent agent, they will take their business elsewhere. Even worse, many people look more broadly for local real estate services, with searches such as "real estate agents near me." If you don't appear in those search results, consumers won't know who you are, you won't get new business, and your competition will get ahead. Fortunately, there is a simple, effective way to ensure you have the online reputation necessary to attract new clients: consistently solicit positive reviews to your Google Business Profile. A Google Business Profile Establishes Your Legitimacy Google is clear: Agents who want to attract new clients online need to have an up-to-date Google Business Profile. The Google Business Profile appears to the right of Google search results, and is filled with business information such as contact information, recent listings and deals, business hours, an agent bio, and, crucially, reviews from clients and other connections. When consumers search your name, the Google Business Profile is what tells them how to reach you and whether you have the recommendation of past clients. Think about the last time you looked for a restaurant online: You probably looked at the business's Google Business Profile to learn its hours, peruse the menu, establish the location, and maybe even read customer reviews. You want to provide home buyers and sellers the same courtesy, and ensure that they recognize the real estate expertise you have to offer. Google Reviews Help You Get Found by Real Estate Searchers Having a professional Google Business Profile is great, but on its own is not enough to attract new clients online. Agents must also solicit positive Google reviews in order to become Google verified, appear at the top of real estate search results, and earn new leads. While every agent wishes that consumers searched specifically and only for them, the reality is that people considering buying or selling a home are likely to search first for terms such as "local real estate agents." When people conduct such searches, agents who are verified appear as "Google Screened" at the top of search results. Notice how the three top featured agents all have more than 30 reviews, and ratings at or close to five stars. With the quantity and quality of their ratings, these agents have indicated to Google that they are experienced, well-regarded, and a good match for people ready to business. Some searchers will click on "more real estate agents," and when they do, they'll be served with an even longer listing of agent results. By clicking on an agent, people have access to their Google reviews, ratings, number of years in business, and location. Home buyers and sellers can use these listings to call agents directly, making it essential that agents appear towards the top. There's a hard reality to these listings: Agents without reviews won't become Google screened, and agents who aren't Google screened won't appear at the top of the results and be found by searchers. At minimum, agents need five reviews in order to be Google screened, but in competitive markets, the top listed agents have many more than that. Your online reputation might currently be preventing you from getting new clients, but you can develop the Google Business profile and reviews necessary to establish your real estate bona fides and appear at the top of listings when consumers search for agents. To view the original article, visit the Homesnap blog.

How to Migrate Your Website Hosting Without Affecting SEO
As your real estate website grows, it may be necessary to migrate it at some point. Unfortunately, the process of migrating your website to another host is not easy. It takes a great deal of thought and consideration to migrate your website effectively. For example, suppose you have invested significant time and effort into search engine optimization. In that case, you may be concerned that your efforts would be wasted if you transfer web hosting providers. Migration, while challenging, has the potential to open up new prospects while resolving issues that you were experiencing with your previous hosting platform, if carried out correctly. In today's article, we will focus on how you can migrate your website host without losing SEO value. When it comes to SEO, web hosting is significant since it influences crucial factors such as the speed at which your site loads and up and downtimes. Here are the three main changes involved when migrating your web host and how they affect SEO: Domain change Nameserver change, and Web host change Choose the Right Real Estate Hosting Provider You should not have to worry about your real estate SEO and search engine rankings if you migrate your web hosts the right way. You may want to switch web hosts to receive better service. Your real estate website will be hosted on entirely new servers, which will result in a change in the IP address of your website. If your new web host has a skilled support team, you shouldn't have to be concerned about losing traffic or experiencing substantial downtime during your transition. Before choosing a host, ensure that it meets all of your requirements. You can, for example, look at the following features: Low downtime Server bandwidth Excellent documentation and technical support The technical specifications of the server Changing Nameservers This is perhaps the most straightforward part of the website migration, but it can significantly impact your real estate SEO. If you simply change your nameservers, it is unlikely that you will see any changes in your search engine rankings. Furthermore, you can change your nameservers in minutes. However, using an effective hosting provider to streamline the process is vital. Domain Change If you change your domain name, you should place permanent redirects, also known as 301 redirect, on your website's old pages. This will route your users to the new domain name when visiting the old one. The 301 redirects in web development indicate a permanent move, and 302 redirects let Google know the move is not permanent. These are the commonly used types of redirects. However, a 301 redirect is used for most domain changes since it is a permanent move. Other Factors You Should Consider When Migrating Your Real Estate Website Carefully Choose a Real Estate Server Location Geographical advantage can be crucial in deciding your real estate website SEO. For example, if you were targeting the United States before relocating and using a server in the area, you'll need to find a similar hosting provider in terms of location. You should be familiar with the server on which you will host your real estate website. In addition to impacting your SEO rankings, your server location affects your target audience. Create Backup Make a comprehensive backup of your website before beginning the migration process. You can use plug-ins for effective backup. This step will ensure your return to the old real estate website if something goes wrong. Conclusion Follow these steps carefully to ensure that you don't damage your SEO while migrating your real estate website. Ideally, it should not affect your search engine optimization. However, to avoid confusion, it is advisable to maintain control of the old site for at least five months to ensure that the transition is done properly. Nevertheless, always use web developers to execute the migration effectively. To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog.

Google Just Announced an Update About 'Helpful Content.' What Should Real Estate Agents Know?
When Google updates its algorithm, the effects ripple through the internet. In September, another Google update went live. Agents who want to succeed online need to know how to adjust to what's being called the "helpful content" update. In short, the helpful content algorithm update is a commitment to serve "people-first" content, and another indication that Google doesn't want its search pages clogged with spam. How can you ensure your online presence is considered helpful? What guidelines are important to follow while building out a real estate agent website, Google Business Profile, and other online content? 1. Stay Focused and On-Topic The first step to creating online content Google considers "helpful" is to stay focused and on-topic. As a real estate agent, being focused means targeting an audience of buyers and sellers with content that is related to real estate. Having an online presence is great, but will be less effective if it's cluttered with information about unrelated pursuits. After all, would a buyer or seller looking for real estate information find much use in an agent's website that was actually filled with cat photos? Of course not. That's why Google ranks content that is focused, on-topic, and relevant to searchers. 2. Show Expertise and Experience Once you've established your topic – in this case, being a real estate agent – Google wants to see that your online content demonstrates expertise and experience. Your expertise is in real estate, and specifically as being an agent in your local market. Make sure your agent website and Google Business Profile reflect your status as a go-to agent in your region. And take pains to explain how you specifically help people in your local region. If you've sold homes in certain neighborhoods or specialize in the west side of town, say so. Let Google know you have a relevant niche. Google also wants to see that you have experience. For an agent, this could mean maintaining a slideshow of current and past listings on your website. And for every agent, having helpful content that demonstrates experience requires a verified Google Business Profile with positive, plentiful reviews from past clients and respected colleagues. 3. Answer Searchers' Queries When Google talks about helpful content, what they're really talking about is: Does this answer the questions people are typing into the search bar? As an agent, you should endeavor for online content that answers searchers' queries. Those questions start simply. Who are real estate agents in my town? What is this agent's business hours? Do they have contact information? Examples of current listings? But some searchers are looking for more than just basic biographical details. They're asking questions about an agent's specific experiences. Who are this agent's past clients? Do they represent both buyers and sellers? What's their experience in my neighborhood? Do they have a marketing plan? Social media? References? A good reputation? Google wants you to preemptively answer those questions. After all, when consumers search for "real estate agents near me," what they're really asking is for Google to show them the best agents possible. The best agents can answer consumer questions on and offline, so have online content that helps address what buyers and sellers are searching for and wondering. 4. Stay Up-to-Date on Other Google Core Updates The "helpful content" update is a big one. But it's not the first Google update, it won't be the last, and it isn't the only update agents should consider. Just this year, Google has released: The "Vicinity Update," in which Google more heavily weights proximity when serving up local search results. This update hyper-focuses search results on local businesses and services consumers are likely to use or hire. The "May 2022 Core Update," in which Google dinged AI-generated content and reshuffled search results pages so that human-written content is more likely to appear at the top. Overall , Google updates in 2022 have advantaged real, live, local agents – particularly those who demonstrate the expertise, experience, and focus to help buyers and sellers accomplish their real estate goals. To view the original article, visit the Homesnap blog.

How Can You Prove You're a Local Real Estate Expert?
It's a question you may ask yourself often: How can I demonstrate to consumers in my market that I'm the best real estate agent in the area? As with most components of real estate, the answer has become more involved and multi-dimensional in recent years. Once, planting yard signs in front lawns and having a witty slogan on a shopping cart may have been enough. Now, with consumers able to access more information than ever, proving yourself as the go-to local agent requires a consistent, digitally savvy reputation management strategy. Fortunately, you can take two clear actions to establish yourself as the most trustworthy real estate agent in your market. 1. Dominate local SEO When it comes to reputation management, real estate agents face a hard reality: If you don't rank at the top of Google search results about local real estate, you will lose credibility and fail to prove your position as the best agent in your market. Imagine it from a consumers point of view: They're in the market to buy or sell a home, see one of your signs or social media posts, and search for you on Google. What they get back is a barren online presence, without any client reviews, a dedicated website, or information about your address, business hours, and current listings. Maybe they can't even find you at all. Who could blame them when they decide to look for another agent? If you were looking for a lawyer or plumber or other service provider, would you hire somebody who didn't come with any recommendations? You might even think they are out of business, if you couldn't find them online. This is why it is crucial for you to have a strong presence on local Google search results. More than ever before, real estate searches start online, and more than ever before, Google is serving real estate searchers locally-focused content. When consumers look for you online, establish the SEO presence necessary to ensure that they are served a strong, informative, persuasive content. To start, create a Google business profile and populate it with your address, phone number, websites, and up-to-date photos. Then, solicit and manage reviews from clients, fellow agents, and your family and friends. This way, when people search for you on Google, they see that you have satisfied customers, impressed colleagues, and a history of superior real estate service. 2. Leverage social media People's media consumption habits have changed dramatically since the advent of social media. As an agent, this gives you an opportunity. Use social media effectively and you can make sure that local consumers know about your listings and your knowledge. Traditionally, social media has been divided into organic and paid efforts. Both have their benefits and can help showcase your local real estate footprint and expertise. Organic posts tend to be good for general observations about the state of the local real estate market. By posting about what's happening in the market, you show people in your community that you have a strong handle on what's going on – which homes are selling, at what price, and how long after being listed. Paid social media posts are also valuable if you want to establish yourself as the leading local real estate expert. Most of your paid social media posts are likely to feature home listings, and we know that agents who buy Facebook ads through Homesnap earn 2.5 times more leads from Facebook than agents without paid social media ads. Those leads come through increased digital reach – people see an ad and know about your foothold in the local real estate market. Whether they become a lead now or later, paid social media helps showcase to consumers that many local buyers are already trusting you with their real estate needs. Proving that you're a local real estate expert is essential to earning new clients, and requires both having the knowledge required to be an expert and the online presence necessary to convince consumers of your abilities. By upgrading to Homesnap Pro+, you can accomplish both of these objectives, and become the local agent who buyers and sellers contact first. To view the original article, visit the Homesnap blog.

3 SEO Real Estate Website Strategies
If you're a real estate agent, broker, or technology company, you know that having a website is essential for your business. It gives you a place to showcase your listings and services and allows potential clients to learn more about you and get in touch with you quickly. However, simply having a website isn't enough – you need to ensure that your site is optimized for search engines to attract more visitors. Yes, search engine optimization is still alive and continues to grow as it evolves in providing answers to people's questions. In this blog post, we will discuss three SEO strategies to help improve your website's positioning in search engines and generate more readers and leads! The first is that the search engine's artificial intelligence will play a prominent role in SEO rankings, especially Google's. Most SEO experts focus on Google because of their search and Chrome web browser market shares. In the United States, Google maintains a 92% market share in search and averages around 63% market share of people using Chrome as a web browser. The other major search engines are Bing and Yahoo, which hold a combined market share of around 10%. A search engine's AI focuses on capturing consumer behavior metrics for ranking factors. This means that click-through rate, time people spend on a page, and other overall website metrics influence how the AI prioritizes content. Therefore, when reevaluating SEO strategy, crafting well-organized and quality, engaging content is critical to success. What is essential to the readers of your content is also crucial to the search engine's AI for ranking. This is where custom content on the property search result pages for neighborhoods and listing detail pages can improve SEO. Guidelines for content creation are included in the E-A-T principle. Google defines E-A-T for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. An approach that is excellent to use in evaluating the quality of content. A few guidelines to use when developing content with E-A-T in mind are: Does the content contain authentic information, reporting, research, or analysis? Is the content written by an expert demonstrating their knowledge about the subject? Is the content written very well, or is it sloppy? Are the facts in the content easily verifiable? Content writers who follow these simple guidelines achieve the desired results to improve search engine rankings. Additionally, as AI continues to drive rankings, it impacts search results. As a result, it is possible that when submitting a search, a page may be #2, and when performing a subsequent search, the same page may be #5. Therefore, AI will adjust its page ranking based on the events at the time of a search. The second SEO strategy is to focus on optimizing your website with structured data. Most people are familiar with the concept of structured data, even if they don't realize it. Structured data is simply information that is organized in a predefined way. This can include things like open houses, homes for sale, and site structure. By adding structured data to your site, you are essentially providing a map for search engines to follow. This makes it easier for them to index your content and display it in search results. In addition, structured data can also help you improve your click-through rate by making your listings more relevant and user-friendly. However, there is a catch. Don't overuse structured data or resort to black-hat methods. Google just takes advantage of specific structured data, which must be implemented correctly for the content's trustworthiness to be confirmed. As you can see, structured data is an integral part of SEO. If you want your site to be successful, make sure you take advantage of this powerful tool. Lastly, one of the benefits of SEO is that it can help improve the accessibility of a site. Optimizing the website for Google search can also help make it more accessible for people with disabilities who use screen readers and other assistive technologies. According to WCAG 2.1, one of the success criteria for accessibility is that "webpages can be parsed unambiguously by software." This means that screen readers and other assistive technologies should be able to interpret the content on a webpage without any ambiguity. However, many websites are not well-optimized for SEO, so it can be difficult or impossible for these technologies to parse. Therefore, improving the SEO of a website can also help to enhance its accessibility. If you implement these three SEO strategies, you will be well on your way to improving your website's ranking in search engines and generating more leads! The last thing you want to do is to ignore or think SEO is not a practical part of a marketing strategy. What other SEO strategies have you used to improve your website's ranking? Please share your tips with us in the comments below! And if you're looking for more help, contact the WAV Group. WAV Group explicitly focuses its SEO strategies on the real estate industry. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

How Real Estate Agents Can Generate More Leads with YouTube SEO
Let's be honest: This topic is a combination of three constantly evolving fields. The housing market changes by the day. Lead generation can feel inconsistent, even at the best of times. And chasing after SEO keywords is up and down, too. All three components are driven by trends. And they're trends that SEO-savvy real estate agents try their best to keep up with because good marketing leads to better business. However, one constant piece in this formula is how much time the average internet user spends on YouTube. (The average person aged 18+ spends more than 40 minutes a day watching YouTube videos.) So if you can develop a good YouTube SEO strategy, you'll be able to get your video content in front of more viewers than ever. YouTube as a Lead Gen Tool Before diving into the nitty-gritty details of YouTube SEO, it's important to understand why YouTube can be just as beneficial to your business as any other social media platform — say, Facebook for example. According to a 2021 study, YouTube is both the second most popular social media platform (after Facebook) and also the second most visited website on the internet (after Google). And more than 2 billion active users watch more than 1 billion hours of video every day. The takeaway here is that YouTube has become a primary hub for content. Whether the focus is entertainment, news, education, or a sense of community, more people are watching more YouTube content in 2021 than ever before. As a result, it's become a popular destination for advertisers. Marketers spent a little over $4 billion on YouTube ads last year, and YouTube's global ad revenue was around a little shy of $20 billion. It's like that idiom about drops of water in a bucket. Only in this case, the "bucket" is one of the largest bodies of water to ever be discovered by advertisers. YouTube has become a key player in how people connect and share things with each other, and that has developed it into a major lead generator for businesses. It's the kind of lead gen tool that could be used by anyone in any industry — even real estate. A Real Estate Agent's Guide to YouTube SEO There's a good chance that Facebook is already a big platform for your real estate business. From posting video walkthroughs of houses to connecting with people (both homebuyers and fellow agents), it's hard to imagine a world where social media doesn't play some role in your work. But the problem with relying on Facebook videos is that your reach is often limited to your network. And since Facebook doesn't quite have the most consistent search and filter algorithms, it's possible for people to miss out on things unless you are paying for targeted advertising. Targeted ads can be very effective on Facebook, but they come with a price tag. The main trait real estate agents love about SEO-driven advertising is that it's all organic — by targeted specific keywords, you can make sure your content finds the right audience. And the only "expense" on your part is putting in the effort to find the right keywords. YouTube has developed reliable SEO guidelines thanks to its relationship with Google. And that means you can use the video platform to consistently and effectively get your videos to rank well when people search for specific keywords. Of course, it's just like SEO rules on Google. If you want a top spot for a keyword, you'll need to put in some research (to find the keyword) and technical work (to make sure you meet YouTube SEO requirements). But it's the sort of thing that real estate agents can — and should — rely on to get video content in front of as many potential homebuyers as possible. In other words, it'll help you generate more leads. And if you make YouTube SEO a regular part of your lead generation strategies, then YouTube can function as a reliable way to advertise yourself to new groups of prospective homebuyers. Get the Most Out of Video Content Even people familiar with Google's SEO process have to relearn a few things to get results on YouTube. The platform's focus on video content has led to very different trends in what sort of topics people search for, and specifically how they use the search bar. For example, people are much more likely to search for "how-to" videos — tutorial content is consistently the most-watched on YouTube, and that was especially true last year. In 2020, YouTube saw a 50% increase in the number of views for videos with "beginner" in the title. Viewers also have a higher chance of watching something from the suggestions bar instead of going back to YouTube to search for something else. (In fact, 81% of American YouTube users regularly watch videos the algorithm recommends to them.) Contrast that with traditional web activity. How often do you search for something, click a result, and then start browsing that site to read posts about unrelated topics? That sort of thing works on YouTube, but hardly ever translates to Google. People use the two platforms differently, and that applies to the SEO rules to follow if you want viewers to find your videos and start engaging with the content you share. When it comes to real estate, it's unrealistic to think you can upload videos about every single listing you're going to see. Instead, think of YouTube as a platform where you can share other sorts of video content — by becoming a trusted voice on a specific topic, people will be willing to click links to your other social media pages or even your website. Maybe you create how-to videos, introducing first-time homebuyers to different topics that will help them. Or maybe you make monthly updates about the market in your area. And of course, you can still upload videos about listings as they become available, particularly if they are in a busy market that you know will get some traffic online. Regardless of which video format you rely on, YouTube can become a powerful lead generation tool for your business. And by targeting specific keywords, you can use your YouTube channel to guide people to other platforms where you can connect with them directly. To view the original article, visit the Wise Agent blog.

Are You Findable on Google?
In terms of marketing best practices, real estate agents -- and businesses across any industry, for that matter -- are told they need to build a strong online presence on Google. But what does it mean to have a "strong online presence?" Why does it really matter? Let's demystify the buzzword-y phrase. What is an "online presence on Google"? Simply put, it refers specifically to the ability to be found on Google — both how easy it is to find you, and how often you show up in search results. If it's difficult for consumers to find information about your business on Google — whether it be through organic or paid search results — then you don't have much of an online presence at all. The easier it is to find you on Google — whether searching for your name, your business's name, or something broader like "real estate agents near me" — the stronger your online presence is there. Why it's important to be "findable" on Google If you want to continue to grow your business, you can't hide in the shadows. Visibility is key, and it's accomplished through marketing. In the same way that you put up yard signs and A-frames to draw attention to your listings in the offline world, you need to create similar visibility online so that it's very, very easy for prospects, leads, and clients to find you. With well over 90% of all real estate searches starting online, the best place to achieve that visibility is on Google. It is by far the number-one used search engine in the United States. The others, like Bing and Yahoo, are barely used in comparison and therefore simply aren't worth your time or effort. When it comes down to it, if you aren't on Google when prospects search for you, you're creating friction during their research phase, which could result in a lost potential client. If they don't find you, they'll find a different agent instead. What prospects think if they can't find you Google's large market share and reputation of being the go-to search engine shows that its users have a high level of trust in it. Consumers also trust that Google will serve the most relevant search results high up on the page. The proof is in the numbers. One study looked at users' behavior over billions of search results to understand how they engage with content on Google. What they found was that 28.5% of clicks go to the very first organic result. For just the second result, that number dropped to 15%. The third result's click-through rate was only 11%. By the end of the page — page one, remember! — the result in the tenth position only got a 2.5% click-through rate. It's well-known that users rarely go onto subsequent search result pages. These numbers make it incredibly clear that you need to not only be visible on the first page of search results, but you need to be close to the top to attract attention. Prospects equate you being at the top of the page with you being a credible, trustworthy agent. How to make sure you're easily discovered So how do you get on Google, and specifically as high up on the first page of search results as possible? There are three things to focus on. 1. Get your website to rank high Achieving a high-ranking website is no easy feat. You've probably heard the acronym SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. That refers to the more technical things you do to your website that make it easy for a search engine like Google to understand what topic it covers, where the business is located, and when to show the website as a relevant result in particular search queries (and how high up in the results). There is a lot that goes into SEO, from the way your website is coded to the words you use to describe your business. That's why so many SEO professionals recommend that businesses seek professional help in building and maintaining their website. When it comes to getting your real estate website to rank high on the first page of Google, it is not something you have full control over because of how Google's algorithm decides to rank potential search results. Still, that is not a reason to dismiss having a website. It is very important to have one for visibility. It will still show up in search results, and you can link to it from your digital ads and your Google business profile, which we'll discuss next. 2. Verify and maintain your Google business profile A Google business profile gets top billing on Google, and it's where prospects can learn all about you. It houses your bio and contact information, links to your website, allows you to publish photos and original content, and — importantly — is where your Google reviews and star ratings are displayed. On desktop, the profile appears as a large box in the top-right of search results. On mobile, it's right at the top! Our research shows that you cannot just complete your Google business profile and expect it to always show up on the first page of search results. Google rewards businesses that are active, get reviews regularly, and post content weekly by showing their Google business profile in more search results. A Google business profile is one of the best ways to be "findable" on Google, because it's an endorsement from the search engine itself that you're the best agent for the job. And if a prospect is doing a little sleuthing to see what your reputation is like, they'll see your many five-star Google reviews from happy clients. Studies show that most people trust online reviews as much as personal referrals, so this is key. 3. Buy a well-positioned, relevant ad Finally, we get to paid advertising. Search ads (the ones with all the text and no images) are not where we'll focus because they are more complex and really do require a knowledgeable marketer to successfully execute. We want to talk about Google's new Local Services Ads. They are the new gold standard in making you findable on Google. Here's why: They are prominently displayed above all other content—paid and organic—at the very top of search results on page 1. The ad has a frictionless click-to-call feature that prompts high-intent consumers to get in touch with the agent by phone. That means live, direct phone call leads for agents. Ads pull in your Google rating, so prospects can instantly see you're a well-reviewed, credible agent. Local Services Ads are currently only available to a select few professions, with real estate agents being one of them. Getting into any new advertising vehicle early will net you better results at a fair price. Agents can get vetted through Google and earn the coveted Google Screened badge. It requires a more in-depth screening process, but signals to consumers that the agents who earned it are above their peers — and earns those agents more calls and leads. You might be wondering why Google would want to prominently display an agent's Google business profile or Local Services Ads above other results. Frankly, it's good for their business, too. Google wants to give its users the most relevant search results so that they have a good experience and remain loyal to the search giant. By keeping your business profile updated, you're showing Google that you are still in business and therefore relevant to related search queries. To earn the Google Screened badge for your Local Services Ads, you have to allow the company to run a background check to confirm that you are indeed licensed. The vetting process creates trust with Google, which makes the company happy to promote your business above organic rankings that it cannot verify in the same way. It's clear that Google's users trust the search results it delivers and, more so, trusts the results that appear highest on the page. As such, buyers and sellers who find you at the top of Google and decide to contact you are typically higher-intent leads. Remember: You don't want prospects to have a hard time finding you. A strong online presence makes it easier for leads to reach you, and makes it easier for you to get more business. To view the original article, visit the Homesnap blog.

Google Local Search Results Just Went Through a Huge Update. How Can Agents Rank Higher?
You already know that when people look for a real estate agent, they're seeking a trustworthy professional who demonstrates the real estate knowledge and reputation necessary to help them buy or sell a home quickly and at the right price. You also know that a consumer in Detroit probably won't be happy searching for an agent online but only seeing results for agents in San Diego – people want an agent who lives, works and has specific expertise in their local market. With its most recent search algorithm update, Google is demonstrating an effort to meet consumer demands for relevant, local content. Last month, Google went through its biggest local search algorithm update in five years. This matters for agents: More than 90% of real estate searches start online, and Google is the most popular search engine in the world. When Google makes significant changes to search results, it affects your business. The results Google searchers see are going to be tied more closely than ever before to their location – which means that you should take simple, effective actions to win the local SEO battle. By following Google's local ranking guidelines, you can show Google that you are the leading local real estate option, vault to the top of local search results, and earn more clients and business. What's Changing About Google Local Search? It's been called the "Vicinity Update," and that just about sums up what's changing. Google is more heavily weighting proximity when serving up local search results. Whether people search for a lawyer or accountant or restaurant or real estate agent, they're more likely to see business profiles that are located nearby. Weighing proximity isn't a new method for Google. Distance has always been a consideration for Google local search results, along with: Relevance, which is how well a Google business profile matches the service someone is searching for Prominence, which is how known and respected a Google business profile appears to be Having completed, detailed business information helps Google measure your relevance. Prominence is based on the information Google has about a business, and is especially aided by having numerous, frequent positive Google reviews. With the Vicinity Update, Google is demonstrating that it considers distance to be an important part of a business's relevance and prominence. For real estate, this makes sense – being locally based means that an agent can provide relevant real estate advice. And the more local the agent, the more known and respected they are likely to be in the community where clients want to buy and sell. This community-centric search update is clear when you consider a search for the term "real estate agents near me." The displayed real estate providers all have a high number of positive reviews, a website, business hours, and a local address. Take a look at the map and you'll see that the displayed providers aren't just in the same town or state – they're practically within walking distance! This indicates that Google is trying to eliminate the kind of keyword stuffing or misrepresentation that allowed businesses to rank at the top of local searches far from their actual location. No more games, no more tricks, no more search results that don't directly meet searchers' local, on-the-ground needs – that's the message Google is sending to businesses with this local search update. How Can Agents Adapt to the Vicinity Update? We get it: SEO can be complicated, and Google updates can seem intimidating. How can you be sure that amid these changes, consumers find your services when they search online? The answer isn't convoluted or grandiose. Just follow Google's local search guidelines. Google gives clear, written instructions for improving your local search ranking. It instructs users to create a Google business profile that includes information such as your address, phone number, website, and industry. The profile should also have a verified location, accurate business hours, and up-to-date photos. Most importantly, Google urges businesses to solicit and manage reviews. Again, Google uses these reviews to determine your prominence and relevance and decide whether to feature you as an agent consumers can trust. Solicit reviews from clients, fellow agents, friends, and family – anybody who can speak to your skill, professionalism, and ability should give testimony. Additionally, Google wants you to list a website. SEO doesn't have to be scary. With a Homesnap Pro+ membership, you can make the most of your digital presence, and make the best of this Google Local Search update. To view the original article, visit the Homesnap blog.

How to Use Google My Business to Boost Local Awareness
What is Google My Business? Do you own a business? Are you looking to expand the customer awareness of your business or its online reputation? Do you want your business to be seen on Google? If you said yes to any of these questions, then Google My Business might be just the thing your business needs!

Farewell to Page One: Google Results Go Scrollable
When people go online, they click, download, share, like, post, send, and search. But before, during, and after they take all those actions, people scroll. That's why Google is introducing continuous scrolling for mobile search results. Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have successfully designed their sites to keep users scrolling through news feeds and content — and now Google wants to provide users search results that have the same addictive, can't-look-away qualities. This development is important for agents. Changes to Google's scrollability affect how people engage with search results and the advertisements and content that populate them. Scrollability may prove quite a shift from traditional SEO, as users won't perceive different pages of search results. Google's emphasis on scrolling is a component of the search engine's broader goal to become more intelligent and user-friendly. Here, agents can learn about the change to scrollable mobile results, the ways it will affect their marketing strategy, and what strategies they can take to continue to earn new leads and clients. Continuous Scrolling: What's Changing? Just about everyone is familiar with the traditional Google experience: You type a query into the search bar and 10 results appear. You scroll to the bottom of the page, and if you haven't found what you're looking for, you click "next" or a page number to access more results. But times are changing. Google results are now much more dynamic, informative, localized, and interactive — and the switch to scrollability is a continuation of this trend. Interactive elements in Google's search results include paid advertisements at the top of the page, "three packs" of local search results that appear at the top of the page, shopping results that highlight specific products, "people also ask" boxes that feature a few related questions, and "featured snippets," in which a blurb from a web page is displayed at the top of the search result page. The move to continuous mobile scrolling represents an effort by Google to help users interact with these elements more seamlessly. With continuous scrolling, Google can intersperse these elements with traditional search results. In addition to standard web links, users can scroll and engage with related questions and blurbs and shopping results, making for a more dynamic experience. Overall, the shift to continuous scrolling is an indication that Google is becoming more intelligent and committed to keeping people viewing search results for longer and engaging with the results more meaningfully. How Should Agents Adjust to Continuous Scrolling? Being "findable" on Google has long been a priority for savvy agents, since more than 90% of real estate searches begin online and because Google is, by a wide margin, the most used search engine in America. The most important change related to continuous scrolling that agents should prepare for is the discontinuation of "page one" results. In the past, landing even on the bottom of the first page of Google search results was valuable, because the vast majority of searchers would not progress beyond page one. Now, more results will load as users scroll, lessening the advantages provided by being the eighth or ninth or tenth search result, but heightening advantages for agents who are "Google screened" via Google's Local Services Ads and appear first in real estate agent related results. Google's Local Services Ads seamlessly facilitate contact from homebuyers and sellers to real estate agents in their market. The most valuable feature of Local Services Ads is that they enable prospective buyers and sellers to call listed agents (via their desktop or mobile device) directly from the ad itself. This makes getting the Google reviews necessary to become screened a must for agents. Without a page one, agents should prioritize being at the top of Google searches, so that people see them before scrolling deeper and deeper into the search results. The best way to rocket to the top of search results is with Google's Local Services Ads Google search results — and digital marketing more broadly — are only getting more complex and holistic. Use Homesnap Concierge to save time and leverage the digital marketing expertise necessary to earn leads from the world's most popular search engine. To view the original article, visit the Homesnap blog.

How to Generate Free Real Estate Business from Google
Google is a powerful search engine tool that helps users locate information online based on keywords. In short, Google uses these keywords to locate sources online and display them for you according to their relevance and popularity to your keywords. With 90.46% of the search engine market share, Google is by far the most popular, and it's no surprise it has claimed the generic term for looking up information online. Instead of saying, "Look it up online," you say, "Google it." There's plenty of opportunity on Google and real estate professionals must take advantage of its influential tools in order to grow their business and gain market share. If you want to find home buyers, you need to go where they are -- online. There's a trade-off between spending time vs. money when deciding between options for solutions. You can either spend more time solving a problem and less money, or you can spend more money and less time. When it comes to generation leads to grow your real estate business, Google also entails this trade-off. Google has two tools to help you reach and engage consumers: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Since SEM entails financing, I will share SEO strategies that generate free real estate business from Google. 1. Generating Real Estate Business with Search Engine Optimization for Google SEO is the "spend more time, save money" strategy and attracts consumers to your website, also known as organic traffic. You can increase the amount of organic to your website by tailoring its content to Google's algorithm. Your traffic will experience a snowball effect when implemented correctly – the more quality traffic you receive, the higher you'll rank on a relevant Search Engine Results List (SERL), and that means even more traffic. In a nutshell, that means including relevant keywords throughout content, consistently updating content, and keeping visitors on your website with valuable information. Below are tactics to enhance your website's SEO and increase organic website traffic: Real Estate Blogging – Each week, do some research and write a 500-word article about the real estate industry, your city, or helpful tips for buyers and sellers. Automated SEO City Reports – These are like real estate blogs but with specific information such as snapshots of homes for sale, featured properties, market data, school reports, cities, counties, and neighborhoods. Since this type of information is highly sought after by prospects, it will attract relevant traffic to your website. Update Pages with Keywords – Review each page and blog article on your website and see if its keyword is included in the title, each header, description, link, paragraph, and image file. Examine this article—can you figure out the keyword? It's important to note, keywords or keyword phrases do not have to match a search exactly. So a keyword phrase like "California Home Sales" would still be included in a search for "Homes for Sale in California." Include Outbound Links – Include a source to support the claim for each fact that you share to increase the credibility of your content. You can also use them to provide third-party tools that a buyer or seller might find useful. Examine this article, how are outbound links incorporated? Remove Broken Links – Broken links cause a poor user experience, hurts your SEO, and lowers your SERL ranking. After you've located broken links, go to your website and either update, remove, or set up a redirect for the link. Increase Backlinks – Backlinks are links on other websites that drive traffic to your website. For example, let's say you have a broker branded website and your own. If you include a link on your broker branded website that directs traffic to your website, that's a backlink. You can increase backlinks to your website by partnering with local community members, bloggers, newspapers, philanthropies, etc. Increase Web Page Load Speed – Your website's speed affects its bounce rate – the rate at which visitors exit your website without any interactions within 30 seconds. A high bounce rate will lower your SERL ranking. To decrease your website's load speed, you can compress images, remove unnecessary HTML/CSS code, unused page elements, etc. The HubSpot Website Grader tool is extremely useful in identify speed detractors in addition to performance, mobile adaptability, and security. Use Formatting with Headers and Bullet Points – Your writing should follow a basic structure that's scannable and easy to digest. Using headers at the beginning of sections, bullet points to separate ideas, and bold to emphasize words are just a few ways you can use formatting to make your writing scannable and reader friendly. Spelling and Grammar – Poor spelling and grammar will hurt your credibility, so double check your work. Grammarly is a free and useful spelling and grammar tool that checks for errors and recommends corrections as you type. You can install into Google Chrome as an extension. Pick a Catchy Title – Catchy titles include buzzwords like "The Top 5…" or "…in 2021" and get people to click on your article. Set Up Google Business – When a consumer begins their search online for an agent or brokerage to work with, their Google search might say, "Real estate agents in San Diego." A map with brokerages will appear that makes it easier to find local business. Setting up your business with Google will add your business to this map – which displays at the top of a local search. Mobile Adaptability – According to a Hitwise's Mobile Search Topics & Themes [US] Report, 60% of all online searches and 48% of real estate/properties industry searches were via mobile device. If your website isn't mobile compatible, Google will penalize your website and rank it lower on its SERL. If your website is mobile adaptive, you will rank higher and provide a good user experience for your website visitors. Now that we've gone over several ways to drive organic traffic to your website to generate free business from Google, let's go over how to convert that traffic. In order to convert organic traffic into leads, you must include lead capture forms and contact forms through out your website. 2. Converting Organic Traffic into Leads A home buyer looking for valuable, relevant content will find a buyer's resource page helpful. By setting up a lead capture form on valuable information like this, you can entice a website visitor to exchange their contact information for your buyer information – converting them into a lead. Additionally, a blog article, city reports, seller's resource page, listings page, and other tools like a home or comparative market analysis should be leveraged to capture and convert website traffic into a lead. In order to increase traffic and conversion rates, you must learn how to analyze data and make decisions based on your understanding of the data. Optimization is usually implemented through A/B testing. To learn more about analyzing website traffic to optimize your website's SEO, check out Google Analytics. When it comes to making important business decisions, you can either spend more time and less money or spend more money and less time. Attracting organic leads to generate free real estate business from Google is considered the former. Although SEO strategies take time to mature, they will generate passive leads that will consistently fill your funnel. To view the original article, visit the TorchX blog.

Build New Business with Google My Business
Google My Business is one of the fastest and easiest ways that real estate agents can increase their presence online. That's because unless you are a major advertiser with Google -- or have invested in an ongoing, professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program -- most real estate searches typically will not include a local agent website on the first page of the results. Unless, of course, you have a completed and frequently updated Google My Business profile. About five years ago, Google introduced this free way to increase local businesses' presence in search. When someone searches for your name and occupation on Google – such as Jane Smith, real estate agent – Google returns results to include your GMB profile. Best of all, your GMB profile appears at the top right of the search results. It features your contact information, your business hours, photos you have uploaded, a map of your business location, and more. If you are an agent who tried to use GMB several years ago, you may have been challenged by Google, at the time, not allowing multiple businesses to share one physical address. That prevented many real estate agents from completing a GMB profile when trying to list their home office as their primary address. Google has fixed this quirk for real estate agents. Now agents assigned to one office may use that same address for their GMB profile. Make sure you do use the same physical address for all of your online use. Today, Google My Business is also connected to Google Maps, meaning a search result in Google Maps may also display your Google My Business profile. First, you need to create a Google My Business profile. Next, you need to fill out all of the fields in your profile. The more complete it is, the better your chances Google will include your profile in search results. Finally, you need to add images to your profile initially and later add them regularly. These can be photos of your most recent listing, your business location, and even infographics. Google loves to feature GMB profiles that frequently are updated with posts. These updates can include information about your events (e.g., an open house or Zoom meeting available to the community to answer real estate questions) or local community events. You also can post any special offers or a "what's new" update on your business. Google also has made several improvements to GMB to make it even more robust. You can now add to your profile new Health & Safety Attributes. These are specifics related to your business health standards, such as "Appointments required, Masks required, Staff wears masks, Staff gets temperatures checked," and more. New attributes for Online Services allow you to promote your "Online Appointments" within your GMB profile. Now more than ever, it is essential for agents to ramp up online visibility. GMB is one of the best free online services that can help you promote your business and website. GMB also displays buttons that link to your website, directions (to your office), and a Call button to connect the person searching directly to you by phone. GMB also prominently features your reviews on Google and offers an "Ask a question" button – another call-to-action feature that can help you connect with potential buyers and sellers. It's easy to create a Google My Business profile. You will need a Google account, but if you have a Gmail email address or a YouTube account, you already have the access you need. Go to google.com/business to get started. Do make sure you add photos, as they are essential to raising your GMB profile. The Search Engine Journal reports, "Businesses with photos on their listings receive 42% more requests for driving directions on Google Maps and 35% more click-throughs to their websites than businesses without photos." Keep in mind that Google search is the king of internet traffic. As the world's largest search engine, over 3.5 billion searches occur on Google every day. If you want to tap into this massive traffic, you need to leverage your Google My Business Profile. If you have any challenges with your Google My Business profile, reach out to Tech Helpline and an analyst can assist you. To view the original article, visit the Tech Helpline blog.

Tips for Setting Up Google My Business for Real Estate
As a real estate agent, one of your most important challenges is to distinguish yourself as an expert in your area. That starts with knowing your real estate market and community inside and out. Your local knowledge is a foundation on which you build a successful career. To make the most of what you know, you need to stand out to prospects as an authoritative voice from the start – before you even meet them. Digital marketing delivers on this goal by ensuring you are highly visible for searches relevant to your business. That includes lucrative "near me" searches, as in "real estate agents near me."

How to Get Search Engines to Come Crawling Back
In this article for Delta Media Group's real estate industry publication, Real Estate Marketing and Technology Magazine, Aaron Geh discusses how SEO helps your real estate website attract more traffic and better quality leads. Whether searching for a sales associate or going on a house hunt, most people start their search online. Search engine results are a huge potential source of traffic for your real estate website, which leads to fierce competition for the top positions in search rankings. That's where search engine optimization (SEO) enters the picture. SEO is one of the most powerful tools for growing your real estate firm online, but SEO's complexity means that not everyone understands it. Let's look at these SEO tips to help your business attract more traffic and better quality leads.

Website SEO Tips
Bondilyn Jolly, VP of Marketing at Elevate, interviews CJ Hays of Agent Reputation on his top tips for driving amazing SEO on Google. If you are looking for your website "to be found" on Google searches, tune into this discussion on tactical blogging, original content, IDX indelibility, reviews and more. CJ packs TONS of great tips into 14 minutes, so be ready to hit the "replay" button! Want MORE great website SEO tips? Download Elevate's FREE "Website SEO Guide" at: TryElevate.com/websiteseoguide/

Answering Your Questions About SEO and Your Real Estate Website
I have spent over 20 years helping a wide variety of companies grow their businesses on the Internet. Here are two of the most frequently asked questions I receive and their answers: What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Why does SEO need to be approached differently within the real estate industry? What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? First, let me define what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is from my perspective. SEO techniques are used on and off websites to make a site more appealing to search engines. The more search engines like a website, the more they visit to index its pages. The result of SEO work done correctly--search engines push your website higher in search results for specific key phrases associated with your products and/services. Traffic generated from SEO is called "organic traffic." SEO in the Early Days Over the years, SEO has evolved, but I'd argue the core fundamentals have not changed that much. Early on in the infancy stage of SEO, it was the Wild West (late 1990s). Many people resorted to keyword stuffing or paying link farms to create thousands of links back to a site. While this process resulted in short term gains for these companies, any advancement made was quickly replaced with penalties once search engines caught on to their spammy techniques. Even during these Wild West days, savvy developers and online marketers understood it was all about designing sites for the end user. Eventually, search engines started publishing best practices, many of which still apply today. SEO Best Practices You need to build a site that is easy to use and navigate. The website needs to be technically sound. It needs to perform well speed-wise. The website needs designing with the end-user in mind, not the search engines. It needs to have unique and engaging content. You need to research high authority 'complementary' sites and obtain links back to your site. It needs to be trustworthy Add on-page optimization and internal linking throughout your website to help search engines better understand what the site is about and to navigate it easier. This last point is evolving a bit as the search engines are becoming smarter and don't need as much assistance. There are different approaches to SEO if you are a B2B or B2C company, but at the end of the day, the goals for any SEO campaign should be to increase traffic and leads/sales. Why Is SEO for the Real Estate Industry Approached Differently? Within most other industries, whether you are B2B or B2C, you are dealing with information that does not change often. For example, if you are a carpet cleaning company, your services will not change much over time. Or if you have an online store, products are added or discontinued over time, but generally speaking, your offerings stay pretty consistent. The consistency in these two examples allows the marketer to focus more intently on specific products and/or services, building out valuable content and links over time around the core services or products. The most significant difference with a real estate website is the lack of consistency with the products: homes, buildings, land, etc. Each property has a unique SKU number, so to speak, so it makes things even more challenging; the properties are only online until they sell. In major markets, we are talking thousands of property listings turning over quickly. Instead of trying to optimize each listing individually, many marketers in the real estate industry will focus on areas--states, counties, cities, neighborhoods, school districts, subdivisions, etc. For example, if you are a real estate firm in Sarasota, Fla., you may create a landing page with listings for Sarasota. And from that page, you'll drill down and create additional pages for neighborhoods within Sarasota. Consequently, you would use SEO tactics on all of those pages. This process is a fairly common practice within the real estate industry. The downside to this approach is that you will be missing out on visitors searching for a specific home for sale. Surprisingly, we have found that single address property searches equate to a significant amount of monthly traffic. Some of our clients see nearly 50 percent of their traffic originating from single address property search--i.e., 123 Main Street, Sarasota. Moreover, when it comes to recruiting and retaining, a firm with real estate listings displayed on the first page of Google has a distinct advantage over local competitors who cannot. To stay ahead of the curve, you should review your current website from two different aspects. 1. Technical Aspect of SEO The technical aspects of SEO (the how and why behind search engines crawling and indexing a site) are even more important with real estate sites than other industries because of the sheer amount of data processed daily. Clear paths for search engines need to be created to crawl from page-to-page, gathering pertinent information throughout your site. I have found that many real estate websites struggle in this area. To determine if your site has technical issues, look at how many pages you have indexed in Google (example: type site: www.hpw.com into Google search). Based on the number of listings and other content throughout your site, if the number of indexed pages seems low, there may be underlying issues. 2. Content Aspect of SEO Within the real estate industry, content is essential given the industry's competitive nature and some of the previously mentioned challenges. Blogging is a popular way to grow your site's visibility in search engines. As a rule of thumb, blogs should support the site's overall SEO strategy. However, in many cases, blogs are the only area where SEO is leveraged. For example, if your website is not ranking for the markets you serve, a blog may be your only avenue to publish optimized content for better visibility. Unless you are willing to invest significantly in time and money to make an impact, this option may not be ideal for you. Some companies do it and are successful, but having a better understanding of the website's shortfalls and correcting them will save you time and money in the long run. Taking a Look at the Competition I also wanted to touch on the industry's competitive nature and attempt to set proper expectations if you are a local firm engaging in SEO. The real estate industry is competitive, REALLY competitive. You have portals led by Zillow, corporate franchises, and then all of the local firms all competing for the number one position within the search results. The more competitive the market is in general (e.g., Dallas or San Francisco), the bigger the hill is to climb because there are even more online competitors. Realistically speaking, most local firms are not going to outrank the portals or even corporate franchises for phrases like "Dallas real estate," for example. These sites have an enormous amount of content because they have a national presence and all of the listings and associated content to go along with it. That is a big deal and one that is tough to beat. It's not impossible to outrank bigger players because many of our clients do. The clients that do tend to be very large and have spent years investing in SEO and content strategies. A realistic approach is to focus on less competitive phrases and ensure that your listing shows up on the first page of results. Less competitive phrases revolve around neighborhoods, subdivisions, and school districts. If you are successful and climb to the top for these phrases, it generally produces better quality traffic and leads. Also, visitors using these types of search phrases have narrowed their focus and are a bit more qualified. With SEO, Patience Is a Virtue... Really! A word to the wise: SEO is a long-term play, meaning don't expect immediate results. My rule of thumb is that if you don't at least stick it out for a year, look to invest your marketing dollars elsewhere. We are fortunate that we can move the needle fairly quickly for most of our clients. However, we run into some cases where it takes a bit longer, and that requires patience. Many factors determine SEO success. Every market and every company is different even though we are all in the real estate industry. So be patient and look at it as a long term investment. If It Sounds Too Good to Be True, It Probably Is Be cautious of companies making wild guarantees like: "We will get your site to the first position in Google for 'real estate.'" This sounds great to someone that is not too familiar with SEO, but realistically, most have no shot. When communicating with a potential partner, you need to feel like you can trust them, know what they are doing, and have your best interest at heart. If it doesn't seem logical or feel realistic, you should probably be concerned. Finally, just because a company claims "to do" SEO, be highly skeptical, especially in the real estate space. It's vital to understand precisely how these companies "do" SEO, and what success looks like based on data they have collected over time. Remember, SEO is about increasing traffic and leads. If they cannot provide you data on how they have helped other firms–run! It's also essential to understand the retention rate for the clients they currently serve. If they cannot retain clients, they are not providing value. So do your homework. Aaron Geh is a featured content contributor for Delta Media Group's industry magazine, Real Estate Marketing & Technology. Sign up today to receive your free subscription to Real Estate Marketing & Technology. To view the original article, visit the Delta Media Group blog.

How to Improve Your Reputation on Google
Imagine you're on the lookout for a new pair of shoes. You search high and low and monitor sales and discounts, but nothing seems to catch your eye. Then, you see an ad for a nice pair of Adidas, and suddenly your search is over. Since Adidas is a household brand, the company doesn't have to do much more than remind you of its existence to convince you to make a purchase. That's about as favorable a reputation a brand can get, and it should be your goal, too.

10 Things Google Loves About Your Website
There's no doubt about it: you don't just want Google to like your real estate website, you want Google to LOVE it. Why? When Google loves your website, you get a higher ranking in search results for real estate businesses and topics in your area. Most prospects don't look past the first few links on the first page of results, so a higher search ranking ultimately means more leads and more business. Fortunately, this love story doesn't have to be complicated.

How to Get More Reviews and Boost Your Google Reputation
No doubt you've used online reviews to make shopping and dining choices before. Consumers similarly beeline to the internet when they start thinking about buying or selling, so agents should always be thinking about how to get more reviews. An impressive 86% of consumers read online reviews before choosing a business, and 91% trust online reviews as much as referrals from friends. A recent J.D. Power study found that first-time buyers and sellers actually valued reputation — read: online reviews — more than the referrals they got.

The Online Real Estate SEO Maze Simplified
SEO as practiced by most real estate professionals for their website hasn't really evolved much. There is still a lot of emphasis on keywords and key phrases, how much repetition, and where to place them. Then there's the inbound linking and internal linking stuff you have to weave into your content. Let's face it--there's just a whole lot of stuff to try to weave into a page about how to price a home for sale, and getting it all in there usually results in something your website visitors don't want to read. Is there a better way to deal with real estate SEO? Put a simple-to-follow, step-by-step plan into place that won't drive you crazy and should improve your results.

Resources for Your Real Estate SEO Toolbox
Real estate remains, at heart, a local business. Even though it's crucial to be seen as a neighborhood expert, the majority of your customers still find you on the web, not in the town newspaper. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)—is the art of creating a website packed with useful content that shows up high in search results. To lay a strong foundation in SEO, you'll need to choose and learn the right tools. Here are a few of our favorites:

Google Flags Websites that Are Not HTTPS as Not Secure
It's for your clients. It's for your security. It's for Google. Our team heard "rumblings" as early as two years ago from Google strongly "advocating" website owners move to HTTPS encryption to make the Internet secure and protect the privacy of your users. If you have not yet acquired an SSL certificate, you may have already noticed Google has flagged your website as "Not Secure" in Chrome.

Google My Business Benefits for Real Estate Agents
SEO is a powerful marketing tool for real estate businesses, but it takes time and expertise to implement a solid SEO strategy. Whether you've already got a plan in place, or you're just getting started with your marketing, there is one quick, easy way to increase the visibility of your brand on Google without spending a dime. Google My Business is a free set of tools that makes your business easier to find on Google and helps promote your brand. Let's take a closer look at the benefits of Google My Business, and how to make them work for your real estate business.

Why Google Reviews Are Crucial for Real Estate Agents
Great Google reviews aren't just a nice-to-have — they're essential to converting prospects into clients. With 92 percent of buyers starting their home search online, prospects are going to be looking for Google reviews that verify you're a quality real estate agent. To build that trust, you want your smiling face to appear at the top of their Google search results. And, you want to greet them with a great Google business profile, high Google rating and plenty of excellent reviews from past clients. Here are four reasons why Google reviews are crucial for real estate agents:

How to Use 'Google My Business' for Real Estate
Google is the king of search engines. It processes over 9 billion searches every day—roughly 104,000 searches per second. With most buyers and sellers using the Internet at some point during their transaction, Google is a good place to start. Make sure your business is easy to find by verifying it in Google My Business. What is Google My Business? Google My Business is Google's way of helping you manage your business's information in search results and Google Maps. Among other things, this free tool allows you to verify and edit your business information in Google's search results. Verified businesses show up in a special box in search results. It looks like this:

How to Build Your Real Estate Company's Website Authority in 90 Days
There's no question that your real estate company has what it takes to flourish. Selling buyers the right home is certainly important, but it's pivotal to have a website that gains traction as well. Besides word of mouth, search engines are where people get their real estate leads and trusted sources from. Your website needs maximum visibility so you can get the clients you deserve. One of the best ways to gain a website's credibility is by building your website's authority score in search engines. It may seem like a daunting task initially, but within 90 days you can boost your authority score, and get more traffic towards your site. Here is how it's done:

Real Estate SEO: How to Boost Your Organic Ranking on Google
The main goal of investing in a real estate website is to get more leads and close more deals. Sure, it can help improve your online image. It can give you a chance to show off local knowledge and industry achievements. It can also be a platform to extend your inventory, and to include that of other trusted REALTORS© in the region. But its main goal, the most important one, is helping your business grow. That is why you need to optimize your website for search engines.

Real Estate Branding – NO, Not for Agents!
Check out the next ten or so products you use regularly that are famous brands. How many are someone's name? No, I don't mean Wendy's or Burger King, as they're not real people. Sure, there are a few clothing designers marketing under their names, but they also create their products. You're a real estate agent, and you do not create any real estate, so your real estate branding shouldn't be about your name.

An Easy Intro to SEO for Your Real Estate Website
Buzzwords abound in the world of web design and digital marketing. And, chances are, if you’ve talked to even one person who has anything to do with “digital,” you’ve heard the acronym “SEO.” SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s a pretty integral part of any digital marketing strategy, particularly for real estate agents. Because it’s one thing to build a website and it’s quite another to make sure the right people find it at the right time.

How Many Leads Should I Be Getting from My Digital Marketing?
Are you spending too much on your SEO and PPC ad campaigns? To help you determine if you're getting enough leads to justify your budget, we're offering industry benchmarks that you can compare against your current cost-per-lead and lead closing rates. Measuring Your Cost-per-Lead The numbers below are courtesy of Delta Media Group, a website and marketing solutions provider. The data comes from a sampling of their current marketing clients. Here, a 'lead' is considered an online user who engages with a website in a meaningful way (e.g., signing up for listing email alerts, requesting a showing). To compare your cost-per-lead to the number below, divide what you spend on each marketing method by the number of leads you receive from that method on a monthly basis. Put mathematically, that's: So how does digital marketing spend compare? Take a look at the numbers below to find out: Search Engine Optimization: $8-15 per lead Pay-per-Click advertising: $8-35 per lead PPC advertising in luxury markets: up to $90 per lead If your results are higher than the numbers above, you may want to tweak your current campaigns. Are your PPC ads stale? Do you need to target different keywords? Are your SEO practices up-to-date with the latest search engine algorithms?

Getting on Google: Online Search Strategies for Real Estate Agents and Brokers
Do you have an online search strategy? A recent poll of our readers found over 75% of real estate professionals don't have a strategy for getting found by their customers online, through the most popular search engines... and for those who said they did, most were using methods the search engines stopped using to rank search results over a decade ago. If you fall in either camp, keep reading so you can learn some simple, effective strategies to get on Google—and stay there. Why is a online search strategy important? Back in 1982, if a past customer wanted to find your contact information, chances are they used the Yellow or White Pages to get your information (unless you were faithfully sending out past client communications via mail or they had your business card on file). Today, when a customer wants to find you, they go online and search for you. In fact, the first thing most referred customers do is go online to research you before contacting you. A recent study by Google found the majority of real estate consumers research their agents extensively before working with them. And you already know what they think when they can't easily find us, or if what they find makes us look unprofessional or lacking in competence. Those online search results our customers and referrals see are the first impressions they have of us. That first impression either works to our advantage or it works against us. And this is why we want to make it easy for people searching to find us, and for that first impression to convey trust and confidence.

Ready, Set, Keyword: Writing Effective Content for SEO (6/29)
Wednesday, June 29, 2016 at 10:00 AM PDT Last week we learned that leveraging your Communities Served pages increases leads from your preferred areas by improving the visibility of your site on search engines. Join us for this week's Power Hour to hear how one agent tripled her team's business by customizing the content on her Market Leader website. Learn how to identify which topics buyers and sellers are researching, select highly effective keywords to drive qualified leads in your market and get first page rankings on Google and other search engines. Customize your website to maximize lead generation Choosing effective keywords to improve rankings SEO: 1st Page Ranking Factors and Best Practices Register now!

46 Tips to Attract More Leads Using Real Estate SEO Best Practices
A website without visitors is like a rock concert with no audience: sad and pointless. There are a number of ways to get traffic to your website, and SEO is one of the most important. Even basic SEO, if done correctly, can sometimes have a big impact on your bottom line. And since it's not that difficult to follow a few simple rules and guidelines, and to avoid some no-no's, SEO should be on every agent's and property website owner's to-do list. How Do You Do SEO on an Agent Website? This guide will take you through each step required to properly optimize your website and benefit from at least a fraction of the huge amount of traffic that search engines can send your way. There are four main steps in SEO: Identify optimum keywords Enhance your pages so they can attract search engine traffic (also called on-page optimization) Website promotion (also called off-page optimization or link building) Measuring and tracking your results 1. Find the Best Keywords for You Think of the audience you are targeting: people in your area that are interested in buying or selling homes, which means that your keywords should be specific to real estate in your area and relevant to your listings. Here are some examples, assuming that you are a real estate agent in Santa Ynez Valley: Santa Ynez Valley real estate Santa Ynez Valley homes for sale Santa Ynez real estate agent Santa Ynez single-family homes Santa Ynez homes for rent Santa Ynez land for sale homes for sale in Santa Ynez ca houses for sale in Santa Ynez Of course, if you have other types of listings, you should target them accordingly with keywords like: "your location beach homes," "your location condos," "your location coops," "your location luxury homes," "your location multi-family homes," "your location vacant land," etc.

So They Guaranteed First Page Results, Eh?
Over the past couple of years, the term SEO has become quite popular. SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, is essential to reach your target audience on search networks. Why consider SEO, you ask? Because it's a platform which guarantees control and results. Sounds great! Right? Hold on to that thought. SEO is rampant right now; as a result, we see many self-proclaimed "SEO gurus." And it's common to read the following phrases on their website: We Guarantee #1 ranking on Google We're a Google PARTNER We offer FREE SEO trials for a week Lowest price in the market for SEO We are experts in GOOGLE ALGORITHMS Sound familiar?

Ultra-Local Real Estate Leads, Branding, Presence and SEO
Do you realize that the game for ultra-local real estate leads leans heavily in favor of YOU over Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and the rest? Did you know that you can beat them out in the competition for top SEO placement for some of the highest-return keywords? We work with brokers, agents and companies around the US to drive stronger real estate leads and online marketing. The discussion we have daily with clients is all about owning the ultra-local marketing strategy over the broad blanket strategy. Bottom line is, if you are serious about being a leader in your market, you have to lead out in the ultra-local marketing game. Since real estate leads and the marketing competition is all focused ultra-local, you know that if you can refine your marketing strategy around identifying, being recognized as the source for and being the source for sharing local information, you'll find increased lead quantity and quality. If you are looking to own your market locally, and you are committed to doing it online, here are some keys you can't miss: 1. Social is a Key Direct and Indirect Real Estate Lead Driver Social media is this thing that we have all been talking about for years, but a big question remains for many real estate professionals on how to really leverage social in a way that drives ROI. When social media is leveraged with a strong ultra-local lean, it becomes a powerful source of interaction and connection for locals that are in your sphere of influence. For example, if you have 200 Facebook friends and you can share a bit of information or experience about the local market, you are likely to get some response, likes, or engagement (think of each like as exposure to 100-200 more people, since each person's like will be automatically be shared with all of their Facebook friends).

How to Generate More Real Estate Leads
Consumers now have many options for exploring real estate listings online. To compete in this market and acquire new leads, it's critical to have an effective lead acquisition and nurturing strategy. In this article, we'll review methods for acquiring new real estate leads to help you grow your business. Some of these methods are simple while others will require more planning and follow-through, but they can all help you acquire more leads. We'll talk about best practices for nurturing your leads in a future article. Website Optimization Does your website need an overhaul? An optimized website will engage buyers and sellers and convert more of your visitors to leads. Website optimizations will generally fall into two categories: aesthetics and content. Website Aesthetics Consumers form an opinion about your website in a fraction of a second. The following key points can make a dramatic improvement in how well your site engages consumers: Professional, uncluttered look and feel Quick loading time Friendly user experience with simple navigation Ask your family, friends and colleagues for their honest assessment and make adjustments if needed. Your business depends on it!

The Best Worst Sales Call I Ever Received
Here's the scene: I'm driving home in my car after showing houses, and my phone rings. It's an out-of-state number, not atypical since I regularly get calls from home owners wanting to move to the Phoenix area. So I answer my phone and it's a sales call. Ugh. I'm almost never rude to sales representatives calling because I've done my fair share of cold calls, mostly when I worked in commercial real estate. I listened to his sales pitch. He's trying to sell me the number one spot on Bing.com for "new homes in Chandler AZ." I ask several questions and being polite I ask if I can call him back. He says, "No, I can't take incoming calls," and he's really pushing the "I can get you the top spot on Bing for $99." I end up hanging up after a while. Thank goodness this sales representative called me because it gave me keywords for my next blog post. I've been writing more articles about Chandler, Ariz. My office is in Chandler and I'm active with the Chandler Chamber of Commerce (which is the third largest Chamber in Arizona). I often struggle to find new article ideas, so this was a great help. Here's what I did: 1. I Googled "new homes in chandler AZ" to see who was on page one of Google's results. They were all big companies, mostly home builders. So my initial thought was, I can't beat out these big websites with a blog post. 2. "No Video?!?" I noticed there were no YouTube posts that popped up. Google loves to add YouTube videos to the first page of its results. Google owns YouTube, and if there are applicable videos (they have to include the keywords), they will be front-and-center in Google's search results.

Make Google Happy by Tackling Local SEO
Search engine optimization is complicated and tedious. The last thing you want to hear is that you need to do more of it. But the fact is, local search is vital to your success as a real estate agent. According to the National Association of REALTORS®'s recent Digital House Hunt study, "69 percent of home shoppers who take action on a real estate brand website begin their research with a local term, i.e. 'Houston homes for sale,' on a search engine." In other words, around seven out of 10 buyer leads that come from your website started with local search. Let's assume all real estate websites in your target area generated 1,000 leads last month. Of these 1,000 leads, 690 came from local searches. This breakdown from Search Engine Watch illustrates how a company's search ranking affects traffic: If your company ends up in the very first spot in someone's search results, you end up with 33 percent of the web traffic. The company beneath you gets around 18 percent of the traffic. The people in position no. 3 get 11 percent, and those who rank fourth tend to get 8 percent. Based on our hypothetical scenario of 1,000 leads, if you don't rank in the top four positions, you potentially miss out on 483 local-search leads — nearly half of all potential website leads in your area. Do I have your attention now?