Thinking Like the Consumer
Most realtors automatically think of the keyword “real estate.” However, it’s a broad keyword that might not work well for your SEO because of two reasons. Many other companies are angling to be at the top of this search result. Plus, most consumers are going to perform searches for real estate in a specific location. Thus, your most profitable keywords might be those that focus on a city or even a specific neighborhood. Parents who search based on school districts or zones might use those terms in addition to “real estate.”
As you’re trying to think like the consumer, you have to remember that “real estate” is an industry term. Would buyers more likely search for a “one family home in [location]” than using the industry term? Consider the property types that might be hot search commodities.
Neighborhoods and types of property segue into the final search keyword idea: types of properties. This is especially true in affluent locations where you might offer ocean-front houses or downtown condos. Someone who has a specific vision for his dream home will often use specific keywords when searching for property in any given location.
Think Like the Competition
One of the easier ways to determine which keywords you should use–and which you should stay away from–is to figure out what your competition is doing. The keywords that competing real estate agents use appear in their titles, meta descriptions and even anchor text. Note the keywords that your competition considers valuable as well as the areas where their strategy isn’t as strong. Has your competition forgotten about a real estate niche? If so, your website can offer the content that your competitors have overlooked.
Because you know that other real estate agencies are thinking similar to yourself, search for the keywords that you’ve already brainstormed and see who’s showing up first in the results. If all your competitors are trying to rank highly for the same keyword, it can be difficult to burst their bubble.
Think About Success
When you’re trying to improve the rank of your website, you should know why. Are you hoping to get newsletter subscribers? Sell a product? Inform users of the Internet? All of these, and more-are reasons why people compete for those top ranks, but you have to know how to measure success before you can measure it. Branding, for example, focuses on new impressions over sales or other conversions.
Thinking about the success of your real estate blog in the SERPs also requires you to consider success in terms of return on investment, especially if you plan to pay for keyword-based advertising. The higher ROI might result from a less popular keyword that nets you more sales, because it is less popular. If you only set your sights on the number one keyword, you could be missing an opportunity that will prove a better investment over time. Experts recommend that you avoid keywords with over 500,000 results in search engines, because the top spots are more difficult to obtain.