The Importance of SEO and PPC for Your Real Estate Business
The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a massive shift in how we do live our lives and how we do business. The importance of having a strong digital presence is more obvious than ever, and businesses of all sizes have come to understand that ignoring things like SEO, PPC, and social media is no longer an option.
The real estate sector, which has been heavily hit by the global coronavirus pandemic, has had to reevaluate its position and focus its efforts on digital marketing to reach potential leads and keep in touch with existing clients. Before 2020, a lot of real estate professionals were skeptical about the potential of digital real estate marketing, but all that has changed.
In what follows, we’ll give you a quick rundown of the importance of SEO and PPC for short- and long-term growth in the real estate industry. If you’re not already using these digital marketing tools to run and streamline your real estate business, you should certainly look into it, and reach out to our team at Roos Advisors if you need guidance.
First thing’s first: What is SEO?
Everyone is always talking about SEO and how important it is in driving any business in a crowded industry. But what does the acronym stand for and what does it actually mean?
The infamous acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It refers to the process of improving the quality and quantity of traffic to a website from search engines. It targets unpaid traffic rather than direct or paid traffic, and is a long-term effort that ensures sustained, organic growth.
Next up: What is PPC?
PPC, which stands for Pay-Per-Click, refers to an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to a website, where the advertiser pays the publisher each time the ad is clicked on either organically or by a robotic web user. This is commonly used by first-tier search engines, such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
In developing a targeted marketing strategy, PPC is used by businesses of all sizes, as it allows advertisers to bid for ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links section. This means that when the advertiser’s inputted keywords are searched by random Internet users, the advertiser’s website link will be one of the first choices to be listed in the search engine results for the Internet user to click on. PPC is a good option for promotional campaigns, activation campaigns, or time-sensitive projects that require results and leads now.
How to Use SEO and PPC Effectively for Real Estate
The number one rule in SEO and PPC in any industry is using the right keywords. Keywords are ideas and topics that define the content being searched/posted. They are the key words and phrases that Internet users enter into search engines when on the hunt for information regarding a specific topic.
Other than knowing the correct SEO keywords to use in real estate, here are some tips from SEO experts in your sector of the real estate industry:
Residential Real Estate
Does your website rank locally? Are you getting organic traffic? Are you generating leads or converting clients? If not, then you need to fix your SEO to get more houses on your client’s market.
Use content to your advantage by structuring keyword and link placement, using visual elements such as staged photos and video residence tours, and deploy technical SEO things like duplicates, redirects, and canonical tags. Use internal linking to your advantage to improve your website’s overall rank in Google, and use your content effectively on social media to promote your listings. If you’re unsure how to do all that, give us a call and let’s see how we can help.
Commercial Real Estate
In the commercial real estate industry, everyone is always on the move. Brokers and commercial investors are usually always on the go, which means they’re likely to access your business via a mobile device. Consequently, this is where you need to make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. Create a responsive design, ensure page and hosting speed, develop easily accessible site search and navigation, and so on. A responsive website automatically sets your site up for success, as commercial real estate investors don’t have time to wait for your website to load – they’ll just move on to one of your competitors.
Real Estate Investors
Is your company on Google My Business or other relevant directories? That’s an important question to answer, as SEO focuses on local citations. That means, if a potential lead located in NYC is looking online for ‘Class A office space,’ for instance, Google will show them local results via the Google My Business snippet. So, include your full name, business mailing address, email address, and direct phone number to a Google My Business profile to ensure any pertinent contact information is easy to locate. Other directories to list your investment business on include: Realtor.com, Yahoo Homes, RedFin, HomeSnap, Neighborhood Scout, Zoocasa, and Local.com.
Related Real Estate Services
Regardless of which sector of the real estate industry your business serves, networking is key. But how do you grow your network? The answer is simple: start socializing, both in-person and online. In-person relationships are and always will be priceless, but in a global pandemic, it is more important than ever to point most of your networking energy towards the digital world.
This we can promise you: social media will not directly affect your SEO rankings. Why not? Well, it is not the one magic answer to solve all your problems. In business, there are always multiple sectors to a major solution. However, social media will connect your business with your targeted audience, increase exposure, build authority, trust and awareness, drive more traffic to your website, and drive conversions. In real estate, it is difficult to gain online visibility without social media accounts, as social media allows companies to display imagery and videography of properties or real estate services for all types of business and potential clients to see.
SEO and PPC for Real Estate with Roos Advisors
There are countless strategies of implementing SEO and PPC into your business’ digital marketing campaign that will allow real estate agents, developers and investors to reach their financial goals — from boosting SEO and client engagement to video marketing and PPC advertising. With the amount of home buying apps and online services continuously increasing with today’s growing real estate market, it would be smart for all real estate developers to utilize these digital tools and media channels to market their properties.
If you need assistance in effectively including SEO and PPC into the digital marketing strategy for your real estate business, reach out to Roos Advisors to schedule a free, 15-minute consultation to see how we can help. We’ve got years of experience working with the real estate industry and implementing emerging concepts for real estate professionals, and we can support you in boosting your business to expand your reach.
