In the digital age, maintaining a strong online presence and utilizing a smart SEO strategy can make all the difference in lead generation. With thousands of real estate agents competing for traffic within the same geographic area, it can be hard to stand out and attract leads to your website. Whether you're a seasoned real estate agent or a rising star, these tips can help you boost your website traffic. We’re covering:

• Some ways to optimize your website
• Best practices for your Google Business Profile
• Resources to find and utilize keywords
• And the world of social media SEO

Optimize your real estate website

SEO isn’t just about keywords (but we will get to those later). Search engines actually rank your website based on how user-friendly it is! Since many real estate agents use pre-built websites either through their brokerage or other website builders, you shouldn’t worry too much about this. However, websites like SEObility allow you to run a free audit if you’re curious. 

Website auditors like these will also show you backlinks. Backlinks are a great way to boost your inbound traffic, if they come from other reputable websites. A great way to foster backlink creation is to create valuable content that is easily shareable. Infographics, informative videos, and blog posts, for example. 

Create a Google Business Profile

Creating a Google Business Profile is a free and hard-hitting way to ensure you’re appearing in Google search results. For example, if someone searches “real estate agent near me” and you’ve created a Profile, you will appear somewhere in this section. 

How high you’ll appear in this section is a different story. To ensure that your page isn’t lost at the bottom of these results, practice these strategies:

• Keep your website, address, phone number, and business hours up to date
• Encourage reviews! The more (positive) reviews you receive, the more likely it is that Google will push you to the top. Make sure to respond to these reviews in a timely manner to build relationships with past clients, and foster trust with leads
• Adding photos to your profile is a great way to stay active while boosting credibility and giving potential clients a look into the types of buyers/sellers you represent
• Optimize your Profile’s description. For a comprehensive list of best practices when it comes to this section, check out this article from BrightLocal!

Keyword research

While most of your keywords will be specific to your location, e.g. “homes for sale in Ravenna”, this list is a good place to get a sense of what buyers and sellers are searching for! If you use Google Analytics for your website, check the Queries section to see what your audience is searching for and what keywords are leading them to your page.

Since you’re competing with companies like Redfin and Zillow for high-ranking keywords, websites like LowFruits are useful for finding less competitive, long-tail alternatives. In addition to optimizing content like blog posts, make sure to include keywords in your meta description, title tags, and calls to action!

SEO for social media

Since Gen Z has recently entered the buying market, it’s important to note that 40% of young people use TikTok and Instagram search over traditional search engines like Google or Bing. While blogging and other written content is important for ranking highly on search engines, visual/video content is the equivalent for social media. Each social media platform has its own way of pushing content, but let’s jump into some good tactics that apply for all of them:

Instagram

Less people are paying attention to hashtags due to the nature of the Instagram search function. While hashtags do push your content to a wider audience, the days of solely relying on hashtags as a social media strategy are gone. To appear in more Instagram searches, make sure your name and bio reflect your business and the keywords that people will be searching. 

Since your audience is mostly local, “Your Name | Your Location Real Estate Agent” is a great, searchable name! The same goes for your bio — concise and informative is the way to go. Below are some examples of real estate agents from Raleigh, North Carolina, that rank highly when searched: all of these accounts followed the “Location | Real Estate” formula. 

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If you’re looking to showcase more of your personality at first glance, utilize Instagram Highlights! Highlights won’t necessarily boost your searchability, but they’re a great way to make your page your own. Check out our favorite real estate agents’ Instagram accounts to see some examples of how to rank highly while still curating an aesthetically pleasing profile! 

And finally, Instagram favors posts with alt text. In addition to making your profile more accessible, alt text is a great way to fit more keywords into your posts, boosting your chances of reaching a wider audience. 

TikTok

TikTok is unique because there are 5 different ways to include keywords in your videos:

1. Spoken keywords
2. Caption
3. Added text within the video
4. Hashtags
5. Automated subtitles

Overall, the workings of TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) are a bit of a mystery. Fanbytes, a social media marketing agency targeting the younger demographic, created a short guide on boosting your TikTok engagement. Essentially, capturing your viewers within the first 3 seconds of your video often determines whether you will be shown on the FYP. Additionally, it is believed that TikTok shows your video to small “batches” of users, and the engagement rate from that batch determines whether or not your video will reach a wider audience. This “batch theory” is just that, a theory, but if you’d like to go down the rabbit hole that is the For You Page, Vice has written a comprehensive article about it! 

Boost your offline presence

Now that you’re ready to revamp your online presence, it’s time to think about your offline lead generation strategies. If you’re looking to gain neighborhood expertise, meet more people in your community, and earn extra income as a real estate agent, become a Showdigs Agent! No matter where you are in your career, joining the Showdigs Agent Network can help propel you to new heights. Learn more and apply today!