DIY SEO for Every Realtor® – Part 3
The last two Do-It-Yourself SEO articles covered great initial website & other profile setup stages, and checklists for each new listing you are promoting. Let’s dig deeper into routine checkups & more to keep building your ranking on Google™!
#1 – Keep Outbound Links Up to Date On Your Website
(Internal Factor)
Outbound links matter. If you have an active Vancouver Community/Resources page like Ken Stef does, you have plenty of outbound links that allow your clients to find useful vendors such as notaries, mortgage brokers, contractors & more. It’s a good idea to review these every once in a while.
Sometimes, those links can no longer work due to many reasons:
- The specific page you linked to (not the homepage) may have moved to another URL.
- The business has rebranded, and did not forward their old URL.
- The business is no longer active (closed, sold, retired).
- The domain was registered for ransom after the owner let it expire, and the owner opted to move onto another domain instead of buying it back.
Whatever the reasons are, broken links or links that forward to malicious/unrelated content can harm your own website’s ranking.
To Avoid Being Penalized by Google for Broken/Irrelevant Links
Here’s how you can keep your links relevant:
- Update your resources page of your website
- Review outbound links from your website
- Ensure all of your listing videos are on your own YouTube channel, so that embedded videos stay forever!
Why 3rd Party Vendor Links Matter for Real Estate
It may be tempting to just disable the page and do less work. But if Google traffic is something you want to grow, think again. Google’s Rankbrain is a machine-learning algorithm that bridges concepts for contextual results. It’s a good bet that words like “plumber”, “notary”, “furniture store” are all considered relevant to “real estate”, “houses”, “townhomes” and so on. Most of the vendors will be in your city, likely boosting your website’s relevance in your niche area from Google’s perspective.
#2 – Use Your Blog To Publish Your New Listings, Presale/Buildings, Market Statistics
(Internal Factor)
Blogging regularly is one of the best tools to dramatically increase Google ranking & traffic. Google has long placed emphasis on quality content, and their latest algorithm update has heavy focus on “helpful content”.
Relevance is Key For Both Humans and Google!
Publishing articles about listings & market stats not only increases relevant content volume on your website, but it also shows your visitors that you are enthusiastic about your industry – real estate! Nobody wants a disengaged Realtor®.
Frequency & Consistency In Publishing Matters!
Before you commit to a blog, be prepared to write regularly. Websites that had a stale blog had just as much traffic drop with the May 2022 Google algorithm update. If you stop writing regularly, it will be futile at the end. Moreover, visitors may think that you are out of business if the latest article is months (or worse, years) old. Our dedicated SEO program may be of service if you find yourself running out of time.
Easy Ideas To Inspire Blog Content for Realtors®
A – Showcase Sales Stats & Market Updates in your niche area
Writing about sales stats & market updates of your niche areas, with links to MLS® search results (ideally within your website using your own MLS® search tool like this Vancouver Townhomes along the Canada Line page) is a great blog post idea.
- Focus on a specific city’s sales stats, like this North Vancouver Listings (all types) Sales Report for August 2022 does.
- Cover certain property types and varying numbers across zones, like this Condo/Townhome August sales report that compares different parts of Vancouver.
B – New listings, open houses, or recently sold announcements
You can introduce a listing, with a photo & a link to the original listing page, like this Main Street (Vancouver) condo showcase article, or this Shaughnessy (Vancouver) house for sale post. You can also link to pages such as Condos For Sale in Main, East Vancouver pages if you have the keyword-rich MLS® results system that Brixwork’s real estate website system offers.
C – Feature New Presales or Niche Buildings/Stratas Of Focus
If you have the buildings/presales farming module added to your website, you can showcase them through your blog just as well (like the listings mentioned above). This blog post about the Pinnacle on the Park in Olympic Village, as well as the Block 100 Condos & Townhomes feature shows examples of such (both pages rank on the first page on Google™ for the development names).
#3 – Leverage Your Google Business Profile to Cultivate a Five-Star Reputation
(External Factor)
Client Reviews Make A Difference
Encourage your clients to write reviews on your Google Business page (Facebook page, Yelp doesn’t hurt either). While it’s OK to ask for reviews, there are few things to be mindful of in order to avoid getting flagged by Google™ (which can be costly) according to this Google Reviews guideline by ReviewTrackers™.
Want to show all testimonials in one spot?
Instead of showing your prospective clients reviews on Facebook, Google, Yelp, and direct ones separately, you can showcase them all in one custom built webpage.
Here are some examples of bespoke testimonial pages we designed:
Did you know you can post on your Google Business Page?
This feature is grossly overlooked by many businesses, presumably due to the low volume of traffic by consumers compared to popular social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook.
You can post a variety of content to your Google Business Page:
- Photos – Post your listings, scenic local shots, stunning views, market stats graphics!
- Links – Publish your listing pages, blog posts, building pages etc. from your website!
- Events – Give your customers heads up of open houses or new presale launch dates!
The More You Put In, The More You Get Out
Building a checklist around critical SEO tasks on a listing by listing, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis can dramatically improve your long term lead generation on Google™. Don’t have the time/willingness to learn & do all of this? Our dedicated SEO services can take care of a big portion of this.
