real estate

September 27, 2022

SEO for Real Estate Agents

Learn the Top Strategies when it comes to SEO for Real Estate Agents!

If you’re a Real Estate Agent or Brokerage then this article is for you. Read this blog to learn more about SEO for Real Estate Agents!

Numbers Do not Lie: in 2021, the first, second and third leading real- estate-related websites in the United States recorded 36 million monthly visits. So if you are a real estate agent looking to work with more clients, stop dilly-dallying and seize this golden opportunity! Start investing in building a website and working on your SEO for real estate. 

This article will put SEO into the simplest words for you and show you how to build your website’s SEO for Real Estate keywords so you can reap all the benefits. Combine theory with practice, and you’ll be on your way to a search-engine-optimized website.

SEO for Real Estate

Real Estate SEO

In simple words: real estate websites provide the necessary information for finding a property to buy. People, especially younger ones, are now landing on these websites with computers, tablets and smartphones. SEO for real estate is like fishing with a net. You can catch a lot of leads if you cast the net in the right place.

If you give Google and other search engines what they want, they will reward you with higher rankings. Each search engine has an algorithm that crawls online websites to determine what results appear when a specific keyword is searched for, i.e., the words typed into the search engine.

Technically, SEO for real estate is the practice of driving targeted traffic to your website via a search engine’s organic rankings.

Importance of SEO in Real Estate for Agents & Investors

This is one of the most effective marketing strategies to bring visitors to your real estate website. Thousands of people use this method to generate website traffic. Unlike content marketing such as photography, videos and virtual tours for Real Estate, SEO is an organic approach to getting referrals from Google itself.

When considering SEO for real estate strategies, we believe that paid advertising and cold calling are no longer necessary. Instead of spending your marketing budget or sitting on the phone for hours, invest the same time and budget into improving your website’s search engine ranking.

The technique is inbound marketing; the result is rewarding: your target audience visits your website regularly, asks you to contact them to sell or buy a home, and gives you their contact information!

How Search Engines Work

Search engines are like libraries that store web pages instead of filling shelves with books. For this purpose, they use some algorithms that create ranking systems. Even their developers don’t fully understand how exactly the algorithms work – they just have some clues, and we know some of them.

Ranking systems consist of a series of algorithms that are linked together. Search engines take into account many factors, including the wording of your search query, the relevance and usability of the pages, the expertise of the sources, as well as the location and settings.

Ranking Factors

Google’s algorithms use more than 200 ranking factors. But don’t worry; you don’t have to master all these factors to succeed. With a basic knowledge of SEO, anyone can start building their rankings.

seo guide for real estate
Top 8 Search Engine Ranking Factors with SEO for Real Estate

#1 Quality & Unique Content for Search Engines & Users

Content quality is one of the most crucial ranking factors. You can have a website optimized for SEO, but if your visitor doesn’t like the content, it won’t rank high.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious! But what does high-quality content look like?”

Search engines want content that answers search queries thoroughly. Studies show that longer content ranks better than short content. Make sure your content is thorough and unique.

#2 Backlinks to Your Real Estate Website

A backlink for a resource is when another website links to your site. It can be seen as a vote of confidence from another website. At least, that is how Google describes it. Search engines like Google and Bing measure these votes. They use them to understand which pages deserve to be ranked higher.

Learn more about Backlinks for SEO.

#3 Mobile Optimized Real Estate Website

Your website needs to be mobile-friendly if you want to rank higher on Google or other search engines. Mobile optimization means your website adapts to the screen when someone accesses your website with their smartphone or tablet.

Make sure your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and compatible with all devices. When building a website we suggest hiring a marketing agency or professional that can build you something high-quality, fast, and focused on SEO and content. From there you can add tons of plugins, marketing integrations, videos, real estate listings and more. Common platforms most agencies use that we suggest for Real Estate websites would be WordPress or Squarespace.

#4 Crawlable Web Pages

Google has bots to read, test and rank your website. But if your web pages are hard to read or un-crawlable, Google won’t like them. When focusing on SEO for Real Estate as a marketing or agent, you’ll really want to make sure your website and online presence is setup and optimized according to Google’s guidelines.

So you might be asking, “How can I tell if my website is fully crawlable?” One way is to create a real estate website with pre-built options for proper communication with search engines.

This mean Google will read and acknowledge all of your website, content, and SEO to rank you above competitors. Common pages you might need would be a home page, about page, listings page, contact page, and sales page.

#5 Page Load Speed

It’s simple: the faster your web pages load, the higher they rank. And even tiny fractions of a second count. There are several ways to increase the loading speed of your pages. For example, you can compress image files, clean up clunky content, and reduce redirects to improve your site’s speed.

However, we recommend creating a fast website from the beginning. And for that, you need to use a pre-optimized website builder to make your website load fast and rank well in search engines.

We recommend GTMetrix or Google Page Speed Insights for the best page speed analysis to help your website SEO. This highly benefits SEO for Real Estate.

#6 Real Estate Keywords

You will not rank high enough if you cannot target a specific keyword with the web page you want, such as a landing page. Tell Google what keyword you want to rank for; the clearer and more relevant your keywords are, the better your chances of appearing on the first page.

Relevant keyword-rich content is king when it comes to communicating your value and services to Google as a Real Estate Agent.

#7 Domain Power

As mentioned earlier, your content will become more valuable if you get your website as many backlinks as possible. This will help Google learn more about you and trust you more, and your domain power or domain rating will increase significantly over time.

This is also known as Domain Authority (DA) which is coined term with a ranking out of 100. Momentum Digital has a 50/100 which is phenomenal. Most small businesses rank between 1-20/100 and larger real estate companies like Zillow or Trulia are above a 70/100 typically, which allows them tons of keyword ranking and traffic opportunities. This is achieved mostly through high authority backlinking, press, and anchor text links from articles.

zillow domain authority

#8 Local SEO & Google My Business

As mentioned earlier, your content will become more valuable if you get your website as many backlinks as possible. This will help Google learn more about you and trust you more, and your domain power or domain rating will increase significantly over time.

This is also known as Domain Authority (DA) which is coined term with a ranking out of 100. Momentum Digital has a 50/100 which is phenomenal. Most small businesses rank between 1-20/100 and larger real estate companies like Zillow or Trulia are above a 70/100 typically, which allows them tons of keyword ranking and traffic opportunities. This is achieved mostly through high authority backlinking, press, and anchor text links from articles.

Google My Business Real Estate

Knowing how search engines work and the factors they use to rank your content is critical to creating content for your real estate business. Search engine algorithms are constantly being updated, so there is no guarantee that what is necessary today will be important tomorrow. However, backlinks, keywords and matching search intent have been critical for many years. 

Please get in touch with us if you need more information. At Momentum, we can review your real estate website for SEO best practices so that you can consistently improve your online presence.

By Mac
September 22, 2022

How to Market Commercial Real Estate

How to Market Commercial Real Estate

Learn how to effectively market commercial real estate. If you are an agent, broker, or a marketer, then this article is for you!

Learn to minimize your time to sell commercial real estate with these marketing tactics!

Commercial Real Estate is not a game for the faintest of heart. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. In order to be successful, you need to be firing on all cylinders. That includes every aspect of business i.e. sales, marketing, finance, communication, relationships, etc. In this article, we’ll be focusing on how to market commercial real estate with proven strategies that minimize your time to sell and make you a winner. In this article, we’ll be using Commercial Real Estate as an all-encompassing term. Under that umbrella, you’ll find strip malls, office space, restaurants, resorts, land, warehouses, etc. We’ll be covering the importance of SEO, Social Media, content, and much more. So, are you ready to level up? 

Real below to learn how to market commercial real estate to sell or lease more commercial properties.

Continue growing your business with Momentum Digital. We do the work for you and focus on ranking you at the TOP OF GOOGLE for “Commercial Realtor near me”.

  • Google My Business Boost = $500/Month
  • Full Search Domination = $1000/Month
  • Google Guarantee = $10,000/Year 

First, Why Market Commercial Real Estate?

This might seem like a rhetorical question, but there are so many agents and companies out there doing little to no marketing for their commercial properties that still wonder why they get no leads. It’s simple, everyone needs to market themselves, their brand, and their properties if they want to compete in the commercial real estate game. A solid marketing plan helps you:

  • Spread Brand Awareness: A fool-proof marketing strategy will carry itself through the community, spreading like wildfire. If your story, your message, and your brand aesthetic are captivating and you consistently produce the most optimized, informational, and entertaining content, your brand will spread itself.
  • Lend Credibility: Every established business displays a well-thought-out marketing effort. By putting time and money into marketing and content, you create an inviting “storefront”; one that leads are more likely to walk into, as opposed to one that is not kept.
  • Save Time & Money: This might sound counterintuitive, but by spending money on marketing, you can save time and money in the long run. A beautiful thing about marketing is the potential for automation. Once marketing funnels and strategies are established and set up correctly, they can pretty much run themselves. This means you’ll no longer need to hunt down or pay for leads and exposure.

Elements of Commercial Real Estate Marketing

Clearly, if you want to succeed in the world of Commercial Real Estate, marketing is a big part, and it’s not easy. There are three factors you need to consider when building your strategy:

  1. How do you market yourself?
  2. How do you market your listings?
  3. How do you market your brokerage? / How does the brokerage you’re with, market?

Before you begin strategizing, ask yourself, “How does my brokerage, or the brokerage I’m with, market?” Once you have an understanding of the brokerage’s marketing strategy, it’s time to decide what your personal goals are. Do you want local domination? Regional? Maybe you want to be prominent in multiple states. With these questions answered, you’ll have the foundation you need to get started.

What Does Your Brokerage Do for Marketing?

While it’s not uncommon to have access to a plethora of marketing resources through the Real Estate Brokerage you’re licensed with, it is expected that many of the critical components are overlooked; things like Google My Business, your own website, and social media. That’s why, for the sake of efficiency, it’s important to recognize which resources are handed to you, and which are not.

In most cases, it’s likely that you are offered listing photography and video resources, then left to fend for yourself. Very rarely will you find a brokerage like McCann Commercial, based in Philadelphia, that offers its agents everything they need to be successful. Unfortunately, most brokerages only market the brokerage as a whole and leave their realtors with very few resources. This makes it much more competitive at the realtor level because you’re not only competing within the brokerage but against ALL other agents in the game too. In order to win, you need to have the best marketing in the game.

How to Market Your Listings

In order to market your listings successfully, you’ll first want to check out this video from our partners over at Momentum 360. Seriously. Sean does an incredible job breaking down all of the types of content you’ll want to include in your listings.

In summary, if you’re going to win, you’re going to need top-notch content on your listings. You’ll want clear HD photos, drone footage, and a virtual tour! While this seems obvious, agents often neglect content. If you want to get ahead, this is something simple to consider. And, if you’re lucky, your brokerage will offer these in its arsenal of agent resources. If you’re not so lucky to be with a brokerage that genuinely cares about your success, you can contact Momentum 360 here.

Marketing Yourself as a Commercial Realtor

Finally, the final piece of the puzzle, building a brand and marketing strategy for yourself as a commercial real estate agent. But before I get started, for all of you visual learners if you haven’t already watched the video above, I highly recommend you do. I use real client profiles and sites as examples to show you exactly what you should be doing. Those things are Google My Business, Website SEO, and of course, Social Media. Without further ado, let’s jump into Google My Business

  1. Google My Business

Google My Business is arguably one of the most valuable marketing assets you can have as a realtor. Why? Well, as a realtor you function very similarly to a small local business; you service one to a few areas, rely heavily on reviews and referrals, and need to show up in local search results to be successful. As a commercial realtor, the calls that your Google My Business can generate are well worth the time and money that goes into climbing up in search results. A client of ours recently profited over $100k from a call that came from his Google My Business! Check out this video for tips on how to optimize your Google My Business for Commercial Realtors.

  1. Website SEO

Your website is your second line of defense. If either your Google My Business does not rank in the top three, or a potential lead is searching without local search terms, then your website shows up, ideally. But, do you even have a website? More often than not, realtors that come to us, don’t even have a website! Sometimes it’s because their brokerage doesn’t offer it, other times it’s because they didn’t know it was necessary! Having worked with some of the most successful realtors in the world, I know they’re necessary! So first, if you don’t have a website, get one built. We can help. Once it’s built, get it optimized and ranking higher in Google!

  1. Social Media

If all else fails and you just don’t have the time or money for a Website & Google My Business, then you should consider a different career. In all seriousness (I still mean it), if for whatever reason you have an easier time imagining yourself recording videos and taking pictures, then social media is where you MUST be focusing. Social media is where you’re able to build yourself a brand and go viral, especially nowadays, as Tiktok, reels, and shorts take off! Philadelphia Realtor, Ryan Stawasz, has done an incredible job staying active on social media, but also getting creative. So much so, that he is amongst some of the most well-known realtors in the area, all thanks to social media.

Now that you have a better idea of how to market commercial real estate and what it takes to be successful, it’s time to put it into action! Thankfully, many of these things can be outsourced if you don’t have the time on your hands. Which, in fairness, many of you realtors do not! That’s what we are here for. If you’d like to learn more about what we have to offer, check out our services!

May 11, 2020

How to Use Virtual Tours for Real Estate Marketing

How to Use Virtual Tours for Real Estate Marketing

 

Welcome back to another Momentum Monday! We hope you are all staying safe and healthy during these times. Today, we’re going to look at how to use virtual tours for real estate marketing.

If this is your first time looking into using virtual tours, then you want to make sure you are well versed on the fundamentals of virtual tours, as well as the process and effectiveness of them. 

 

 

A virtual tour is a cohesive collection of photographs that capture every part of a property. All of the photographs are compiled together digitally, resulting in a 360 degree view of the place. This is done using a specific camera and tripod called the Matterport: 3D Camera. There’s other types of cameras and equipment you can use, but Matterport is our partner and the best in the business when it comes to hardware and software.

 

matterport virtual tour partner

 

Through a virtual tour, you can essentially observe and interact with every part of a property digitally without having to visit the place in person.

 

Virtual tours are a highly effective marketing tool, gaining momentum and growing in popularity. With virtual tours, potential customers and clients can view properties without having to visit them in-person. According to Matterport, 89% of buyers across demographics increasingly look to web and mobile tools to make their buying decisions.

 

Virtual tours give marketers the ability to show off their properties in a more interactive, engaging, and transparent way than traditional forms of media like images, video, and text.

Here is an example of one of virtual tours of a real estate listing from our Real Estate Virtual Tour Portfolio.

 

 

If you’re in real estate, you definitely want to consider the benefits that virtual tours can provide to your business. With virtual tours, potential clients and customers can view your property remotely. This can help make the process of selling properties much quicker and easier. Through virtual tours, clients can view the entirety of a property, and come to a decision on whether they are interested in it or not without having to visit it in-person.

Are you sold on using virtual tours to market your business? If so, you want to first hire a trusted virtual tour photographer, specifically, a trusted Matterport Partner Photographer who is experienced and highly skilled using the Matterport: 3D Camera. You can do this by visiting the Matterport Contact Page. Of course, if interested, you can also look into using the Matterport: 3D Camera yourself and become your own photographer for your properties.

 

experiencing matterport virtual tours

 

Once you have a photographer, whether it’s an experienced pro or yourself, you want to schedule your property shoot date, along with the time and location. How you want to accomplish this is in your hands. We recommend giving the photographer access to the property beforehand, or you can meet them if you want to be present during the shoot. A property shoot typically takes about 1-2 hours depending on its size.

 

What’s Included in a Real Estate Virtual Tour?

 

Prior to the shoot, you want to go over with your photographer what the key aspects are that you want to be captured. This includes the amenities, features, images, videos, and several other important things about the property that you want to be linked out from the virtual tour. A virtual tour includes features called Mattertags. A mattertag is a digital label on an area of a room that, when interacted with, expands to reveal important details and media that you want users to know about from the property. These make your virtual tour more interactive and engaging for potential buyers.

Following the property shoot, your photographer will upload, edit, and publish the virtual tour. This takes about 24-48 hours to be completed. From here, all you need to do is review the tour and finalize everything featured within it. Once completed, you can market your property’s virtual tour on your website, on social media, in emails, etc. It’s entirely in your hands.

Best practices for marketing a virtual tour:

  • Text and email the link to potential buyers
  • Add the branded link to your listing or MLS
  • Upload the listing and virtual tour to your website
  • Post and boost the virtual tour on Facebook & Instagram

How to Use Virtual Tours for Real Estate Marketing

Virtual tours are not incredibly new or groundbreaking. However, now is the time to convert your content and marketing process to use the best technology and marketing techniques. You don’t want to be the realtor not using virtual tours to market your property.

For over 3 years now, Momentum has been offering virtual tours for many types of businesses with our sister company, Momentum 360. Our partnerships with Google, Matterport, SBDC, and other local real estate brokers has allowed us to become the best and most trusted virtual tour agency in Philadelphia.

Check out our portfolio or call/contact us to get a quote in minutes!

Phone: (215) 607-6482

Email: info@momentumvirtualtours.com

 

If you have any questions about how to use virtual tours for real estate marketing or other needs then call us, or comment below. Thanks for reading, and stay safe!

By Mac
January 8, 2018

Top 5 Real Estate Marketing Tips

Let’s review what we believe are the Top 5 Real Estate Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business!

In this blog post, I will be going to talk about Real Estate Marketing in a way that will help give you a competitive edge in an ever-changing digital world.

The real estate industry is becoming more competitive as time goes on. It is becoming increasingly difficult for real estate companies to establish a strong digital presence. Everyone wants to increase lead generation and appear in the top of the Google search results.

Here is a Real Estate Marketing Video Presentation that shares some common tactics!

1. Develop A Responsive Real Estate Website

Building a website for your real estate company is one of the most important things you can do. If done correctly, you will generate more high-quality leads. Whether you are running paid ads for social media or Google, a well built out website is the first step towards success. That’s why it is so important to have a visually appealing, easy to use, mobile-friendly website.

When you look at your website make sure you see the following:  

  • Landing pages with strong calls to action
  • A lot of relevant content/useful info.
  • Strong keyword usage throughout site
  • Make sure your site is mobile friendly and optimized
  • Lots of photos (360-degree photos/videos are best)


Since this isn’t a blog post about web design, I won’t go into detail about each point. These points are very important if you want to increase quality lead generation and rank higher in search engines.

One point I did want to talk more in detail about is using relevant keywords throughout your site. Keywords are the building blocks of SEO. It’s crucial to target the most relevant keywords in order to create an effective strategy for SEO.  For example, if you are a home buyer you should have keyword phrases like “Sell Your House Fast In Philadelphia”. This allows your website to populate organically for people who are using these search terms in Google.

Below is a perfect example from Keller Williams Realty Inc. This screenshot was taken from their website. It shows that they are using the proper keywords to target certain areas where they buy and sell homes. They also have listed feature properties within their location which will help their site populate organically for local searches as I mentioned earlier. This will not only improve their SEO but also capture quality leads. If you have time check out their website, they are a great example of what a proper real estate marketing website should look like.

real estate marketing website

2. Become A Source For Information

People have so many questions when it comes to real estate marketing, whether its buying or selling a home. This is a perfect opportunity for you to provide helpful content that people can use. This will not only lead them to your website and turn them into prospective customers, but also provides you the chance to build brand awareness and trust.

A great example would be to create a blog page on your website. Make the title of the blog posts questions people would typically want to know about real estate. For example, a title for a post could be “Should I Trust Zillow To Determine My House Value In Philadelphia?”. Answers will differ based on location, so make sure to include landmarks in you posts (also helps with SEO).  

More examples would be to create YouTube videos, create infographics and even post tips on your social media channels. Once you begin to optimize your content, you will start to rank higher in Google’s search results.

3. Master Search with SEO & SEM

Since the majority of prospective customers will be using their phones or computers to search for real estates, it is very important to have quality campaigns for PPC (pay-per-click) and SEO. Regardless of what your company does in real estate, people will be searching keyword phrases related to your services. Location is extremely important when it comes to search. If you think about it, it is very likely that someone will type into Google “real estate agent [city]”. This is something to keep in mind when bidding on keywords.

When it comes to SEO, everyone wants immediate results. The simple fact is SEO is a marathon, not a sprint! Although, using the correct methods can save time and increase lead generation.

While I can write a whole article on SEO for real estate, I’m going to keep it short and list out some important points you can use:

  • Get listed on directories (Trulia, Zillow, Homes.com)
  • Target local keyword phrases ([city] real estate)
  • Consistently create useful content
  • Optimize for on-site/off-site SEO
  • Know the difference between local & national SEO
  • Use lots of photos/videos on site (necessity for real estate)
  • Optimize site for mobile

For example, when using Google Ads keyword planner tool, in Philadelphia there is an average of 22,200 searches for the keyword phrase “houses for sale”. This shows how many people are using Google as a resource to find houses for sale, and the potential customers you can capture if you properly optimize your website and paid ads.

seo vs ppc

4. Social Media Marketing

In an ever-changing digital world, social media is a must for your real estate marketing. You can now share new listings and updates of what’s available instantly with all social media. Best of all it’s FREE!

I believe the 3 must-have social media accounts for your real estate company are LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. You must be posting on these accounts consistently while posting on other social media platforms such as Google and YouTube less frequently.

It is great for real estate because you get to post images as often as you want. People respond best to 360-degree photos and videos. Being able to view a whole house without leaving their computer puts you at a huge advantage! If you can hire a professional to create a 360-degree virtual tour of your properties, this will help differentiate you from the competition. Facebook now allows you to post these 360-degree photos and videos, which is an amazing feature for your real estate page. Whether you are buying or selling property, it is great to have a place to post pictures where potential customers can discover your company.

I am going to give 3 examples of successful realtors that use social media to their advantage:

Brittany Nettles, a successful realtor at Keller Williams Realty Inc., is using social media to brand and market herself in the local Philadelphia market. It is important for anyone working in real estate to use their own personal social media accounts to build a strong brand for themselves, so they can build trust and close more deals. If you take a look at her Facebook page, you will see that she is posting pictures of the newest listings and taking advantage of the free marketing social media has to offer.

 

You can also brand yourself as an entrepreneur to increase your social media following. Julian Bradley, who is an entrepreneur and real estate investor, is a great example. If you take a look at his Instagram he is building a brand for himself, therefore he will begin to build trust and ultimately close more deals.

My last example is Ed Stulak. He is a successful realtor that is branding himself as an entrepreneur. If you take a look at his Instagram, his posts include the most recent listings and life-related events. He is not only building a strong reputation as a realtor but as an entrepreneur. As his social media following continues to grow, he will continue to gain recognition in the New Jersey real estate market.


5. Develop A Specialization in Real Estate

Differentiating yourself in the real estate is critical due to the competitive nature of the industry. You need to set a tone for what you do well and stick to it.

A good example would be real estate agents who only sell certain homes in specific areas. You want to be very clear with the type of homes, areas, and price ranges you deal with. You don’t want to be vague with details of what you do on your website, otherwise you will get many useless leads.

It is important to be explicit with what you do for obvious reasons. Remember to embrace what you are best at and people will begin to notice. This is what’s going to make you stand out from the competition.

Review & Recap!

There are many ways to build a strong digital presence for your real estate company. It can be overwhelming, but if you take it step by step you will notice more high quality leads filling up your inbox. My advice would be to first focus on your website then move on to the next steps like paid ads and social media. With these 5 steps you will develop a stronger brand and drastically grow your business.

If you have any questions about digital tips for real estate marketing then contact us at any time!

Also, a big shoutout to successful realtors and entrepreneurs, Brittany Nettles, Julian Bradley, and Ed Stulak for allowing us to use their social media accounts as awesome examples to follow. You can reach any of us at the email or Instagram handle below.

By Mac
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“My name is Mac and I used to work for Google. Now I help small businesses grow online and rank higher on Google”