In the number of times that we talked about how important it is to have your own real estate website in today’s world of technology, you must have lost count of the amount we reiterated the relevance of content in order to market and sell effectively.

What about SEO?

Whenever we talked about content, it’s always partnered with this 3-letter word.

Ever heard of Google rankings and first-page results?

I’m sure you’re wondering about what it takes to get there.

With competition growing stronger in the Philippine property market, it’s a no-brainer that you need to step-up your game. We’ve also discussed how to choose from the different website builders out there, how they compare to industry standards and what’s the best for your budget and needs.

Building a website is only the door to real estate success, so in order to reach the top you must climb the SEO Ladder.

Luckily for you, we’ve created this 5-step guide to make sure that your SEO is using the best practices.

FOR STARTERS, WHAT’S SEO?

We’ve already mentioned it thrice in the beginning of this blog, but what in the world is SEO?

S – Search
E – Engine
O – Optimization

There’s a lot of search engines out there like Bing, Yahoo and the biggest of them all *insert drum rolls* Google!

Whenever we look for information on the Internet, we resort to any one of these search engines, but do you ever notice that we only tend to pay attention to the first-page, despite the large amount of results that is generated.

This is just how it works for most people, because we want quick, reliable answers. So to “optimize” the search engine involves the process of attracting what we call “organic traffic” or free and natural audience to visit your website.

Yes, you can pay for ads to land a spot on the first page, but that’s no longer natural and organic.

While we have nothing against investing in paid advertisements, we want to help you do things smoothly and make the most out of your real estate website without paying extra.

…AND THE BIG DEAL?

When searching for information, we only care about the best in terms of authority, relevance and trust. While, there are others who can provide the same, correct answers, it still comes down to those three factors whether you will accept what they have to offer.

• Authority – The awareness that you are an expert in the field that you will be inquired about. Your prospects can ask anybody about real estate, but you are far more qualified to give them answers because it is your profession and you have the background to support you. In SEO, it is measured through the relevance of your content and the amount of citations (links you included) to support your data.
• Relevance – Your content topics will determine your specialty as a consultant or advisor in real estate. So if you sell condominiums, it’s best that you talk about transactions involved and types of properties like pre-sell and RFOs (ready-for-occupancy).
• Trust – Activities that involve the name of your business and website can be indicators of how you operate online. Avoid doing things like spamming inboxes or forcing your content into their comment section by pasting links. Anything that is unnatural or artificial in nature to attract audience will be considered malicious, so this will harm your reputation online if you’re not careful in your marketing practices.

THE 5-STEP SEO LADDER

1. Targeted Content
While Google is doing all the algorithms to rank your website, you should place your focus on your audience in terms of writing beneficial content and providing a positive website user experience. There are indicators that Google uses to determine the value that your website provides to those who come across it.

Knowing what you want for your prospects, such as optimization to subscribe to your blog or inquiring about your properties, improves the relationship between your website and search engines like Google.

It starts with knowing your audience first, which market demographic do you want to focus on? Look at competitors and what type of audience they attract. That way, you can get inspired and motivated to find your own niche.

2. Keywords and Meta
When it comes to the SEO aspect, your keywords must be something that people actually search for and would show interest to read. Don’t forget to provide meta information for Google to have a better understanding of the content.

Keywords are basically words or phrases that people will input the search engine to look for information on the internet. Meta or metadata refers to your content’s title and meta description that appears below the title on the search results.

Imagine from the perspective of the prospect, what phrases are they likely to enter the search engine to look for a property related to what you’re selling?

Here’s some samples you can use as reference:

Navigational Searches (locating specific websites)

• House for sale in Metro Manila
• Condo for rent in Metro Manila
• Cheap houses in Metro Manila
• Affordable condos near Manila

Informational Searches (locating specific topics)

• Buying a house in Metro Manila
• Paying for a condo in Metro Manila
• Owning a house in Metro Manila
• Renting a condo in Metro Manila

Transactional Searches(locating specific products and services)

• Reserve a condo unit in Manila
• Schedule house viewing in Manila
• Rent-to-own houses in Metro Manila
• Pre-sell condos in Metro Manila

There are a lot of potential keywords that may be suitable for you, so it’s always best to consult a professional who is an expert in marketing, especially for real estate.You can learn more about monthly search volume, competition and difficulty to rank first page.

3. Website Build
While it’s possible to operate a business without a website, it’s still relevant that you eventually get one if you want to survive in the long-run. This is one of the many reasons why we recommend getting an affordable real estate website builder.

Yes, you can do-it-yourself but do you have the time to consume and effort to exert in order to execute? You can just invest that time to market and sell; or even better, for your personal use.

When it comes to SEO, you want to make sure that your website is fully accessible in any devices by bots and users. So things to consider are mobile-responsiveness, fast loading pages, HTTPS for security (the padlock symbol on the address bar, we also discussed a little bit about this on our blog on choosing a domain name), and providing backlinks within your blogs to improve rankings.

4. On-Page and Off-Page SEO
While this article focuses a lot about On-Page SEO, you also need to consider Off-Page SEO.

What are these about, you might ask?

On-Page SEO is about optimizing the pages on your website. That means headlines, subheadlines, slugs (for your URL, not the mollusc!), and meta tags. The frequency of your keywords should appear natural, not spammy. Depending on the year, the SEO strategies are different. Keep on the lookout for how it’s going to be like in the year 2020 onwards.

Off-page or off-site SEO works on optimization outside of your website. So things like, guest blogging, backlinks or pingbacks; presence on multiple social media platforms, marketing help from influencers or industry leaders, and partnerships with other companies or brands. All these can improve SEO for your website.

5. Track Analytics
Last, but not least, pay attention to your results!

Your role in maintaining a website does not stop with creating content for your blog, sharing it on social media and waiting for magic to happen. The real work starts with monitoring.

Look at the website traffic and status of your rankings to see how effective your efforts are in optimization, such as how your keywords are performing and record them on a spreadsheet. Also consider your strategies in using inbound and outbound links.

SOUNDS LIKE WORK?

Well, putting in effort is important in reaping generous rewards, but if things like SEO and websites are not your forte, we can always help you. You can book a FREE DEMO at Prosperna to learn more about kick-starting your success as a real estate professional in the Philippines.