Top performing real estate professionals in the Philippines know that their target buyers are always connected online. They accept how attached they are to their mobile devices. And, they recognize very well, how informed they want to be before they make a decision. So, what good Philippine real estate marketing ideas are there, especially when it comes to Google?

First, you should know that 9 out of 10 home buyers today rely on the internet as one of their primary research sources. And, at least 52%, turn to the web as their first step in their buyer journey. If you ask Google, they’ll even tell you that real estate related searches are growing 22% year-over-year. Additionally, approximately one-fifth of real estate related searches take place on mobile devices.

More good news, back in 2012, Google reported that real estate related searches on mobile devices grew 120% year-over-year.

Keep in mind, this is data going back to 2012!

What more now?

As a real estate professional, looking for Philippine real estate marketing ideas, how can you leverage search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing?

Wouldn’t it be great to gain new visitor traffic, and then nurture them into qualified real estate prospects?

Enter into the world of search engine optimization (SEO). As Moz.com, a popular SEO research software company defines it, “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.” And, when we say, “organic search engine results”, we’re referring to website traffic that you didn’t have to pay for via online advertising.

How does SEO & Google work together?

Let’s explore how to actually use SEO to get traffic that will result in leads for your real estate business.

First, you have to understand that real estate SEO for the Philippines and the content you place on your website are directly related. In fact, the written words in your blog, the videos on your YouTube Channel, and what you post on your social media pages, etc., all work together. In addition, you have to agree that without content, you won’t be able to perform SEO. And without SEO, Google, Yahoo and Bing won’t insert your website pages into their search engine results.

In the image below, you can more easily imagine how the relationship between SEO and your website content work together.

What search engines do is they go out and crawl the content of websites on the internet to find and collect keywords. They do this so that when someone goes to Google and types in what he or she is looking for, Google uses it’s own proprietory algorithms to display search results that are most relative to the users search words that they’re looking for. As a result, Google will list out all the search results and list them from highest to lowest ranking.

What about other Search Engines? 

Pretty much all the search engines work this same way, but they have their own unique sets of algorithms. Search algorithms are the way companies like Google process and present their search results. As cited by Search Engine Land in May of 2016, Google leads the way with over 2 trillion searches per year. As for home buyers, 80% of all home buyers are searching online. That means they’re not reading newspapers. They’re not going to the mall to find a sales agent at a booth. And, they’re definitely not driving around town looking for a ‘For Sale’ sign.

Now the million dollar question.

How can a real estate professional in the Philippines use SEO, content, their website to generate traffic on Google to find potential customers?

There’s a lot that goes into this but if you’re committed to your career and success, it’s a must and don’t worry…we’ll help you. To get the results you want, you’ve got to understand the major components of SEO such as words, titles, links, words with links, and reputation.

Plus, you need to start writing your own blog, TODAY!

As previously mentioned, search engines collect tons of data every second. Most of this data is in the form of words. With their own proprietary algorithms, search engines process and narrow down the most relevant search results, according to keywords used and a users location.

So, in terms of content, you should identify keywords aka niche words that your target audience will likely be using to search. Let’s say you’re a real estate agent who focuses on a specific part of town and condos, therefore, you should write about that very specific topic.  For example, “Top 5 Most Expensive Condos in ___ <insert city>”. This topic will likely have you writing about specific projects in a specific area. So, the next time someone searches for the same condo project name in a city that you mentioned, your chances of getting found on Google go up. Don’t forget, it’s the quality, relevance and the content of your website/blog that will keep your audience interested and engaged.

What about videos and pictures? Well, not many people will buy real estate without seeing the property first right? A top trend for content marketing is the popularity of video and images. Pretty much everyone watches videos on YouTube. This presents another great example of Philippine real estate marketing ideas for agents, brokers and developers.

Why?

Every image or video is just another form of content. When you post a video or image of your property for sale, make sure that you SEO optimize them. By also including SEO keywords in the video and image descriptions, they can be crawled and pop up in Google’s search results.

Titles

In order to optimize your blogs and website pages, you’ll find that you can insert a title into every web page but only you can see it behind the scenes in your website’s admin panel. If you’re using a content management system that’s updated with today’s SEO standards it’ll even create the title of the web page for you. Google will crawl and collect these web page titles because these titles summarize what the web page is all about. So, make sure you pay attention to the titles your content management system creates for you.

Links

After reading other blogs like this one, notice how they may have links to other 3rd party websites or other pages in their website. 

There’s a reason for that.

If another company’s website content author decides to insert a link from their article to you, it usually indicates to the user that the website is recommended and worth looking into. Google places a premium on this because when one website is linked to another website, it displays validity. Overtime, when a website gets many links from other companies, it not only increases referral web traffic but also increases visibility on search engines. This is key for top Google search results rankings.

Words with Links

As just discussed, SEO keywords in your content matters. And, when your content is shared it impacts how Google collects and processes it. In a similar fashion, the words with links will also matter. A good example of this is, say you wrote on your blog I love Starbucks coffee and you created a link in the word coffee using Starbuck’s site. Google will pick this up and associate the word coffee with Starbucks. So the next time another person types in the word coffee, Starbucks’ site will be listed and will be highly ranked.

Reputation

When a website/blog consistently publishes fresh, interesting and compelling content, then consistently gets linked, mentions in social accounts like Facebook and Twitter which creates a community organically, the website/blog builds its reputation over time. Google and other search engines pay close attention to this. In return, they reward the website/blog with a higher ranking in it’s search results.

Let’s use Starbucks as an example again.

They built their brand by increasing their website visibility and reputation. Plus, they rapidly grew their customers worldwide with the help of their blogs and social media. They showcase their expertise in coffee from the farmer who grows them, to the baristas who brew them. Starbucks has its own YouTube channel filled with lots of videos ranging from how-tos to short features. 

In summary, SEO and content complement one another. SEO helps direct web traffic to the website/blog and the quality and value that your content provides, will keep your audience interested and engaged. If you’re looking to get organic website traffic, these are great Philippine real estate marketing ideas. When done consistently, your real estate business will grow in no time at all.

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