How has SEO changed within the last 5 to 10 years?
When Google was first founded it was a rules-based search engine. It ranked websites based on the number and the quality of people linking to the site, and the number of high-volume keywords on the pages. So, if you had a lot of those links pointing to your website, you were an authoritative site in Google’s eyes and you were likely going to rank higher on the SERPs. Even still, the words on your pages determined what keywords, or search queries, you were going to rank for. That was, at least, the very basic start of SEO.
What’s changed over the years is that now Google is less of a rules-based search engine and more of an AI-based one. Google is now using a collection of AI algorithms, such as classifiers, deep learning, and natural language processing, to understand the web and present the best answers to searchers.
What does this mean for marketers? It means that Google is scary good at understanding what people are looking for when they type a keyword into the search box. In fact, Google’s gotten so good at this that websites now need to move beyond just relying on technical SEO hacks like HTML tags, right canonical tags, and sitemaps in order to be trusted by Google and rank organically. These things are still important, but only if your website is broken. We call this “SEO hygiene”.
Google knows that every website is broken – at least a little bit – but the search engine also knows what people are searching for, and more specifically, the intent behind their searches. So, Google uses a lot of AI to understand the search intent behind each query. Then, Google uses AI to determine what is the right piece of content to show the searcher for their particular query and intent. This is Google’s process for managing and displaying the SERPs.
Click here to learn more about search intent!
How to Rank Property Listings
When building out a property page you want it to be helpful for potential customers because Google will be paying attention to the page’s engagement. It is crucial to ensure that things such as maps, photos, and the square footage are included on the page because this is realistically the type of information that people will be looking for. You want to ensure your content is answering searchers’ questions, not creating more.
When it comes to optimizing listing pages, just like on category pages, customers want access to more information – which is why they typically search on Google. Because of this, your property pages should not only be optimized, but also match the intent behind what these customers are searching for.
Our recommendation for ranking property listings starts with one or two sentences at the top of the page. Then, add photos and a grid of all the useful information you can possibly put on the page. The more details you can include, the better. This is for 2 reasons: it helps the page rank for more keywords, plus longer engagement with the page shows Google that it’s actually helpful for searchers.
Towards the bottom of the page add another one or two paragraphs that are extremely keyword-rich. This section of the page can discuss things like the location of the property, neighborhood demographics, foot traffic, and any other relevant information about the area. These are all things that will appear useful to people who visit the page. The keywords that you include in this section will help it rank for matching queries. Your page could pop up as a result in the SERPs for any or all of the keywords you target, bringing in more organic traffic to your property listing page.
Watch our webinar on SEO for real estate here!
Remember to aim for a few long tail keywords as well. These are long queries that people search for which often makes them more difficult to rank for – unless they are purposefully targeted in your copy. People will be searching for listings based on factors such as the size of the land or cost, and each of these is an additional opportunity for the page to rank. Just keep in mind that your keyword selection matters.
Why Keyword Selection Matters
It is essential to do keyword research, but how can you determine which ones to use in your content? When looking for keywords, what you’re really trying to do is understand search behavior. For example, if somebody is looking to rent a medical office space, what do they do: go online and search for a broker, or go online and type in “medical office space for rent”? It’s likely the latter. This is exactly why keywords are really about understanding your clients’ search behavior. It is essential to understand how the buyers you’re looking for are searching online. What keywords are they typing in? What is the intent behind those keywords?
The intent is important because if somebody were to go to Google and type “Chicago spaces for rent”, what are they actually searching for? Are they looking for retail space? It could be warehouse space or industrial space.
The best way to figure out what the intent is for the keywords that you’re optimizing for is to type them into Google and see what results Google is showing for that particular query. We call this “reading the results”. This allows you to understand how the search engine’s AI is interpreting the query. And remember – Google’s AI is scary good at understanding what people are searching for and what they are trying to find. So, if you want to rank for a particular query, try publishing content similar to what shows up on the SERPs for that keyword.
High-Volume vs Long Tail Keywords
High-volume keywords are very common, so incorporating them in your content may help expose it to a larger audience. These keywords get a lot of searches. But, the issue with trying to optimize for high-volume keywords is that they are super competitive because everybody wants to rank for them. Moreover, they will likely not convert because it’s unclear what exactly the searcher is looking for. These keywords are generally very broad, so the search engine has to do an extensive search. For example, “rental space near me”.
The opposite is long tail keywords. These are longer keywords including many words. For example, “3,000 square feet of retail space on Newbury Street”. It has a precise location and size of the space. It also shows specifically what the searcher is looking for.
These longer and more detailed queries allow search engines to display more accurate results. Because of this, long tail keywords almost always tend to convert better than high-volume keywords. However, the thing to keep in mind with long tail keywords is that most of them have a low search volume. They tend to have a low search volume because it’s less likely that multiple people would be searching for that particularly long query.
Keyword-Targeted Content Creation for Real Estate
When you are setting up your website or publishing new content, you will need to determine which types of keywords should be used. You may want to include some marketing pages that promote your listings while also targeting the keywords you selected. For example, this could be a page on your website targeting the keyword “restaurant spaces in Boston”. However, you can also use this strategy for specific listings.
One of the strategies that work very well is blog articles. Articles are an effective form of content for SEO because it’s long-form content, so you’re able to target a lot of keywords at once. Also, if you aim to publish this content on a recurring basis, you’re able to continuously gain more visibility because you have more content and more potential to rank.
Google will pay attention to whether people who go to your pages bounce back to Google and click on something else. In cases like this, your content wasn’t what they were looking for or the answer to their query wasn’t on your page. Either way, there just wasn’t enough information on your page to keep them there. This is why we want you to consider what type of information you can add to boost engagement.
You may have a page going after many different keywords or you may have pages that only target specific types of keywords. For example, if you want to rank for a high-volume keyword like “restaurant space in Chicago” the trick is to make sure to include frequently asked questions on the page. People might be asking:
- How much does it cost to rent in Chicago?
- How much square footage can I get in Chicago?
- How do I rent space in Chicago?
- What types of spaces are available in Chicago?
In order to rank for the broader high-volume keyword, we recommend including these questions on your marketing or property listing pages. These FAQ sections may also rank for some long tail keywords!
Why You Need an FAQ
Assuming you’re in the commercial space, you’re talking to people daily and you understand the questions that they’re asking about the spaces they’re looking for. The trick is to keep track of all those questions and use them to build out an FAQ section on your website. It’s great to include some of these questions on each listing page, as well, but having one big FAQ section on your site will be extremely helpful for both your customers and your SEO efforts.
Why an FAQ? Well, these are the types of questions that somebody who’s never heard of you would ask. Not everyone may know your name or find you by looking you up directly – they will instead need to find you organically. So, how do you capture these people’s attention? By answering the questions they’re searching for and providing useful information.
Every question should have an answer written by a subject matter expert. This type of content is easy to create because each question only requires about a one-paragraph answer.
We strongly recommend that you have one long page with many questions and each question leading to its own page with the answer. This strategy is so under-utilized! It’s powerful because it targets long tail keywords that are easier to rank for. Plus, by adding additional pages on your site, you are creating even more opportunities for search engines to rank your pages.
Don’t forget, your competitors are also trying to get their property listings to rank and oftentimes they use these same strategies to do so. Your competitors also understand what people are looking for, what they’re interested in, and try to make as much information available for potential buyers – sometimes to the point where they don’t even need to visit the property! Therefore, it is essential to realize that your competitors will give their customers as much information as possible online, so you should be too. This is how you’ll be guaranteed to get more phone calls from potential clients.
The State of SEO: Authority Building
Your website’s ranking on the SERPs depends on the authority that you have in your space in addition to any of the optimizations or keywords you implement. Some of the big listing websites have been around for a long time, so they already have a ton of authority in Google’s eyes. In the SEO space, these high-authority sites rank more easily for high-volume keywords because they usually tend to have higher engagement rates than their smaller or lesser-well-known competitors. Also, these high-authority sites can publish content that’s actually low quality, but still rank for keywords. For example, a templated listing page that doesn’t have a ton of information on it but still includes relevant keywords may still rank for those keywords even if the page itself is low quality – just because the site has established authority.
How can I build authority? Download our guide here!
The important takeaway here is that the rules are different for various websites depending on their authority. The more that search engines – and customers – trust these sites, the easier it will be for them to rank. On the other hand, if you’re a newer site with not much authority in your space, Google will need to see you create multiple high-quality content pieces or high engagement on your website in order to trust you and rank you just as highly.
The first step is to do an SEO opportunity analysis. It will help you understand where your current SEO stands, who your SEO competitors are, and what next steps you need to take in order to generate authority and get your listing pages ranking.
Contact us for a free opportunity analysis and rank your property pages today!
