Search engine optimization (SEO) helps to boost rankings on search results and reach more customers. As a marketing strategy, it is so successful that US businesses in 2018 spent over $72 billion in SEO services alone, and the figure is set to hit the $80 billion mark by the end of 2020!
SEO offers many benefits to various industries, and it is one of the most effective marketing strategies you can implement for your real estate business. However, you might want to know how long SEO takes to show significant results.
In this article, we talk about SEO for real estate, when to expect results, and the factors affecting the results. We also provide a sample SEO timeline.
What does SEO for real estate mean?
Using SEO in real estate is much like using a net to fish. Once you find the right spot, you will end up with plenty of leads and idx reviews!
This means giving Google and other search engines what they are looking for. Then, they reward your real estate website with high rankings. Google’s search algorithm crawls web pages to find results that they should show to people searching for specific keywords. Optimizing your real estate site for this algorithm lets you rank high for these words and drives traffic to your listings.
Why is real estate SEO important?
SEO involves an inbound marketing strategy that guides your target market to find you, rather than having you look for them. In a way, your target audience would be the ones to visit your site, give you their contact info, and end up practically begging you to contact them for a transaction—all without spending money on paid advertisements!
SEO is the sure-fire way to generate more leads, make more sales, grow your business, and beat the competition.
SEO strategies for real estate
For real estate businesses, optimization mainly focuses on winning at the local level. It involves creating area-specific content that increases the geographic relevance of your site.
Some of the best SEO strategies include:
- Providing multiple content pieces – Start by creating several pieces of content revolving around the same topic but with different key terms. For instance, “rental” and “rent” as well as “house” and “home” searches have enormous search volumes with different results.
- Creating city-specific content – Google wants to offer users the most useful and relevant information, which means it returns local results. Your content should be around your city’s attractions, shopping amenities, dining options, neighborhoods, and other interests that define your location.
- Using online tools – You can use online tools that are useful for your site visitors, such as an investment property search console, mortgage payment estimator, home loan calculator, or a cash flow calculator. These kinds of tools make transactions and decision-making easier and faster.
- Aligning your brand with reputable publishers – Contributing to reputable real estate publications adds authority to your brand. It also makes Google translate backlinks you are receiving as a trust signal.
- Building a mobile-friendly site – A massive number of buyers look for properties online using mobile devices. So, you need to ensure your site is optimized for the smaller screens. Google is also moving towards mobile-first indexing, so this step will ensure your site is up to speed.
Can SEO results be seen immediately?
When a business invests in SEO, they know they are in for significant results, but they want them now!
Unfortunately, SEO campaigns for real estate business, or any other type of business, normally take a while to produce the expected results. According to experts, initial results will generally show after four to six months. But, when they start showing, they will grow over time.
Some of the things that drive results are the:
- Relevance of pages on your site to user searches
- Search intent your pages cater to
- Reliability and trustworthiness of the information you provide
- Legitimacy of the keywords you use
- Images you are using on your real estate site
- Amount of time it takes your pages to load
- Number of backlinks you have on your pages
These and more information play a pivotal role in determining how you rank on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Factors that affect SEO results
With all these in mind, it is simpler to understand that SEO is a long-term strategy. It isn’t simple to pinpoint the exact time it takes for your real estate business to see organic on-page traffic. Basically, it depends on three critical variables.
- Competition – The more competitive your keywords are, the longer it will take you to climb to the top of the SERPs. You also need to check what strategies your successful competitors are using and try to implement them in marketing your business. You need to put in more extra effort than your competitors if you want to excel in your niche.
- Inbound links – A few high-quality links from relevant and authoritative websites have a greater impact on results than a high volume of low-quality links. These links are more difficult for your competitors to replicate, which means they last longer. An abrupt increase in links may show an unnatural effort to manipulate rankings. So, the faster you earn quality and relevant links, the faster you rank, but with a caveat.
- Content – If you have great content ready for publishing, there is no reason to hold back in achieving a positive impact on your rankings. However, you should maintain a consistent publishing schedule to encourage Google spiders to crawl your site more frequently and speed up SEO results. Plus, a regular schedule ensures that visitors keep coming back more often, resulting in positive user experience signals to Google.
Sample SEO timeline
How long does SEO take?
SEO is never a simple strategy. The sub-strategies that go into it ensure its effectiveness in the long term, however. To understand an SEO strategy, it is easier to break it into a month-by-month analysis.
First month
You have done your analysis and determined that real estate SEO by Ardor SEO, for instance, is the best service for you.
Some SEO things that will work within this month are:
- Research – Research every detail revolving around your brand, including unique selling points. Consider your specific niche, identify your competitors, check their rankings, and determine keywords to target. The information you gather allows you to sculpt your SEO campaign.
- Website audit – Your SEO partner will look at your site’s current structure, content, and overall user experience. This is critical for forming a game plan for a highly effective SEO strategy.
- Keyword planning – Devise a plan to use your keywords.
Some items above do not require an entire month to complete. The duration depends on the complexity and standing of your current real estate site.
Second month
In month two, you can expect a couple of things to occur.
- Website modification – Make back-end changes that ensure higher rankings. Some of these modifications include alt tags for images.
- Ensuring a responsive design – A responsive website design means that users can access, navigate, and use your website, no subject what device they are using.
Third month
Month three is where the SEO magic starts. Expect your SEO partner to:
- Select keywords – Study and narrow down keywords identified in the first month to those that you can target. SEO experts will identify long-tail and generic keywords that ensure a winning combination of low competition and high search volumes.
- Create content – New content is required for the keywords to be used. Your content can come in different forms, including blogs, long-form-content, product descriptions, etc. Expect these pieces of content to rank on the SERPs within a month or two.
Fourth month
This is when you’ll start seeing some fruits of your SEO campaign. During this month, your real estate website will experience some improvements in ranking and increased traffic.
However, SEO is not yet over!
Your real estate SEO partner will continue implementing content to your website, fixing any technical problems, and ensuring that your site is 100 percent functional.
The process of building authoritative links also starts at this point.
Fifth month
Now you realize the actual results of SEO.
Site traffic is increasing, more leads are being generated, and perhaps more sales are coming in. This is a sign that the campaign is working, providing a first look at whether SEO for real estate is effective for your brand or not.
During this month, you will:
- Establish a loop in social media – Your SEO marketing manager may suggest that you bring in your social media profiles into your website to improve off-page SEO.
- Analyze results – Campaign analytics is a critical component of SEO. While tracking is continuous, it is in month five that you should expect to see some jump in conversions or traffic.
Sixth month
The typical real estate SEO campaign produces real results. However, you should not stop there. Here is what you will still need to do in month six:
- A/B testing – This is a test to determine how effectively distinct elements perform. This is also where you can implement alternative versions of your site.
- Heat map testing – This test shows how far down your site visitors get on a specific page before they leave. It also indicates what users click the most, which shows whether you require more interactive elements added.
Conclusion
So, how long does SEO take?
It would be between four to six months before you realize the benefits. However, you should understand that a strategic and continuous SEO campaign means that your real estate website goes through iterations of different campaigns and sprints. This ensures continued growth and a gradual increase in conversions and traffic.
If you want to learn more about services that can help improve your business position, you should read in-depth articles on business growth and sustenance. If you’re not sure wherever to begin, visit our website to learn more!
