The digital landscape can be tough on real estate firms and agents. You can have some of the best listings in your region on your website, but it all means nothing if you cannot get people to look at them.
Fortunately, there are a number of ways agents and brokers can use the power of good real estate content to boost local web traffic and get more eyes on their property listings. The following are some tried-and-true tips from real estate marketers who have seen steady results from these efforts:
Become a regular blog writer
Search engines like Google and Bing reward sound, informative content over all else when ranking websites. They’ve become so skilled at doing so that they can actually detect if the articles and blog posts you’re creating are actually drawing people in and keeping readers engaged.
To that end, consider blogging about things like real estate news and trends, the state of the local market and tips for homebuyers and sellers. Real estate content writing can be a great way to build trust with your target audience and improve the number of people who visit your website—and thus your listings—on a regular basis.
Embed video and 3D images on your website
Having video walkthroughs of your properties or various 3D models directly embedded into the page will reflect well on your website in your Google rankings, and it will also succeed in keeping the attention of visitors to your website. Although this can be a big upfront investment, it provides incredibly helpful visuals for potential homebuyers.
Share your listings on various portals
There’s a wide variety of major real estate listing portals where you can describe the property, include photos and link back to the official listing on your website. Sites like Zillow and Trulia, for example, do all of this—and even accept 3D models. These are networks you should absolutely leverage to increase your exposure, share your real estate content and give you the opportunity to foster more links back to your website.
Make good use of social media
Upload all videos of properties to YouTube or Vimeo to add another platform through which homebuyers may come across your listings. You may also use social media to promote your blog content. Additionally, post links to listings or photos of your properties on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Pinterest is a particularly useful platform for realtors, as it draws a lot of people who are interested in DIY projects and “window shopping” for houses. You may even use Pinterest to create neighborhood-themed boards or collect décor ideas.
Finally, Instagram is another opportunity to quickly share attractive photos of properties and draw the attention of a younger audience. This is a great idea if you have listings for homes that would be great for first-time homebuyers, who tend to be younger and more social media savvy. Consider publishing real estate content to this platform.
Make sure your listings are optimized
Perform some simple search engine optimization (SEO) tasks on each listing. Make sure you include the geographical location in the title of each listing, as people are likely to be searching for listings with key phrases like “house for sale in Springfield.”
You should also make sure there’s enough written content on each page for search engines to actually pay attention to it. This isn’t to say you need to write an entire page of content—just that you need more than a sentence or two describing the listing.
Yes, the real estate marketing landscape is constantly changing, but one thing is clear: strong articles, blog content, social media updates and other content will continue to be important for agencies, realtors and brokers as they aim to grab the attention of their potential clients on a local level. Work with a skilled real estate writer to get the most out of this strategy.