There is a popular saying that goes, “Innovate or die.” Modern business has become increasingly competitive, and the surest way to stay above this fierce competition is to be innovative.
With this current generation’s penchant for technology, technological innovation is rapidly becoming the best way to attract clients.
Recent research data shows that 44 percent of real estate buyers begin their home buying process online, while 95 percent use the internet at some point in the search process.
What is more, 94 percent of all search clicks go to natural search (with 75 percent of clicks going to the first page of results).
The real estate market in Toronto is no exception. Toronto is known for being an online market, and hence, it has become most auspicious for realtors to capitalize on this situation.
Why SEO is Important for Realtors?
For the reasons mentioned above, search engine optimization (SEO) is imperative for realtors. Real estate buyers would want to get the best results when they use a search engine (SE) online and would most likely ditch an inefficient search engine for a better one.
Fully aware of this fact, search engines show search results in order of rank on the search engine’s results page (SERP). Thus, the initial realtor websites that appear on a search engine result page are those that are most relevant to an internet search.
Hence, to get traction to a realtor website and consequently land more and faster sales, realtor websites have to appear right at the top of a search engine result page, and this can be achieved through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other top search engines do not disclose the algorithm they use to rank pages. However, the SEO experts like ‘Social Media Freaks’ have carefully researched and continually improve our SEO optimization process to get realtor websites right at the top of a search engine result page.
Simply put, SEO experts help get your realtor website to page 1 of a Search Engine Result Page (SERP).
How SEO works for Canadian Realtors?
Search engines scan a website to get an idea of what it is about, and hence it is vital to design your realtor’s website strategically.
Some certain keywords and phrases do the trick for websites because search engines use those keywords in providing relevant results for a search.
The overuse of keywords, technically known as “keyword stuffing, “is frowned upon by search engines like Google. To know which keywords to use, think about what home buyers type into a search engine when issuing a search query.
Appropriately use keywords since an egregious abuse of keywords on a website can lead to the website being blacklisted by search engines.
However, SEO experts like ‘Social Media Freaks’know the appropriate way to go about it without affecting your rankings.
Is your website Google Responsive?
They optimize the user-friendliness of realtor websites because search engines employ them as factors in ranking websites. The user-friendliness of a website is vital because when clients click on the link to a realtor’s website, they need to get a good first impression.
A realtor’s website must have good speed and be mobile responsive. It has to resize to fit different devices and browser sizes automatically.
Over 80 percent of consumers shop from phones, and they need to receive a browsing experience similar to that of a personal computer.
A realtor website can be tested using Page Speed Insights and GT Metrix. A caching plug like Total Cache can also be used to enhance the user experience.
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Your Website Is Your Identity
Website content is the next vital website component to check. On a realtor’s website, the homepage must give consumers an excellent first impression.
It needs to be strategically designed for marketing the realtor and showing the realtor’s capabilities. It must showcase testimonials, awards, and highlight other qualities that give the realtor an edge over competitors.
The realtor’s focus on Toronto must be showcased using visuals like photos and videos to highlight the beauty of the city. Realtors must add high-quality pictures of themselves.
Niche MLS pages must also be optimized. These are the pages that have automated feeds showing realtors’ listings based on property types and prices.
Descriptions must be added to the listings for SEO purposes.
The communities in which the properties are located must also be described, and detailed pricing information is given. Quality photos of the community, whether widgets, shops, and other essential services in the areas can be added to show the realtor’s focus on the community.
Realtors can add notes on what Toronto means to them, being unique and genuine with their opinion.
ALT tags, keywords that describe images, must be added to all photos, making sure to relate photos to the content of the website. This helps direct traffic to a website when clients use image search.
Metatags should also be added to every page. Meta descriptions and meta keywords must be employed to accelerate SEO.
A resources page, a page that targets the satisfaction and ease of use of the website by consumers, must be added. Consumers must be guided, and their frequently asked questions answered on such pages.
On marketing of landing pages, new developments or buildings must be added using photos and videos. Realtors can connect with real estate developers for more details on new developments.
Consumers must be made aware of the realtor’s marketing process and the offers available to them. A realtor website must also have blog articles on real estate in Toronto.
Articles must be chronically arranged. This also helps with SEO.
Linking Social Media
Canadians spend a lot of time on social media. Realtor websites can get more traction to their websites by leaving links to their websites on their social media platforms.
Search engines look favorably high website clicks from social media platforms. Such inbound links increase SE rankings.
Realtors can also use Google -3- Pack to build a continuous stream of clients from organic searches to help with SEO.
Website domains must be kept short, simple, and easy-to-remember, coined around real estate and Toronto-related keywords and must be devoid of typos.
A domain that has been used for a long time should not be changed if possible because it may have gained a high rank over the period. A new domain might take time before reaching the same rank.
In case an old domain needs to be changed, 301 Redirects can be used to reduce the effect of the website’s SE ranking. 301 Redirects direct clients who visit your old website to your new website instead of them receiving a page error.
Finally, let us consider some other factors that are used by search engines in ranking websites. Dwell time is the average time a client spends before returning to the SERP.
Clients will only spend more time on a website if they find the relevant information they need easily and an engaging website. Users who do not find relevant information quickly return to the SERP, a situation termed Pogo-Sticking.
Pogo-Sticking reduces a realtor website’s SE rank. Bounce rate, the percentage of users who return to the SERP after visiting the first page of a website also negatively affects the SE rank of a website if high.
Importance of Backlinks and Interlinks
Last but not least, let us consider how Backlinks and Interlinks help with SEO.
Backlinks are links from other websites to a page on another website, while interlinks are links from a page on a website to another page on the same website or to another section on the same page of the website.
They both help increase the SE rank of the website. Having a blog on another person’s website, a guest blog with a link to a personal website also helps.
Some realtors have multiple websites and could leave links to their websites on all other websites.
A realtor’s presence on an agent review website, an agent comparison website, affiliate websites, media websites, and property portals also increase a realtor’s website SE ranking.
Finally, realtors must ensure they get SSL security certificates for their websites to keep up with SEO best practices.
Conclusion
All the above are ways to go about SEO. Search engines do not provide information on the algorithm used to determine SE ranks for websites.
Still, SEO experts like ‘Social Media Freaks’ do their best to discover them through experience and continued research.
The algorithms are quite fickle and technical and hence advisable for realtors to consult SEO experts like ‘Social Media Freaks’ to always stay on top of the Toronto real estate market competition.
