The short and simple answer to that question is no. For any real estate agent, a brand new website is wonderful! It is perfect and so many leads will come into the website, but oftentimes, depending on the company the agent worked with, the website never brings in any traffic. 

A website without the entire website development and SEO/ digital marketing package will not include SEO on the website when it launches. This is a long process that takes place once the website is up and running. Sure the content might be customized, but without implementing SEO strategies, there will not be SEO on the website automatically. 

Here’s why a real estate agent needs to make sure that real estate SEO is implemented once the website is launched! 

Why should you worry about SEO? 

There are over three billion searches on Google per day and 70 percent of consumers research before purchasing products online. This makes perfect sense. The higher the ranking, the more a consumer and in the case of a Real Estate Agent, the more house hunters will see your website. With thousands of websites that allow for a consumer to search for dream houses, it can be hard to break through and this is why SEO is so important for an agent. 

With 44 percent of homebuyers starting their home search online, a website without SEO strategies will simply stay in the Google shadows. Why put all the money and effort into the website only for it to never rank. It is important to find a real estate SEO expert who can perform the technical SEO to help the website rank over time. 

This involves, but is not limited to, keyword research, URL structures, content optimization, backlinks, metadata and more. The two main components of real estate SEO is making sure that local and the website is mobile friendly from the beginning. 

Local SEO

Local SEO refers to local results on a search engine like Google. Local SEO is all about optimizing your website and SEO strategies to rank better in local searches. A great example is if someone searches, “best real estate agent in Austin.” The websites that show this are optimized with local keywords and real estate SEO to help them rank in the SERPs results. 

A homebuyer who is searching for local Real Estate Agents will find another local company if your website is not ranking in the local search results with real estate SEO strategies! 

Another place that a website will rank is in the MapPack. The MapPack on Google shows the top local businesses or results in the area. These are the top ranking consistently but also dependent on the relevance, distance and prominence when it comes to local SEO! Think about it for a second, does a homebuyer want someone who is new to the area and has no idea about it or someone who has been in the city and is experienced?  

Now, we are speaking about SEO, but part of that ranking in SERPs is due to a mobile friendly website as well! 

Mobile friendly website 

Yup, we are speaking about SEO and jumping into a mobile friendly website! Google started in 2016 to crawl the mobile friendly version of a website before it crawls a desktop version. This is due to the consistent rise in mobile searches year over year, and as stated above, mobile searches for homes are also increasing as well. 

In the website development world, a website that is known to be “mobile friendly” has a responsive design.  Not only does this website need to be optimized for mobile, but it needs to load faster than on desktop and make sure the sizes are proportional. 

In a competitive market place, a real estate agent needs a mobile friendly website to stay competitive and rank in Google’s search engine! 

For help with a brand new website, implementing SEO strategies or starting social media marketing, give our company a call today!