Get Your Property Listings Noticed on Google
In the world of real estate, your listings’ visibility is everything. As a real estate agent or agency, you invest significant time and effort into creating the perfect listing for your properties. But if your listings aren’t showing up in Google search results, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity.
The key to unlocking the potential of your listing’s success lies in mastering the art of SEO in real estate for listings. In this guide, we’ll delve into the reasons why your listings may not be appearing on Google and provide you with a few key ways to boost your real estate SEO.
A Bit of Background on SEO
I’ll be using some fairly common SEO terms in this article without going into too much detail, so if you don’t know the basics of SEO, I definitely recommend taking a look at a few starter SEO blogs before you read on:
- To get a run down on SEO, you should absolutely take a look at “Beginner’s Guide to Understanding SEO”. This includes a great metaphor of what SEO is, why it works, and why you should work to make your content as optimised as possible.
- To understand some of the terms (like what SEO is) and why content is really only one aspect of SEO, take a look at “Simplified Approach to Understanding SEO”.
- Learn a little more about how we approach SEO with “Getting Started with SEO: The BeKonstructive Approach”.
- Learn more about how SEO can help you stand out from the crowd in “How Real Estate Agents Can Use SEO to Increase Their Visibility”.
Understanding the Waiting Game
One of the first things we tell our clients is that ranking well on Google takes time. If you are introducing new pages to your website (such as new landing pages, blogs, or property listings), then you need to give Google time to analyse where that content should sit.
If most of your listings are being picked up by Google, know that there could be no problems with your website or listings themselves. You could have the most perfectly optimised content with SEO tailored real estate copywriting, but in most cases it simply takes time for Google to index and display your pages in search results.
For a more comprehensive look at why SEO is very much a waiting game, take a look at “How Long Does SEO Take? A Quick Explanation for a Long Process”.
There are, however ,a few steps you can take to expedite the process and improve the chances of getting indexed faster.
Steps You Can Take to Improve Your Real Estate’s SEO on Listings
One of the most important ways to help your real estate business improve SEO for listings is to make them as optimised as possible.
It can be very tempting to pop up a listing without taking extra steps to incorporate keywords, meet minimum word limits, creating unique listing content, or updating a previous listing for the same property, however these factors tie heavily into whether or not Google determines your content meets the Helpful Content standards.
1. Optimise Metadata for Maximum Impact
Metadata plays a vital role in improving your real estate SEO in Brisbane and other local markets, in particular. It includes elements such as meta titles, descriptions, and keywords that provide search engines like Google with the information it needs to determine whether your content is worth ranking. By strategically incorporating relevant keywords into your metadata, you can significantly enhance the visibility of your property listings in search results – and by creating custom metadata in general, you will be able to customise the information searchers look at to get a feel for your listings.
Crafting compelling meta titles can capture attention and concise meta descriptions that accurately represent the property, enticing users to click through to your listing.
- You can learn more about metadata and its purpose in Bek’s “Metadata Rules” blog.
2. Meet Google’s Word Limit for Valuable Content
Google places a premium on valuable content that provides useful information to users. Ensure that your property descriptions meet the minimum word limit of 350 words. By offering detailed and informative descriptions, you not only cater to Google’s requirements but also enhance the overall user experience. Engaging descriptions that highlight unique selling points and key features of the property can help you stand out from the competition.
3. Unleash the Power of Unique Listings
Using the same property description across multiple marketing platforms can impede Google’s indexing process. When your listings already exist on other websites with identical content, it becomes challenging for Google to differentiate and index your website’s version. To overcome this obstacle, consider crafting unique listing descriptions exclusively for your website. This distinctive content will increase the chances of your website’s version being indexed and displayed in search results.
4. Bid Farewell to Duplicate Listings
If you’ve listed a property multiple times in the past, Google may prioritise older versions over the newer ones. This can hinder the indexing process for your most recent listings. To improve your chances of indexing the newest version of that listing, consider a few options:
- Remove outdated listings before publishing new ones,
- Use unique listing descriptions for each version of your listing; or,
- Update the existing listing on your website to have the most up-to-date information.
By presenting Google with the most up-to-date and relevant content, you increase the likelihood of your listings being indexed.
Proactive Steps to Speed up Indexing
Remember how I said getting listed on Google was a waiting game? There are actually a couple of steps you can take to try to expedite that process. Depending on the size of your site, the number of competitors you have, and how well you’ve optimised your content, these steps can have a huge impact on the speed in which your new pages are indexed.
1. Resubmit Your Sitemap
Take advantage of Google’s Search Console by regularly resubmitting your sitemap. This action helps Google locate and index new pages, including your property listings. By keeping your sitemap up to date, you ensure that Google is aware of your latest content and increases the chances of your listings being indexed promptly.
If you have a smaller site, this can be an incredibly helpful step! However, if you have a larger website you may need to enlist the help of an SEO specialist to make sure key pages are being prioritised when submitting your sitemap.
2. Harness the Power of Social Media
Don’t underestimate the influence of social media in boosting your real estate SEO, for listings in particular. Share links to your property listings on popular social media platforms to generate traffic. Google closely monitors the flow of traffic to your pages, and increased visibility and engagement from social media can positively impact indexing speed. Encourage users to click through to your listings, enticing them to learn more about the property listing on your website rather than giving all of the information from the get-go.
Using social media to drive more traffic to your website can signal to Google that your content is valuable and worthy of indexing.
3. Maintain an Active and Updated Website
Keeping your website updated with fresh content is essential for effective real estate SEO. Google tends to favour websites that are regularly updated with new pages, blog posts, images, and other relevant information. By frequently refreshing your website, you’re telling Google that your site is active and relevant. This encourages Google’s bots to revisit and recrawl your website more frequently, increasing the chances of faster indexing for your listings in the future.
Invest in Real Estate SEO to Help Your Listings Rank Faster
Achieving visibility for your real estate listings on Google requires a well-executed real estate SEO strategy. By optimising metadata, ensuring unique listing descriptions, resubmitting your sitemap, leveraging the power of social media, and maintaining an active and updated website, you can significantly enhance your online presence and improve indexing speed.
Unlock the Potential of Your Real Estate SEO with Our SEO Packages
We understand the importance of a strong online presence for real estate professionals. We are thrilled to offer you a comprehensive SEO package tailored specifically to meet your needs.
We have a number of SEO packages starting at 10 hours per month and including:
- Two high-quality, SEO-optimised blog posts per month to enhance your website’s content and attract organic traffic.
- Expert assistance in fixing metadata issues, ensuring that your property listings receive the attention they deserve in search results.
- Professional support in rewriting duplicate listings to maximise the impact of your unique content.
- Updates and optimisations to your Google Business Profile, further enhancing your visibility in local search results.
- Resubmission of your sitemap to Google’s Search Console, ensuring prompt indexing of your new listings and website updates.
- Promotion of your listings on relevant social media platforms, generating traffic and improving indexing speed.
Unlock the power of real estate SEO today and watch your listings soar to the top of Google’s search results. Contact BeKonstructive Marketing for more information.
