SEO Keyword Strategy for Your Real Estate Business

Ever wonder how websites get popular online – it can’t all be word of mouth and paid ads, can it? That’s the power of search engine optimization (SEO) keywords. These keywords are the cornerstone of SEO strategy, a broad marketing practice with many tactics to increase online exposure. Using keywords on your website is just one component of this strategy and is vital to growing a business for new and seasoned real estate agents. They help establish what content to post, dictate backlink strategy, show what to spend on ads, and so much more. We recommend starting small before doing a deep dive into SEO and all its benefits, so for now we will focus on the basics of SEO keyword strategy. Let’s look at what keywords are, how they can optimize growth strategy, and our tips on how to search for the right keywords.

What are SEO Keywords?

Search engine optimization (SEO) keywords are words or phrases in online content that make it easier for a website to be found through search engines, such as Google or Yahoo. Search engines scan the internet for sites related to a user’s search, which often turns up thousands of results. A site with a good SEO keyword strategy will appear sooner in the results than its competitors. While paid ads can also boost search engine rankings, SEO keywords do the job organically and at no cost.

SEO Keyword Strategy

Choosing the right SEO keywords takes “understanding your audience at a higher level so that you can connect with them through their searches,” says Mallory Mundy, co-founder of The Daily Social Strategy. Keywords should be strategically chosen based on content topic, industry, location, and any other categories your target audience might be interested in searching. It’s best to choose a few categories and use keywords from each that are relevant to your content. Search engines may not show sites with keywords that are irrelevant or used too much on one page. The more cohesive and purposeful your keywords are, the more traffic will be pushed to your site by boosting your rankings in the search engine results.

Where to Find Them

There are many SEO keyword search sites to help you identify specific keywords to use, based on the more general categories you choose to target. Google AdWords is one of the most popular sites due to Google’s domination of search engines and users’ ability to link their keyword research directly to their paid Google Ads campaigns. There are other free search tools available like WordStream, Keyword Tool, and Wordtracker. You can type “free SEO keyword search” in your favorite search engine to find more services like these (isn’t it ironic?).

How to Search for Them

You can spend hours getting lost in your keyword search which is why we have already done some of the work for you! Below are our SEO keyword suggestions for residential real estate agents in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. A couple of numbers to pay attention to when choosing related keywords are the search popularity and the amount of competition from other online content.

We used Google Ads’ keyword search to look up the terms “austin real estate,” “dallas real estate,” “houston real estate,” and “san antonio real estate.” The search filter was set to the last three months (October-December 2021), enough time to see trends that stick and to stay current. These are the top five related search results in each city.

Austin

• “austin texas homes for sale” – 22,200 / medium
• “houses for sale in austin tx” – 14,800 / medium
• “austin homes for sale” – 9,900 / medium
• “austin houses for sale” – 6,600 / medium
• “austin texas houses” – 6,600 / medium

Dallas

• “houses for sale in dallas tx” – 14,800 / medium
• “homes for sale in dallas tx” – 14,800 / medium
• “dallas homes for sale” – 9,900 / medium
• “dallas house sale” – 8,100 / medium
• “dallas housing market” – 1,900 / low

Houston

• “houses for sale in houston tx” – 22,200 / medium
• “home for sale houston tx” – 18,100 / medium
• “house rent in tx houston”- 14,800 / medium
• “houston homes for sale” – 12,100  medium
• “houston house to rent” – 12,100 / medium

 San Antonio

• “homes for sale san antonio”- 18,100 / medium
• “houses for sale san antonio” – 18,100 / medium
• “homes in san antonio tx for sale”- 14,800 / medium
• “houses for sale in san antonio tx”- 12,100 / medium
• “san antonio texas real estate” – 1,300 / medium

Now What?

It’s best practice to make sure there are popular keywords on every page of your site – keep in mind the level of competition, though. It’s even better if you add keywords to the “alt text” on images to maximize the number of times they’re used without overdoing it on the page content. If you’re creating blogs, do a quick keyword search to add them in while writing. Then consider Google Search Console or a similar service from your web domain provider, like Wix or WordPress, to monitor how well your keywords are working. Their analytics can show which keywords are driving more traffic to your site specifically. It’s best to evaluate every couple of months to make sure you still have the best-performing SEO keywords on your site.

High-quality, professional listing photos also help increase your online exposure and convert more viewers into clients. Schedule your residential photography appointment with Square Foot Photography today!