Local SEO for real estate: Your keys to better visibility

If there was ever an industry that depended heavily on local visibility, it’s real estate.

Realty is a hugely competitive industry, with local agents vying for the hottest properties and most serious buyers.

Agents have traditionally relied on expensive newspaper ads, billboards, and cold calling to compete with each other.

But today, it’s top local rankings that are the truly valuable real estate.

Leveraging local SEO for real estate agents to attract potential buyers and sellers frees you up to show more homes and close more deals.

And with powerful tools like Semrush Local on your side, it’s easier than ever to secure local SEO visibility.

What do you mean by ‘local SEO for real estate’?

Gone are the days of using local newspapers and browsing the windows of the local real estate agency. Today, most homebuyers and sellers begin their real estate journey online.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 97% of all homebuyers use the internet in their home search.

When people want help buying or selling a home in a given area, they’ll search for something like “real estate agent in Baltimore.”

And you need to be a real estate agent that appears in the results.

In the above results, the first real estate agent has a lower average rating than the other two. However, it has significantly more reviews.

Increasing your positive review count, optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP), and properly managing business listings can all boost local SEO for real estate agents.

And you don’t need to be an expert to get started.

Your listings surveyor: Semrush's Listing Management identifies directories you aren’t listed in and publishes your details for you.

Do your local SEO due diligence

As with property sales, it’s best to start with a professional evaluation of what you’re working with.

Use a tool like Semrush Local’s free auditor to quickly learn what’s going right and where you can get some quick wins.

In next to no time, you’ll discover:

• Directories you should be in, but aren’t
• Any errors in your current listings
• How many online reviews you have
• Your average rating across all reviews

Keeping your NAP (name, address, phone number) consistent is key to a solid local SEO strategy. It signals to search engines that the information you provide is reliable and worth ranking for users.

Spring clean: The path to better rankings is paved with good local SEO housekeeping. Leverage Semrush's Listing Management to maintain accurate and up-to-date business information across all online platforms and directories.

Google Business Profile for real estate agents

With a 92.63% search engine market share, Google is most people’s first stop for finding a real estate agent.

That’s why optimizing your Google Business Profile should be a top priority.

GBP is used for Google’s Local Pack and Maps, so you’ll want to provide as much information as possible for maximum visibility.

Start by claiming your GBP if it already exists, or creating one if Google doesn't know about you yet.

Next, make your GBP stand out from the competition by completing all aspects of your profile:

1. Business name: Make sure your real estate agency's name is consistent with your other business listings. Don't try to stuff it with local keywords; keep it the same as you usually present yourself offline.
2. Address: Add your full real estate office address, including suite number, and make sure it matches other listings.
3. Service area: If you don’t have a physical real estate office, you can just specify the areas you sell in.
4. Phone number: Use your main phone number as the primary number and add secondary numbers if you have them. Make sure your primary one is consistent with other listings and your website.
5. Website: Your website link is as important as your NAP data. It’s not only a helpful backlink, but also a way for people to learn more about your real estate agency.
6. Description: Tell people exactly what you do and the kind of real estate you specialize in. Use your local keyword research to optimize your copy (within 750 characters).
7. Opening hours: Let people know when they can reach you and when you're available to show houses. Don't forget the special hours for holidays.
8. Opening date: The year and month your business started.
9. Booking link: Add an appointment link for potential home buyers and sellers to easily schedule time with you.
10. Social media: Social media isn’t thought to directly impact local SEO for real estate agents, but you should still include links to your profiles.
11. Photos: Let users see your offices and the real estate agents they can expect to deal with.
12. Services: Select the real estate services you offer from the predefined list.
13. Facilities: Provide important info about disabled access, restroom facilities, and languages spoken at your office.
14. Q&A: If you find people often ask the same real estate questions, add them to the Q&A section to save everyone time.
15. Business categories: Choose the best primary business category for you:

• Commercial real estate agency
• Industrial real estate agency
• Real estate agency
• Real estate agent
• Real estate rental agency
• Real estate developer
• Real estate auctioneer
• You can use other relevant categories as secondary options (up to 10 categories).

Once you’ve completed all sections of your GBP, you’ll see a green circle in your management dashboard to indicate good profile strength.

With a strong GBP in your local SEO portfolio, it’s time to build more citations on other top directories.

On top of everything: Connect your GBP to Semrush to pull valuable insights into the platform’s reporting tools.

Boosting your real estate visibility with local SEO

One of Google’s top three local ranking factors is prominence, which refers to how well-known your real estate business is.

The search engine checks other trusted websites and directories for your NAP data to verify your information is accurate. But Google can’t do that if you don’t get it out there.

You could make a spreadsheet of all the top online directories like Yelp, Bing Places, and Apple Maps, create or claim your profiles for each, and fully optimize them one by one.

Or you could use a listing management tool to distribute your essential details to multiple platforms in one simple action.

Listing management tools save a lot of time and also keep an eye on your listings to make sure no errors or duplicate accounts appear.

Don’t forget: Add your details to trusted directories specific to the real estate industry, like Realtor, Yahoo Homes, and RedFin.

Reputation is everything in real estate marketing.

A real estate agent’s online image can make or break success.

Buying and selling property is often one of the biggest decisions a person can make, so they’ll do their research to find a real estate agent they can trust.

Positive reviews don’t just play a pivotal role in shaping your digital reputation, they can also help you rank higher.

Google factors in both the quality and quantity of reviews when determining your real estate website's position in search results.

That means you can directly affect your local search engine rankings by actively soliciting reviews from satisfied clients.

Review generation can be as simple as reaching out to clients after the keys to the property are handed over and asking them to share their thoughts online. Text messages boast the highest open rate of all marketing channels, almost 100% by some estimates. Include a link to the platform you want them to leave a review on so it’s as easy as possible for them.

When a review comes in, be sure to reply to show them and users reading your reviews that you truly value client feedback.

That goes for negative reviews too. Replying thoughtfully to bad reviews demonstrates your commitment to client satisfaction and resolving issues. If you feel the review was unfair, don’t be tempted to fire off an angry response. Take the time to compose a review that addresses the client’s concerns, and offer to make amends if you are at fault.

Quick reply: Get some AI help with replying to your reviews from Semrush’s Review Management.

Building trust with a well-optimized real estate website

Your website has so much more potential than just real estate listings.

First, consider the user experience:

• Is your website easy to navigate?
• Does it load quickly so they don’t bounce?
• Are you optimized for mobile devices?
• Do you have a valid SSL certificate?
• Are there any broken links?

Run a site audit to check for any technical issues that might make a bad first impression with potential clients and negatively impact your local SEO.

Next, consider local content marketing. Quality content establishes your expertise, earns trust, and builds strong relationships in your community.

Buying a home isn’t a quick decision. It’s a long process that usually starts with basic questions.

Extend your reach beyond highly competitive SEO keywords. Write content based on long-tail keywords that target potential homebuyers earlier on in their buyer journey.

For example, people who eventually look for “homes for sale in Baltimore” might start with search queries like “relocating to Baltimore” or “best areas for families in Baltimore”.

Dive into old client emails and pull out any common questions clients have asked you before the sale closed. By addressing their pain points with a blog post at this early stage, you’re putting your agency top of mind by the time they’re ready to do business.

Great content is also a magnet for backlinks. When a trusted local or industry-related website links to you, it shows Google that others value your content.

The key to success: Use Semrush's keyword research feature to discover localized keywords related to real estate in your target area.