d ich woulTechnical SEO for Real Estate Agents, if you’re a real estate agent looking to improve your online visibility and attract more leads, you’ve come to the right place. Technical SEO can seem daunting at first, but with a little bit of understanding, it’s actually a lot of fun.
What is technical SEO? Simply put, it’s all about optimizing your website so search engines can easily crawl, index, and understand it. This includes things like website architecture, content optimization, and link building. It’s the foundation that supports all your other SEO efforts, and it’s essential for boosting your rankings and driving traffic to your site.
Why is technical SEO so important for real estate agents? Well, in today’s digital age, the majority of homebuyers and sellers start their search for real estate online. They use search engines like Google to find agents and properties that fit their needs. If your website is well-optimized, it will appear higher in the search results, making it more likely that potential clients will find and engage with your business.
In this guide, we’ll be diving deep into the world of technical SEO, and you’ll learn everything you need to know to get your real estate website ranking higher in the search results. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re looking to brush up on your skills, this guide has got you covered.
Understanding Search Engine Algorithms
Search engine algorithms are the complex formulas used by search engines to determine the relevance and importance of websites. Understanding how search engine algorithms work is crucial for improving your website’s visibility and ranking in search results.
To start, let’s define what a search engine algorithm is. In simple terms, it’s a set of rules used by search engines to determine which websites should appear at the top of search results for a particular query. These algorithms use a variety of signals, such as keyword relevance, website authority, and user behavior, to determine the best websites to show users.
Search engines are constantly updating and refining their algorithms, so it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest changes. Some of the most important signals used by search engines include keyword relevance, website authority, and user behavior.
Keyword relevance refers to the use of relevant keywords on your website and how well they match the user’s search query. Website authority refers to the credibility and popularity of your website, based on factors such as the number of high-quality, relevant links pointing to it. Finally, user behavior refers to how users interact with your website, such as the time they spend on your website, the number of pages they visit, and their bounce rate.
Website Architecture for Technical SEO
Website architecture refers to the way your website is organized and structured and plays a crucial role in how search engines understand and index your website. In this section, we’ll explore the basics of website architecture and how it can impact your website’s search engine ranking.
To start, let’s define what website architecture is. Website architecture refers to how your website is organized, including the layout and hierarchy of your pages, how your pages are linked together, and how your content is organized and structured. A well-designed website architecture makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website, improving your visibility and ranking in search results.
One important aspect of website architecture is the use of URLs. URLs, or uniform resource locators, are the web addresses used to access your website’s pages. A well-structured URL hierarchy makes it easier for search engines to understand the relationships between your pages and their content.
Another important aspect of website architecture is the use of internal linking. Internal linking refers to the way your pages are linked together and plays a crucial role in how search engines crawl and index your website. A well-structured internal linking structure helps search engines understand the relationships between your pages and the content they contain, improving your website’s visibility and ranking in search results.
Example of Website Architecture and URL Hierarchy for Real Estate Agents
A well-structured website architecture and URL hierarchy for a real estate agent might look like the following:
- Homepage: www.blairowensgroup.com
- About Us: www.blairowensgroup.com/about-us
- Services: www.blairowensgroup.com/services
- Listings: www.blairowensgroup.com/listings
- Contact Us: www.blairowensgroup.com/contact-us
In this example, the homepage acts as the main hub of the website, linking to all other important pages, including About Us, Services, Properties, and Contact Us.
The Properties page is further organized into subcategories based on location, type of property, and price range. For example:
- Listings: www.blairowensgroup.com/listings
- Homes for Sale: www.blairowensgroup.com/listings/homes-for-sale-[city-here]
- Luxury Homes: www.blairowensgroup.com/listings/luxury-homes-[city-here]
- Homes for Rent: www.blairowensgroup.com/listings/homes-for-rent-[city-here]
- Apartments: www.blairowensgroup.com/listings/apartments-[city-here]
This well-structured URL hierarchy makes it easy for search engines to crawl and index your website, integrates hyperlocal keywords for SEO, as well as for users to navigate and find the information they need. By using clear and concise URLs, you can improve your website’s visibility and ranking in search results, making it easier for potential clients to find you online.
Use an XML Sitemap
One of the core components of technical SEO is having a well-structured website, and that includes having a comprehensive sitemap. A sitemap is essentially a roadmap of your website that helps search engines better understand its structure and content.
XML sitemaps are a type of sitemap specifically designed to communicate with search engines and improve their ability to crawl and index your website. They list all the pages of your website and provide additional information, such as the frequency of updates, the priority of each page, and when it was last modified.
Using a plugin like Yoast SEO to generate your XML sitemap is a great way to make sure your sitemap is up-to-date and complete.
Submitting your XML sitemap to Google Search Console is an important step in ensuring that search engines have a comprehensive understanding of your website’s structure and content. Here’s how you can do it:
- Verify your website in Google Search Console: If you haven’t already, make sure your website is verified in Google Search Console. This will give you access to valuable data and insights about how your website is performing in search results.
- Find your XML sitemap: If you’re using a plugin like Yoast SEO, your XML sitemap will be automatically generated for you. You can usually find it by adding “/sitemap_index.xml” to the end of your website’s URL (e.g. https://www.blairowensgroup.com/sitemap_index.xml).
- Submit your XML sitemap: Once you’ve located your XML sitemap, go to the “Sitemaps” section in Google Search Console and submit your sitemap by entering the URL.
- Monitor your sitemap’s status: After you’ve submitted your sitemap, you can monitor its status in Google Search Console. You’ll be able to see how many of your pages have been indexed and if there are any errors or warnings that need to be addressed.
So why is a sitemap so important for technical SEO? Simply put, it makes it easier for search engines to find and understand the content on your website. This can lead to improved rankings, increased traffic, and a better user experience for your visitors.
Spotting Indexing Issues
When it comes to your website, you want to make sure everything is running smoothly and search engines are able to easily crawl and index your pages. This is where indexing issues come in, and it’s important to address them in order to maintain good technical SEO.
One common indexing issue is when a search engine is unable to access certain pages on your site. This can be due to a variety of reasons, such as a broken link, incorrect URL structure, or the use of disallowed robot directives. To avoid this, make sure all your links are in good working order and that your URLs are properly structured. You can also use Google Search Console to check for crawl errors and fix any issues that arise.
Another indexing issue is duplicate content. This occurs when there are multiple versions of the same page on your site, or when your content is being used on other websites without your permission. Duplicate content can harm your site’s ranking and result in confusion for search engines. To avoid this, make sure your content is original and use canonical tags to tell search engines which version of a page is the preferred one.
Structured Data
What exactly is structured data, you ask? It’s a way to label and organize the content on your website so that search engines can better understand it. Think of it as adding tags to your website’s content to give it more context and meaning.
There are different types of structured data, but the most common is Schema.org. It’s a markup language that provides a standardized way for search engines to understand the content on your website. For example, if you have a real estate listing on your website, you can use structured data to provide more information about the property, such as the address, price, number of bedrooms, and so on.
Using structured data can improve the appearance of your website in search results and make it more attractive to potential clients. For example, instead of just showing a plain title and URL, a search engine might display a rich snippet that includes an image, the property’s address, and its price.
If you’re using WordPress, you can use plugins like Yoast SEO to automatically implement structured data on your website.
Thin and Duplicate Content
As a real estate agent, your website is a key tool in attracting and retaining clients. Thin and duplicate content can be a major roadblock to achieving your goals in terms of search engine optimization (SEO).
Thin content refers to pages on your website that provide little value to the user. For example, a single paragraph of text on a page is considered thin content. This type of content is seen as low quality by search engines and can negatively impact your rankings.
Duplicate content, on the other hand, is content that appears on multiple pages on your website or on other websites. Search engines have a hard time determining which version of the content is most relevant, so they may choose to ignore it or only show one version in search results.
To avoid the negative impact of thin and duplicate content, you can take a few steps. Use a tool like Copyscape or Siteliner to check for duplicate content on your website. You can then either remove the duplicate content or use canonical tags to indicate which version should be used by search engines.
Canonical Tags
A canonical tag helps search engines identify the page on your website that is the main, authoritative version. This is particularly important if you have multiple pages with similar or identical content.
For example, if you have a property listing on your site and it’s accessible via several different URLs (such as with parameters or sorting options), a canonical tag can be used to indicate which URL should be considered the primary one, which would be the listing detail view. This helps search engines understand which content is most important and relevant to users, and helps to prevent issues with duplicate content.
To manually add a canonical tag to your website, simply add a rel=”canonical” element in the head section of the HTML code for the page in question. Be sure to specify the full URL of the main version of the page you want search engines to consider. To do this easily in WordPress you can use the Yoast SEO plugin.
While adding canonical tags may seem like a small step, it’s a critical component of technical SEO.
Check Your Site for Dead Links
Dead links, also known as broken links, can be a major hindrance to your technical SEO efforts. Not only do they negatively impact the user experience, but they can also signal to search engines that your website is not well-maintained.
Fortunately, checking for dead links is a relatively simple process. There are a variety of online tools you can use, such as Broken Link Checker for WordPress, Ahrefs, or Screaming Frog, to crawl your website and identify any broken links.
Once you have a list of dead links, you have a few options for fixing them. The easiest solution is simply to delete the links or replace them with a working link. If the dead link is on an external website, you may need to reach out to the website owner and ask them to update the link.
Why is it important to check for dead links as part of your technical SEO efforts? Because they can affect both the user experience and your website’s ability to rank well in search results. Search engines take many factors into account when ranking websites, and a high number of dead links can hurt your website’s credibility and impact its ability to rank.
So don’t ignore dead links on your website. Take the time to check for them regularly and fix any issues as soon as possible. This simple step can have a big impact on the success of your technical SEO efforts.
404 Pages
A 404 page appears when a user tries to access a page on your website that no longer exists. While it may not seem like a big deal, it actually can harm your search engine rankings.
Here’s why:
- Search engines don’t like dead-ends: When a user reaches a 404 page, they are effectively hitting a dead-end on your website. Search engines want to provide a seamless user experience and a 404 page can indicate a broken website to search engines.
- Search engines can crawl and index 404 pages: Search engines may still crawl and index your 404 pages, which can lead to them being considered duplicate content, which can harm your search engine rankings.
So, what can you do to avoid these issues? Here are a few steps to help you handle 404 pages:
- Use custom 404 pages: Instead of just displaying a plain 404 page, create a custom 404 page that provides a helpful message to users and offers them ways to navigate to other pages on your website.
- Use 301 redirects: If a page on your website has been moved or deleted, you can use a 301 redirect to automatically redirect users to a relevant page. This helps avoid 404 pages and also helps maintain your website’s search engine rankings for the redirected page. For WordPress, we recommend the Redirection Plugin.
- Monitor for 404 pages: You can use tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog to monitor your website for 404 pages and address them as needed.
By handling 404 pages properly, you can help ensure a seamless user experience and maintain your search engine rankings.
Pagespeed
Speed matters when it comes to websites, especially for technical SEO. Pagespeed refers to the time it takes for a website to load, and it’s one of the many factors that search engines use to rank websites.
As a real estate agent, you want your website to be fast and responsive. You want prospective clients to be able to easily find the information they’re looking for, and you want your website to load quickly, so they don’t get frustrated and go somewhere else.
Google takes pagespeed seriously, and it’s a factor in how it ranks websites. If your website is slow, it’s likely that your search engine rankings will suffer, and you’ll lose out on potential clients.
Luckily, there are things you can do to improve your pagespeed. This means using fast-loading images, using a fast and reliable hosting provider, and making sure your website is built using best practices. We also recommend the use of Nitropack, it will instantly improve your pagespeed score.
Another thing you can do is to use Google’s Pagespeed Insights tool to see how fast your website is, and to get suggestions on how to improve it. The tool is easy to use, and it provides you with a detailed report on what you can do to improve your website’s pagespeed.
Conclusion
Investing time and effort into technical SEO can seem overwhelming at first, but the payoff can be huge in terms of increased visibility, website traffic, and, ultimately, leads and sales. By following the best practices and tips we’ve outlined in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your goals and taking your real estate business to the next level.
