The real estate market continues to grow by leaps and bounds, with 1.162 million real estate brokers and sales businesses in the United States in 2023. That’s a jump of 4.9% more professionals from 2022.
Considering the upward trajectory and increasingly steep competition in the real estate sector, your agency can’t afford to select anything but the most optimal keywords for achieving your content marketing goals.
Without them, you will fall behind in the search engine rankings, fail to generate as many qualified leads and struggle with targeted traffic.
Real estate keywords will ensure you maintain the competitive edge to match and even usurp the competition.
If this is your first time dealing with keywords, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, we have real estate keywords, strategies, and insights to help real estate professionals learn which keywords to use and how to fuel business growth!
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- Targeted real estate keywords can present many digital marketing benefits, including increased visibility, traffic, and qualified leads.
- However, keyword research is not one-and-done in the ultra-competitive real estate market. You must be ready to continually research and adapt to maintain your edge.
Understanding Real Estate Keywords
Keywords are used in digital marketing and SEO, from advertising to blog posts, social media bios and content, videos, infographics, webinars, and email marketing.
Real estate keywords target the home and property buying and selling markets.
Using keywords makes you more visible online, as when someone searches for the term you rank for, your website will appear at the top of the results page (or thereabouts). That’s how you increase your leads.
Of course, these are more than standard leads your keywords will attract, but qualified leads. Marketing- and sales-qualified leads enter the funnel more aware of your real estate business, meaning they’re readier to do business.
Before you can get all those results, you need to choose the right types of keywords, with four kinds popular in real estate. Here’s more information on each.
Generic keywords in real estate
Short-tail or generic keywords are popular in real estate, as there are so many terms associated with the industry, especially from a buying and selling perspective. “Real estate for sale” and “real estate listings” are two examples of generic keywords.
These are catchy yet broad terms that can appeal to a large audience. However, the SEO keywords are more competitive because they’re so generalized, making it harder for your real estate agency to stand out when using them.
Branded keywords in real estate
The next types of real estate keywords don’t suffer from that same issue. They’re branded, making them unique to major names in the real estate industry. For example, let’s use Keller Williams, including real estate SEO keywords like “Keller Williams homes for sale” or “selling Keller Williams home.”
When you search these terms, only Keller Williams brands will show up in the SERPs. You can replace that realtor with any brand, including Coldwell Banker, Berkshire Hathaway, Century 21, and RE/MAX.
Long-tail keywords in real estate
The examples above illustrate long-tail keywords, which use more words than a generic, short-term keyword to increase specificity. That’s the difference between “realtor near me” and “Keller Williams realtor near me.”
While long-tail keywords produce more SEO results, that’s not to discount the value of short-tail keywords. Your marketing campaign can use both.
Location-based keywords for real estate
I saved the most results-driven keywords, which are location-based terms, for last.
These are huge in real estate, where searches are catered to buying and selling in specific markets.
The “Keller Williams near me” keyword is an example of location-based terms, as is “realtor in San Diego, CA,” “selling a home in Princeton, New Jersey,” and “homes for sale in Chicago, IL.”
Location-based keywords are best in real estate because they’re targeted and specific. They’re the perfect type of long-tail keyword.
How to Perform Keyword Research for Real Estate
The keywords your real estate agency selects will impact your ability to reach potential buyers and sellers, so understanding the basics of researching terms is key. Here’s what you need to know.
Step 1: Decide your goals
Before you select keywords willy-nilly, you must determine what you want to use them for regarding your latest marketing or advertising campaign.
For example, do you want to inform the public about your new listings for sale? Do you want to attract more buyers? The keywords you select will be very different depending on how you answer these questions.
Step 2: Look into your current authority ranking
Unless your real estate agency is brand new, you likely have a website and some online presence. That means you’ve been assigned a rank. It might not be great, but that’s okay, as you will work on it.
Look at your current rank to see which keywords your website might rank well for. You can use tools such as SEMrush’s SEO Rank Checker, AgencyAnalytics’ SEO Ranking Checker, Google Ranking Live Check, The HOTH’s Google Rank Checker Tool, or Seobility’s SEO Checker.
If you have keywords you rank well for, then great! You can finetune them or expand upon them to rank even better, such as making a short-tail keyword into a long-tail one.
However, if you don’t have any keywords you rank well for at current, don’t sweat it. You will sooner than later.
Step 3: Brainstorm new keywords
While having some existing keywords in your arsenal is good, you can’t rely on those exclusively to drive your campaign goals. You need to expand your keyword repertoire.
Real estate SEO services can help you expand your keyword repertoire by conducting in-depth research into what your target audience is searching for.
You must do keyword research for this, digging deep into what audiences like yours search for and then selecting keywords based on this information.
You have your pick of keyword tools, as so many are out there. Some are free but may only take you so far. Others are paid and will allow you to use their full breadth of services.
You can’t go wrong with SEMrush, Moz Keyword Explorer, Backlinko, Google Keyword Planner, TopicRanker, Google Search Console, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, and Keywords Everywhere.
Step 4: Determine keyword veracity using tools
Great, so you’ve identified some keywords. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean those are the exact terms you’ll use in your next real estate marketing campaign.
You see, all keywords have a level of competitiveness determined by their search volume, aka how often people search for those terms. Keywords that get few searches have a low level of competition, while those that get a lot of searches have high competition.
High-search-volume keywords risk oversaturation. If you look at your real estate competitors, everyone may be using these keywords or variations of them. However, if you look at low-search-volume keywords, no one is using them.
That’s why the best types of keywords lie somewhere in the middle.
The above keyword research tools should be able to measure keyword difficulty, which determines how competitive a term is. Factors like domain authority, referring domains, backlink quality, and content quality determine a keyword’s difficulty.
A score below 30% means the keywords have a low difficulty. They don’t get a lot of searches but won’t be hard to rank for since they don’t have a lot of competition. A keyword difficulty score of 30 to 50% is moderate, so it’s right in that sweet spot.
Keywords over 70% have high difficulty because they’re so competitive.
Step 5: Select keywords
With your keywords quantified, next, it’s time to choose those that would best suit your campaign and add them.
Read more: Real Estate CRM — Everything You Need to Know
How to Implement Real Estate Keywords in Your Marketing Strategy
The question becomes … add them where? Let me guide you through that with the following tips and suggestions.
Use keywords in your listings
Let’s cut to the chase with one of the best suggestions for real estate keywords: using them in your listings.
If your agency sells homes in Nassau, New Hampshire, and you have new listings available, using a long-tail keyword will drive the type of people you want to your website. They’ll be looking to buy homes in the area.
You should also attract the attention of other area sellers who might want to use your agency for their properties.
Try inserting the keyword into the listing title, the alt tags for images, and the body content.
Include long-tail keywords
As you do keyword research, you’ll notice a trend. The search terms with the highest keyword difficulty are usually the most general.
To reiterate what I said before, short-tail keywords have their place. However, long-tail keywords will produce more targeted results and thus should be the lion’s share of your campaign’s focus.
Incorporate keywords into your social media marketing
Beyond your website listings, you should also use real estate keywords in your social media.
One of the best places for keyword insertion is your bio. If you specialize in a specific market as a realtor, mention it using a hashtag with your keyword, such as #BuyingandSellinginSanFrancisco.
The above example, while extremely simple regarding keyword and hashtag usage, gives you an idea of how it’s done.
Besides your bio, you can also use hashtags in your social content and the captions you write. Using real estate terms in the captions especially can help potential buyers and sellers find you.
How? All they have to do is search for the tag, and then voila, your real estate Instagram profile will appear.
I use Instagram as an example, but you can follow these strategies for any social media platform that lets you write a bio with hashtags and add the hashes to your posts, from Twitter to TikTok.
Use one keyword per landing page
Real estate keywords go excellent on your landing pages, especially your buying, selling, and appraisal pages.
However, the goal is to keep it to one keyword. You can add a few variations on the keyword, like “buying homes in San Diego, CA,” versus “buying homes in San Diego, California,” but don’t go overboard.
Read more: Draft the Perfect Real Estate Drip Campaigns [Templates, Examples]
Use keywords in blog content
Another must-use insertion of real estate keywords is in your blog content. This is one of the biggest uses of the keyword research you did, as you will plan blog posts around the keywords and naturally insert them into the content.
Don’t just blindly put keywords in the content. You should research your competitors to see how they’ve used similar keywords, then brainstorm interesting slants for your blog posts. Making your content unique will attract more traffic.
Avoid keyword stuffing by tracking keyword density
When writing blog or landing page content, you risk keyword stuffing, which refers to using the same keyword (or variations of the terms) too many times.
Sometimes, you may do this accidentally; in other cases, it’s done intentionally. There was an erroneous belief that Google would reward pages that used the same keyword a lot, as it was almost as if the site was sending 10x the ranking signals to Google.
However, we know that’s not the case. Google treats keyword stuffing badly, as it should, so it will hurt your rank.
Tracking your keyword density via keyword research and ranking tools will ensure your terms aren’t abused, as Google will punish you whether you stuff keywords intentionally or accidentally.
Get into the habit of using keywords naturally and strategically. Your copy will be more engaging and still hit SEO milestones.
Add keywords to webpage titles
Lastly, don’t forget your website when implementing real estate keywords! Your webpage titles are perfect for using the terms you’ve identified. Be advised that title tags should be between 50 and 70 characters so your message isn’t cut off mid-word.
Read more: The Complete Real Estate Marketing Automation Guide
Advanced Keyword Strategies for Real Estate Professionals
Now that you’ve mastered the basics, it’s time to delve into some advanced tactics realtors should use to expand their keyword usage.
Use keywords to target specialized markets
Does your real estate firm want to expand the services offered? Perfect! Your keyword research will serve as the foundation for achieving your goals. For example, you can use long-tail keywords to target specific industry niches, from commercial properties to luxury real estate.
Keep intent in mind when creating content and marketing materials
As you plan your marketing message and campaign content, you must always keep customer intent as a top focus. Some of the content you publish will be transactional, or perhaps it will be navigational or informational.
Your keywords must match the customer’s intent. So, if you’re assembling a transactional-based campaign, your keywords would center around closing deals.
Watch market trends
What’s going on in the real estate market? Depending on the most pervasive trends, you might decide to adjust your keyword approach or otherwise alter your campaign.
Then again, you could decide to wait. Trends don’t always have staying power, so it will take experience to learn which are worth amending your keyword research and which aren’t.
Update your keyword strategy based on analytics
Another reliable marker to use when determining the future direction of your real estate marketing campaign is analytics.
You’ll review many KPIs to determine if your campaign performs to standards. If you’ve concluded it isn’t, sit down with others within your agency to decide where to go.
Read more: Real Estate Landing Pages and Everything You Need to Know
180 Popular Real Estate Keywords to Boost Organic Traffic
Are you ready to take a deep dive into real estate keywords? A handy list will allow your real estate agency to maintain the momentum you’ve built from campaign to campaign.
The following are some of the best SEO keywords for real estate, curated just for you. They include market segment terms (luxury, commercial, residential, etc.) and intent (renting, buying, selling).
- Realtor
- Real estate agent
- Realtor near me
- Real estate agent near me
- Realtor in [city/town]
- Real estate agent in [city/town]
- Dream home
- Real estate newsletter
- Exclusive listings
- Housing bubble
- Fixer-upper
- Home seller’s guide
- Home buyer’s guide
- FHA loans
- Real estate appraisal
- Buying vs. building a house
- Home appraisals
- Free home appraisals
- Land for sale
- Open houses near me
- Open houses near [city/town]
- Relocation realtor in [city/town]
- Vacation home for sale
- Vacation home for sale in [city/town]
- Home valuation
- Free home valuation
- Reviews of [real estate service]
- Property management services
- Find a real estate agent
- List of real estate agents
- Contact a real estate agent
- Home buying tips
- Home selling tips
- Apartments for rent in [city/town]
- Townhomes for sale in [city/town]
- Condos for sale in [city/town]
- Single-family homes for sale in [city/town]
- Luxury homes for sale in [city/town]
- Waterfront properties for sale in [city/town]
- Home buyer help
- Foreclosure listings
- Foreclosure listings in [city/town]
- [State] Best neighborhoods for [schools, entertainment, etc.]
- First-time home buyer programs
- Bet homes for first-time home buyers
- Mortgage rates
- [Zip code] Homes for sale
- Multiple listing service
- [City/town name] Real estate agent
- [City/town name] Realtor
- Gated community for sale
- Gated community for sale in [city/town]
- [City/town] rentals
- MLS real estate listings
- Real estate listings MLS
- MLS listings
- New construction homes
- New construction homes in [city/town]
- House for rent in [city/town]
- Home for rent in [city/town]
- Apartments for rent in [city/town]
- Townhouses for sale in [city/town]
- Townhomes for sale in [city/town]
- Commercial real estate near me
- Commercial real estate in [city/town]
- Investment properties
- Investment properties in [city/town]
- Real estate investment strategies
- Real estate investment opportunities
- How to invest in real estate
- Real estate agent listings
- Affordable housing near me
- Affordable housing
- Affordable housing in [city/town]
- Real estate market trends
- Buy a home
- Sell a home
- Find real estate
- Open houses near me
- Open houses in [city/town]
- [City/name] property management
- Best real estate listings near me
- Best real estate listings in [city/town]
- Energy-efficient homes
- Energy-efficient homes in [city/town]
- Real estate market trends
- Process of buying a home
- Process of selling a home
- Home staging tips
- Real estate investment trusts
- Buy real estate
- Open floor plan
- Open floor plan in [city/town]
- Commercial property investment
- Top-rated realtor in [city/town]
- Top-rated real estate agent in [city/town]
- Short sale opportunities near me
- Tips to sell in under a month
- Real estate development near me
- Real estate development near [city/town]
- Real estate crowdfunding
- Best improvements for home valuation
- Condo fees
- Eco-friendly homes near me
- Eco-friendly homes in [city/town]
- Top tips to get the best home offer
- Mortgage lenders near me
- Mortgage lenders in [city/town]
- Best mortgage lenders in [city/town]
- Smart homes near me
- Smart homes in [city/town]
- Short selling your home
- Seller’s market
- Buyer’s market
- Smart home technology
- 3D home tours near me
- 3D home tours in [city/town]
- Virtual tours near me
- Virtual tours in [city/town]
- Virtual open houses near me
- Virtual open houses in [city/town]
- Selling real estate without a realtor
- Property taxes near me
- Selling your home as-is
- Selling your home by owner
- Rental market analysis
- Best time to sell your home
- Best time to buy a home
- For sale by owner listings
- Renovated properties near me
- Renovated properties in [city/town]
- Why use a realtor
- Moving checklist
- FSBO
- For sale by owner
- Real estate investment trust
- Real estate investment trust performance
- Negotiating home offers
- Cons of a short sale
- Pros of a short sale
- Home security systems
- Pricing your home to sell
- Preparing your home for sale
- Short sale process
- Real estate attorney
- Curb appeal tips
- Real estate attorney
- Fastest way to sell a home in [city/town]
- Homebuying mistakes to avoid
- Sell a home fast
- Home renovation ideas
- Home renovation tips
- Selling a home
- Comparative market analysis
- Top realtor for buying a new home
- Home staging tips
- Real estate marketing
- Homebuying mistakes to avoid
- Best real estate company
- Neighborhood amenities
- Real estate broker
- Real estate investment clubs
- Real estate networking events
- Property valuation methods
- Real estate photography
- Homeowner’s Association
- HOA
- Property tax deductions
- Real estate negotiation tips
- Landlord-tenant laws
- Home warranty coverage
- Home improvement projects
- Seller representation
- Buyer representation
- Rent-to-own properties
- Moving services near me
- Moving services in [city/town]
- Home inspection checklist
- Rental income potential
- Housing market forecast
Read more: A Brief Guide on Mastering Competition Keywords
How to Leverage Real Estate Keywords for a Competitive Advantage
Maintaining a stronghold in the market is tough, but it should be doable with these techniques to drive your real estate keywords.
Subscribe to real estate news sources
Staying abreast of trends is as easy as connecting with news sources or community groups in your industry, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Remember, you don’t have to take every trend as gospel; pay attention and determine how the trends may impact your campaign.
Use anchor text keywords
Anchor text is highlighted in a sentence to indicate the hyperlink or URL. Using your keyword as anchor text is a smart SEO trend, but you must do it wisely. In other words, cohesion must exist between the hyperlink text and the link itself.
For example, if your real estate keyword is “house listings in Seattle,” and you use that for the anchor text, the link should be to a listings page of homes available in Seattle.
That builds credibility and trust among leads and long-term clients.
Track campaign metrics
Make it a regular habit to monitor the success of your digital marketing campaigns. Since your real estate keywords can go into your email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, and advertising, there are many metrics to track.
Here’s a rundown for you.
- Email open rate
- Email click-through rate
- Email subscribers won over time
- Email subscribers lost over time
- Organic website traffic
- Non-organic website traffic
- Bounce rate
- Average time on page
- Average order value
- Abandoned cart rate
- Return on advertising spend
- Total marketing qualified leads
- Total sales qualified leads
- Cost per lead
- Cost per click
- Social media followers
- Brand mentions
- Engagement rate
- Average impressions per post
- Social media reach
- Email ROI
- Soft email bounces
- Hard email bounces
- Branded keywords
- Share of voice
- Brand sentiment
- Brand awareness
- Keyword rankings
- Session duration
- Conversion rate
- Page views
- Returning vs. unique visitors
Read more: 12 Best Real Estate CRMs for Investors and Agents
Conclusion
Real estate keywords separate the good realty agencies from the truly great ones. They know the key to growth is increasing visibility and attracting quality leads, which can only be achieved by good keywords.
Business success could await you, real estate professional, by prioritizing keyword optimization and SEO in your marketing plans!
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. What are real estate keywords, and why are they important?
Real estate keywords target the realty market, including buyers and sellers. The keywords aim to connect with these users, bring them to a site, and then convert them to assist in their buying and selling needs.
2. How often should I conduct real estate keyword research?
A good schedule is to perform keyword research for real estate terms every three months. You can wait up to six months, but in an ultra-competitive market like this, you might not want to give your competition the chance to catch up.
3. Can I use the same real estate keywords as my competitors?
There may be some overlap for generic, short-tail terms, and perhaps even some long-tail terms tied around cities and towns. Try not to use identical real estate keywords as much as you can.
4. How do I know if my real estate keywords are effective?
You can track the keyword’s rank to see how frequently people search for it. Besides that, reviewing campaign metrics will clearly indicate whether those keywords connect with your target market.
5. What’s the difference between short-tail and long-tail real estate keywords?
Short-tail real estate keywords are broad and generalized, while long-tail keywords have more specificity. An example of a short-tail keyword is “realtor,” while a long-tail extension is “realtor in New York City.”
6. How can I integrate real estate keywords without compromising the quality of my content?
Keywords don’t have to be the death knell of quality content, especially if you use a keyword density tracker.
7. Are there any SEO tools to help track the performance of my real estate keywords?
Plenty! You can try Google Trends, AccuRanker, Moz, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, ProRank Tracker, Jaaxy, and GrowthBar.
8. How do real estate keywords affect my website’s SEO?
Using the right real estate keywords can improve your position in the SERPs and help your site appear in more search results.
9. Can real estate keywords help me target both buyers and sellers?
They certainly can, although you’ll have to use different keywords for sellers versus buyers.
10. How should my real estate keyword strategy be adjusted based on market challenges?
Research your terms to gauge if they’re still marketable, then begin keyword research anew if necessary.
