SEO for real estate investors

Conversions first, SEO last

Our SEO strategies are very different than what the rest of this planet is doing (you’ll see..). We don’t focus on rankings, we ONLY focus on conversions. Rankings will come automatically.

If Google sees that your site converts well, you WILL rank higher than the websites that do not convert well. So… we need to focus on conversions. Remember the last element of the Motivated Seller Leads Paradox:

There is a reason why we focus on conversion first, and SEO last. It doesn’t matter if you rank #1 if you do not get any conversions. That’s why this guide comes after building a website that converts. Build that first.

The Yin & Yang of lead generation

Rankings and conversions often seem to be at odds with each other, opposing forces like Yin and Yang. Take, for example, the use of images on your website. While they enhance user experience and can lead to higher conversions, they also slow down your site, negatively impacting your SEO performance. Similarly, adding a ton of content, keywords, and text is great for rankings, as Google gets a better understanding of the value your website provides. However, no one will sit and read pages of content just to understand how a procedure works.

What this means is simple: prioritize providing value to your audience over solely focusing on ranking higher. Conversions should always be your primary focus. Even if you optimize your website extensively for rankings, if your traffic isn’t engaging and converting, it’s difficult to maintain a high position.

How an organically ranking website behaves

Google is not stupid! Google is a database of data. They are experts at spam and rank manipulation detection. An organic website (meaning a website that is natural, without forced manipulation tactics to trick Google into thinking the site is better than it really is) has a very identifiable “foot print”.

Organic sites, usually (not always) start slow, without much traction, then they slowly gain momentum with increasing popularity, which gradually leads to traffic. The site then grows, develops more pages, more information and its popularity grows. With that, people start linking to the site (backlinks), and start to frequent the site, and will bookmark the site, and the site will grow faster, exponentially. More backlinks will appear linking to the site, and the site starts to get mentioned on social media platforms.

If not immediately, they will in time! If a brand-new website suddenly gets a ton of traffic, yet it has no internet presence or social media mentions, obviously something is wrong. When such signals become more obvious and appear with more frequency, Google will eventually penalize and deindex the site. Therefore, resist the urge to jump ahead.

No one can promise you a #1 spot on Google, but if you do it like I have done my websites, I don’t see why you wouldn’t take over your market. It is a matter of when, not if. It TRULY is not about the finish line, it is about the journey. It is very important you perform each task better than anyone else ever could. THAT is what will make you rank.

And write down your why. The journey will take time and it will test your patience. Believe me when I say, there WILL be times you will want to give up. When you feel like giving up, come back to it and read it.

Pick your domain name

Your domain name will collect all the SEO juice and will get stronger as you work. You can’t just change your domain name and expect to continue where you left off. You would have to start ALL OVER AGAIN building that SEO strength. So pick it wisely.

EGO: Get rid of it! Immediately. I have enough of it for the both of us. Do you want bragging rights, your name in flashing lights and attention… “www.JerryllNoordenIsTheBest.com”, or do you want to make money?

There are 2 main types of domain names:

I went with the Exact Match Domain. Why? As for me, there is one universal Google rule that supersedes EVERYTHING else. This is how I come up with all my SEO strategies, in fact.

One can argue that making your URL an EMD you DO provide value to your traffic. They can immediately see from your domain name what your business is all about. If I were wrong, why is my EMD ranking so strongly on Google? Why do I have my own knowledge graph on Google, and my mini links in the Search Engine Results Page?

My theory: doing “anything” can be seen both ways, as “trying to manipulate Google” or as “providing value to my traffic”. So how would Google decide? Simple: does your site have a track record of providing value? Is it user friendly? Do users engage with it? Do they bookmark it? If Google trusts your site, you should be fine. So do everything legit.

• No special characters (-, #, _, &).
• No numbers (www.Cash4Houses.com).
• Avoid names too similar to your competitors’ (CTHomeBuyer.com vs. CTHomeBuyers.com).
• Avoid long names (Yes shame on me I know shut up… www.WeBuyHousesInConnecticut.com).
• Try to stick to .com.

Set up your Google Business Profile and your local identity

The absolute first thing we do is establish credibility in Google’s eyes: the online technical aspect of credibility, so that Google recognizes you as a legitimate online entity.

• Google Business Profile. Set it up with your real details. Be honest about your address: if you tell Google you have a physical address and you do not, you run a good chance of being deactivated. Yes, my competitors complained about me and Google had to deactivate me. So I simply told them I do not have a storefront and I was back online in a day.
• A local phone number. People often hate national guys. They want to deal with local buyers. You will get a better credibility score and conversion rate this way.
• A professional email at your own domain. The email is not for your employees. It is to show potential sellers you are a real and legitimate business.
• The same name, address and phone number everywhere you appear online.

It’s not about keywords, it is about intent

Motivated sellers don’t type keywords. They type their pain. That is the pain point-fueled, intention-based keyword search from the demonic rash story.

Don’t just use the traditional way of finding keywords like Google’s keyword volume checker. You have no idea if an actual motivated seller types those keywords in. There are a ton of investors that type in “We Buy Houses In Connecticut” into Google to see where they rank. A better way to find keywords is to visit forums and interview your traffic: when they call, just ask them what they typed into Google to find you.

A few of my favorite keywords are:

• Cash For Houses (and all variations like “cash for my house”)
• We Buy Houses In [City] [State]
• [City] Home Buyers
• Sell My House In [City] [State]

How to use them

• 1 to 2 keywords per page. For your home page: “We Buy Houses In [City] [State]” and “Sell My House In [City] [State]”. No two pages should share the same keyword.
• The keyword 100-words rule. Use your main keyword within the first 100 words. Not just for SEO reasons but also to let your users know early on what your website is about.
• Write organically, then vary. I have noticed that when I write organically, I have between 3 and 5 mentions of my keyword. I keep that count and change it up with variations: we buy houses in New Haven CT, we buy houses in New Haven Connecticut, we buy houses in New Haven, we buy houses.
• Use LSI words. House → Home → Property. Buy → Purchase → Acquire.
• No keyword stuffing. There is no need to force keywords in there.

Write headers for people first, then Google

A header is a great opportunity to inspire, and motivate, your ideal traffic to not only keep reading the content, but also to fill in the forms! Headers provide a structured progression of information bits in a specific order to maximize engagement, trust, and establishment of authority.

When it comes to SEO, headers also play a huge role. Use your keywords inside the headers. Google uses your headers to determine what that page is about.

Front-load your power words

You are probably more familiar with the saying “Front-Load Your Keywords”. I don’t like this phrase as this is more Google-based. What you truly need to do is front-load your action words, as this has a psychological effect on your audience. Compare:

What do you think your traffic is on the site for? They are looking for Cash For Their House And Fast! (Use the timeline that is true for you.)

Title tags

H1 Title Tag: There Can Only Be One! Much like the title of a book, it describes what the page in its entirety is about. Use the page’s main title and your most sought-after keyword. H2 tags are the chapters: they let Google know what the paragraph that follows is about. I personally never bother with H3 tags…

Optimize your pictures

When uploading pictures to your website, you need to take some technical SEO into account. Don’t worry, a dimwit could do it.

1. Name the file descriptively.
   If you have a picture of a freshly rehabbed kitchen, do not name the image “untitled2.png”. Google sees the file name, and Google can “read” it.
2. Resize it to the size it’s shown at.
   Crop useless portions. Smaller pictures mean smaller file sizes.
3. Convert and compress.
   WebP works well, including for pictures without backgrounds. The more you compress, the lower the quality, so find a balance.
4. Always include alt text.
   Alt text lets screen readers describe the picture to someone who is blind. It should be descriptive and not just another opportunity to stuff a few extra keywords. Include your keywords only as long as doing so doesn’t sacrifice the description.
5. Use only original, sharp pictures.
   ALL pictures are crisp, sharp, bright, never blurry, and provoke credibility. No pictures are added that don’t do anything.

Publish early, then build lure pages

The moment your website is live, it starts accumulating “age.” The time a website has been live on the internet is a ranking factor for Google, so don’t wait for perfect. Publish as quickly as possible, with at least your city, your name, your phone number and what you do, so Google knows where and for what to rank you.

Then build lure pages: pages that pull people from a Google search onto your website and send them to your base page (the home page). A City Page, for example, lures people who need to sell their house in that city. You can (should) have a ton of Lure Pages. For blogs and other long content, write in a storytelling format rather than an informational one: people like stories, not just information.

But don’t write the same page twenty times with the city name swapped. How are you going to show your traffic who you are, what you are like, and what it would be like to work with specifically you when you have the same generic content everyone else has? Write original content.

Link out, and link your own pages together

Linking out is when you give somebody else a link on your website. Why would you? Google rewards value. Imagine I link a lot to Wikipedia, and we all know Wikipedia has very accurate information. If I link out to Wikipedia, it means that the content on my website refers to the content of Wikipedia. So that means my content is quite accurate, it means it’s good content. That is why it’s a huge benefit to link out to other high authority credible websites.

• Link to at least 2 authority Google-trusted sites, where they genuinely add value for your reader.
• Interlink the other relevant pages on your website to aid credibility and conversions, and to move traffic through your funnel.
• Anchor text should ideally be no more than 3–5 words.
• Anchor text clearly suggests what content or value will be found by clicking on the link.

The reason you link to a matching topic is that you do not put a random link on your website: only a link that corresponds to what you’re talking about gives your traffic actual value.

Make Google trust you: social profiles

Imagine you were interested in buying a really expensive TV from a never-heard-before company like MBBT (MonkeyButtBreath Technologies) or from the company Weskamemol (pronounced we-scam-them-all), and they were nowhere to be found online. No Facebook business profile, no Instagram, no YouTube, no other products, no reviews, no customer engagement, nothing. Would you easily buy that TV?

By setting up your social media accounts and linking them back to your site, Google will know that all the social media accounts you create are represented by and are an extension of your company. No business is considered legitimate without a Facebook account, LinkedIn account, YouTube account, and Instagram account. These are the bare minimum. And no you lazy punk, just setting them up is not enough. They all need to look professional.

And don’t skip YouTube. When somebody is ready to sell their house and wants to know how the process works, people rather listen to somebody explain it than read 15 pages of text. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine on the planet.

The on-page SEO checklist

Check these off page by page. When all the small boxes are checked, look at the page as a whole once more.

SEO for real estate investors, step by step

1. Publish now.
   Age is a ranking factor. Get the site live with your city, name, number and what you do.
2. Set up your local identity.
   Google Business Profile, local phone number, professional email, and the same details everywhere.
3. Pick 1–2 keywords per page from real sellers.
   Ask every caller what they typed into Google. Start with “We Buy Houses In [City] [State]” and “Sell My House In [City] [State]” for the home page.
4. Optimize each page with the checklist.
   Keyword in the first 100 words, one H1, power-word headers, optimized pictures, links in and out.
5. Set up your social profiles and link them to your site.
   Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram, looking professional.
6. Add a lure page at a time.
   Original city and topic pages that send people to your home page.
7. Measure, but only on enough data.
   Which keywords you rank for, how many people land, how long they stay, where they bounce.

Questions