Creating compelling content that attracts high-value leads has become essential for any estate agency looking to thrive in a competitive market. From real estate digital marketing to SEO for estate agents, the right content not only brings visibility, but also sets the foundation for trust with potential clients.
At Figment, our award-winning track record of SEO success in the property sector has told us that real estate content marketing is about more than just getting seen online. It’s also about connecting with the right audience.
In this article, we’re using our proven, award-winning property sector experience to explore how estate and letting agents can used targeted content strategies to increase leads, convert sales and drive growth.
We’ll reveal:
- How we transformed the business growth trajectories for two real estate industry companies
- Exclusive insights into how to drive winning results in real estate content marketing
- Insider advice on how to create hyper-optimised local landing pages to boost conversion rates
- How to become the trusted authority in your niche by creating highly shareable, topical content
- The hidden importance of optimising property listings – and practical tips on how to do it
Real results in property sector SEO: Case Studies
When we started working with specialist guaranteed rent letting agents City Borough Housing and homes2let, neither had an online presence to shout about. PPC costs were escalating, and the organic traffic they were attracting wasn’t converting.
Two targeted real estate digital marketing strategies later though and we’d turned things around, to the point where one of the campaigns won us the 2022 UK Search Award for Best Use of Search – Real Estate & Property, and the other one recently got us shortlisted for the UK Search Awards 2024 in the same category.
The City Borough Housing story
When we first partnered with City Borough Housing in 2022, they were facing big challenges. Their PPC costs were escalating, and their organic visibility was almost non-existent. This meant the right clients couldn’t find them.
But with a comprehensive, data-driven approach, we pushed their Google rankings up from Page 5 to Page 1 for key search terms, bringing them valuable leads. With a combined SEO and PPC strategy, we multiplied their click-throughs by 11.5 and pushed their conversions up by 1,632%, giving them a 405% return on investment from the campaign start to date.
The homes2let story
Working with homes2let, we took a full-scope approach, addressing SEO, rebranding, web design, and content marketing to reshape their online presence. This campaign saw the client’s Google rankings jump significantly, achieving 44 Top 3 positions and 52 Page 1 rankings, leading to a 1,678% rise in organic web traffic.
So now we’ll share with you some of the targeted content strategies we used to achieve these results. Consider it your step-by-step guide to reaching the right audience in real estate.
Targeted content strategies to drive results in real estate – a How-to Guide
Effective real estate digital marketing calls for a good understanding of your audience, and a commitment to creating content that speaks directly to their needs.
From hyper-localised landing pages to SEO-driven blogs, the following strategies are designed to help estate agents increase visibility, connect with the right prospects, and convert interest into valuable leads.
1. Create hyper-localised landing pages
For estate and letting agents, localised content is essential. Tailoring pages to specific towns, boroughs or regions ensures search engines connect you with people searching for services in those areas.
We employed this tactic for City Borough Housing, developing hyper-localised pages that improved local visibility and drew in high-quality leads from key locations.
Each page is optimised for local search terms, making it easy for prospective landlords to find exactly what they’re looking for.
We also added locally-relevant information to help Google join the dots and understand the location we were focusing on. But more than this, it helped the content resonate with potential clients, showing an understanding of the area and what matters to its residents.
If you’re writing landing pages for an estate or letting agency website, you could for example mention local parks, transport links, schools, community events, things to do and local landmarks, making your agency appear more approachable and knowledgeable. The ‘authority’ on the location if you like.
You’ll also be more likely to see higher conversion rates with hyper-localised content, purely because it’s so relevant. This makes it doubly important to include compelling calls to action, as well as specific property listings that reflect the interests of local buyers or renters.
Top tips for creating effective hyper-localised landing pages:
- Research local keywords: Identify keywords that potential clients are using when searching for properties in specific areas. Incorporate these into your landing page content to improve SEO. For example, phrases like ‘apartments in [location]’ or ‘houses for sale near [local landmark]’ can be effective.
- Highlight local amenities: Detail the features and amenities that make each area desirable. Include information about schools, parks, shopping centres, and transport links. The more relevant information you provide, the more likely potential clients will perceive your agency as a local expert.
- Include testimonials and case studies: Showcase successful transactions or satisfied clients in the local area. This builds trust and demonstrates your agency’s success and expertise within the community.
- Regular updates: Keep your landing pages current. Update them with new listings, local market trends, and community events to ensure that the content remains relevant and engaging.
By implementing hyper-localised landing pages as part of your real estate content marketing strategy, you can create a compelling online presence that drives traffic from your target audience, ultimately leading to increased leads and sales.
2. Produce regular SEO-driven blog content
Our targeted content strategies focus on specific keywords which we research to make sure are the right terms to attract the right kind of traffic at the right stage in the user journey.
Such strategies helped both City Borough Housing and homes2let secure multiple Google Top 3 and Page 1 rankings, considerably improving their online visibility.
But blogging isn’t just about creating fresh content to boost rankings. It’s also a key way to improve authority. Authority drives the perception of a business as a trustworthy and reliable source in its niche. This in turn leads to higher conversions, making achieving authority a very important goal.
The real estate content marketing we have been doing for City Borough Housing since 2022 is all about establishing niche authority.
Our focus is on producing highly topical and shareable articles that address the most common questions and challenges specifically faced by their audience (in this case, landlords seeking reassurance and advice on a range of issues affecting their livelihoods, such as taxation, regulations, legal and financial matters and property maintenance).
This tactic has not only allowed us to improve the client’s Google rankings, it’s also increased trust amongst potential clients, leading to higher engagement rates.
Another factor is that the more topical, authoritative and shareable the content, the more chance it will have of attracting backlinks from reputable sources.
Every link coming into a website from a trusted source acts as a vote of confidence in Google’s eyes, signalling that your content is relevant and valuable, further boosting your rankings.
3. Craft compelling calls to action (CTAs)
A strong call to action (CTA) is crucial for converting website visitors into leads. CTAs should be clear, persuasive, and tailored to resonate with your target audience.
For City Borough Housing, we crafted CTAs that specifically addressed the needs of landlords looking for guaranteed rent solutions. By using language that highlighted the benefits of their services and creating urgency, we saw an increase in engagement and lead generation.
A good piece of advice is to ensure that your CTAs are strategically placed throughout your website and blog content. Always include them at the end of each blog post, within the navigation bar, or even as pop-ups for visitors who have been browsing for a while.
The more opportunities you create for potential clients to engage, the better your chances of converting them into customers.
4. Understand your audience
If you’re going to attract the right kind of traffic, you’ll need to spend time understanding your audience. And then once you do, make sure you craft your content so that it appeals to the demographics that matter most to your agency. If you don’t, you could be inadvertently targeting the wrong audience.
We’ve seen it happen – we did with City Borough Housing – they were originally and unintentionally attracting the wrong type of traffic (tenants seeking rent-paid accommodation rather than landlords interested in guaranteed rent services).
But once we’d identified the issue, it was simple to resolve quickly by rewriting calls to action, meta descriptions and PPC ad content.
Audience research is vital with any kind of marketing, not just real estate digital marketing. By identifying key demographics, preferences, and pain points, you gain a significant advantage when developing your targeted content strategies.
It’s also useful to mention here that the process of getting to know your audience isn’t just important in terms of SEO for estate agents. As well as ensuring your blog content is relevant, if you are selling or letting, you should also be looking at your property listings.
Property listing optimisation is important for two reasons:
- It will help you instantly appeal to the right buyers or renters and show you understand their individual needs
- It will help your property listings show up in the search engines, widening your buy or rent audience, and getting your agency more online visibility
Because different property types and locations appeal to different buyers or renters, it’s essential that your property listings do a good job of highlighting the features that appeal to them.
You also need to consider buyers or renters using search engines to find their next property, and the kind of terms they’ll type in there. These will form your SEO keywords to incorporate into your property listing optimisation strategy.
Here are a few examples:
Family homes
Buyers or renters in the market for a family home will have specific priorities. They’ll be concerned about local amenities, so highlighting features such as proximity to reputable schools, parks, and family-friendly facilities can make all the difference.
Mentioning the practical aspects of the property itself will also help optimise your listing. A garden, perhaps, or a family bathroom plus an additional shower room which will no doubt appeal to families looking to bring calm to hectic school day mornings.
Keywords such as ‘family home in [location] close to school’ and ‘family-friendly property with two bathrooms and garden’ could work well (although you’ll need to do some keyword research using something like Google Keyword Planner to check what will work in your location).
Luxury properties
High-end buyers will seek different features, such as exclusive amenities, spacious living areas, outdoor entertaining spaces and proximity to upscale shopping or dining.
When optimising listings for this demographic, try including keywords relevant to luxury lifestyles, such as ‘luxury apartment in [location] with private balcony’.
Student accommodation
For student lets, you’ll do well to focus on accessibility to universities and local nightlife. Emphasising the number of bedrooms, communal areas, and transport links can attract this audience.
Use keywords like ‘student housing near [university]’ to ensure your listings rank in relevant searches.
Incorporating property listing optimisation like this into your real estate content marketing strategy means not only tailoring the content to resonate with your target audience, but also ensuring that each listing is enriched with the right keywords.
This dual focus enhances your chances of appearing in search results when potential buyers or renters are looking for properties in your area.
Ready to drive estate agency growth with an effective SEO strategy?
In a competitive market, having a robust online presence is no longer optional for estate and letting agents: it’s essential. By implementing effective real estate digital marketing strategies, understanding your audience, optimising property listings, and creating hyper-localised content, you can significantly enhance your agency’s visibility and authority in the market.
At Figment, we understand the unique challenges faced by the property sector and have a proven track record of driving growth through tailored SEO for estate agents. Whether you need support in crafting targeted content strategies or optimising your online presence, our award-winning team is here to help you achieve sustainable success.
If you are ready to boost your estate agency’s digital marketing efforts talk to Figment. Together, we can develop a strategy that connects you with the right audience, and drives the growth of your agency in line with your individual goals.
