Top Trends in Property SEO

Nationwide SEO versus Location-Specific SEO

The first consideration to make as a property developer looking at gaining presence with SEO is whether to target a nationwide audience or focus on specific geographical locations.

While nationwide SEO may be more lucrative in order to reach a broader audience, it can be much more competitive. It also runs the risk that your visitors searching for “new homes” haven’t settled on a specific location yet, or might simply just be browsing. In other words, you need to consider whether nationwide SEO is going to have the impact required in order to get properties sold.

Location-specific SEO on the other hand targets potential buyers in particular regions, counties, cities or towns. For property developers with a development in a particular town, or several developments in a particular county, having Town-specific and County-specific pages would be beneficial for capturing those “new homes in [location]” searches that potential customers will be making.

The data below, from Semrush, shows an example of “new homes in [location]” queries. The “volume” indicates the number of searches being made per month.

For property developers with a large number of developments across the country, a mixture of nationwide and location-specific SEO is likely to be most effective.

Nationwide SEO is essential for building brand awareness and reaching a wide audience interested in real estate investment opportunities. However, location-specific SEO allows developers to target potential buyers actively searching for properties in specific areas.

By optimising local keywords, incorporating location-based metadata, and leveraging local business directories, developers can enhance their visibility among local audiences and increase the likelihood of attracting qualified leads.

The data above shows search volumes for “new homes near me” and related queries - another potential entry point for your would-be home buyers.

Bear in mind that Google is able to understand “near me” and provide location-specific search results nowadays, so creating location-specific landing pages also caters for these search terms - which, as shown above, have incredibly high search volume.

Creating Perfect Location-Specific SEO Landing Pages

As a property developer, you’re likely to have a development page that shows the location of the new builds, the type of properties available, price points, and so on.

This landing page, on its own, could be good enough to rank for “new homes in [location]” where the ‘location’ is obviously specific to the locality of where the development exists.

However, “build it and they will come” does not apply to simply having a landing page with properties available for sale.

Landing pages need optimised metadata, optimised content, and optimised internal linking in order to be able to rank for those “new homes in [location]” searches.

Equally, if you have more than one development in the same town, city or county, then each of your development pages may end up competing with one another. In turn, each development may end up ranking poorly.

In this event, it would be better to create specific landing pages for the town, city or county, as an entry point for users making those “new homes in [location]” searches. 

• County Page - e.g. “New homes in Kent”
• City/Town Page - e.g. “New homes in Ashford”
• Development Page - e.g. Development X - Launching June 2024

This way, the user can enter on a dedicated SEO-friendly landing page, with optimised content, and a clear call to action to show which developments exist in that town, city or county - allowing the user to make a choice over which development is the best fit for them.

Mobile Usability as a Ranking Factor

Mobile devices generated 313% more visits to web pages than Desktop devices in 2023, according to this Semrush survey.

Mobile performance has also been a ranking factor for many years, with mobile-first SEO now being part of Google’s core algorithms.

It goes without saying, therefore, that property developers must ensure that their websites are optimised for mobile devices to provide users with a seamless browsing experience and improve their search rankings.

Not only is this important for ranking performance, but because of the increased levels of competition and ease of accessibility too. If a user isn’t happy with the experience on your website, it’s incredibly likely that they will go back to the search result and find a competitor website that meets their needs more easily - perhaps with a faster-loading website or better mobile functionality. If this happens, then you’ve lost the customer already.

Mobile usability encompasses factors such as responsive design, fast loading times, and intuitive navigation, all of which contribute to a positive user experience on mobile devices.

If you’re not sure whether your property website is mobile-friendly, Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool is well worth a look - this tool provides a score out of 100 and provides some mobile-specific metrics to identify how performance could be improved, too.

Make Sure You’re Answering New Home Questions

Just having landing pages for the properties for sale is no longer good enough in such a competitive market. Consider that your potential home buyers can purchase from several different home builders, and in many cases, are first-time buyers needing as much guidance and education as possible.
Therefore, just targeting sales-driving keywords is not an effective enough strategy to be able to truly make a mark.

Instead, we need to understand all of the research that a new home buyer is likely to do, and the searches they are likely to make along the way to making their decision.

Google’s algorithm updates in recent years have been focused on websites creating ‘Helpful Content’ and how they best demonstrate their Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust (or E-E-A-T). In short, this means that Google is favouring websites that can show they truly are an expert on that subject in their own right.

What this means is that as a property developer, you need to be creating content that helps your readers understand everything they are going to need to know from start to finish - in other words, creating helpful content! And, if that provides an improved conversion rate and a higher chance of making a sale, then why wouldn’t we want this?

By conducting thorough keyword research, developers can identify common questions, concerns, and search queries that potential homebuyers may have.

Although these will have a lower search volume, these are searches being made by users who are truly interested in buying a home - they are already well into their research journey.

Additionally, consider that with Google’s E-E-A-T algorithms, we aren’t necessarily trying to directly rank for these questions - instead, we want to demonstrate our expertise in order to be rewarded with competitive ranking for our sales-driving keywords. This content all goes hand in hand towards driving that performance.

Incorporating these questions and answers into website content - such as in blog posts, FAQs, and on property landing pages - can help drive organic traffic and address the needs of your target audience. Moreover, providing this type of valuable and informative content that answers users' questions can establish credibility and authority, further enhancing trust and the likelihood of a conversion.

Consider Other Entry Points For Your Users

Whether your visitor’s entry point to your website was through SEO, Paid Media or otherwise, we still need to consider all of the other possibilities for how a user might encounter our website or brand name.

In the property market in particular, there are two other key entry points to gaining exposure to a would-be home buyer - namely, local listings and property apps.

Local Listings / Google Maps

Local listings and map-based services such as Google Maps are invaluable tools for property developers. By claiming and optimising a Google My Business listing, developers can ensure that their property developments appear prominently in local search results and Google Maps listings. This means that when those lucrative “new homes near me” searches are made, you gain presence in Maps listings as well as your other marketing activities. 

While you wouldn’t put every house for sale on Google Maps, you could instead put the address of the Sales Office where customers can visit to make a purchase.

Property Apps

In an era where mobile apps dominate our daily lives, property developers must have a presence on popular property apps, as well as other marketing activities, in order to reach potential buyers effectively.

Property apps, such as Rightmove, serve as valuable entry points for potential home buyers seeking information about new developments within their target location. Quickly being able to see properties available, from all new home builders, makes them valuable channels for home buyers to narrow down their search and find the right property for their needs.

By leveraging these property apps, property developers can provide detailed information about the properties, and engage proactively with prospective buyers. By optimising property listings with high-quality photos, comprehensive descriptions, and virtual tours, developers can capture the attention of app users, indirectly driving traffic to their websites or sales offices.

Moreover, making a good impression at this early stage of the customer’s journey means the would-be home buyer is much more likely to then move to a search engine to browse on the developer’s website, to take their next step towards buying a house.

Key Takeaways

• Optimising listings on property apps creates a positive first impression and increases the chance of appearing in users' subsequent searches.
• This optimisation ensures visibility throughout the user's journey, including when they enquire about a purchase or search for "new homes near me."
• SEO is crucial for property developers' marketing success, impacting organic listings and the overall user journey.
• Effective SEO strategies prioritise relevant content, local and nationwide optimisation, mobile usability, and user experience.
• These strategies help property developers enhance online visibility, attract qualified leads, and drive conversions.
• In the competitive real estate market, staying ahead of industry trends and refining SEO approaches is essential for long-term success.

Need help with gaining traction in the property market? Speak to our SEO experts today for all the help and advice you need.