A Real Estate Website Hack To Lure In Organic Searches: Neighborhood Pages

Neighborhood pages – what are they, and how can you use them to supercharge your real estate website?

We’ve spent the past week or two dissecting real estate agent websites and putting them back together in a way that improves your standing as a real estate authority, helps visitors get to know and like you and teaches you how to convert visitors to clients.

You need to get those visitors to your site, though, to accomplish all of the above. Sure, you can pay for them – there are tons of companies out there with the sole aim of separating real estate agents from their money. 

Or, you can hope that what you’re posting to social media will prompt some of your followers to visit, too, but the best shot you have at organic search results is with neighborhood or community pages.

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And not 150-word overviews, but in-depth, scintillating, move-to-this-community type of neighborhood pages.

Yeah, we know you’re busy. But there is an upcoming month or two when you’re going to have some extra time. Why not plan on working on these neighborhood pages or work on hiring someone to write them for you? Don’t think it’s worth it?

The best place to hide a dead body is on page two of Google’s search results

Nearly 70 percent of buyers begin their online search for a home with a local term, according to a Google study. Whether it’s a broad term, such as “homes for sale in Denver,” or a narrower term, such as “homes for sale in Park Hill Denver,” isn’t mentioned.

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What we do know is that it is nearly impossible to rank on page one of Google’s search results for the broad term and, depending on your market, much easier to get there for the narrow term.

Since 75 percent of searchers never scroll past page one, according to Hubspot, and the sites listed on the first page receive 91.5 percent of the traffic, page one of Google for local search results is where you need your real estate website to be.

Neighborhood pages done right

Earlier we mentioned that your neighborhood descriptions should be in-depth and there’s a reason for that. A Backlinko study of more than 1 million Google search results shows that “the average Google first page result contains 1,890 words.”

Yeah, that’s a lot of writing. But don’t let the figure scare you off; remember, that’s the average word count. If you can manage to write even half that, you’ll be way ahead of most of your local competition.

While many SEO experts will tell you that Google likes long content because it’s more valuable to the searcher, we tend to agree with the SEMrush study that finds the second most important ranking factor is the amount of time a visitor remains on the website.

“Nowadays, in order for a site to rank organically, Google needs proof human beings actually like what they click on,” and that proof is session duration, according to SEMRush’s Jen Saunders.

The longer and more interesting the content on your neighborhood pages, the longer your visitors will stick around.

Must-haves for neighborhood pages

Start with the page’s title – use a logical search term.

The written description of your featured neighborhoods should contain all the information a newcomer to the area wants. Sure, the reader may be a local, but if you assume your audience is new to the area you’re more likely to go deeper in your descriptions.

If you need ideas on how to beef up your neighborhood page content, check out Kyle Hiscock’s descriptions. For an example of how to inject your personality into what you write, take a look at Naperville, IL agent Julie Ferenzi’s description. Yes, it’s a tad short, but very engaging.

We like Silicon Valley’s Arigna Team’s neighborhood descriptions, although the page would be of far more value if it had photos and videos.

Speaking of video, check out Jason Yeager’s Kelby Creek Subdivision video. And, Brewster, MA agent Michael Leighton’s gorgeous videos top neighborhood pages that are just about perfect.

Don’t skimp on the neighborhood photos. In fact, a photo should be the first thing a visitor sees when landing on the page. Then, sprinkle more throughout the description. Don’t just mention the community park, go snap a photo of it and slap it on the page.

Hit hard the features that make the neighborhood popular, both in your text and with photos/videos.

Getting to page one of Google for your neighborhood pages isn’t easy (especially if you work in a large market, such as L.A. or Chicago), and it won’t happen overnight. But these pages give you your best shot at showing up in local searches.

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Learn from the best – see what these top performing real estate websites are doing to succeed.

Build the perfect neighborhood page in under 30 minutes – check out this video: