Need a boost in traffic? Update your real estate website content

 

It’s no secret that one of the most important elements of a successful real estate website is content. If it’s done right, real estate website content lures visitors to your site, lets them know what you have to offer and helps establish an initial relationship with potential clients.

Fresh real estate website content, published consistently, is the pathway to Google’s heart. But, it’s not the only way. Updating old content can give you a boost in your rankings as well.

“David Schneider, the co-founder of Ninja Outreach, increased organic traffic on the site by over 40% by bringing old content back to life,” according to marketing genius Neal Patel. “It’s one of the quickest (and easiest) ways to make Google recognize you and bring your rankings back from the graveyard.”

So, dig into the past and breathe new life into old content.

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Where to start

Since neighborhood or community pages include some of your most valuable real estate website content, we suggest starting with these. You’ll need to find your best-performing content — those posts that bring in the most traffic.

You’ll find these by using the Google Search Console, under “Search Traffic” and then “Search Analytics” (on the right side of the page).

To identify the posts that will “give you the most bank for your buck,” according to Schneider, look for the following on your most popular pages:

• A CTR lower than 1 percent
• A high impression rate
• A “position” between 1 and 30

Take a screen shot or make notes on the Google Search Console results. You’ll need them later to use as a comparison to new results when you track the changes.

 

What real estate website content to change

Before heading to the backend of your site, view the page online to get an impression of its visual appeal. Make note of anything that doesn’t look right so you can fix it later. This might include adding more photos or replacing those currently accompanying the content.

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While you’re there, check for broken links in your real estate website content and make note of any that you find.

Check your keywords to see if they’re still valid.

Ok, head to the backend to fix any problems you found. You’ll need either an open Word document or a pad of paper to keep track of the changes you’re about to make.

Next, look for the following:

• If you need to update links, update the text surrounding the link as well. This helps search engines better understand that the page has been freshened, according to Cyrus Shepard at Moz.com.
• Add alt text to your images, if necessary. Check out the brilliant walk-though at yoast.com.
• Update statistics used in the content, if necessary.
• Check your sources to see if you should replace any with more authoritative sources.
• How’s the length? Longer content ranks better so if there is anything of value that you can add, it’s worth it to take the time.
• Break up long blocks of text to provide more white space. This can be accomplished by keeping paragraphs to five sentences or less and adding subheadings, bulleted lists and additional photos.
• Clean up the copy, correcting spelling, punctuation and grammar errors and ensuring that it flows smoothly from one paragraph to the next.
• How’s that CTA? Should it be reworded to be more compelling? If it directs to a download, is there a more recent copy of your giveaway?
• Promote the updated pages on social media.

 

Track your changes

Hang on to those notes you took while updating the content. This way, you can track how well the changes are working. Pull out those original Google Search Console results and compare them to a new set of results, looking for changes in ranking and traffic.

Homebuyers are pretty consistent in their demand for local knowledge and your community pages are the best way for you to provide that knowledge. But write ‘em and forget em’ isn’t a good strategy.

“… a static website without updates of any kind may be viewed by search engines as a ‘dead’ entity – with no life and nothing new to offer,” cautions Jason Roy at SEO SiteCheckup.

If you’re ready for a real estate website that takes the work out of content creation and search engine optimization, you owe it to yourself to learn more about LeadSites.

What are the top performing real estate websites doing that you aren’t? Take a look.

Looking for a weekly real estate website content strategy you can start using today? Look no further: