Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Keyword Research for Real Estate Industry
-
I just finished reading the Beginners Guide to SEO at SEOMoz and joined as a Pro Member. I have created a campaign for my new SEO project and feel like I have a good understanding now of on-page optimization. I am going to start fixing title tags and on page content for our top 50 pages and start a new campaign to go after some keywords. Our website is 360dwellings.
I am struggling to determine what the best keywords are for us to target. Right now our primary markets are Denver and San Diego, we also display listings for all of Colorado as well.
We had originally gone after competitive keywords like "Denver Homes for Sale". What I am learning is that even ranking bottom of page one for that term doesn't bring a ton of traffic. Meanwhile, we rank well for a lot of niche content like "5280 best neighborhoods" "Denver Lofts for Sale" and "Denver Neighborhood Map".
My questions is do we completely abandon going after big keywords like 'Denver CO Homes for Sale", and 'Denver Real Estate" and go as far as removing them from title tags? We have pages for every Denver neighborhood like Park Hill and the Highlands, but there is no search data for these searches in Google Keywords. My gut says that if each of those pages ranked for terms like "Denver Highlands Neighborhood Homes for Sale" that it would bring good targeted traffic. Does anyone know of search terms for Real Estate that are low competition but have some search volume?
Thanks!
-
Thomas, that just confirms what I was thinking. If we can spend less time ranking really well (top 3) for deeper niche searches for someone looking to live in a specific area, and times that by 100 then we are getting some really nice targeted traffic.
Since the long tail keywords are usually a broad mix of real estate terms, how do you get one page to rank well for those variations? In real estate, someone could search for the same thing in a thousand different ways. Do you go after a bigger term like "Denver Highlands Neighborhood Homes for Sale" in the title tag and then use other real estate keywords on the page like MLS, listings, houses, condos, lofts, etc. Seems like we get some long tail action just off random words used once on the page. Any info you can provide on page optimization for longtail searches would be appreciated.
-
My advice is find the higher converting less competitive terms. Individuals that are search for "Denver Highlands Neighborhood Homes for Sale" are further along in their buying decision than "Denver Homes for Sale". The shorter phrases are more often window shopping. The more detailed the phrase, the more likely they will enter the store and make a purchase. Plus, if you do it right, it is much harder to get knocked knock out by a competitor when you are the first to capitalize on a unique search. If you find some gold in "Denver Lofts for Sale" then try dominating that term.
Large rivers are made up from very small streams.
-
Thanks Zack, will do some research on meta keywords from competitors.
-
Thanks Frank, the website has been a lot of work. We convert really well... just a matter of getting the visitors there. Our best conversions tend to be the longest types of searches, like exact addresses. We have individual listings in San Diego but can't for Denver due to MLS restrictions. We get a ton of address searches in San Diego though, and those seem to convert best.
-
So, for our Denver search page do something like the following:
Denver CO Homes for Sale - Realty in Denver | 360dwellings Real Estate
The second term "Realty in Denver" shows 5400 local monthly searches and low competition.
-
Frank, thanks, just read the Rand article and I am checking out seogadget now. Not bad pricing for less than 1000 keywords. I want to make sure that I get the keywords locked up before making changes to title tags, content, etc
-
Just read about this: https://tools.seogadget.co.uk/ in Rands Article, maybe it helps.
-
Google's keywords tool usually does a decent job of suggesting other phrases and terms. You are using the keywords tool, right? If would try words like "apartments, condos, houses, etc.." I have found similar issues with local terms using the keywords tool (no traffic). You can also get some help by playing with the auto-complete on Google's search bar but it's more vague..also try looking at page source of your competition to see what they are optimizing for, especially in the meta keywords field.
-
Hey Ryan,
if you don't get data from google keyword or maybe google insights for search , chances are, there won't be too many searches. But as you say, the long tail (longer, less competitive but highly relevant) queries can bring valuable traffic as well. Prices for ads for those keywords will also help you determine the degree of competition for a term.
I would probably compare your ranking for some of these longer tail keywords (e.g. Position 3 in google), to the data in google analytics, there you can check, how many people came searching for each keyword. Or you use google webmaster tools, they will actually tell you what the rank in google for each keyword was. In my experience, data isn't as precise as in analytics, but it will still help to evaluate if going for longer, niche keywords would be the right thing to do. The most important factor is of course to check, if those customers actually convert and deliver any kind of revenue for you.
Hope this helps a bit, btw, the site looks great!
Cheers
Frank
-
I would recommend continuing to work on the bigger keywords like Denver CO Homes for Sale as a long term goal, while working on the smaller keywords for short term returns.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Huge difference between GSC ranking and browser ranking for certain keywords: How to proceed?
Hi, There is a huge ranking difference between the GSC and browser for our primary keyword. As per GSC, our ranking is around 15 and when checking on the multiple different incognito browsers it's around 50. How to handle this? Which is the accurate one? Product expert from Google forums claim that what I see on browsers are the personalized results; but I tried on different browsers with different connections. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Using Brand value for SEO: Can we use keyword with brand name?
Hi Moz community, I am curious to know this. Let's say there is a brand value for a company. It has it's own popularity that it's been mentioned across the internet and social media directly with brand name without their service or industry keyword. Now if the company started promoting themselves like keyword along with their brand name, will it help them to rank for that keyword. For example, Moz is already famous, now they want to rank for "SEO" and related keywords, so they started calling themselves on internet "Moz SEO"; will this fetch them in ranking for keyword SEO? My ultimate question is, using primary keyword along with brand name will work out in ranking for that primary keyword or not? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
The importance of meta keywords?
Hello, Is adding meta keywords still worth doing nowadays? I have been reading and hearing some different opinions about it. For a ' beginner ' in this field it is hard to find a definite answer to this questions.. Thank you for reading(and answering) my question!
Algorithm Updates | | EPPD0 -
When Is It Okay To Use Bold, Underline & Italic Text? Should I Stay Away From My Keywords?
Hey guys I have a few questions. I am pretty sure that I was penalized by Panda a few years back because I went very heavy on bold, italic and underlining my keywords. Since then I removed the bold, italic and underlines and never have used them again. I was just reading an article on the Moz Blog and I saw some bold words. My questions are, When Is It Okay To Use Bold, Underline & Italic Text? Should I Stay Away From My Keywords? Any help would be great! Thank you.
Algorithm Updates | | Videogamefan1 -
Meta Keyword Tags
What is the word on Meta Keyword Tags? Are they good to have, or bad? Our biggest competitor seems to have them.
Algorithm Updates | | Essential-Pest0 -
Troubleshooting Decline of Branded Keyword Searches
Hi, Over the past year, I have seen a huge change in the distribution of our organic keyword traffic. I'm trying to research why our branded keywords have gone down. Google analytics only shows me impressions for the past three months. Does anyone have ideas on how to explain this change in traffic? Please see the attached chart. Thanks! branded-v-nonbranded-organic-search.jpg
Algorithm Updates | | netdiva_amy0 -
Keyword density and meta tags
Hi, I've just checked the number of keywords appearing on my website's pages. On some of them the keyword density was way too high (7-10%) if you included the meta tags, but all under 3.5% if I didn't include the keywords and description meta tags. So my question is - when looking at number of keywords used per page, do I have to worry about what's in those meta tags? Do the keywords in there count towards keyword density / number of keywords per page? Thanks, Luke
Algorithm Updates | | McTaggart0 -
To use the same content just changing the keywords could be seen as duplicate content?
I want to offer the same service or product in many different cities, so instead of creating a new content for each city what I want to do it to copy the content already created for the product and service of a city and then change the name of the city and create a new url inside my website for each city. for example let say I sell handmade rings in the USA, but I want o target each principal city in the USA, so I have want to have a unque url for ecxh city so for example for Miami I want to have www.mydomain.com/handmade-rings-miami and for LA the url would be www.mydomain.com/handmade-rings-la Can I have the same content talking about the handmade rings and just change the keywords and key phrases? or this will count as a duplicate content? content: TITLE: Miami Handmade Rings URL :www.mydomain.com/handmade-rings-miami Shop Now handmade rings in Miami in our online store and get a special discount in Miami purchases over $50 and also get free shipping on Miami Local address... See what our Miami handmade rings clients say about our products.... TITLE: LA Handmade Rings URL: www.mydomain.com/handmade-rings-la Shop Now handmade rings in LA in our online store and get a special discount in LA purchases over $50 and also get free shipping on LA Local address... See what our LA handmade rings clients say about our products.... There are more than 100 location in the country I want to do this, so that is why I want to copy paste and replace.. Thanks in advance, David Orion
Algorithm Updates | | sellonline1230