How Much Money Should Real Estate Investors Spend on SEO?

If you’re working in the Real Estate market, you’re probably looking for ways to get more traffic to your property listings. Whether you are looking for a new home, an apartment, a commercial space, or an investment property, SEO is one of the crucial tools you can use to help you sell your home more quickly and for more money. It is one of the most cost-effective ways to get your property listed on the most popular real estate websites and have it viewed by lots of people. 

A great digital marketing strategy can increase the exposure and saleability of your property to the highest degree and put you in the driver’s seat to get a higher offer. With a real estate SEO agency, you will be able to sell your property as quickly and as effectively as possible. A professional SEO agency will make your listings more visible in search engines for the keywords you want to rank for. But how much should you pay for your real estate SEO project?

Pricing Models for Real Estate SEO

There are numerous price schemes to select from if you want to increase your search visibility or take over your local real estate market, including:

• Hourly fee;
• Project fee;
• Monthly retainer.

Most agents choose the monthly charge strategy, but let’s compare the benefits and drawbacks of all three.

Hourly Pay

If you’re a new realtor or an agent testing the SEO waters, paying an hourly rate to a freelancer or optimization expert could be something to think about. This cost model is typically used for small projects or particular tasks such as website audits or keyword research. Rates might range from $100 to $200 or more per hour, depending on the project’s needs. 

Rates Based on Project Specs

A project-based rate may be relevant if a single project is involved with no requirement for continuing work, which is rarely the case. Prices for project-based real estate search optimization and marketing might range from $500 to $5,000 or more, depending on the project’s complexity. Some larger agencies have been known to charge much more, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars.

Retainer (Monthly)

A monthly retainer is a preferred method for most real estate brokers. It’s also the most popular pricing and payment structure for search marketing firms. A realtor may get a thorough technical assessment of their website and other digital assets, keyword research, backlinks, frequent content generation, and more for a predetermined monthly charge. This pricing structure allows you, as a realtor, to see genuine and ongoing SEO results at a fixed monthly fee based on your marketing budget.

What’s Included in Real Estate SEO?

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you must optimize your real estate website to rank high in search engines, which is one of the key things to know for real estate agents and invest in. However, doing so will cost you either time or money. If you decide to go it alone, be prepared to put in many hours of research and labor. Maintaining a high-profile search and online presence would take hours of work, even if you are a certified geek and a search optimization professional, in addition to being a real estate agent. The thing is that there are so many things covered in real estate SEO.

1. Keyword Research

This is the first step in getting your house up in the rankings. You need to know the best way to rank for those keywords. This means writing original content in a relevant area of the site. Don’t just copy content from other sites. Write from scratch for each new property, focusing on the keywords people are searching for when they are searching the web.

2. Page Ranking and On-Page SEO

Page rankings work the same way as keywords, but instead of getting into a keyword-driven battle with other properties on the web, you are dealing with one property on a single page. The web is a giant playground. Your page needs to rank high so that if someone types in “real estate investment in NYC,” they are instantly directed to your page and not the one selling a five-bedroom townhouse with a pool.

3. Off-Page SEO

This includes things like links, mentions, press, video, and social media. You can do most of this without spending a dime. Just use your Google Ads account to find other sites that link to your site. Get a couple of guest posts on high-ranking sites. Contact bloggers in your field and see if they can write a piece about you. When a KOL links to your site, it gets a “vote” of approval, increasing the chances that your page will appear at the top of Google searches.

4. Google Analytics

This is the big one. Analytics shows you how much traffic you are getting. This is important to know because if your traffic is minimal, you may be wasting your time. If you don’t know how many visitors your site is receiving and what the key traffic sources are, you can’t focus on getting new customers and leads.

5. Google Places

You can set up Google Places for your real estate listings. This lets other Google users find your properties, just like they do with Yelp and other review sites. You should have a Google Places page for each property, and it should be linked to your homepage as well as to individual listings.

6. Google My Business

Your listing on Google Maps can help you grow your business. This helps put your business in front of customers. Just as critical, your listing is searchable by customers searching the web with a location in mind. This increases your chances of being found if someone in the area is looking for a real estate agent.

Wrapping up!

Every house buyer starts their search on the Internet. Home purchasers resort to the Internet for information on anything from real estate agents to property images and listing details. That’s the way it is. To stay ahead of your competition, you must partner with a reputed firm to boost your rating, generate more leads, and expand your business. Find the right SEO partner, decide on the most effective pricing model, and let your business grow.