View all articles
Every landlord’s dream is to have high quality leads without the need for time-consuming meetings with unqualified prospects. But the dream can be a reality with smart digital marketing and harnessing the power of local SEO.
The vast majority of renters will use the internet to find their next home, so with so many people searching through property listings, it makes sense to understand how to optimise your property portfolio for the best results. With SEO, you’ll be generating leads constantly from your buy-to-let without the need for constant work on your part.
What is Local SEO?
While a regular search is generic, using a phrase like “property to rent”, local SEO will include a geographic location you’re trying to target such as “property to rent in London”. Local searches tend to be displayed in a few places online, including regular results, maps and Google Business Profiles. They also show up in local pack searches, which are when Google recognises the intent for local results even if you just use a generic search term.
Optimising for local SEO is incredibly valuable for those in the property industry because in the vast majority of cases, you’ll be working with clients in one set area and will be looking to target potential tenants there.
Carry Out Keyword Research When Advertising Your Property
Local optimisation means more than just adding a certain location to your standard keywords and hoping they’ll bring in the right audience. You need to perform dedicated research into the ways in which people are searching for properties in a certain area and the phrases they might be using so you can achieve the right results. For example, you might find that people are using terms like ‘near me’ to search, which might be difficult to work into your content but can help you improve your local search rankings considerably.
It’s also worth drilling down to specific neighbourhoods in your chosen area too, as many people looking for a property in a town or city will be looking for homes in a dedicated part of that location. For example, if a prospective tenant is looking for a home in Guildford, they may already know they want to live in the Bellfields suburb — including keywords that target this area will attract this prospective tenant and others like them. It makes sense that your SEO is optimised for certain locations to attract qualified leads and extend your reach in a specific area.
Customise Your Meta Descriptions and Property Photo Alt Text
When you’re using graphics, whether video or photos, you want to ensure they include meta descriptions and alt text with your specific location and marketing keywords. This makes a huge difference to search results when search engines are ranking your listings and content, and can help in bringing potential tenants to your property listings.
If you’re trying to optimise your property listings for a certain location and plan to roll out your marketing on multiple channels, giving search engines a helping hand with alt text and meta descriptions can really make a difference.
Maintain The Reputation of Your Property Business
As a landlord, reputation is critical to encouraging people to want to rent your properties. No-one wants to be living in a property managed by an unresponsive landlord, because it poses so many risks and issues should things go wrong with the property, so keep your online reputation well-maintained and manage reviews. Google really values reviews, testimonials and ratings, and maintaining and responding to reviews shows that you’re providing value and a reputable authority for your tenants.
It can help to remind tenants to write a review when they leave your property, but you also need to ensure you’re responding to reviews in a professional way, regardless of whether they’re positive or negative. It shows potential tenants that you value a positive and professional tenant-landlord relationship, which is precisely what people want when renting a property.
Update Your Property Business Social Media Channels
Social media shouldn’t be neglected when it comes to both marketing your available properties but also for local SEO. It’s a great way to get the word out when a property becomes available, and attracts new residents as well as giving you the chance to communicate with existing residents. Twitter and Facebook, in particular, are great ways to extend your reach and build authority online. It’s a good way of staying up to date on the latest property trends and what people are looking for too.
Create social media content that’s focused on the local area you’re trying to attract tenants to, and answer questions people might have about the area which are pertinent to property such as schools for families, amenities close by, transport links and liveability. It not only helps you uncover what people are searching for in a property and the demand trends for homes for families, students or professionals but it also helps you create valuable resources for people as a property investor.
Provide Video Content of Rental Properties
Visuals are important in the property sector, because tenants need to know what they’re signing up for and whether it suits their requirements. Video content can be a fantastic way to compliment images and research shows that when Google shows a video thumbnail next to a search result, it can encourage users to click that listing. Video is the perfect way to give viewers a clearer idea of the layout of a property and the dimensions of each room, so they can picture themselves in the property.
It’s a great addition to your local SEO content too. For example, maybe there are certain landmarks nearby or attractions that are enticing people to want to live in that area. Including these in the video and showing interested parties where they’d be living and what they’d be close to can really help with lead conversions.
Whether this is your first buy-to-let property or you’re managing a portfolio of properties, optimising for local SEO is critical to attracting the right individuals and increasing the likelihood of your rental properties being filled. SEO is an inexpensive way to bring targeted viewers to your properties and it’s ongoing, so you get constant benefits without the need for constant work, ensuring that the right people find your properties.
