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Real estate SEO: how agencies get found on Google

Buyers search Google for a kind of home in a place, not for your agency's name. Here is how your search pages, area pages and Google profile can show up.

Real estate 8 min read Updated

In this guide
  • Buyers search for a kind of home in a place, such as apartments for sale in Brooklyn
  • Search pages with their own address, title and main heading (H1) can rank for those searches
  • MyHome builds them from the filters and sets the canonical tags for you
  • Area pages and listing titles that name the place add more ways in
  • A Google Business Profile with real reviews puts your agency on the map

Real estate SEO is the work that gets your agency's pages onto Google when buyers look for homes. The pages that win searches like "apartments for sale in Brooklyn" have their own address, title and main heading (H1), and show homes that match.

So SEO for real estate agents is mostly about a few kinds of pages, plus a free Google Business Profile. If your site is not built yet, start with how to create a real estate website.

Which pages bring buyers from Google

Page What buyers search for Example search
Home page Your agency, or an agency in your town real estate agency in Austin
Search page A kind of home in a place apartments for sale in Brooklyn
Area page Life in a neighborhood moving to Coral Gables
Listing page One exact home 3 bedroom house with pool in Coral Gables

Your home page ranks for your agency's name and, with your town in its main heading, can also rank for an agency in that town. Big portals win the widest searches, but an agency can win the searches about its own towns and streets. Classifieds sites play the same game with category pages, as SEO for a classifieds website shows.

The real estate SEO checklist

For every other part of an agency site, use our real estate website features checklist.

Set up SEO on your agency website

22 tasks

The harder tasks are explained below the list.

Before launch

  • They can be renamed, not removed. Do it before Google learns your addresses.

    How to Customize URL Slugs for Search Results and Single Ad Pages
  • Each website runs in one language.

    How to Translate or Rename All Texts
  • Breadcrumbs are the trail of links on a listing page, such as For Sale, then Apartments. Canonical tags follow this setting.

    How to Use Breadcrumbs and How Canonical URLs Work
  • It sets the title and description of your home and area pages. Add it after the free trial, once the site is yours.

Search pages

  • Say what you sell, where, and for whom.

  • Link the clean address of each search, such as /listings/for-sale/apartments/.

Area pages

  • Five pages full of local detail beat fifty with only the name changed.

    See it on the demo
  • Links from other local websites help your area pages rank.

Listing pages

Google Business Profile

  • Google's map results show agencies from these profiles.

  • Never pay or give gifts for reviews. Google's rules forbid it.

After launch

Set three things once, and every search page follows them. If you sell in one town, name it in the default H1 too.

Give each search page a clean address

On many sites, a search ends in a long address full of codes that buyers cannot read. MyHome turns the filters into a short address instead, such as /listings/for-sale/apartments/.

You choose the fields that build these addresses, and their order. Pick the two or three that buyers search by most, such as the offer type, then the property type.

The MyHome SEO tab with Pretty URL's ticked, Auto-Generate Ad Title, Default Search Description, the default H1 Real Estate, Property Type as a priority field and Override Title Tag ticked
The MyHome SEO tab, where you set pretty addresses, the search H1 with its priority fields and the title tag.

Build the title and H1 from the filters

The title is the line Google shows as the link in its results, and the H1 is the main heading on the page. Both should say what the page holds.

On the MyHome SEO tab, you choose the fields that build the H1 and the priority fields that come first. Tick Override Title Tag, and the page title follows the filters too.

Let breadcrumbs set the canonical tags

Every filter a buyer adds, such as a price or beds, makes a new address for almost the same homes. Hundreds of near copies can leave Google unsure which page to show.

On the Modern demo, For Sale cuts 147 results to 83, then a price, beds and baths leave 27. Try the map search on the demo

A canonical tag tells Google which address is the main one. MyHome sets these tags on its own, from your breadcrumbs setting.

Breadcrumbs also link your search pages to each other. On the demo, a listing shows the trail Home, Search Results, For Sale, Apartments, and each step after Home opens its search page.

Try the SEO tab on your own MyHome website

Get a real MyHome website with the demo you pick and the full WordPress admin, ready in a minute.

Try MyHome free Free for 7 days. No card needed.

Write a page for each area you sell in

A search page lists homes but says little about the place. An area page adds your local knowledge, with the homes for sale below.

The MyHome Waterfront demo has a ready community page built this way, with life in the area first, then the homes for sale.

  • The area's name in the title, the H1 and the web address
  • Daily life there, written by an agent who knows it
  • Schools, parks, shops and the time to the center
  • The homes you have for sale there
  • Your own photos, and the agent to call

Every page opens in Elementor, so you write area pages without code. In the same editor, put your main town in the home page heading.

The MyHome home page open in Elementor, with the hero heading changed to Homes for sale in Austin, its HTML Tag set to H1, and the cursor on Publish
In Elementor, the home page heading becomes Homes for sale in Austin, set as the H1 and one click from Publish.

Give every listing a title buyers search for

A listing page answers the most exact searches. A title like "Your dream home!" tells buyers and Google nothing, so name the kind of home and the place.

Weak title Better title
Your dream home! 3-bedroom house with a garden in Coral Gables
Must see, great price 2-bedroom apartment for rent in Brickell
Investment opportunity Office for sale near the metro in Lisbon

Write titles like these yourself, or let MyHome build them from fields, such as Property Type and Location. When a home sells, switch it to Sold instead of deleting it, so its page and links keep working.

Local SEO for real estate starts with your Google profile

When someone searches for an agency near them, Google often shows a map with a few agencies first. Those agencies come from Google Business Profile. It is free, and you fill it in yourself.

  • Real estate agency as the main category
  • The towns you serve, your opening hours and your website
  • Real photos of your office, your team and homes you sold
  • A short post when a new home comes on the market

Google says the number and the score of your reviews help a profile rank. The best moment to ask is the day the sale closes, with the review link from your profile.

Reviews belong on your website too. Each MyHome agent page shows a star rating and reviews, next to the agent's listings.

On the Modern demo, a buyer starts a message to the agent of a listing, then opens her page with 36 listings and 46 reviews. See an agent page on the demo

Keep the site fast and working

Google prefers pages that work well on a phone, and buyers leave slow ones.

MyHome needs only three plugins, so there is less to update and less that can break.

So easy to use, so light and fast to load. Best customer service. smjsweeper, verified MyHome customer

Rankings bring buyers to the page. Turning them into calls is covered in how to get more leads from your real estate website.

Rather write area pages than run updates?

Site Care runs your MyHome website for you, so you can spend your time on listings, area pages and reviews.

Questions

What does SEO mean in real estate?
SEO means search engine optimization. In real estate, it makes your pages show up when buyers search Google for homes in your area. Real estate website features: a checklist for agencies
How do I get my real estate website on Google?
Add your site to Google Search Console, which is free, and send it your sitemap. New pages can take days or weeks to show up. Launch checklist for a listing website
Will all my filter pages count as duplicate content?
Not if each one points Google to its main page. MyHome builds canonical tags from your breadcrumbs, so apartments for sale with 2+ bedrooms point to the page of apartments for sale. How to Use Breadcrumbs and How Canonical URLs Work
Can one agency website rank in English and in my language?
Each MyHome website runs in one language, with every word and web address translated into it. A second language means a second website. Not supported: Multilanguage (WPML / Polylang)
Can you help me set up the SEO settings?
Yes. Bought from us, MyHome comes with 12 months of Premium Support, which helps you set up its theme options, the SEO tab included. Area pages need your local knowledge, so you are the best person to write them. What Premium Support covers

Set up search pages that Google can find

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