Some real estate agents and brokers specializing in luxury properties get new and repeat business the old way. They go through time-intensive encounters like socializing at mixers, networking at industry events and “doing lunch” with potential clients and existing clients – to build and keep good rapport, which hopefully will lead to more sales.
Others take a different approach with perhaps a little of that and a lot of Luxury Real Estate SEO.
Today’s real estate buyers and sellers, including high-end buyers and sellers, are searching for properties online and they’re finding real estate agents and brokers online. If they don’t have an agent or broker they’re loyal to, they’ll go on the Internet and find someone who’s qualified to work with them. Luxury buyers and sellers that have agents or brokers they’ve been loyal to in the past can sometimes be swayed in today’s marketplace, toward the professional who proves to be more creative, innovative, skilled and experienced.
At a time when many people take care of finding nearly everything they need online, the luxury real estate salesperson has to be there where the client is looking. This means that employing luxury real estate SEO as a widespread tactic for building a luxury brand (every real estate professional should be aggressively concerned about branding) is essential.
Real Estate SEO for the Luxury Market
While all real estate salespeople should be implementing SEO strategies like using keywords in content and building links to relevant resources, the luxury professional may need to go about optimization a bit differently. Even professionals in the luxury fashion and car spaces, and similar high-end industries, often need to tailor an SEO campaign to account for nuances of the luxury lifestyle.
It can be difficult for the luxury agent or broker to change on-site content to reflect high-ranking keywords when high-end clients are used to seeing content look and read a certain way. Aesthetics and refinement are important in the luxury market, but so is SEO. So, optimization in this niche needs to come down to a science, combing an attractive visual and mental package with a highly targeted message. This is easy to do, if you know how to do it.
Effective SEO tactics used for all markets, such as content hubs, local SEO and local linking, can come into play to attract the luxury buyer or seller. When using these strategies, however, only top-notch subject matter, keywords and linking sites are considered.
Refining Basic Luxury Real Estate SEO Strategies for the Luxury Buyer or Seller
Luxury buyers find homes just like anyone else, on sites like Zillow, Trulia, RedFin and Realtor.com. Many of them give their trusted agent or broker a list of houses they want to see. If they don’t have a professional they work with regularly, they’ll seek out agents and brokers associated with high-end properties in the area they’re searching in.
Luxury sellers do the same thing. They turn to the professionals they know, who have likely established a name in the luxury market, or find those online who represent top-tier listings.
Then comes the interview. You can bet a luxury buyer or seller isn’t going to settle for working with a professional who has limited knowledge and experience in the high-end market. Luxury SEO strategies put into place help high-end agents and brokers prove to high-end clients that they know their business and are the one for the job.
At this point, you may be wondering if you should use SEO as a selling point to land a client, perhaps talking to a seller about optimizing a listing page or website. This is pointless, given how buyers search for properties today. An individual home listing on an agent or broker website (or even a stand alone site) is really only there as supplemental advertising material and often just to appease a client who wants big money paid toward marketing. It’s the sites like Realtor.com and Trulia that are likely going to bring in the buyer in the end.
Implementing Luxury Real Estate SEO
Since a luxury real estate professional can’t count on a buyer seeing a listing page on a website or a standalone listing site (SEO is a long game and real estate sales ideally a short one, so optimization really shouldn’t be a tactic in these regards), we turn to other methods. We use sound strategies that work for other types of businesses, even for agents and brokers who don’t sell luxury properties, and we give the strategies a high-end market focus.
- Hyper-Local Content – Luxury real estate professionals can use local real estate SEO content (content hubs) to educate buyers and sellers on the types of homes they sell: beach houses, city lofts, sprawling resorts and so on. Creating content around neighborhood information (schools, shops, restaurants and cultural centers) is a good best practice.
- Intent-based Content – Content hubs that zero in on questions luxury buyers have offer great value to potential clients. Blog posts and articles on financing, tax issues and design (including LEED building) are useful. This type of content should include long-tail keywords worked into evergreen material.
- Local SEO – Part of a luxury real estate SEO campaign should include local SEO elements that help buyers and sellers find the professional while on the go. Approaching local SEO the right way creates a strong local presence for the agent or broker across listings websites relevant to the clientele and area.
There are other ways to approach SEO for the luxury real estate market, and the entire campaign should be quite comprehensive. Multi-location SEO is useful for luxury brokerages with more than real estate office. Link-building efforts are key to attract quality links to your site, which complement and boost your brand. YouTube is always an option as well.
Galileo Tech Media helps luxury brands target their ideal customers and bring in high-ticket sales. We can do the same for your real estate business. Contact us to learn more about our strategies for SEO success.
