There are (inexcusably) far too many professionals out there that spend a large portion of their time learning the real estate business and doing traditional prospecting and not enough time learning SEO.

Let’s face it, most people don’t find their real estate agent by receiving a postcard in the mail or a knock on the door.

As a real estate agent, you will need to learn SEO in order to access new clients and keep your current ones engaged.

One of the most important aspects of SEO is keyword optimization. Keyword optimization is the term used to describe finding the best keywords through research and using keyword analyzing tools.

I'm New To SEO- What Is It?

Perhaps you are reading this because you have a blog that isn’t getting much traffic, or maybe you are using Google AdWords for your real estate business but aren’t getting any leads. This could be a sign that you aren’t spending enough time on SEO and need to learn what SEO is and why you need to use the right tools to find the correct keywords. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the act of improving the amount of website traffic as well as the quality of website visitors to a website or a web page from search engines such as Google.

While improving your website SEO, you want to focus on not only getting more visitors to your website but also want to improve the quality of visitors. Ensuring that your website visitors are relevant to your industry will increase their time on site and lower your website bounce rate, which is very important to ensure that Google ranks your website as authoritative. It will also ensure that you aren't wasting money on ads that irrelevant people will see. 

The best way to improve your website's SEO? Keyword optimization. 

Keyword optimization is important for any industry, but for anyone who is in a sales-related industry such as real estate, keyword optimization is 100% necessary.

Knowing what keywords to use for advertising and content creating is the difference between getting only a few leads to being the lead real estate agent in your area.

Keyword Optimization - How to Find the Best Real Estate Keywords

Advertising on Google AdWords for real estate agents is different than advertising on social media. Additionally, finding keywords using their Keyword Generator tool versus another tool is different too.

When you advertise on social media, your reach is mostly based on demographics. However, Google does things a little differently. Since people go to Google to search for what they need, by advertising on Google you can be sure that you are reaching people who are actively searching to buy or sell real estate.

Google’s keyword planner is a free tool that advertisers can use to find their best-matched keywords, so even if you don’t pay for an advertisement through Google you can use this tool. All any advertiser needs to do is create an AdWords account.

If You Already Have an Account…

When logged into your account, simply go to the drop-down options, select “tools” then select “planning” then “keyword planner and “find new keywords”.

Once you get there, you need to pick some keywords related to your industry. If you can’t think of anything, you can add a URL from a related industry. For example, if you are a real estate agent, you could enter a real estate agency near you to see what keywords they are using. You can also choose a famous real estate blog if you want ideas on blog content.

Example: In Google AdWords’ Keyword Planner, I looked up a well-known real estate blog. My search yielded 1285 results. Here is one of them:

There are a few important terms to notice when using Google’s Keyword Planner tool.

Here’s what they mean and why they are important.

Average Monthly Searches

This term speaks for itself. This is the average amount of times people search for this exact phrase on Google.

For larger cities such as Minneapolis, you want to make sure that there are at least 1000 searches a month for that keyword. Smaller cities and towns may have less than 1000 average monthly searches for their top keyword phrases, and that’s ok.

Competition

This is very important. Most of the time, you want to select keyword phrases that aren’t high-competition keywords/keyphrases. If you can, select keyword phrases/keywords that are low competition, there are usually many to choose from, depending on the area you sell in.

For example, “Homes for sale” is medium competition. If you are a real estate professional, I would suggest using this keyword only in a blog. Since it is medium competition, it is obtainable but not the best option.

However, for advertising, I’d suggest using a more niche keyword that fits the area you are selling in, such as “Homes for sale in Minneapolis, Minnesota” or “Luxury Condos in Chicago, Illinois”.

La flats for sale, for example, have a low average monthly search volume but high competition. If you are a real estate professional in Los Angeles, you probably don’t want to choose this keyword for your blog content or advertising efforts.

Ad Impression Share

Only for when you are monitoring the health of your campaign. This isn’t anything to worry about unless you go ahead and set up a campaign.

Top of Page Bid (Low Range)

This shows the lower range of what advertisers have paid to have this keyword phrase be on top of Google’s homepage.

Top of Page Bid (High Range)

Exact opposite. This shows the high range of what advertisers are willing to pay for having their advertisement placed on top of Google’s homepage with this keyword phrase.

If You Are Setting Up A Campaign Through Keyword Planner

The Keyword Planner is a great tool for coming up with keywords for your blog content. However, if you are advertising through Google AdWords, there are other options you can also look at when thinking about advertising.

Using Other Keyword Generator Tools For Real Estate Agents

There are a few cons to using Google’s Keyword Planner. For example, you can’t really pinpoint trends. For trends, I would suggest using Google Trends (which is a tool that is exactly designed for that purpose).

Remember, Google pretty much controls the internet. They are the top dog of advertising and content creation. They know what people are interested in, as well as what they are searching for.

Here Are Some More Cons to Using Google AdWords for Keyword Optimization:

As Rand Fishkin points out, the volume numbers can have an extremely wide range and the volume can also be completely off. So, it’s safe to say that this feature isn’t 100% reliable.

Low competition does not mean easy to rank for. When you are looking for keywords to write your content, low competition keywords aren’t always the easiest keywords to rank for.

Since the Keyword Planner tool is a tool that Google essentially uses to help advertisers find keywords for their ad campaigns, the keywords that are suggested may be suggested to increase your ad budget instead of based on relevancy.

If the cons described above are off-putting to you, you may want to try another keyword tool or use both Google AdWords alongside other keyword optimization tools.

Moz

Moz has a very useful keyword optimization tool called “Keyword Explorer”. Moz claims to have a 95% accuracy rate with this tool in terms of volume. You can expect a high level of accuracy when using this tool as I’ve used it myself and found it very useful.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs also has a keyword research tool. Ahrefs tool happens to be my favorite one because they go above and beyond by using clickstream data to get as much accurate information as possible.

According to a study done by Human Proof Designs, Google Keyword Planner had one 590 phrase match keyword ideas for the keyword “iPhone” while Ahrefs had almost 4 million!

Ahrefs is what I currently use to find most of my content creation keywords.

KWFinder

KWFinder is a tool specifically designed for keyword searches. What I like about this tool is that it’s very easy to use. It has all of the information that you need, volume, difficulty, etc. If you're new to keyword optimization you may want to start with this tool as I did when I begin creating content.

KW Finder has a free trial so you can try their service for free to see if you like it. After the trial is over, you have to pay a monthly fee, which varies depending on your needs. 

Keyword optimizing companies such as KWFinder make their money by finding you the right keywords for your website. Therefore, there is no hidden ultimatum that they have other than assisting you with your keyword optimization. If you are researching keywords solely for content creation, it may be wise to use another tool along with or beside Google’s Keyword Planner tool, because Google's main focus is to make money off of their customer's ads. 

Wrapping It Up