Real Estate SEO Adviser

How Search Engines Rank Real Esate Websites

Summary: By understanding how search engines rank real estate websites, and what factors they deem important, you’ll be better able to improve your own rankings through real estate search engine optimization (SEO).

Search engine ranking is a combination of public knowledge and proprietary secrets. For example, most SEO specialists know that each individual search engine has its own algorithm (or ranking criteria). This refers to the manner in which the search engine evaluates and ranks websites, based on a set of pre-defined criteria.

If you’ve got your thinking cap on, your next logical question would be: “So just what are these pre-defined criteria?” This is where we get into the proprietary side of things. Obviously, search engines companies do not want their competitors to understand their technology — nor, by extension, their ranking algorithms.

But with that being said, there is a wealth of public knowledge about how to make a real estate website better ranked by search engines (and more visible to the target audience as a result).

First, let me offer this word of caution. Don’t ever do anything just for the search engines. That’s a bad habit to develop, and it can lead to shortsightedness. (See my article on SEO tunnel vision.)

Always put your readers and potential readers before search engines. Make improvements to your real estate website with readers and customers in mind first, and with search engines as a secondary consideration. In other words, a search engine will never hire you for your services, and thus will not help you pay the bills!

Now with that disclaimer out of the way, here are some of the basic criteria that can improve the search engine ranking of a real estate website.

Ranking Factor #1 - Keyword Usage
Let’s say there are two websites about the real estate scene in Austin, Texas. These two real estate sites are similar in all regards except one. Website ‘A’ makes frequent use of city-specific phrases, such as “Austin homes.”

But website ‘B’ hardly uses these phrases at all. Now you might think this is just plain dumb on the part of website B’s owner, but there’s a logical reason why somebody might neglect to use specific phrases on his or her real estate website. The web writer assumes that everyone knows what city is being discussed, because it is, after all, a website about Austin. The website’s visitors might know this, but the search engines won’t … not unless they find those city-specific phrases.

Because of this fundamental difference in keyword usage, website ‘A’ will outrank website ‘B’ for phrases related to Austin real estate, and thus enjoy better website visibility for those phrases.

Ranking Factor #2 - Age of Domain
The age of a real estate website also plays a role in how well it ranks, especially in Google. In fact, I think Google puts too much emphasis on a website’s age, to the neglect of more important criteria link popularity. But that’s just me.

So now let’s assume our two hypothetical real estate websites are the same size and have similar, keyword-rich content. But this time, website ‘A’ is 8 years old and website ‘B’ is 14 months old. Chances are, website ‘A’ will outrank the younger real estate website.

Ranking Factor #3 - Size of website
In this scenario, our two real estate sites are the exact same age, have similar keyword-rich content, and are similar in most other regards. But this time, website ‘A’ has 45 pages of content, and website ‘B’ only has five pages of content. Website ‘A’ will outrank the smaller website ‘B’ in most search engines.

Ranking Factor #4 - Link popularity
This term refers to the quantity and quality of inbound links, which are exactly what they sound like — links from other websites to your website. Link popularity contributes to a website’s search engine ranking similar to the way individual votes count toward an election outcome. But for now, suffice it to say that inbound links increase “link popularity,” which will in turn boost a website’s search engine ranking.

So if our two real estate websites are equal in most regards, but website ‘A’ has three times as many links coming in as website ‘B’ … website ‘A’ will once again ranking higher than website ‘B.’

Ranking Factor #5 - Usage Data
When people find your website through a search engine, the search engine company can track the visitor long enough to see how they react to your real estate website. For example, do most of your search-engine-driven visitors go on to read several pages of content, or do most of them hit the back button upon reaching your home page?

This is usage data, and it gives search engine companies another tool in measuring a real estate website’s quality and relevance. Lear more about website usage data.