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real estate digital marketing SEO | comprehensive guide

Real estate digital marketing in India and in all countries is having a very dominant role in marketing real estate properties.

For both commercial and residential properties, online marketing is the first option for customers. Detailed research, investigation and analysis are done over the internet before the final deal.

The Internet is an abundant source of information for both commercial and non-commercial property buyers, investors and analyst.

In this blog post, we shall share the real estate digital marketing SEO tips, the construction industry in India and how digital marketing has transformed the marketing and sales strategy for real estate and construction companies.

We shall also share some important tips, strategy, techniques for real estate website for digital marketing and SEO in 2018.

Real estate digital marketing

Real estate SEO services can significantly generate online leads. Buyers are now relying on internet and online information for search properties.

Digital marketing for real estate companies is the best strategy to acquire new customers. It needs to be strategically planned, executed and analysed.

Before we start with best internet marketing tips for real estate companies, let us look at some latest statistical data and trends from the Government of India and other authoritative agencies.

In the latest Union Budget of India, our Honorable Finance Minister Shri.Arun Jaitely has given major budgetary allocation for the housing sector.

It is an ambitious project of our Honorable Prime Minister Mr.Narendra Modi to provide “Housing for All”.

As per the image below we can see the year on year increased allocation for the Core Schemes of the Government of India in the budget for the year 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Due budgetary financial allocations were given for the project “Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana”.

Union Budget India Housing Sector 2018
Union Budget India Housing Sector 2018

The budget has also given incentives to the real estate in 2017-18.

The incentive for real estate transactions as quoted by the Finance Minister in his budget speech for the financial year 2018-19:

Currently, while taxing income from capital gains, business profits and other sources in respect of transactions in immovable property, the consideration or circle rate value, whichever is higher, is adopted and the difference is counted as income both in the hands of the purchaser and seller. Sometimes, this variation can occur in respect of different properties in the same area because of a variety of factors including shape of the plot and location. In order to minimize hardship in real estate transaction,
I propose to provide that no adjustment shall be made in a case where the circle rate value does not exceed 5% of the consideration.

In the budget of the Maharashtra State Government on 9th March 2018, the Honourable Finance Minister Shri.Sudhir Mungantiwar has also given a major boost to the housing for all citizens in Maharashtra.

A Provision of Rs.2215.85 crores for Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana was allocated.

Statutory and Legal compliance

The landing page or the home page must clearly display the important statutory/legal compliances. For example, Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) is mandatory for real estate developers.

What is RERA?

As per the information on the official website of Maharashtra Government, Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

The Government of India has enacted the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 and all the sections of the Act shall come into force with effect from May 1, 2017. The key objectives of the Act are:

  • Ensuring Transparency & Efficiency in real estate sector in regards to the sale of plot, apartment, building or real estate project
  • Protecting the interest of consumers in the real estate sector
  • Establishing adjudicating mechanism for speedy dispute redressal
  • Establishing Appellate Tribunal to hear appeals from the decisions, directions or orders of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority

Under this Act, Government of Maharashtra established Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA), vide Notification No. 23 dated 8 March 2017, for regulation and promotion of real estate sector in the State of Maharashtra, Mumbai.

Statistical Data/Reports

As per the reports from India Brand Equity Foundation, The real estate market is expected to touch US$ 180 billion by 2020.

The key highlights of the report were with the rapid growth in services sectors:

  • IT/ Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS)
  • Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)
  • Telecom
  • Rising demand from MNCs, Demand for office space in Tier 2 cities
  • All the above sectors have contributed the demand and rate of property in India.

The housing sector alone contributes 5% to 6% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the period FY2008-2020, the market size of this sector is expected to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.20%.

As per the infographics below we can clearly witness the growth in the real estate sector in India from the financial year 2008 onwards.

The market size of real estate in India is growing annually at an average Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) OF 15.20%.

From the year 2008, the size of the real estate industry/market was 50 US$ bn and predicted to increase 180 US$ bn till 2020.

real estate industry in India 2018
real estate industry in India 2018

Why use digital marketing – SEO for real estate company/website? and

What are the benefits of digital marketing for real estate business?

The above are the common questions when it comes to the use of digital marketing for the real estate.

The answer is the growth of the internet and smartphones!

No statistical data proof is needed to show how important and an integral part of our life both internet and smartphones are today.

Right from finding nearby restaurants to real estate properties, people are today using their mobile handsets.

The biggest benefit of digital marketing is now you reach your target audiences instantly with low-cost of investment through their mobile devices.

Tips, Strategy and Techniques for Digital Marketing – SEO in 2018

Above we have seen the real estate market in India, the vital Government of India statistical data and from other agencies. Now let’s get to the other important aspect:

  1. How to do digital marketing for real estate?
  2. Types of digital marketing services (tools) for real estate?
  3. Real estate marketing techniques?
  4. SEO for real estate company/websites

How to do digital marketing for real estate?

Now that we have seen how real estate can connect with your target audiences. The online marketers need to acknowledge the fact that real estate properties both commercial and residential are different from other products.

  1. The price range or the value of the transactions is of higher value
  2. Buyers put their hard earned saving in purchasing the property
  3. Capital gains, legal and tax-related laws are involved

The internet marketer needs to be more careful and absolutely sure of what is being published online.

All the details of the real estate product must be authenticated.

Real estate digital marketing campaign and strategy is a matter of winning trust and confidence of all the stakeholders.

The more transparency you have in your digital marketing campaign, the more successful it will be.

Go Mobile

All the real estate companies today have an online presence with a website.

The onus should be on having a mobile responsive website. The real estate website has to be responsive to all the platforms desktop, mobile and laptop.

The need is for having a mobile marketing strategy for your real estate business.

Test check your mobile version and see if the mobile website is user-friendly.

There are many free tools to check the mobile-friendliness of your real estate website. The best one among them is right from the search engine giant Google. Use their free tool to check the mobile-friendly test and analyze the scores with recommendations for improvement.

Google Mobile friendly test
Google Mobile friendly test

The result of the mobile-friendly is rendered as below

mobile friendly test
mobile friendly test

You get very vital metrics in test report such as page load issues, AMP, page speed etc.

Other major search engines such as Bing and Yandex have the tool to check the mobile version of your website.

AMP version of real estate website

To render search results with lightning speed and instantly, Google has launched Accelerated Mobile Pages –  AMP Project. The AMP version of your website has a chance of ranking better in search engine result pages as compared to your competitors.

Another reason why you should implement AMP version to your website is the number of search volume of mobile is comparatively higher as compared to desktop websites.

Content Marketing stratey for real estate

Why use content marketing for real estate?

Google has always stressed the quality of content ranks better in their search results.

Your website content must be focussed on your buyers.

Understand their intent of searching. The property type, locations, amenities etc.

A detailed understanding of your product and highlighting all the possible good factors of the real estate property must be a priority.

All the above task takes time and planning, keywords research, images etc.

The hard work will give a good return on investments in both short and long-term.

Video marketing

The most important factor the digital marketers need to understand how they can save the valuable time of their buyers and assist in selecting the property of their choice.

The properties are located at different locations and videos can be a very helpful tool.

Secondly, you can regularly update the construction status of the real estate in different stages through videos.

The benefit will be that your buyers will be convinced of your reputation and intent to complete the project at the scheduled time.

For completed projects, the buyer can see the final video of the real estate and its surrounding areas. Virtual tours are the most effective marketing technique to win customer confidence.

Video marketing is a very powerful tool in digital marketing technique in 2018 to connect with your target audiences.

Videos are also rendered in search results. For example, videos uploaded in YouTube are indexed and rendered in search queries by the search engines.

Create a YouTube channel and upload your latest videos with optimization.

Mobile Applications (Apps)

Mobile applications, in short, called “Mobile Apps”. Mobile apps are very popular today. The major benefits, highlights and use to both companies and users are:

  1. The growth of smartphones market share
  2. Smartphones are an integral part of the mobile marketing strategy
  3. Mobile App an important chain in sales funnel – property buyers can easily download mobile apps through popular platforms such as Safari or Andriod and keep a track of new or ongoing projects
  4. With a touch of a finger, the real estate information or status can be accessed.
  5. Reach of internet across all the corners of the globe.
  6. Retargeting marketing” is an important marketing strategy. The mobile apps can track the behaviour of the history of visitor data, their preferences, geographical locations.
  7. With the help of the above user metrics, customized rates/offers/terms can be offered to the buyers.
  8. With the mobile app, you have a competitive edge over your competitors as it improves brand loyalty.

Real Estate digital marketing | SEO services

Above we have discussed some of the effective digital marketing services provided by an agency or SEO expert. Given below is a list of effective digital marketing services for real estate companies to tap new  customers in 2018:

  1. Search Engine Optimization
  2. Search Engine Marketing
  3. Content marketing
  4. Social Media Marketing
  5. Email Marketing
  6. Pay Per Click Campaigns

Each of the above digital marketing tools has their respective benefits and reach, please read the resources in the knowledge base for in-depth information of these tools.

A best digital marketing campaign for the real estate business is a combination of the above-mentioned types of digital marketing.

Real estate marketing SEO strategies 2018

Now its time to launch your marketing strategy/campaign. We shall share some proven and result oriented strategies for your real estate campaign.

Listing at property websites/Directories

The first step is to spread the word of your new launch or existing property. Listing of the website will give you:

  1. Backlinks to your main website
  2. Organic search presence
  3. Mostly the listing is free of cost or nominal charges
  4. Reach the target audiences

How to build backlinks for real estate website 2018?

As quoted above backlinks are the signals to the search engines of the authority of the URL of the website. There are 200-page ranking factors that decide the position or ranking of the pages in the search results of Google.

The backlink is one of the strongest signals for ranking of website pages. Secondly, the quality of the backlinks is important not quantity.

The SEO experts need to be cautious of the guidelines and best practices of search engines on the link building techniques.

Any black hat SEO tactics or paid link will damage the reputation of the website and also face Google penalty.

The best strategy is to approach real estate blogging sites, magazines and directories. Even a guest posting to high authority websites will be a good ranking factor.

YouTube Marketing

Google is the number one search engine in the world. In India, the viewership of YouTube videos is very high. Create a channel with your business name.

Upload a free video to your YouTube channel. They even have a paid advertisement plan. It makes sense to invest in this format.

Secondly, you have the choice of targeting the right audiences, time and detailed analytics of viewership are offered.

Facebook Adverts

In social media marketing, Facebook is at the top position. Facebook is very popular in India and has worlds biggest account base.

There are the free viral post, images, videos options. But paid adverts has faster and targeted reach.

As there is immense competition in the realty sector and if you have a decent budget then having paid Facebook Adverts makes sense.

Whats App Marketing for real estate

After Facebook, Whats App is the most popular social media platform in India.

But be careful, be cautious about marketers advising you to send unsolicited campaigns to unknown mobile numbers.

Privacy of the prospects must be respected. Only organically acquired contact numbers must be retargeted.

What App has many interesting features that online marketers are yet to fully tap?

Social Media Marketing Platforms for real estate

Above we have seen how Facebook, YouTube, Whats App can strategically help to market your products.

There are other popular social media platforms such as:

  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • Google +
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr

The above mentioned have distinctive features and tools to attract new prospects and generate new leads.

Launch an real estate Email Campaign

Emails are the oldest and cost-effective digital marketing strategy. Make a database of all the enquires received by

  • forms filling
  • call enquiries
  • open house seminars,
  • local gatherings,
  • site visits
  • Property Expo Exhibitions etc.
  • Website contact form submission

Caution: Don’t buy the ready database of email addresses. They are illegal and your email account may also be blocked for spam emails.

Send you registered database email addresses tips, resources, offers to make a more informed buying decision.

Promote your brand with existing customers

Your happy customers are the real brand ambassadors. They have great influencing power as compared to celebrities.

Promote and share their real-life experience and the selection of your property has made better their life.

Local Marketing Strategy for Real Estate

Promote your real estate in the local events, gathering and special occasions. As many prospects lead gather at such events and functions the more viral the news will be.

Clear Call-to-Action

The website, social media sites, mobile Apps, online classified must have a clear call-to-action. All your marketing strategy and planning will not render the desired return on investment if there are no desired action form buyers.

It may be direct call enquiry, site visit, contact form submission, the deposit of booking amount etc.

How to do SEO for real estate website?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is your big ticket to get higher ranking on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERP).

You will not connect with your target audiences and they will not discover you unless your website is visible on the first page of Search Results.

For this reason, SEO is so important for your website to gain higher rankings.

There are many SEO strategy and techniques to optimize your real estate website. We shall share some important tips to follow in 2018.

You can access the knowledge base and other blog posts on in-depth SEO strategies for your website.

Have a dedicated blog

Blogs are the most vital SEO strategy. Blogs are the most favoured way to get a place in search engine results.

With regular blog posts, you can build the brand value, customer confidence and trustworthiness. Blogs give you the freedom of sharing valuable information, announcements and free resources.

The blog post is also the search engines best friend.

Quality and high-value blogs often get the deserved ranking and position in search results.

Keywords for real estate

You have published great website and content, but still, your website is not showing in the search results.

Keywords are the answer for this.

The targeted keywords your property buyers type in the search query box will render your website in the search results.

Keywords are the lifeline of SEO strategy.

Having mentioned that keywords must be used sparingly. The search engine spiders/bots are smart enough to detect keywords stuffing.

The choice of keywords must be relevant to the content of the website.

Google My Business Account Listing

Real estate digital marketing is not complete without listing of your business in Google my business account. Other search engines such as Bing also have a free listing feature for businesses.

There are many advantages and benefits of listing your business at Google:

  1. It is zero cost service -Free listing
  2. Map location of your website
  3. Complete business details are listed
  4. Upload images of products/business premises
  5. Call-to-Action is displayed:
  • contact number
  • website URL
  • appointment booking
  • messaging
  • Reviews and star ratings
  • Edit listing at any place, device and time

Conclusion

Real estate digital marketing SEO is a long time strategy. It will give a guaranteed return on investments.

There has to be a well-researched planning, execution and analysis at regular intervals.

Companies are today convinced and have trust in the digital marketing reach and growing their online presence and business.

Real estate digital marketing SEO is a catalyst for generating leads and converting quality prospects to sales.

The only prerequisite is that it should be implemented as long-term sales & marketing strategy.

What is your digital marketing strategy for real estate?

Kindly share your comments with our readers!

What do we do?

We are offering Real estate digital marketing SEO services with the best strategy, technique, campaign examples. SEO for real estate websites with local SEO, expert tips, keywords in 2018 from best SEO agency in India.

By Prashaant KD

Prashaant KD, Founder & Principal Consultant, brings 20+ years of experience (agency and in-house), extensive knowledge of search engines from optimizing websites during his career, and a laser focus on increasing revenue for his clients. Prashaant KD is also an accomplished blogger who has contributed to a multitude of authoritative blogs on the topics of SEO, Social Media Inbound Marketing and E-commerce
He has experience leading internal teams and training staff on Sales & Marketing, Content Writing and SEO best practices in order to help companies realize their full website traffic and revenue potential.