If you buy houses, SEO should help homeowners in your markets find your business, understand what you offer, and get in touch.
But when you're comparing audits, backlinks, citations, and content packages, it can be hard to tell what you're actually buying.
Here's where I'd start: ask the company what it plans to change, why it matters for your business, and how you'll know whether it's helping. You should be able to understand the answer without becoming an SEO expert.
Here are nine services worth understanding before you hire someone. Which comes first depends on your website and your business.
For our approach, see our SEO services for real estate investors.
1. An SEO audit that tells you what to fix first
An audit should look at whether Google can access your important pages, which searches already bring you visibility, where visitors land, and whether those visits turn into inquiries.
For example, imagine your main “sell your house” page isn't indexed. Meanwhile, you're being told to publish four blog posts a month. I'd want that indexing problem investigated before committing to more articles.
You should get a prioritized list of issues, the pages affected, and an explanation of who will fix each one. Once something is fixed, someone should check that the fix worked.
Ask to see a sample audit and how the company turns its findings into changes. A long report can look impressive while leaving you with very little direction.
2. Keyword research built around the sellers you want to reach
“Real estate traffic” covers a lot of people.
Someone looking for an apartment, someone studying for a real estate license, and someone who needs to sell an inherited house could all land on a real estate website. They have very different reasons for being there.
Start with the markets you buy in and the situations your business can actually help with. Then look at the language sellers use, the results Google shows, and the pages you already have.
The deliverable should connect groups of searches to useful pages. For example, a search about selling a house as-is might belong on a page explaining your buying process, what repairs you require, and how an offer works.
A spreadsheet with thousands of keywords still leaves you needing to decide what to do. Ask the company which pages it would improve first and why those searches fit your business.
3. Technical fixes that help people and search engines use your site
Technical SEO covers things like broken pages, redirects, indexing settings, and the way your website is organized.
Ask whether implementation is included.
Some companies identify problems and hand the list back to you. Others make the changes. Either arrangement can work, as long as you've agreed on who is responsible.
The work should also consider the person using the site. Can a homeowner read the page on a phone? Does the form work? Can someone navigate with a keyboard and understand the form labels?
A perfect score in a testing tool doesn't tell you whether a seller can successfully contact you.
Ask for a record of what changed, which pages were checked, and any problems still waiting on your hosting company or developer.
4. Improvements to the pages that explain your business
Before committing to a pile of new content, take a hard look at the pages you already send sellers to.
Your homepage. Your main selling page. Your market pages. The page explaining how your process works.
Can a seller quickly understand where you buy, what types of properties you consider, how you make an offer, and what happens after they contact you?
On-page SEO includes titles, headings, descriptions, copy, and links between pages. Those elements should help the page answer the visitor's question clearly.
Repeating a city name throughout the copy won't explain your process or give a homeowner a reason to trust you.
Ask to see the actual edits. You should be able to point to a page and explain what became clearer or more useful.
5. Content that helps a homeowner make a decision
A seller may have questions they need answered before they're ready to call.
What happens if the house needs major repairs? Can they leave unwanted belongings behind? How flexible is the closing date? What should they expect when comparing a cash offer with listing the property?
Those are useful starting points for content, provided the answers reflect how your business really works.
A content service should include research, accurate writing, review, publishing responsibilities, and links to the relevant next step. You should know who checks the facts and who approves statements about your business.
For a local page, ask what makes it useful to someone in that market. Real examples, relevant local information, and an accurate description of your service give you something to work with. Swapping a city name into the same article over and over adds very little for the reader.
Social media can help you distribute that content and reach people. Evaluate that work on its own contribution, rather than assuming a posting schedule proves your SEO is improving.
6. Google Business Profile work, if your business qualifies
Having a website that targets a city doesn't automatically qualify you for a profile there. Google lists lead-generation companies and online-only businesses among the businesses that aren't eligible. The actual business and how it operates matter. Check Google's eligibility guidelines.
If your business qualifies, the work can include reviewing the profile's accuracy, choosing appropriate categories, maintaining business information, and helping you manage genuine customer reviews.
You should know who owns the profile and how the agency gets access. You should also be able to see what it changed.
Be cautious about anyone whose local SEO plan depends on creating locations your business doesn't actually have.
7. Accurate business information in relevant directories
You'll hear these listings called “citations.” They're mentions of your business details on other sites, sometimes with a link to your website.
This can be straightforward work: correct an old phone number, update a website address, resolve a duplicate listing, or maintain a profile in a directory that's appropriate for your business.
Ask for the list of directories, the information submitted, and the status of any corrections. Confirm that your type of business is eligible before someone creates a profile for you.
A package promising hundreds of listings deserves a closer look. You should be able to understand what those listings contribute and how they'll be maintained.
8. Relevant links earned through work you can explain
A backlink is a link from another website to yours.
Link work might involve helping you produce a useful resource, contributing relevant expertise to a publication, or finding an existing mention of your business that could use a link.
The company should be able to explain its approach and show you where the links appear. Read the actual pages. Consider whether the publication, audience, and placement make sense for your business.
A link count or a third-party authority score won't answer all of those questions.
Google specifically identifies buying links to manipulate rankings, automated link creation, and certain other schemes as link spam. Those practices can put your search visibility at risk. Google's link-spam policy is worth reading before you buy a package.
Publishing something useful also doesn't guarantee that people will find it and link to it. Ask how the company plans to get relevant people to notice the work.
9. Tracking that connects search activity to seller inquiries
Search Console can show the searches and pages generating impressions and clicks. Analytics can help you understand what visitors do after arriving. Your call, form, and CRM records help you understand the inquiries that follow.
Those systems need to work together well enough to answer practical questions:
- Which pages attract relevant organic visitors?
- Are calls and successful form submissions being recorded?
- How many inquiries are from sellers in markets you buy in?
- Which become conversations, appointments, and deals?
A form submission still needs to be reviewed. It could be a real seller, spam, a job applicant, or someone outside your area. A booked appointment is another step again.
Ask how the company tests tracking, separates test submissions from real inquiries, and handles leads whose source is unknown.
Your team needs to follow up and record what happened. Otherwise, both you and the SEO company are left guessing about lead quality.
How to choose a real estate SEO company
I'd bring these questions to the conversation:
- What would you work on first, and why? Look for an answer tied to your site, markets, and business.
- Who makes the changes? Get clear on writing, development, approvals, and anything your team needs to provide.
- How will you measure progress? Ask how relevant search visibility connects to inquiries and seller quality, and where tracking has limits.
- Can you show me a relevant example? Ask what changed, when it happened, and whether the result came from organic search, paid ads, or a combination.
- What will I own and retain access to? Cover the website, content, domain, analytics, profiles, and any assets created during the engagement.
- What happens if we stop working together? Understand the term, cancellation process, handoff, and ongoing costs before you sign.
And be careful with ranking guarantees. No agency controls Google's results. Google itself warns against anyone guaranteeing a number-one ranking. Its guide to hiring an SEO offers useful questions to ask.
Figure out what your business needs next
You don't have to buy every SEO service at once. Your next step might be fixing an existing page, explaining your offer more clearly, or tracing inquiries back to their source. Another business may need a more substantial content and local search plan.
At Adwords Nerds, we focus on real estate investors. See how our SEO service works, or request a free strategy session to talk through your markets, your goals, and whether we're a fit.