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The National Association of Realtors states that 97% of homebuyers use online search for buying a home. This means that if you are neglecting your online presence and taking it just as a secondary thing, you are missing out on 97% of your potential clients.
However, many people partner with an SEO real estate agency for a strong online presence. But are you aware of the consequences? Partnering with them results in minimal leads after paying hefty amounts. Especially if you are at the scaling stage of your real estate business, hiring an SEO agency will leave you with empty pockets.
Many of the agencies also ask you to sign a long-term contract, which restricts you from working with them for a long go. Furthermore, they usually use a one-size-fits-all approach, not one tailored according to your goals and needs.
So, if you are a real estate agent looking forward to getting leads without breaking the bank, there are alternatives to hiring an SEO agency. What are they? Let’s find out more about them together in this blog.
1. Use An SEO SaaS
An SEO agency usually charges somewhere between $2,500 and $10,000 per month, which is obviously way too much for a small-scale real estate agent. To save this cost, you can sign up for an SEO SaaS (Software as a Service). UpSEO is one of the SEO SaaS that is specifically designed for realtors. The best part is it is an automated tool, so you don’t need to get into any intricacies.
It is an all-in-one solution that helps real estate agents grow their online visibility by doing all the essential SEO tasks, including link building and keyword optimization, to drive traffic to property listings so that you can generate more and more leads.
Key Benefits of UpSEO for Real Estate:
- Automates SEO Tasks: UpSEO addresses the unique needs of real estate websites and property listings. After a thorough analysis, it performs basic tasks like link building, on-page SEO, and traffic generation itself to improve your search engine rankings.
- No Technicalities Required: UpSEO is basically designed for non-technical users. This means that even if you are not aware of the technicalities of SEO, you can still make the most with this tool. Its easy-to-understand and intuitive interface makes it easy for agents to enhance their SEO without the steep learning curve.
- Cost-Effective: Compared to traditional SEO agencies, UpSEO is quite affordable and offers effective solutions to improve your rankings, which is beneficial for those real estate agents who work with tight marketing budget
- Offers Scalability: UpSEO’s features even allow you to scale your business to new heights. Whether you are a solo agent or a part of a large real estate firm, UpSEO allows you to scale up according to the needs of your business.
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How Does It Work?
Here’s how realtors can use UpSEO to improve the online presence of property listings:
- Initial Setup: Let’s suppose you are listing a new luxury home on your website and aiming to attract high-end buyers. Now, you head to UpSEO and create a new project for this specific property there. As soon as you do this, the platform quickly analyzes the webpage, identifies relevant real-estate-focused keywords such as luxury homes in [city], and suggests an optimization plan.
- SEO Optimization: After initial setup, UpSEO then helps you with checking whether the targeted keyword is in the right density or not. It also ensures that the title tag, meta title, and subheads are optimized for SEO. Moreover, UpSEO helps improve the readability of the content so that potential buyers find the content engaging.
- Organic Traffic Boost: Once you live the page, UpSEO promotes the property listing through real estate-specific channels such as directories, local listing services, and forums to drive traffic to your website. When organic traffic drives to your website, it signals Google that the listing is relevant, which helps secure a higher spot in search rankings.
- Link Building for Real Estate: UpSEO’s algorithm identifies authoritative real estate directories, blogs, and local websites that are relevant to the property listing. The platform automatically reaches out and secures backlinks to direct valuable traffic that ultimately boosts your property’s domain authority in local searches.
Results:
- Increased Visibility for Listings: With the targeted approach of UpSEO, realtors experience a significant uptick in traffic, which helps you reach more potential buyers in search results.
- Improved Domain Authority: UpSEO proficiently secures backlinks from high-authority websites, increasing the credibility of the realtors’ domain and helping all future listings rank better.
- SEO-Optimized Property Listings: With UpSEO, you don’t need to bang your head on optimizing your webpage. UpSEO ensures that the content of each property page is fully optimized for search engines. With the right keywords in the right density, engaging content, and meta descriptions that drive traffic, UpSEO boosts your visibility on platforms like Google.
UpSEO vs Real Estate SEO Companies: Which One Is Better?
For a better understanding of which one is better, UpSEO or a real estate SEO company, have a look at this table.
Features
UpSEO
Real Estate SEO Companies
Cost
Affordable and suitable for small and large-scale businesses.
Typically expensive, especially for small-scale businesses.
Contract Terms
No long-term contracts, flexible month-to-month options
Typically requires long-term contracts, locking you into a set commitment, often lasting 6-12 months.
Customization
Specifically designed for real estate SEO needs
May offer generic strategies not always tailored to real estate
Automation of SEO Tasks
Automated tasks like link building, traffic generation, and keyword optimization.
Mostly manual strategies are executed by experts, but they are often slower.
Scalability
Scales with the growth of your real estate business.
It may require higher costs as your business grows.
Transparency
Complete visibility into tasks, progress, and results.
Limited transparency, clients may not always understand what’s being done behind the scenes.
Control
Full control over campaigns, allowing realtors to adjust SEO efforts as needed.
Less control over the SEO process.
Results Timeline
Fast setup and automation for quicker SEO improvements.
It may take longer to see results due to manual, step-by-step processes.
Link-Building
Automated and targeted for real estate-related backlinks.
Often manual and more expensive to acquire high-quality links.
Ongoing Commitment
No ongoing commitment, pay-as-you-go model
Ongoing retainer fees and contracts that require regular payments.
2. Hire A Freelance SEO Expert Instead of A Real Estate SEO Agency
Hiring a freelance SEO expert who has a strong portfolio in the real estate niche is another alternative to working with an SEO agency. Most of the time, freelancers offer a flexible, cost-effective solution for agents who need specific SEO support without the long-term commitment. Moreover, you can hire a freelance SEO expert at a much lower price than the SEO agency.
3 Benefits of Hiring a Freelance SEO Expert for Real Estate:
- Affordability: Freelancers generally offer lower rates than full-service agencies, allowing real estate agents to get specialized SEO expertise without breaking the bank.
- Personalized Attention: Freelance experts develop SEO strategies after analyzing your business's needs. Their suggested strategies perfectly align with your marketing goals, and no one-size-fits-all approach shows faster results.
- Flexibility: You can hire a freelancer based on the project's needs, or you can often hire them for any specific service, like On-page optimization. By doing so, you pay them for what they are doing instead of a fixed amount every month.
3 Potential Risks:
- Inconsistent Quality: Quality of the work is the biggest concern when hiring a freelancer. The level of expertise and quality of work they provide vary, due to which you can get inconsistent performance, which can have an adverse effect on your SEO.
- Availability: Most freelancers have multiple clients onboard, due to which you may face delays or unavailability. Especially if you are looking for immediate turnaround on any property listing or campaign, this might be a problem.
- Trust and Security: Another threat to working with freelancers is the lack of security. As you need to give them access to your website, there’s a risk that they will misuse the access or harm your online presence and reputation.
Freelancers vs. Real Estate SEO Companies:
Features
Freelancer
Real Estate SEO Companies
Cost
More affordable, generally charging lower hourly or project-based rates.
Higher fees, often structured into packages that cover various services.
Personalized Service
Offers tailored solutions that specifically address your real estate needs, from local SEO to property listing optimization.
May offer broader strategies, often less personalized unless the company specializes in real estate SEO.
Flexibility
Quality may vary; inconsistent performance can affect SEO results.
Requires long-term contracts and ongoing commitment for full-service support.
Consistency
Freelancers might be working with several clients, potentially leading to slower response times.
Agencies generally offer more consistent quality and performance across all services.
Scalability
Scales with the growth of your real estate business.
Agencies often have dedicated teams, providing consistent support and faster response times.
Availability
Complete visibility into tasks, progress, and results.
Agencies usually have a track record and established processes, offering greater security and reliability.
3. DIY SEO With Online Tools and Skip Real Estate SEO Companies
If you don’t want to go with an SEO real estate agency or want to hire a freelancer, another suitable approach is Do It Yourself. This means doing SEO optimization for your business yourself. By doing so, you will have control in your own hands over how the listings and websites are ranking on search engines.
3 Advantages of a DIY SEO Approach for Real Estate:
- Control: When you do SEO by yourself, you have full control over the SEO strategy. Due to this flexibility, you can tweak and adjust the campaigns as they seem best to you. You can also experiment with different keyword optimization tactics and property listings to see what works best for your specific market.
- Flexibility: DIY SEO allows you to cope with market shifts instantly. It lets real estate professionals make changes quickly without getting into the hassle of signing a contract with an agency or hiring a freelancer.
- Budget-Friendly Option: One of the biggest advantages of DIY SEO is the cost savings. When you handle all the tasks by yourself, you don’t have to pay the agency cheques. This gives you a margin to spend your SEO budget on other areas, such as property marketing or digital advertising.
3 Potential Risks:
- Time-Consuming: If you manage the SEO of your website, you have to allocate a specific time as well. Managing multiple tasks such as listing, lead management, and SEO single-handedly may exhaust you.
- Learning Curve: SEO is not as simple as just inserting keywords into a listing. Real estate agents must learn about algorithms, SEO best practices, and Google updates, all of which can be overwhelming without prior experience.
- Ineffectiveness: Poorly executed SEO strategies—such as keyword stuffing, low-quality backlinks, or misusing meta tags—can do more harm than good. If not done correctly.
DIY SEO vs. Real Estate SEO Companies:
Features
DIY SEO
Real Estate SEO Companies
Control
Full control over SEO strategies, offering complete autonomy.
Minimal client control, the agency manages everything.
Cost
Significant cost savings as you avoid paying for external services.
Higher costs due to professional fees and service packages.
Time Investment
Time-consuming, as you are responsible for all SEO efforts.
Less time-intensive for the client, as the agency handles the workload.
Learning Curve
Steep learning curve, especially for those without prior SEO knowledge.
No learning curve; experts handle all SEO work with minimal client input.
Effectiveness
Can be effective if executed well, but poor strategies may lead to negative results.
Generally provides faster, more reliable results due to professional expertise.
Results Timeline
It may take longer to see significant results, especially without experience.
Faster results, as agencies have the experience and tools to optimize efficiently.
All in all, skipping out on the SEO is not an option if you want your phone to keep popping up with incoming leads notifications. However, an SEO real estate agency is not the only option to make this dream of yours come true. The above three ways are the alternatives to partnering with an SEO real estate agency. But, still, if you don’t want to learn SEO from scratch, nor do you want to take any risk that comes along with hiring a freelancer, there’s still an open door, which is UpSEO. With no risk associated and an affordable pricing plan, you can easily secure a high spot on the SERP. Still waiting? Sign up on UpSEO and see the magic happen.
