Search marketing is crucial for real estate agencies and brokerages. In 2021, 97% of people looking for a property searched online (were the other 3% shopping for caves?) and 51% of buyers found the home they’d eventually buy online.
How do you get into that 51%?
By now, everyone knows:
- SEO is super effective in the longer term (>3 months at least)
- Local SEO is a different game than global or national, with more opportunities
- Search doesn’t work like it used to, you can’t just throw keywords at a page and it will rank
That’s all true. But the third point needs a little expansion. Because what gets lost in the mix when people talk about Google changing up its algorithm is this: keywords are still really, really important — semantic search notwithstanding.
Here’s our list of the top 20 keywords for local real estate:
Top 20 Keywords for Local Real Estate
| Rank | Keyword | Traffic |
| 1 | Apartment for rent | 1,800,000 |
| 2 | House for rent | 1,000,000 |
| 3 | House for sale | 670,000 |
| 4 | FHA loans | 150,000 |
| 5 | Realtor near me | 135,000 |
| 6 | Real estate agents near me | 49,000 |
| 7 | Condos for sale | 45,000 |
| 8 | Apartments for sale | 40,000 |
| 9 | Rental agents near me | 18,000 |
| 10 | How much is my home worth? | 12,000 |
| 11 | How to get preapproved for a home loan | 6,500 |
| 12 | Curb appeal ideas | 3,600 |
| 13 | House in [location] for sale | 3,000 |
| 14 | Selling your house | 2,400 |
| 15 | Local real estate agents | 1,900 |
| 16 | Process for selling a house | 500 |
| 17 | Improvements that increase home value | 320 |
| 18 | Cost of selling your home | 110 |
| 19 | Do open houses work? | 110 |
| 20 | Best improvements for home valuation | 30 |
Assembled from multiple industry-leading SEO tools and our own analysis, each of these is analyzed in more detail below. Each one represents a massive opportunity for real estate brokers, realtors and other real estate professionals to excel in local search and get found by people who want your services.
Here’s why it’s still so important to focus on keywords like these.
Keywords tell you:
- Who’s searching
- What they’re searching for
- What stage of their search they’re at
How’s that work?
Like this. Suppose you’re looking at this search:
‘Homes for sale Los Angeles’
They’re searching a metro area with more people than most countries, there’s nothing specific about the home they’re looking for. This person is not looking to buy a house.
‘Sell my house fast’
A whole different picture. This person is talking about a specific house and a specific goal.
Unsurprisingly, ranking for this keyword is extremely hard. It attracts around 7.7k clicks, and on average about 0.8 clicks per search. Why do four fifths of users click through? Because they actually want something.
We’re looking for that, but without the extreme difficulty. We can make this keyword much, much easier to rank for and get clicks for if we narrow it down geographically.
‘Sell my house fast Los Angeles’
Is only about half as difficult, even in one of the most overheated property markets in the country and a huge metro area.
So, working out what keywords to pursue involves finding ones that tell you the searcher is in the right place relative to your geographic location and in the right place in their buying or selling process.
The ideal keyword for us contains:
- A specific location
- A specific action
- Specifics about the kind of home
In fact, users are doing a lot of the work for us here. We don’t want folks who are just browsing Zillow or Trulia, so very general searches aren’t worth fighting over anyway.
We want people who are looking for what we have and don’t know it yet. We need to match your customers to their search behavior and then match your SEO strategy to that.
We need to wait until users have put together a long-tail keyword and then meet them there.
So we want keywords like:
‘Sell 3-bedroom house Fountain Valley’
Specific location, specific action, specific type of home. This keyword doesn’t have 7.7k searches, it has just a few handfuls, but a realtor in Fountain Valley, or the wider OC area, has a good shot at it.
By now, I hope the kind of keyword that works for a local realtor is clear. What we can do with those keywords is another question. Once we know what your potential customers are searching for, we can build:
- Content that engages those searchers at that specific stage of their sale or purchase process, positions you as an expert in their area, and encourages them to reach out to you
- Service pages that show up directly in search results for multiple long-tail keywords and funnel traffic to your listings
- Templates for listings that show up in search results and directly engage people who are looking to view or buy property in the area you serve
- Paid ads that get served at the top of search results for the right people, generating more clicks at lower cost that could ever be possible without the underlying SEO strategy being in place
This is how you take a local business to the point where they have to hire someone new to handle the incoming enquiries.
In the rest of this post, I’m going to walk through the actual keywords that work for this process, taking an imaginary realtor in Long Beach as the example business. Note that the data I’ve used here is an average across multiple industry-leading SEO tools.
1: Realtor near me
Search traffic: 52k–135k
Search traffic potential: ~76k
Clicks: ~67k
Difficulty: extremely difficult
Clicks per search: 0.83
Backlinks to rank: ~4.9 million
Linking sites to rank: ~1,050
Domain authority to rank: 74
Search results (US): ~350m
This searcher is looking, not for houses they might want to live in, but for a realtor to provide services. They’re looking for someone near them, rather than for a location they’ve specified — meaning they probably want to sell rather than buy.
That’s all good news, but it’s a really hard keyword to rank for. How can we chip away at the difficulty?
One option is to look for long-tail options based on this keyword, like:
How to find a realtor near me
(just a few searches)
Best realtor near me
(6.6k searches, about 5% of the search volume of the stem keyword)
Another option is to let Google do its thing and serve results based on location. This keyword is impossibly hard on paper. But Google knows that when I search ‘realtor near me,’ and I’m in LA, it should show me LA realtors, not the Pennsylvania or Texas realtors that rank for that keyword. So that’s what it does:
A little further down on the same page:
These realtors are a click deep, granted, but they’re in the middle of page 1 for the whole of Los Angeles county. Notice the work that local directories and listings, together with reviews, are doing here. (Have I mentioned that we can tune up your local directory listings for you, and that it’s especially important if your business has recently moved location?)
When I hit Use exact location, I get a different top 3 local realtors, all still based on their Google Maps listing, and the rest of the page is more or less unaffected. Google Maps really matters for local search, in ways that intersect with your keyword strategy.
But the way search works has also changed; at the end of 2021, Google reoriented its algorithm to serve more local results in search by making proximity a more important ranking factor. That makes it more likely that you’ll rank locally for difficult terms — so long as those terms are carefully selected.
2: Local real estate agents
Search traffic: ~450–1,900
Search traffic potential: ~75k
Clicks: 356
Difficulty: very hard
Clicks per search: 0.81
Backlinks to rank: ~12.5k
Linking sites to rank: ~247
Domain authority to rank: 71
Search results (US): ~262m
Again, this is a very difficult keyword to rank for nationally. But no-one’s searching for it nationally. You might be up against the handful of industry giants who rank everywhere for everything, but a lot of the top spots are still there to be claimed. In particular, look at the disparity between actual and potential search traffic. That’s traffic that isn’t being served or competed over.
You can also make this search more specific by adding a particular service and a specific location. For instance:
relocation real estate agent in Los Angeles
Relocation realtors perform a highly-specific service. They help people sell a home in one place and buy another somewhere else. Because the service is so specific, search traffic in quite large areas is quite low. There are just a handful of searches in Los Angeles for this search term, but all those people want that exact service, in that exact place. So unlike ‘homes for sale,’ this traffic is worth having.
3: Real estate agents near me
Search traffic: ~26k–49k
Search traffic potential: ~76k
Clicks: ~26k
Difficulty: very hard
Clicks per search: 0.97
Backlinks to rank: ~145k
Linking sites to rank: ~569
Domain authority to rank: 77
Search results (US): ~284m
On paper this is a tough nut to crack. But look at the actual top search results if you search from LA:
A local agency, Yelp, and three local realtors all made the top of page one.
4: House in Long Beach for sale
Search traffic: ~3k
Difficulty: easy
Backlinks to rank: ~950
Domain authority to rank: 75
Search results (US): ~852m
This is one of a slew of search terms that indicate the searcher is working through how to buy a home. For example:
buying a house checklist
questions to ask when buying a house
These are being asked ‘from the inside,’ by people who are already working their way through this process. If you can meet them where they are with appropriate, helpful solutions to their immediate problems, they’re that much more likely to trust you with the actual sale later. Meantime, they’re likely to want to interact with your business, especially if you can guide them across more than one stage of the process. If you can get the same person to read your content that answers (and ranks for):
credit score needed to buy a house
…and…
how much do you need for a house deposit
…the odds are good they’ll turn to you for the next stage of the process, and the one after.
Both these are solid opportunities from a search perspective too; ‘credit score to buy a house’ is a tough one nationally, with 2.5k search volume, and for obvious reasons it’s relatively tough to hyperlocalize. The laws are the same from one neighborhood to another. But not from one state to another. ‘What credit score is needed to buy a house in California’ is far easier to rank for, and searchers will see localized results anyway.
5: FHA loans
Search traffic: ~16k–150k
Search traffic potential: ~77k
Clicks: ~15k
Difficulty: very hard
Clicks per search: ~0.97
Backlinks to rank: ~6.5k
Linking sites to rank: 427
Domain authority to rank: 71
Search results (US): ~17.4m
By the time people are thinking about securing finance, they’re significantly committed to selling one home (probably) and buying another (definitely). If they’re looking into FHA loans, they’re more likely to be first-timers and to appreciate guidance from a seasoned professional.
6: How to get preapproved for a home loan
Search traffic: ~2.4k–6.5k
Search traffic potential: ~47k
Clicks: ~2.3k
Difficulty: very hard
Clicks per search: ~0.99
Backlinks to rank: ~1.6k
Linking sites to rank: ~235
Domain authority to rank: 71
Search results (US): ~19.2m
Actual traffic is 6.5k; potential traffic is 47k. And traffic-to-clicks is nearly 1:1. Almost everyone who searches clicks through. Again, that’s a strong indicator that this is an underserved group who are strongly motivated to engage with useful content that answers their questions. Put that in front of local searchers and the journey to a deal has begun.
7: Condos for sale
Search traffic: ~45k
Search traffic potential: ~91k
Clicks: ~36k
Difficulty: medium
Clicks per search: 0.82
Backlinks to rank: ~5.4m
Linking sites to rank: ~33
Domain authority to rank: 71
Search results (US): ~103m
There’s a tendency to focus on single-family homes. That’s understandable when two AMerican homes in three are single family units, but condos and apartments are a major area for realtors in urban areas. Again — look at the disparity between actual and potential traffic.
8: Apartments for sale
Search traffic: ~25k–40k
Search traffic potential: ~51k
Clicks: ~24k
Difficulty: hard
Clicks per search: 0.96
Backlinks to rank: ~1.5m
Linking sites to rank: ~45
Domain authority to rank: 74
Search results (US): ~2.37bn
At best, four fifths of the potential market is being served here; only about half of it is finding enough value to make a single mouse click. Yes, it’s a keyword that probably attracts a certain number of tyre-kickers, but it’s also the kind of question people ask when they’re looking for an apartment. They might be early in the process, but they also might be investors: a good slice of the Long Beach search results for this keyword were for apartment buildings for sale.
9: House for sale
Search traffic: ~39k–670k
Search traffic potential: ~3.4m
Clicks: ~34k
Difficulty: very hard
Clicks per search: 0.87
Backlinks to rank: ~4.5m
Linking sites to rank: ~1,300
Domain authority to rank: 72
Search results (US): ~6.16bn
This is the most quintessential ‘I want to move’ search term there is. How should you separate the mid-workday daydreamers from the potential clients? One option is to dig a little deeper. Remember, add specificity of location, product and function to narrow down searches. Search for ‘house for sale’ and you get 6.16 billion results. Search for ‘3-bedroom house for sale long beach $500k’ and you get 3.4 million, many local agencies. This traffic is worth competing for, because once users start getting specific — especially with dollar amounts — they’re higher-intent and closer to buying.
10: Apartment for rent
Search traffic: ~18k–1.8m
Search traffic potential: ~3.1m
Clicks: ~17k
Difficulty: very hard
Clicks per search: 0.99
Backlinks to rank: ~495k
Linking sites to rank: ~950
Domain authority to rank: 77
Search results (US): ~412m
Apartments and houses to rent change hands often, meaning an active, local market. See clicks per search — it’s almost 1:1. And getting local, specific and authoritative with it can give you a usable edge in your area of operation.
11: House for rent
Search traffic: ~12k–1m
Search traffic potential: ~705k
Clicks: ~12k
Difficulty: very hard
Clicks per search: ~1.07
Backlinks to rank: ~1.2m
Linking sites to rank: ~681
Domain authority to rank: 75
Search results (US): ~1.52bn
12: Rental agents near me
Search traffic: ~350–18k
Search traffic potential: ~150k
Clicks: ~370
Difficulty: very hard
Clicks per search: ~1.03
Backlinks to rank: ~2.7m
Linking sites to rank: ~620
Domain authority to rank: 66
Search results (US): 947,000,000
This is another search that gets localized automatically by Google’s algorithm, returning mostly local results. Showing up in a search like this isn’t as tough as it looks.
13: Selling your house
Search traffic: ~1.1k–2.4k
Search traffic potential: ~12k
Clicks: ~990
Difficulty: hard
Clicks per search: 0.90
Backlinks to rank: ~2k
Linking sites to rank: ~200
Domain authority to rank: 77
Search results (US): ~2.32bn
For a lot of people, this will be one of their first searches as they enter the process of selling. They may be considering or researching, but they’re likely to respond well to content that meets them where they are and helps them make decisions. If you can establish yourself as a trusted guide this far upstream of the sale, you’re that much more likely to be the go-to when the time comes to actually pull the trigger.
14: Best improvements for home valuation
Search traffic: ~30
Difficulty: easy
Backlinks to rank: ~1k
Domain authority to rank: 70
Search results (US): ~495m
The numbers for this one are tiny — so small we couldn’t find some data points at all! But ranking for it is easy. That’s why it’s on the list: it’s a perfect example of a long-tail keyword, one that’s very specific and thus easier to be #1 for than a more general term. No-one who is searching this is daydreaming — they’re looking for concrete recommendations to increase the resale value of their home.
15: Process for selling a home
Search traffic: ~80–500
Search traffic potential: ~2.9k
Clicks: ~80
Difficulty: hard
Clicks per search: ~1
Backlinks to rank: ~550
Linking sites to rank: ~90
Domain authority to rank: 60
Search results (US): 947,000,000
This is someone telling the internet — and you — ‘I want to sell my house but I don’t know how.’ Sounds like an ideal time to introduce yourself. With a huge amount of unserved potential traffic and a 1:1 click-per-search rate, it’s worth getting yourself in front of these searchers.
16: Cost of selling your home
Search traffic: ~150–110
Search traffic potential: ~14k
Clicks: ~150
Difficulty: hard
Clicks per search: ~1
Backlinks to rank: ~570
Linking sites to rank: ~68
Domain authority: 74
Search results (US): ~1.8bn
Again, traffic numbers aren’t high and difficulty is hard. This isn’t going to be a search term that your landing page ranks for. But it can be one of several long-tail search terms that a well-written, well-researched and well-optimized piece of content ranks for.
17: Improvements that increase home value
Search traffic: ~50–320
Search traffic potential: ~25k
Clicks: ~50
Difficulty: hard
Clicks per search: ~1
Backlinks to rank: ~1k
Linking sites to rank: ~130
Domain authority to rank: 70
Search results (US): ~282m
Potential traffic is estimated at 25,000 — while actual traffic is just about 320 at the most. There is a massive opportunity here!
18: Curb appeal ideas
Search traffic: ~1.6k–3.6k
Search traffic potential: ~3.3k
Clicks: ~1.4k
Difficulty: hard
Clicks per search: 0.84
Backlinks to rank: ~585
Linking sites to rank: ~47
Domain authority to rank: 72
Search results (US): 36,000,000
These keywords all have something in common: they’re all searchers telling you what type of content you should write. We use keyword research extensively when planning and creating content, and that’s one of the most important ways it pays off. A blog post that gives real, usable advice on how to improve curb appeal should be a stepping stone in your sales process.
19: Do open houses work?
Search traffic: ~90–110
Search traffic potential: ~500
Clicks: ~95
Difficulty: medium
Clicks per search: 1.08
Backlinks to rank: ~134
Linking sites to rank: ~24
Domain authority to rank: 57
Search results (US): 1.5bn
There’s debate around this. If you want some of that relatively low, but relatively easy traffic, this should be a subheader in a post about which methods are most effective to sell your house, or a standalone piece that examines the evidence for and against.
20: How much is my home worth?
Search traffic: ~10k–12k
Search traffic potential: ~438k
Clicks: ~19k
Difficulty: very hard
Clicks per search: 1.79
Backlinks to rank: ~862k
Linking sites to rank: ~250
Domain authority to rank: 71
Search results (US): ~5,790m
OK, so some people do ask this just on the off chance, or to refinance. But for most people who search this, they’re indirectly trying to figure out how much house they can afford with the money from selling the house they have. You’re up against home value estimators from the likes of Zillow, but you can still win if you offer local knowledge and experience.
Conclusion
In fact, real estate is often not just local (city, region, county): it’s hyper-local, focused on specific streets or neighborhoods. Now the competition is reduced even further. But buying a house is a big deal for most people. They’re going to give it a lot of thought before they pull the trigger. That means they’re going to want to learn more.
Meanwhile, even with just a handful of local agencies in the game, there’s still competition. Imagine one agency has just listings. The other has listings plus a blog post for each location it serves, one that matches the most common high-intent search terms for that location. Which of these agencies is going to win?