Can you imagine a world where we no longer need or use keyboards?
Although it may sound futuristic, that may soon be our reality! In fact, the newest version of the iPhone doesn’t even feature a keyboard and if Apple has taught us anything it is that they bet (and win) on the evolution of tech.
So what does any of this have to do with your real estate business?
A TON actually!
This disappearance of the keyboard is one of many indicators of the fact that more and more people are using their voice to search for answers on the internet. Since nearly 100% of real estate buyers and sellers search for homes, agents, and lenders online you need to know how to make sure you still show up when they search with their voice rather than their keyboard.
You see, just because you’re at the top of Google when you run a manual search right now, that does not mean that you will be the recommendation of Siri, GoogleHome, or Alexa when a potential client is looking for you in a voice search.
Since experts are predicting that voice searches will continue to take over until they completely change the way we use technology and the internet, you have no choice but to get your voice strategy into place.
But don’t just take my word for it, let’s dive deeper into the cold hard facts of how voice search is about to make or break your real estate career.
What Does Voice Optimization Mean For A Real Estate Business?
As I have told you in the past, Gartner, a leading business strategy site, brands that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search by early 2021 will increase their revenue by 30%.
That number might seem dramatic but if you consider the fact that by the end of this year 50% of all online searches will be done by voice is quickly becomes more plausible, doesn’t it?
So just imagine for a moment what it would mean for your business if every time someone in your market asked Alexa or Siri about real estate, houses for sale, market conditions, or real estate agents they were led to you?
What would a 30% increase in revenue mean for you?
Could you hire more help to grow your team, take more vacations, expand your marketing?
There is no denying that someone in your market is going to enjoy that 30% increase in revenue over the next 18 months, so why not you?
All you need to know is how to strategically position your real estate website so that all voice search roads lead to you and today I’ve got 4 methods you can start implementing today to do just that!
If you want to become the next top agent or hold your position at the top over the next few years, this post is for you!
1. Transition To Longtail Keywords
The first thing that you need to think about as you begin to target voice searchers is what they will be saying to their voice assistants when they are looking for you or the services you offer.
Obviously, they are going to be speaking in full sentences like:
“Alexa, who is the best listing agent in St. Louis?”
More than they will say something like:
“Alexa, St. Louis listing agent.”
With that in mind, you need to start implementing longtail keywords in the form of sentences as much as possible throughout your real estate website.
Although the idea of having to do this may be giving you a mini stroke I promise it is actually a good thing for the moment because hardly anyone is doing this yet. In other words, if you start doing this right away you will be facing almost zero competition in search results.
Not only that but the more specific your keywords are, the more likely the people that land on your site as a result of searching for it will actually become a client.
It is SO, SO, SO important that you understand when it comes to your real estate website’s traffic that QUALITY is always more important than QUANTITY!
The trick to identifying strategic longtail keywords that will help draw quality traffic to your real estate website is to put yourself into the shoes of the people you are trying to attract and think about what you would say or ask to a smart assistant like Alexa if you were looking for an agent or house.
2. Write Conversational Real Estate Copy
Including conversational copy throughout your real estate website and blog is so immensely important that I wrote an entire blog post talking about it which you can read here.
The most obvious example that I can use when referring to conversational copy is this post that you’re reading right now. Have you noticed that I am writing how I would talk to you if you were sitting right in front of me or on the phone? That is because conversational copy not only helps people engage and connect with you and your content but it also helps it to rank with voice assistants.
One important point to make is that acronyms are a big No No. Unless you are going to spell them out and then include them in parentheses make sure you don’t have these in your content. For example, LOL will not translate and will do nothing to tell you to show up in voice searches.
What will help you though is to have as many conversational phrases and questions in throughout your real estate website and blog as possible.
3. Create An F.A.Q. Page For Your Website
Speaking of questions, sometimes it can be difficult to naturally incorporate questions into the content of your website. However, one super simple and easy way to do just that is to set up a F.A.Q. page and fill it with as many questions and answers as possible.
I talk a ton about the value of a F.A.Q. page in my article How To Outrank Zillow. In that post I explain:
Why FAQ pages are so important to the success of your real estate website
What questions you should include on your FAQ page
How many questions you need to be successful
The right and wrong way to answer those questions to optimize results
Not only will this page do all of that but it can also work as a site map.
The more that you answer the who, what, when, where, why, and how of all things real estate in your market on your F.A.Q. page the more often you will show up at the top of Google and have digital assistants like Siri and Alexa referring people to your site.
Your F.A.Q. page is best placed in a tab under your About Us tab and in the footer of your website.
4. Bait Google Searches With Snippets
Have you ever noticed recently that sometimes when you run a search in Google you get the answer you were looking for right there on the results page along with a link to learn more from the source if you’re interested?
Here is an example of what I mean:
This is referred to as a Google snippet and they are the new main focus of the geniuses at Google.
You see, they figured out that people are responding better to searches when the answer to their question is automatically populated like this so they are actively and aggressively rewarding the website that allows them to pull a quick answer for users.
The crazy thing is that it isn’t all that hard to bait Google into featuring your website in this way. All you need to do is start filling your real estate website and blog with content that is formatted to include:
keyword-rich paragraphs of up to two sentences with an image aligned beside it
ordered or unordered list
table of information
valuable video
topical graph
Each of these will give you a much greater chance of getting your site and blog featured in a Google snippet and chosen as the top result by digital assistants answering a voice search.
Want More Help Getting Clients From Your Real Estate Website Or Blog?
I’m your girl!
Whether you just have a few questions or are in search of a full-blown strategy that will help you get ahead of the competition and completely dominate your market I’ve got you covered.
I work with real estate agents, brokers, lenders, coaches and the like in all stages of their career to get ahead like never before, reverse-engineer their ideal clients, and grow their business on autopilot through strategic real estate content. No matter how big or small your obstacle is, I am up to the challenge!
If you are ready to stop playing catch-up and have your ideal clients chasing after you, schedule a free strategy call with me at your convenience and tell me how I can help you.
