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Like virtually every other industry, the real estate business has largely gone digital, especially in terms of advertising.
As proof, research shows that close to 100% of homebuyers begin their search for a new house online using search engines like Google.
This means SEO is an essential marketing channel for real estate agents.
If you want to generate a steady pipeline of clients and compete with big dogs like Keller Williams and RE/MAX, you need a strong presence on search engines.
In other words, you need your content to rank on page one for your most important local keywords.
But how do you achieve such high rankings? Isn’t it difficult to outrank other real estate websites?
To see the most drastic impacts on your rankings, you need high-authority backlinks.
These are links on other trusted real estate websites that point back to your site (hence the name backlink), and they’re how search engines like Google determine the quality and trustworthiness of a piece of content.
In this guide, we’ll teach you:
- The importance of backlinks for real estate SEO
- How to overcome the unique challenges of real estate link-building
- The most effective techniques for building valuable real estate backlinks
So, if you’re ready to learn how to become a link-building expert for your real estate business, stay tuned to learn more!
Understanding the Importance of Backlinks on Search Engines
First, you may not be familiar with the role backlinks play in SEO, especially if your focus has only been on real estate up to this point.
If you do have some experience with SEO and link-building, feel free to skip this section.
For everyone else, a backlink is simply a link on another website that directs back to one of your web pages.
However, on search engines like Google, a backlink isn’t just a hyperlink.
Instead, it acts as a mini endorsement of your content.
The reason for this stretches back to Google’s inception in the late 90s. Its founders wanted a way to rank only high-quality, trustworthy websites in its search results, which is why they opted to use backlinks as ‘credibility votes.’
Here’s how it works.
If a trusted, high-quality website like Forbes or CNBC were to include a link to one of your web pages, it’s a sign that you also publish accurate, trustworthy content.
After all, reputable websites like CNBC wouldn’t link out to just anyone, as they’re a professional brand with quality standards.
Therefore, Google’s algorithm favors backlinks coming from relevant, authoritative websites.
Of the hundreds of ranking factors that Google includes in its algorithm, backlinks are among the most important.
So, in order to rank on page one (and in the top 3), your website needs a healthy backlink profile, and that means generating lots of high-quality backlinks.
However, there is a quality vs. quantity debate, and we’re very much on the quality side (for the most part).
This is because backlinks coming from low-quality, spammy websites will have no impact on your rankings.
The same is true for irrelevant backlinks, meaning they come from websites that aren’t in the same industry/niche (an example would be building a backlink from a burger restaurant to your real estate site. It’s irrelevant so it won’t count).
What are the components of a high-quality backlink?
Okay, now that you know that high-quality backlinks are the way to go, how can you judge the quality of a link?
Here are the primary factors to look for:
- Relevance. First, a backlink must hold topical or contextual relevance to count toward your rankings. Topical relevance means a website shares the same topics and themes as you do, and contextual relevance means a normally irrelevant website (like a news site) mentions what you do in context (like a news story about real estate). As stated previously, irrelevant backlinks will not impact your rankings, so they’re not worth building.
- Authority. The concept of domain authority is huge in the link-building world, as it’s how SEOs judge the ranking power of a domain. Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) is the most popular metric in this regard, but Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR) is also valuable (it strictly looks at the strength of a domain’s backlink profile, while DA considers other SEO factors like content quality).
- Natural placement. As a rule of thumb, you should always request that your backlinks appear naturally in the page’s main content, NOT in spammy areas like the site’s footer or in a forum comments section.
- Source diversity. Lastly, for a backlink profile to appear natural to Google, it must contain backlinks from various sources and quality types. In other words, a backlink profile consisting only of high-quality guest posts with similar anchor text (the text masking a hyperlink) will raise red flags to Google. They will suspect that you’ve been building links just to manipulate the search rankings (which is technically what SEO is, but Google has a love/hate relationship with it), which may lead to a manual action. Instead, try to build links from a wide range of sources, such as social media posts, forums, and business directories. This will make your profile appear as if it occurred naturally (i.e., people decided to link to your content due to its quality and not because you asked).
Checking a website’s domain authority
Whenever you’re vetting domains for backlink opportunities, you should always use a tool to check its domain authority.
For instance, our free domain authority checker tool will tell you the DA score for practically any website online. DA is measured on a scale of 1 – 100, with 100 being the most authoritative. Scores ranging from 80 – 100 tend to be reserved for legacy websites like Amazon and Wikipedia, so they’re typically out of reach for smaller sites.
Scores 50 – 70 are more realistic and are considered premium quality links.
Scores 20 – 50 are by no means bad, and they’re still worth pursuing if you’re trying to close a sizable backlink gap (which is when a competitor has significantly more backlinks than you do).
Scores 0 – 20 are best avoided, as these are typically spammy websites that offer little to no value to users, and they’re exactly the types of websites Google wants to keep off of page one.
Why Are Backlinks Important in Real Estate?
Okay, now that backlinks 101 has concluded, it’s time to learn why backlinks are valuable for real estate websites in particular.
As we said in the intro, almost 100% of all homebuyers will start their home-buying journey on a search engine like Google.
That means members of your target audience are going to search for keywords like ‘homes for sale in (your city).’
If you’re able to rank in the top 3 (or in the local pack results), your website will be one of the first your prospects see when looking for homes to buy.
This is HUGE because the vast majority of internet users only click on the top 3 results, with the lion’s share of clicks going to position #1.
The proof?
Research found that position #1 on Google receives more clicks than positions #3 – #10 combined.
Not only that, but organic search results are more popular than sponsored results, even though paid ads appear above the organic results.
The #1-ranked organic spot receives an average of 19x more clicks than the top paid search result, which means you’ll get more traction out of an organic SEO campaign than paying for search ads.
Also, if you aren’t ranked #1 for your most important real estate keywords, all that business will go to competing websites instead.
This is the main reason why real estate agents have such a strong incentive to invest in SEO.
Other reasons why backlinks matter for the real estate industry include the following:
- Generate referral traffic. Backlinks will do more for your site than helping you rank better (although that’s pretty huge). Since each backlink is a real hyperlink to your content on another site, users can click on it and interact with your website. As a result, you’ll generate referral traffic, which you can then convert into leads and customers (if your content is designed to convert, that is).
- Enhanced credibility and trustworthiness. There’s a reason why digital PR firms focus on link-building so much, and it’s because backlinks will help boost your reputation. Of course, this is only true if you build backlinks on relevant, trustworthy websites, but that’s what you should be doing anyway. The more that links to your content appear on reputable websites in your field, the more your audience will notice, and they’ll begin to view you as a thought leader.
Here’s a quick example of the power of link-building on real estate websites.
This is a picture of real estate behemoth Zillow’s organic traffic and referring domains on the SEO platform Ahrefs:
The orange line is Zillow’s organic traffic, and the blue line represents Zillow’s referring domains (i.e., domains that provided a backlink to Zillow).
As you can see, as the referring domains rise, organic traffic follows suit, demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between the two.
To summarize, if you want more traffic, you need to build more backlinks!
What are The Challenges of Real Estate Link-Building?
Every subsect of SEO tends to have unique challenges, and real estate is no exception.
In fact, there are quite a few difficulties that are real-estate specific, such as:
- Real estate is hyperlocal. Homebuyers search for extremely localized keywords tied to a specific city, borough, or neighborhood. As such, your link-building strategy must center around these location-specific keywords. For instance, if your market is in the Manhattan area, you should pursue links from websites that cater to the local community (i.e., Manhattan news sites, community sites, etc.).
- Competition is fierce. If you’ve spent more than a few seconds in the real estate industry, then we don’t need to tell you how competitive it is. Sadly, that competition transfers to search engine rankings, so you’ll have no shortage of direct competitors on Google.
- It takes time to build relationships. One of the most effective ways to consistently generate backlinks is to form positive relationships with websites in your field. As an example, you could build a relationship with a local news outlet in your area, which has the potential to lead to multiple link placements instead of just one. However, it takes a long time to forge these types of relationships, which can sting a bit if you’re brand new to link-building.
How to Build Real Estate Backlinks
Now that the main considerations are out of the way, it’s time to explore some real estate link-building techniques.
As a disclaimer, these are some of our favorite link-building tactics that we use all the time. They’re the techniques that yield the best results, and they’re some of the most current strategies (tactics become outdated all the time).
Without further ado, here are some ways you can start building backlinks to your real estate website.
Technique #1: Start building a network of relevant link partners
Link-building, regardless of industry, is all about networking.
Whether you’re building links for your real estate website or another business entirely, you’ll need to conduct outreach to convince other websites to link to your content.
We’ll be totally honest here; the days of cold email outreach are long over.
That’s why your focus should be on relationship-building instead of cold outreach campaigns.
Remember, competition is fierce in real estate SEO, and it’s normal for site owners to receive hundreds (if not thousands) of outreach emails requesting backlinks.
That’s why you should aim to rub elbows with site owners before ever bringing up the idea of linking to your site.
Here are a few ways you can break the ice:
- Start commenting on the site owner’s content. Don’t ask for links here, simply provide honest and real insights.
- Find common interests that you can bring up in comments and emails.
- Join relevant social media groups and take part in discussions (this will help you find other backlink opportunities, too).
Once you’ve built a rapport, then you can broach the subject of backlinks.
While this tactic is no doubt time-consuming, it is extremely effective once it gets going.
Technique #2: Create outstanding content that attracts links
This is the technique that Google prefers you use instead of any tactic that involves email outreach.
By creating amazing content, it will naturally attract links from other creators in your field. If you publish helpful guides (i.e., how to find affordable homes in (x) area), videos, and infographics, others will begin to share your content without you having to ask.
To Google, any tactic that involves outreach could technically qualify as attempting to manipulate their search rankings, which is why they push for creating great content instead.
Our recommendation?
Create content that embodies Google’s E-E-A-T acronym (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).
Provide first-hand experiences, demonstrate your expertise, and link out to reputable sources to back up your claims.
Since real estate SEO is hyperlocal, your content needs to reflect this, too. That means creating guides for your specific area of focus. Otherwise, you may attract the wrong audience (i.e., homebuyers from another borough or town who aren’t interested in your properties).
As an example, this Houston Housing Marketing Forecast for 2024 – 2025 is exactly the type of content we’re talking about here. According to Ahrefs, it has a whopping 205 backlinks from 78 unique referring domains!
Also, infographics and videos generate more shares than static content, so do your best to include visuals whenever possible.
Technique #3: Guest posting
While this technique is definitely old, it’s still as effective as ever.
Guest posting is where you reach out to sites in your field to request guest article placements. A guest article typically involves writing a brand-new piece of content specifically for the site in question.
Since it’s a link-building tactic, you also include a link back to your website in the guest post.
Here’s an example of a guest post from a real estate website:
This post was no doubt created to generate A) a backlink and B) referral traffic.
Besides guest posting on real estate sites, you can also post on sites that cover topics adjacent to real estate, such as:
- Finance
- Home improvement
- Local lifestyle
As long as you provide unique insights and value to the website, these topics are all fair game.
Here’s a trick for finding relevant guest post opportunities; use the quotations search operator on Google.
Here’s what we mean:
- Real estate “guest post”
- Real estate “write for us”
- Real estate “contributor”
Searching for these terms in quotes will only show websites that contain those phrases.
Here’s what happens when we search for real estate “guest post”:
Just like that, there are plenty of options to choose from! Be sure to include hyperlocal terms here, such as Manhattan real estate “guest post.”
Technique #4: Create link magnets
Remember the free domain authority checker tool that we linked to earlier?
Well, we didn’t create it entirely out of the goodness of our hearts.
It’s what’s known as a link magnet because it’s an extremely useful tool for our industry.
Since it’s so helpful, other websites link to it ALL the time.
In fact, our free suite of SEO tools constantly pops up in our ‘best links’ report on Ahrefs.
The good news?
Any industry can use lead magnets, including real estate.
All you need is a really helpful tool that’s directly relevant to your industry.
For instance, Zillow’s mortgage calculator is an excellent link magnet.
According to its data on Ahrefs, it boasts over 88k backlinks!
Monitor and Refine Your Backlink Strategy to Keep Improving
Just implementing these techniques isn’t enough, as you’ll need ways to measure your progress towards your goals.
You may discover that you aren’t seeing the results that you want, which is a sign that you should tweak your strategy and try something new.
Also, it’s important to regularly audit your backlinks.
Why is that?
For one, you want to make sure they’re still there. Links can break, and sometimes site owners will replace your backlinks with links from other sites.
Therefore, you should periodically check in on your backlink profile to ensure everything is still there. If you discover that you’ve lost a link or two, you can either A) cut your losses or B) get in touch with the site owner to try and recover the link.
Here are some tools you can use to monitor your link-building progress:
- Our free backlink checker tool will grant you a bird’s eye view of your backlink profile, which can be helpful for audits and to see when the backlinks you built go live.
- Ahrefs is an excellent platform that will let you know whenever there’s any type of change to your backlink profile. You can also set up Ahrefs Alerts to notify you via email whenever you gain or lose a backlink.
- Google Search Console (GSC) is the best free option for monitoring your backlinks, as it comes straight from Google. To check your links, log in to GSC and then navigate to the Links Report.
Start Building Backlinks for Your Real Estate Website Today
That was quite a lot of material to go over at once, so let’s recap:
- Virtually every homebuyer in today’s age begins their journey on search engines like Google.
- Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors, and they have a significant impact on search rankings.
- Real estate SEO is hyperlocal and extremely competitive.
- Effective ways to build backlinks include relationship building, creating great content, guest posting, and developing link magnets.
- It’s integral to monitor your progress and tweak your strategy wherever necessary.
Do you need expert help building backlinks for your real estate agency?
Enter SEO for Real Estate, a brand-new offering from The HOTH. Our team of SEO gurus specializes in real estate, and we’ll develop a cohesive strategy that includes content, link-building, and technical audits, so don’t wait to get in touch!
