How to Optimize Your Apartment Blog to Rank Higher in Google Search Results
Table of Contents
➢ Choosing Real Estate Keywords
Tired of constantly reading about the importance of property management SEO but never understanding how to achieve optimized blog content on a fundamental level? More specifically, do you long to know the exact steps you can take to rank higher in search results?
If so, then this blog about blogs is for you.
What makes our ultimate guide to property management SEO different from the others you’ve seen, aside from our killer branding, is that we practice a “show and tell” philosophy.
By breaking down an example of a highly optimized blog, we guarantee that you will step away from this resource with at least eight concrete changes you can easily implement across all of your blog content and remember during future creation. While we used an off-topic blog example — about staying healthy while traveling — for the purpose of this property management SEO guide, the premise is still the same; it exemplifies remarkable optimization without falling into common property management SEO traps such as keyword stuffing.
Before we get to the example, let’s review the basics of keywords for apartments.
How to Choose Real Estate Keywords for Apartment Marketing
First, we recommend using a property management SEO keyword tool such as Google Keyword Planner or LinkGraph. Tools like these will provide you with information on what your audience is searching for online that you won’t be able to discern on your own.
Second, we recommend that you use keywords that meet these criteria for optimal performance:
Low Organic Difficulty
Your keyword(s) should have a low organic difficulty rating. This means there is a low level of competition for blogs targeting that same keyword.
Medium Search Volume
Target keywords with a medium search volume. If the search volume is too low, it won’t drive traffic. Likewise, if it’s too high, it is likely a large portion of those searchers are not in your target audience and won’t convert.
High Cost-Per-Click (CPC) Rate
Even if you aren’t participating in PPC advertising, it’s helpful to know that your direct competition is paying a high amount for those keywords because the traffic it drives is converting.
Want to learn more about the best property management SEO keyword tools? Check out our YouTube video for a quick breakdown.
How Often to Use Keywords in a Blog
Keyword stuffing is a trap that is easy to fall into and one that Google will penalize you for — in terms of not showing your articles in search results. Luckily, with a good ratio of word count to keyword use, you can avoid that.
For more information on using property management SEO keywords in your blogs, check out our YouTube video for a quick breakdown!
Property Management SEO Blog Guide for Apartments
That is because two of the main keywords for this blog are not only in the title but right at the beginning.
Keywords are phrases that people commonly search. So when you include a keyword in your title, it catches your audience’s attention. It is a phrase your readers are familiar with and likely a part of their current query.
You should place your main targeted keyword at the beginning of your blog title for these reasons:
1. Tells Google what your blog is about
2. Helps drive related searches to your blog
3. Catches your audience’s attention
4. Ensures the keyword does not get cut off in the title of search results.
Sometimes, even after shortening it, you’re going to a title that gets cut off.
For more on how long your headlines and titles should be, check out our property management SEO YouTube video!
Example of a keyword-less blog title that gets cut off (what you don’t want):
Example of a blog title that gets cut off but is still targeted (what you do want):
Lastly, notice that this is the one and only H1 tag. Each blog should only have one title and one H1 tag attached to it.
A blog title should be between 8 and 14 words.
Underneath the single H1, there are three H2s that each has multiple H3s. Aim to structure all of your apartment blogs this way. By emphasizing subheads with H2 and H3 titling you are provided clear information to Google on what your content is about.
Databox actually ranks headers as the second-most important blog component for property management SEO (the title is the first of course).
Make a note of how the keywords are placed in the normal copy and not just the headers. Such as with “common diseases” in this paragraph. It’s important to weave keywords throughout all of your content and not just in the big headlines.
This is due to the simple fact that a certain ratio of normal words to keywords is required to make Google happy enough with your content to show it high enough in search results.
For the purpose of this property management SEO guide, we’ve removed some of the blog content to keep the information succinct. The original word count of our “Traveler’s Guide” blog was upwards of 1,200 — an optimal length.
The Unseen Components of Property Management SEO
There are a few important components for optimized blog content that are not necessarily visible when you look at a blog online.
Title Tag
The title tag is the title that shows up in search results, on the browser link, and on social shares. By default, your blog’s title or H1 will be set as the title tag. However, you can edit the title tag to something more targeted or concise. Your title tag can be the short version of your blog title.
You can go from this:
To this:
Meta Description
The meta description is what shows up underneath the title tag. The optimal length for your meta description is right under 160 characters. You should strive to include both of your main keywords here, but oftentimes they can be very similar. If that is the case, include one.
Here is a great example of an optimized meta description for a multifamily blog:
Alt Text
The alt tag is the text that you attach to any image you include in your blog — especially your main blog image. This is important because Google cannot comprehend or read images, it only analyzes text. By attaching text to your image, you are telling Google what your image relates to and improving your property management SEO.
Apartment Marketing at Its Best
You know that you have achieved an optimized blog when you are easily driving an increased amount of web traffic to it — just like we did with this blog.
While the “Traveler’s Guide” was a great example of an optimized blog, so is the one you just read.
By using a good ratio of content to keywords for your property management SEO, creating a hierarchy of targeted headlines, and providing Google with all the information it needs to know about your blog, you can increase website traffic — and ultimately turn more leads into leases.
