10 Ways to Get Quality Backlinks for Your Real Estate Website
In SEO, it’s not enough to simply have a beautiful and functioning website, your site also needs to have authority. One effective way to achieve this is through backlinks, which are outside links that direct to your website. Search engines like Google use the number and quality of backlinks to determine the relevance and authority of your website.
In this blog, we’ll explore 10 ways on how you can effectively increase the quality backlinks of your real estate website. The more backlinks, the better you’ll rank and improve your online visibility!
Real Estate Webmasters linking to West + Main Homes homepage.
Table of Contents
1. Create Good and Engaging Content
The best way to garner quality backlinks is by posting relevant, useful, and high-quality content that your site visitors would love to link to.
Waterfront Properties' Jupiter Community Page featuring good content and optimized images.
No one wants to engage, much less be associated with a page with bad content. Make sure to do in-depth research on what topics your target audience is interested in, and feature any relevant news happening in your area. For example, you can write about local events, points of interest, and what’s unique about your neighborhood, or share free resources like mortgage calculators and property valuation tools. Don’t forget to optimize your listing pages with high-quality images, statistics, and accurate property information to make it more valuable, increasing the chances of getting backlinks.
2. Share Your Content
Once you’ve posted high-quality content on your website, the next step is to share it! If your ranking is not yet high on search results pages, you need to exert extra effort for people to find your website. Share your listings, blogs and other pages on social media, or message your contacts directly to give them a heads up about your new content.
Carly Cary Real Estate Group's Facebook Page.
Note: Backlinks from social media do not directly affect your ranking, but giving your content more exposure means boosting your chances of people linking your website on their pages.
3. Write a Guest Post
Another effective way to get backlinks is through guest posting. Please take note that this does not mean trading links with people, which is not a good practice. If you’re an expert at a certain subject (example: real estate sales), you can reach out to relevant websites and offer to write free but quality articles for them. Don’t forget to include your website on the article’s body, or your author bio page! Doing this is an ethical and efficient method to build relationships and backlinks.
4. Write Testimonials for Vendors
A creative and helpful way to gather backlinks is by writing positive testimonials for your vendor partners, such as lenders, inspectors, stagers, and other providers you work with. We suggest making it easier for your vendor partners by writing them a HTML testimonial they can copy and paste on their website. Another option is to give them a shorter, Google-specific version that they can feature on their Google Business Profile.
Andrew Salamone of The Salamone Group giving Real Estate Webmasters a vendor testimonial.
When you reach out to them, make sure to explain the benefits of showcasing testimonials (boosts SEO, builds credibility, etc.) so they have the incentive to give you a backlink.
5. Leverage Online Profiles
Agents most likely have at least one online profile, such as their agent profile on their brokerage website. Make sure to find all your profiles online and add a link of your website for backlinks. Don’t limit yourself to real estate websites, you might also have a profile on other sites such as The Chamber, BNI (Business Network International), and others. Check if they have a section where you can update your profile and add your real estate website link.
Tyler Marrin's Agent Profile on Smith & Associate's website.
Quick tip—be consistent with your URL and always use the full https:// version for accuracy and consolidating of link authority.
6. Land a Spot on a Resource Page
There are many resource pages to help buyers and sellers in their real estate journey. Check out reputable ones that you can reach out to and have your website added on their page. If you have a high-quality, helpful, and SEO optimized website, the resource page owners would most likely be happy to give you a backlink.
7. Help the Community
Even without the benefit of getting backlinks, joining charities or sponsoring outreach efforts (if you have the funds) is always a good idea. Giving back to our community is a great way to show appreciation to the people who are supporting us, and to help those who are in need.
Flavin Realty's outreach efforts
If you do participate in charities, you can ask the organizers or admins if they can add your link on their website. This usually takes the form of a thank you post, which you can compose yourself to reduce the workload of the admins. We recommend including all the sponsors and volunteers on the post, and not just yourself, to make it genuine and community-focused.
8. Research Your Competitions
There is a lot to gain from studying your competitors. Check which sites mention or link to them, such as real estate publications, resource pages, neighborhood-specific websites, and others, and see if it’s possible to also get a backlink from them. Connect with them, pitch your value, and show why it’s worth it to list your site on their page.
9. Leverage Collaborations
Maximize the opportunities from your existing partnerships or collaborations with other organizations and individuals. Provide them with content they can share and kindly request for backlinks if possible. You can also plan and collaborate on marketing campaigns to strengthen your relationship and widen your opportunity for backlinking. Just keep in mind not to imply that you’ll link them if they link you, since this is against Google’s spam guidelines.
Carly Carey featured on LRE®'s website.
10. Fix Broken Links & Mentions
Sometimes, websites may mention your business or link to pages that no longer work, which is a missed opportunity for getting backlinks. Take time to search for broken links to your site and reach out to the website owner to have them updated. You can also look for mentions of your real estate business that don’t include a link by typing “[Your Business Name]” -site:[yourwebsite.com] in Google. If you find any, send them a message and politely ask them to add your link.
Learn More on the REW Forum
Do you want to improve your SEO skills and knowledge? Or maybe, you want to share your insights or best practices? Join the REW Forum! This is the perfect place to connect with other real estate professionals, as well as our team. Here, you can ask questions, find useful tips and the latest trends, and contribute to the discussions. We’d love to have you be part of the community.
Exciting news: We're collaborating on an SEO project with the renowned Chris Colgan, and his website is now ranking on the first page of Google’s search results within just a few months! This is a great example of how using effective SEO strategies can boost your online visibility. Check out his forum post here.
Join the SEO discussions on the REW Forum.
Backlinks FAQ
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to yours. They help boost your site's SEO by signaling to search engines that your website is trustworthy and relevant.
Do social media links count as backlinks?
Not directly, but sharing your content on social media can increase your visibility, which can lead to more backlinks.
What should I avoid when building backlinks?
Avoid buying links or trading backlinks with other people. These practices are against Google’s guidelines and can negatively impact your SEO.