Online real estate leads mostly refer to leads generated through paid ads and organic search engine results. One difference between these two methods is that Google Ads are pay-per-click whereas organic search lead generation requires you to follow Google's rules. Yes, they’re free but it takes knowledge and commitment to generate real estate leads regularly.
This article takes an in-depth look at organic leads for real estate agents to help you maintain a packed pipeline of relevant home buyers and sellers in your neighbourhood.
Keep reading to gain the tools and insight to create an organic Google presence that will impact your real estate business.
What Is a Real Estate Lead?
A lead is someone who expresses some level of interest in your real estate services. To close or nurture a real estate lead, you must capture a method of contacting this person (email, phone number and/or mailing address).
It’s also important to have a process and stay on script (yes, you should have a script) to keep the conversation moving and focused on conversion.
How Many Real Estate Leads Do I Need?
The National Association of Realtors® states that the customer conversion rate for agents is roughly 0.4% – 1.2%. This equates to about one to two conversions per 200 leads—proof that you must build and maintain a deep pipeline of prospects.
A comprehensive real estate lead generation strategy can help you do the following:
- Generate high-quality leads
- Qualify leads even further
- Foster your brand
- Nurture leads
- Increase conversions
Don’t forget that organic search perfectly complements Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
Listen to Eric speak about the time it takes to convert a real estate lead:
What is an Organic Real Estate Lead for Google?
A real estate lead generated via Google’s search results is organic. These results are displayed under the sponsored ads section, which means a user entered a search term into Google and received relevant web pages.
The process to rank on the free and valuable portion of a Google results page is through search engine optimization (SEO).
What is SEO for Real Estate Agents?
SEO is a process to improve your website based on the rules outlined by Google. This online marketing tactic increases the chances of web pages being ranked for relevant keywords. This applies to all search engines but let’s stick with Google where most of your efforts should be focused.
The goal is to have a website and Google Business Profile (we’ll get to this soon) that can’t be ignored. The more often you appear in search results, the more visitors you can attract to your website.
These visitors can turn into leads if you have the proper system.
WHAT IS SEO?
Tactics that improve a website and, in turn, its search engine ranking.
WHY DOES SEO MATTER?
The more traffic to your website, the higher it can appear on a search engine results page.
HOW DO I OPTIMIZE MY WEBSITE?
Fulfilling a user's search needs with high-quality content, proper site architecture and excellent user experience.
TIPS FOR TOP REAL ESTATE AGENTS: Google updates their best practices whenever it wants and sometimes up to 500 times a year. Treat your website as something that needs to be managed, maintained and updated regularly.
Steps to Get Organic Real Estate Leads on Google My Business
Step 1: Claim and Complete your Google My Business Listing
Google wants to return local businesses in relevant search results and to do so they want business owners to add or claim their business listing on Google.
This is especially important for realtors since most work in local markets.
To add your Business Profile to Google Maps:
- Sign in to Google Maps
- There are a few ways to add your business but the easiest one is to right-click anywhere on the map and then click “Add your business”.
- Follow the instructions to complete registration for your Business Profile.
To claim your business through Google Maps:
- Open Google Maps
- Input the business name in the search bar
- Select your business name
- Click “Claim this business” and then select “Manage now”.
- Select a verification option and follow the instructions.
Step 2: Optimize your website
Now, it’s time to improve your website through optimization. Here are some ways that realtors can optimize their website:
- Make sure each page has proper title tags, images and URLs.
- Make sure your site has a quick load speed and is mobile-friendly. This may require the help of a developer.
- Create locally relevant pages and content. If you’re selling homes in Jonesboro, Arkansas then you want to rank for that region, not the state of Arkansas.
Step 3: Create high-quality real estate content
Start engaging with relevant audiences by creating content (web pages, blog posts and videos) to introduce yourself to targeted people and help them understand your experience, credibility and value.
Take our free course on YouTube for Real Estate Agents to create video content that will engage viewers and generate leads.
Benefits of Organic Leads in Real Estate
Let’s review some of the benefits of generating organic leads in real estate:
- They’re free: You’re advertising without paying to reserve ad space. The only real commitment is your time but if you automate your operations, the process becomes simple and streamlined.
- High-quality leads: If users find you organically, they will often engage with your website and content before the initial conversation. Since they are already intrigued by the idea of working with you, they have higher odds of becoming a client.
- Improves your website: A high-performing website can drive more traffic and be a sustainable lead generator.
- Great branding tool: Generating leads organically helps build trust with your target market and can foster customer loyalty.
How to Nurture a Real Estate Lead
Some leads you generate organically will be ready to hire you as their real estate agent. Others, however, will require some patience and nurturing.
Once you’ve filled your pipeline, you need to identify leads that aren’t ready to become clients and then nurture them.
The best advice is to use personalized communications. This prevents prospects from feeling like you’re spamming them and will separate you from other agents using AI and other tools to build rapport. Frankly, AI is not the best way to nurture a relationship.
The trick is to personalize sales and automate operations. Everything to do with your back-end operations should be automated but the front-end should be all you—your personality, unique voice and value proposition.
Get into a routine of creating high-quality targeted content for your intended audience to nudge them closer to becoming a client. This can include blog posts, a YouTube channel and social media posts.
TIPS FOR TOP REAL ESTATE AGENTS: Most real estate agents fail by not personalizing their relationship with leads and keeping their operations difficult to manage.
FAQ
What is the difference between paid and organic search on Google?
Paid search is where you pay to place ads on designated parts of a Google search engine results page. Organic is free and more democratic. Google ranks an organic search by the website’s performance, content and if it is trustworthy.
Are organic leads from Google qualified?
Typically, Google organic leads are qualified as the user found you through the search function or by referral. These users often have some familiarity with your business and have chosen you for a reason.
How can my real estate business rank organically on Google?
To rank organically, you should add or claim your Google Business Profile, optimize your web pages, ensure your website is mobile-friendly and create specific content for your target audience.
