Property Management Marketing: Boosting SEO With Content

Updated and republished 6/12/2020.

Property management marketing has changed. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still an integral part of reaching your customers, but your customers will look elsewhere if you don’t produce high quality, helpful content that meets their expectations.

Consumers expect to find answers on the internet, as a tool it has all but completely erased the encyclopedia, dictionary, most magazines, and periodicals.

Yes, keywords matter, but if your content focuses too strongly on keywords instead of information, your customers are going to consume content from a site that doesn’t appeal more to search engines than it does to them.

Producing meaningful and helpful content while also boosting SEO isn't as much of a challenge as you might expect. Content should engage consumers while still fitting into your existing SEO strategy. The best way to do this is to consider SEO from all levels and conduct keyword research before creating content.

Content Boosts SEO

Google frequently makes changes to its algorithm to ensure they show the user relevant content that answers their questions. Recent changes punish sites that engage in “keyword stuffing,” which is forcing keywords into your content where it doesn’t belong to create an increase in ranking. Having unique keywords relating to your business can help boost SEO for those keywords without having to force them in. If you follow inbound best practices and write about your property management business, SEO will naturally follow.

Take this, for example. If you are regularly using the phrase "property management" in a blog, being mindful to change the term to "Dallas property management" will help you rank for "Dallas property management" over time. You wouldn't want to add "Dallas" in every time, usually around once per every three paragraphs is sufficient to signal the keyword without it being considered stuffing. Always be mindful of context as well. Don't just find and replace all mentions of "property management" with "Dallas property management" because you could significantly mess up your content.

• Getting earned results is the goal of SEO, but the purpose of any business is to convert that engagement into a sale.
• The quality of your content can determine whether or not that conversion happens.
• If you produce meaningful content, consumers will share on social media—and that recommendation goes a long way.

According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report, “92 percent of consumers…say they trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.”

While it might not seem pressing now, Google and Bing are already looking at prioritizing results that have engagements with your social media contacts (provided you’re logged in, and your accounts are connected).

Looks Matter

When you’re ready to start producing content, you should already have a plan for SEO at all levels of your property management marketing plans.

• Use that plan to create a framework to keep your content on-message. The outline can include where to insert links and keywords.
• Before you publish, thoroughly edit your content: no one shares content that looks unprofessional, is full of typos, and can’t carry a coherent thought through to the end!

At best, your content will get ignored. At worst, you’ll attract the wrong kind of social media buzz.

Having great content also only matters if your customers can read it. Here are some pointers to increase readability:

• Use shorter paragraphs
• Don’t use filler words
• Break up text with bullet points and images
• Use headings.

You should also consider how your customers are viewing your content. According to Google, most people are searching on a mobile device, so Google boosts sites that are optimized for mobile and therefore reduces the ranking of unoptimized sites.

Use Content to Help

It can be harder to encourage mass sharing of property management blogs—after all, your audience is pretty niche. You can still bring your content to places where it will be helpful and improve your SEO while doing so.

• Offer to guest post on partner sites, and include one link back to your site.
• Look for property owners asking questions on forums and respond with a blog article that is relevant to their inquiry.

Most big forums will automatically place a "no-follow" tag on your link, but you'll be bringing qualified traffic to your site that is going to click through multiple pages, spend time on your site, and help naturally increase your relevance that way.

As search engines adapt to users, SEO strategies for property management marketing must also change. The previous method of keyword stuffing and linking is still relevant to a point, but having helpful content that engages your customers in a meaningful way can be a better boost to your SEO.

Remember to keep your content relevant, expert-level, and helpful. Use it in ways that it brings that helpfulness to the user without trying to sell them, and let your leads come to you with the inbound methodology! If you need a refresher on how to make your marketing spend work harder (and smarter) for you, get in touch with us! We can show you how powerful inbound marketing can be for your property management business.