If you’re wondering why your estate agency website isn’t getting the hits you’re hoping for, you should start with a search engine optimisation (SEO) audit.

SEO analysis is about looking forensically into your site to understand how it is performing on Google – how good a job it’s doing when it comes to attracting organic (unpaid) traffic.

This type of analysis means looking at the visible content on your pages but also delving into the internal workings of your site, to check that technical aspects are correctly configured.

Get the analysis right, and you’ve found the key to better search engine results and more traffic from buyers, sellers and landlords.”

Get the analysis right, and you’ve found the key to better search engine results and more traffic from buyers, sellers and landlords.

If you’re not sure how it works, we look at how to analyse your site’s SEO, step by step.

1. The technical bit

This part of your analysis is about methodically checking to make sure everything is configured properly with nothing to stop search engines from crawling and indexing your content.

You are looking at your site’s architecture – how well structured your pages are and how logically they are organised. You’re also delving into the navigation – how easy your customer’s journey is through the site.

You’ll be looking at the load speed of your pages, whether the site is mobile responsive and the presence of internal links that take people from page to page.

You’ll also need to check the XML sitemap and Robots.txt files, which are both crucial to showing search engines where to go on your site.

There are online tools to help you do all of this. However, this technical part of your analysis can be tricky. If you don’t have the know how in your agency, you may need to outsource.

2. Are your pages optimised?

Next, turn your attention to your pages to ensure they are as search engine friendly as possible.

Think SEO, and keywords are probably the first thing that comes to mind. You’d be right to analyse your pages for the keywords you want to rank but it’s about a lot more than that.

You need to check the title tags and meta descriptions that tell Google what your pages are about, as well as the headings and subheadings that break up the page by subject areas. With the title tags and meta descriptions your audit is looking for any that are missing or duplicates and whether they are the correct character counts.

Headings usually range from H1 titles down to H6. Here you’re checking that the structure makes sense and that there are no duplicate titles – there should only be one H1 title on a page.

When it comes to the body copy, you’re looking for the presence of the right keywords, but they need to rest seamlessly within the writing, so it is natural sounding – check for any evidence of keyword stuffing.

The content itself should be high quality, the result of original research and packed with authentic insights and evidence of your expertise – rather than anything plagiarised from other sources or created with generative AI tools.

Analyse your photos and images too, checking they all have good descriptive alt tags.

3. Making the link

Links are an important part of your SEO strategy and need careful consideration during your audit.

Internal links that take people around your site are important but you need to check a few things. Links need to be logical and included for a reason. You should certainly aim for more than one per page but too many looks spammy.

External links – or backlinks – really help your rankings. When other sites link to yours, it’s a good sign of authority. You need to analyse the backlinks on your pages to make sure they are of high quality and relevance to you.

There are plenty of online tools to help you analyse backlinks though you may need to sign up or buy a subscription to use them. They will help reveal the quality of the backlinks as well as how much traffic they are driving to your site and whether they could be spam.

4. Check out the competition

Don’t ignore competitor analysis – this key part of your audit is about comparing how your site performs against the other local agencies in your area or specialism, so you have the edge when it comes to vying for business.

Your analysis should take in your competitors’ use of keywords and how they rank for those terms as well as the amount of traffic they are generating.”

Your analysis should take in your competitors’ use of keywords and how they rank for those terms as well as the amount of traffic they are generating to key pages compared to your figures. Look at the authority score their site is achieving and how they are doing on backlinks too for insight into how you could improve your strategy.

What next?

This rigorous analysis isn’t for its own sake – the information you get will help you fix issues with your site but also inform your SEO strategy going forward.

While you can take many of these steps yourself, some might be difficult without in-house specialists to help you. If you need help, outsource this work to an SEO specialist with knowledge in the property market.

For more information, visit: www.artdivision.co.uk