Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a key tool for estate agents and at the absolute heart of a successful content marketing strategy. Most crucial of all is how you measure the success of your SEO – so you know what is working and what you need to change to improve your conversion rate and adapt to the ever-changing world of Google search. If you’re wondering which metrics you should be using to ensure your business is ahead of the game, we have four essential tips for measuring search success.

1 Metrics – they all come down to revenue

There are lots of different metrics you can consider when interrogating your SEO strategy and they are all useful to some extent. But beware of the so-called vanity metrics – the things that show you’re good at SEO but for its own sake, not in a way that impacts on your bottom line.

This means that metrics, like your ranking on the Google search results page, need to correlate to revenue or at least the conversions to really matter. For example, you might have some great content about a local area, which generates plenty of visits. But if those people aren’t taking the next step, such as booking a valuation, that content isn’t having an impact on your business goals.

Build metrics for your key goals into your strategy. Examples include how many people submitted a valuation or general contact form, the numbers of viewing requests you’ve received and how many tenants or buyers have registered after seeing your pages.

Alongside this use Google Analytics to dig down into your customers’ behaviour to understand where those engaged customers came from – which pages, blogs, buttons or other content led to them taking the action you want.

Now be systematic in your evaluation with a spreadsheet where you track your content for conversion and use the results for your future strategy.

2 Branded keyword search volume is important

Branded keyword search is another important area. Metrics on the number of people searching your business by name tell you about brand awareness and how well your other marketing activity is getting you known.

People using branded keyword search often do so with intent, meaning a high percentage of such searches result in an enquiry. For example, for one client we established that since we launched their marketing campaign 10 months ago, their branded searches had gone up by 30%. This means that the marketing campaign has reached more people, who in turn have searched for the business by name.

Dig down to understand where those engaged customers came from.

Remember brand awareness is important in the real estate business because people want an agent they can trust and familiarity and recognition are a good way of building that.

3 Optimise with long-form queries to boost click-through rate

Your click through rate means how many people click on your website after finding you on an organic Google search. While click through rate doesn’t necessarily affect the bottom line, this is an important metric for measuring how well your content is doing in building a relationship with your customers.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve good click through rates. Even if you are using the right keywords for your audience, Google’s use of snippets means a lot of searchers get their answer without deviating from the first page. In fact, almost two thirds of searches now end without a click.

To avoid this, try optimising for long-tail search terms – more all-encompassing questions that can’t be answered in a snippet and require the reader to delve deeper. For example, instead of optimising for ‘landlord gas safety check’, you could use ‘what safety regulations does a landlord need to follow’. The rich, informative content that you’ll create by responding to long-tail search queries is about more than click through. It builds your relationship with your customers for lasting benefit.

4 Don’t ignore other metrics

Finally, while we’ve suggest concentrating on metrics relating to revenue, that doesn’t mean ignoring the day-to-day measures that show how good your site is compared to your competitors’. User behaviour metrics such as bounce rate can give you a good indication of how compelling your content is for readers, while ‘pages per session’ can show how well you retain customers, moving them on from page to page towards conversion.

Ultimately, the metrics you use will depend on your marketing goals, but for most estate agents that will be signing up vendors and landlords and getting buyers and tenants to view your properties. The metrics which tell you how well your pages do at getting them there are the ones to watch.

Got a question? Visit www.artdivision.co.uk