SEO and the Role of User Experience (UX) in Real Estate

Imagine being a homebuyer and looking for your dream property.  You go to Google, of course, and then find a real estate website. Only the website takes forever to load, and it’s hard to find what you need on it. And to make matters worse, it looks weird on your phone. You get annoyed and leave.  If you own that website, you’ve just potentially lost a lot of money.  Your site is the first impression for a lot of buyers and sellers, and although SEO is crucial for people to find your site, it’s the user experience (UX) that will keep them there.  If your website is laggy and hard to navigate, there’s no amount of SEO that’ll help you close the deal. Is UX important for SEO? You have a real estate website, and it’s all optimized and has ads running, but the return on investment (ROI) seems low. If that’s the case, it might be a case of bad UX. SEO will help your website become visible, but if people don’t know how to use your website (e.g., it’s confusing, sluggish, the layout is all over the place, etc.), they’ll bounce. And what they’ll do is they’ll go to the next option listed on Google, hoping for a better experience. So basically, what’s happening is you’re inevitably driving traffic towards your competitors. And you’re spending money on it, as well. So the short answer to the question above is – yes. It’s very important.  The Google algorithm leak that happened on the 13th of March 2024 has shown how UX (e.g., dwell time, engagement, etc.) is a high-priority ranking factor/signals that tell Google how good your website is. And sure, site authority, content quality/relevance, your backlink profile – these are still among the most important ranking factors, but User engagement and Chrome user data signals are AS important. Whoever ignores this will definitely drop in rankings sooner or later. It has to be said that even if you’ve got perfect UX, if no one can find you or if the quality of the content isn’t as great, you’ll still rank lower. There should be a synergy/balance between the two elements. If you want good UX for your real estate website, it’s important to perfect mobile optimization and website speed. These are super important. This mostly has to do with how short the average user’s attention span has gotten. → 53% of mobile users will abandon a website if it takes 3+ seconds to load. – User Guiding→ Even a 1-second delay in website page load time could lead to a 123% increase in bounce rates. – User Guiding Google made it clear that mobile-friendly websites that load fast have a better chance of ranking higher. When visitors can quickly find what they’re looking for -- their query is answered -- they’re more likely to stick around longer. And the longer they stay, the better your site’s chances of ranking well. That’s why good UX is rewarded. So, what happens when UX isn’t good?  Well, not only will you frustrate your website’s visitors, but you’ll also cause many of them to bounce off your website and go to another site with better UX. Google monitors all of this constantly, and the algorithm will give more chances to your competitors to see what the ‘realistic’ ranking is for a specific keyword and how well a specific page serves Google’s users based on their queries.  Basically, what all of this means is that 'bad UX' means fewer leads because of poor reputation in search engines, which leads to fewer visitors (worse visibility). Once you've taken care of the UX of your website, it's important to take care of your backlink profile. Remember, you want to attract users (SEO), and you want them to stick around (UX, content quality). It’s important to work with a link-building agency like Stellar SEO that specializes in real estate link building. It's important to go with an SEO agency that specializes in the real estate industry because they'll be able to provide you with advice/suggestions on what you need to do to best serve real estate users/clients. And they’ll have contextually relevant, high-quality backlinks to boost your site’s reputation and push up in rankings. Competition is fierce in real estate, and if you have a solid UX, it can be the difference between converting a visitor into a client or having them spend their money with your competitor. Image by Kampus on Freepik UX Features That Give Your SEO a Boost Here are a few UX features that can make a big difference for your SEO.  Mobile Optimization Most people search on their phones, which means your website has to be mobile-friendly.  If it’s not, that’s a significant disadvantage. Google knows that mobile experience is important, which is why it should be a priority to make your website look good on phones.  Go for a responsive design.  This’ll make your site adjust to fit any screen, whether that’s a phone, tablet, desktop, toaster, whatever. Also, focus on faster load times and clear navigation because people are on the go and don’t have the patience for slow sites and complicated menus.  A mobile-friendly site will keep your users happy, and that’s another thing that can help you rank higher.  Speed Up Your Site Who likes to wait for a website to load?  If your page takes too long, people will bounce, and bounce rates hurt your SEO. This is a serious thing for Google because it wants to show users the best and fastest websites.  In order to speed things up, optimize your images so they don’t slow down your site.  Big images are often the main culprit. Reducing code bloat and using caching can also make a significant difference. Caching stores some data so repeat visitors don’t have to load the entire page again, and this makes your site feel faster. And the faster your site is, the happier your visitors will be. And as we’ve already established, Google likes sites that make visitors happy. Also, if your website has large traffic numbers, it might be time to get a dedicated server. Clear Site Navigation/Layout Have you ever visited a website where you couldn’t find what you were looking for?  Annoying, right? Well, Google doesn’t want to send people to confusing sites either, which is why you want clear navigation and a layout that’s easy to follow. This isn’t important just for users, but for SEO, too.  An organized website will help people get to the property listings quickly, which is exactly what you want. Image by vectorjuice on Freepik Conclusion Your website is how your business makes a first impression, so why not make it a good one? In a world that’s as competitive as real estate, you want every advantage you can get, and a good website is among the biggest ones you can have.  Tweak anything that needs to be tweaked and make your website work just as hard as you do.