If your multifamily community has a website, you want as many people as possible to find and visit your site. And the key to getting more traffic to your website is to invest in SEO (search engine optimization).

Read on to learn more about what apartment SEO is, why it matters for your apartment community’s website, and 5 tips to optimize your website.

So, what is SEO?

SEO is the act of thoughtfully improving your website to boost its chances of appearing in search engines like Google and Bing.

Think about it: Any time you search for something on Google, you receive hundreds of recommended websites. And you’re most likely to click on the websites that appear closer to the top of the page.

So, you can see why it’s beneficial to try to get your apartment website to rank high in Google!

SEO work is an ongoing process, but the results are worth it. Investing in SEO can help you get more relevant, qualified traffic to your website. And the more people who visit your website, the more leads and prospects you can expect to receive.

Should you do SEO yourself?

SEO requires some learning and training, but ultimately anyone can do it. However, to see results, you’ll need to commit a good amount of time and effort. So, if you don’t have enough internal resources or a dedicated marketing team, consider outsourcing SEO services to a marketing agency.

When deciding whether to handle SEO in-house, consider the location of your community. Multifamily buildings in small towns may have an easier time ranking high in Google than buildings in bigger cities.

Why’s that?

Because there is generally lower competition in lower-population areas.

For example, the website for a building in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (where the population is 4,00) will likely rank more easily than the website for a building in Nashville (population nearly 700,000). This is because there are fewer people creating content and searching for “apartments in Gatlinburg” than “apartments in Nashville.” So, the SEO competition is lower.

Of course, your choice between doing SEO in-house vs. with an agency should still come down to your budget and available internal resources.

SEO budgeting

Wondering how much SEO will cost your company?

It depends on whether you handle it in-house and whether you want to use any paid SEO tools.

Overall, expect to pay anywhere up to $5,000 monthly for SEO.

If you plan to tackle SEO internally, you can technically do everything for free.

There are plenty of ways to improve SEO without paying anything, such as by:

• Optimizing your website’s meta titles and meta descriptions
• Publishing optimized blog content
• Rewriting the copy throughout your website to be more SEO-friendly
• Making sure images throughout your website are small files so that each page loads quickly

You can also opt to pay a couple hundred dollars per month for an SEO service like Moz or Ahrefs.

And of course, if you decide to hire a marketing agency, expect to pay anywhere from $500 to $5,000 per month.

5 SEO tips for apartment communities

Read on to discover five things you can do for free to improve your apartment website’s SEO.

1. Choose good keywords

The first step in any good SEO strategy is to find effective keywords and incorporate them into your website.

Keywords are the phrases that people type into search engines — and therefore the phrases that should appear throughout your site.

Most likely, the keyword for your building’s website will be something like “apartments in [city]” or “[city] apartments for rent.” However, you should use a keyword tool like Ubersuggest, which lets you search for keywords, check their monthly search volume, see how difficult they’ll be to rank for, and find other keyword ideas.

Once you’ve found a keyword, add it to your website in headers, meta tags, and body copy — but don’t repeat it too many times.

For example, here’s how to incorporate keywords into a website for a multifamily community in Tampa:

• Meta title: Tampa Apartments – [Property Name]
• Meta description: Need an apartment in Tampa? Discover available units at [property name] in Tampa, FL. Featuring renovated units & modern amenities. Book a tour today!
• Your homepage’s title: Modern Tampa Apartments
• Content throughout your website: Include your keyword a couple of times, as well as some synonyms. But be sure to write naturally to avoid over-optimizing!

2. Publish a blog

Did you know that blog content is one of the best ways to gain organic traffic to your website?

And best of all, it’s free!

Writing interesting, educational, and informative content can lead to your blog posts ranking high in Google. As a result, you could see more traffic to your site.

Make sure you choose a keyword for each post you write to improve its chances of ranking. You should also share your blog content on social media and encourage your network to read and share it.

Don’t have time to write a blog post every day or week? Hire freelance writers!

3. Get backlinks to your website

Backlinking is when some other website links back to your website. Having many backlinks can help improve your chances of ranking higher, because Google will view your site as a worthy, credible source.

Tips to get backlinks to your site:

• Post links to your site or your blog on social media
• Ask people in your network to share your content on social media or link to it on their own websites.
• Ask industry professionals who run successful websites if you can contribute content to their sites. Within the content you write, include a link back to your site.

4. Manage your NAP

NAP — which stands for ‘name, address, phone number’ — is an SEO term that refers to the process of making sure your business’s contact information is accurate across the internet.

Your NAP appears in many places online, such as:

• Zillow, Apartments.com, and other apartment listing websites
• Review platforms like Yelp
• Social media profiles

Make sure your company’s name, address, and phone number are correct everywhere. Google will reward the accuracy, and it’ll help people find your website and company more easily.

5. Set up your Google My Business listing

Google My Business is a Google feature that provides business information to people searching for it on Google.

Each business listing includes its contact details and other information like business hours and even photos. Google My Business is a must because it ensures that anyone searching for your company can immediately find accurate information.

To claim your Google My Business listing, all you have to do is go google.com/business and follow the steps to set up your account and prove you are associated with the business.