Going by Google’s report on consumer behavior, about 97% of consumers now rely on the web in finding local businesses, including property management firms. In real estate alone, 80% of all home buyers and renters are searching online for suitable properties. Evidently, the playground has shifted drastically over the last couples of years, in favor of online based businesses. In the past, firms with extensive local presence had an upper hand over their digital counterparts. But now, with Google getting over 100 billion searches a month, having a property management website has shifted from just an extra business element, to a critical asset.

Interestingly, the internet scene is only getting warmed up. While we feel that the internet is almost getting overpopulated by websites, experts indicate that it’s yet to mature. There is still a lot to come, as businesses and individuals continue leveraging the internet on different levels to not only improve their operations, but also take advantage of the ever-expanding market base. The potential is immense, and it’s all yours for the taking.

Capitalizing on its potential however, is not just about tweaking your website according to search engine keywords. Constant property management website improvements has become the standard survival tactic for firms that are already enjoying a web presence. It’s like a continuous race, and it involves both large and small property management firms, on a level playing field. Your strategy’s efficacy and finesse ultimately determines your rank not only within search engines but also other internet platforms like social media sites, which are exceedingly populated with prospects. And yes, it’s possible to outsmart even the largest, most established property management firms.

So, now for the big question…how can you really improve your online presence as a property management company?

Optimize Your Property Management Website for Search Engines

They say that the best place to hide a dead body is Google’s page 2 of search engine results. And you know what? They are probably right, considering the fact that 75% of internet surfers do not proceed past Google’s first page. And since the same percentage of surfers ignore paid ads, only the highest organically ranking property management websites stand the best chance of winning prospects, making SEO a very critical online presence strategy.

It may be the oldest trick in the book, but only a few actually comprehend what it’s all about. Well, of course website owners understand that it’s important, but a majority assume that it’s all gibberish web development, that average Joes can’t actually learn without first developing skills in website maintenance and development.

On the contrary, it’s actually very simple and straightforward. As a matter of fact, there are couple of things that you could be doing now that reflect positively on your search engine ranking. So, in case you’re wondering….No, you don’t need to hire an expert to kick-start your SEO strategy. There are a couple of things you could do, like blogging regularly, that would progressively improve your website’s SEO status.

Blog Your Way To Influence

Blogging is not only ideal for SEO, but also creating influence around your brand and building authority as a property management firm. Before Google updated its search engine algorithms, blogging was just a matter of writing a couple of words with spammed keywords to boost search engine ranking. Currently, Google only favors thought leaders. So, the more you keep blogging and creating influence, the more search engine crawlers will notice you, which translates to increased traffic.

According to SearchMetrics, the average number of word count on pages in the top search results, which stood at 975 in 2014, increased to 1285 words in 2015. And that proves just how much Google is keen about the quality of blog posts. The best way to capitalize on this is focusing not only on the word count, but topics and keywords. Topics on trending issues in real estate and property management are particularly effective in creating buzz and consequently building influence, plus search engine ranking.

If you’re not that confident in building your own influential blog, you could try guest blogging on other popular sites, subsequently enjoying a ready audience of prospective renters and clients. This could be a great way of leveraging another platform, without worrying about building your own audience first.

Go Social

If you’ve been following our blog, you’re probably aware that a majority of renters are millennials. That, coupled with the fact that 90% of young adults aged 18-29 are on social media, makes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+ the perfect hunting ground for property management websites.

The secret to a successful social media campaign is simply being social and consistent. “Social” means giving your audience exactly what they need. No one enjoys logging in to promotional content every time they visit their social media profiles. That’s why all the social media platforms are trying their best to limit adverts, just to keep social media fun and interesting to millennials. To engage your audience, you need to start posting viral content with twists that link back to your brand. For instance, going with the current buzz surrounding memes, you could create a funny and catchy meme of any trending social issues relating to housing and link them to your property management website. The more such a meme is shared, the faster you’ll be building your online presence.

Since the average social media user maintains at least five accounts across different platforms, it’s advisable to open multiple accounts on all the major social media sites. Since posting on all of them concurrently could be a daunting task especially for small property management firms which are yet to hire permanent social media managers, you could adopt tools that sync all the social media sites into one single platform. That way, you’ll be able to share content on multiple accounts on just a single click.

And finally, building an online presence is not just about focusing on the B2C aspect of your business alone. B2B, especially when leveraged well, could also generate great leads and build a stable web presence. Take for instance a property management firm providing housing for students. Linking up with a college on the web could sell the brand among current and prospective students following the school on social media. That alone could propel such a firm ahead of huge businesses struggling with other not-so-effective web marketing strategies.