Search marketing is crucial for real estate agencies and brokerages. In 2021, 97% of people looking for a property searched online (were the other 3% shopping for caves?) and 51% of buyers found the home they’d eventually buy online.

How do you get into that 51%?

By now, everyone knows:

  • SEO is super effective in the longer term (>3 months at least)
  • Local SEO is a different game than global or national, with more opportunities
  • Search doesn’t work like it used to, you can’t just throw keywords at a page and it will rank

That’s all true. But the third point needs a little expansion. Because what gets lost in the mix when people talk about Google changing up its algorithm is this: keywords are still really, really important — semantic search notwithstanding.

Here’s our list of the top 20 keywords for local real estate:

Top 20 Keywords for Local Real Estate
Rank Keyword Traffic
1 Apartment for rent 1,800,000
2 House for rent 1,000,000
3 House for sale 670,000
4 FHA loans 150,000
5 Realtor near me 135,000
6 Real estate agents near me 49,000
7 Condos for sale 45,000
8 Apartments for sale 40,000
9 Rental agents near me 18,000
10 How much is my home worth? 12,000
11 How to get preapproved for a home loan 6,500
12 Curb appeal ideas 3,600
13 House in [location] for sale 3,000
14 Selling your house 2,400
15 Local real estate agents 1,900
16 Process for selling a house 500
17 Improvements that increase home value 320
18 Cost of selling your home 110
19 Do open houses work? 110
20 Best improvements for home valuation 30

Assembled from multiple industry-leading SEO tools and our own analysis, each of these is analyzed in more detail below. Each one represents a massive opportunity for real estate brokers, realtors and other real estate professionals to excel in local search and get found by people who want your services.

Importance of Keywords

Keywords tell you:

  • Who’s searching
  • What they’re searching for
  • What stage of their search they’re at

Keyword Examples

  1. Realtor near me
    Search traffic: 52k–135k
    Difficulty: extremely difficult

  2. Local real estate agents
    Search traffic: ~450–1,900
    Difficulty: very hard

  3. Real estate agents near me
    Search traffic: ~26k–49k
    Difficulty: very hard

  4. House in Long Beach for sale
    Search traffic: ~3k
    Difficulty: easy

  5. FHA loans
    Search traffic: ~16k–150k
    Difficulty: very hard

  6. How to get preapproved for a home loan
    Search traffic: ~2.4k–6.5k
    Difficulty: very hard

  7. Condos for sale
    Search traffic: ~45k
    Difficulty: medium

  8. Apartments for sale
    Search traffic: ~25k–40k
    Difficulty: hard

  9. House for sale
    Search traffic: ~39k–670k
    Difficulty: very hard

  10. Apartment for rent
    Search traffic: ~18k–1.8m
    Difficulty: very hard

Conclusion:
In fact, real estate is often not just local (city, region, county): it’s hyper-local, focused on specific streets or neighborhoods. Now the competition is reduced even further. But buying a house is a big deal for most people. They’re going to give it a lot of thought before they pull the trigger. That means they’re going to want to learn more.