Why Multifamily Marketers Must Optimize Beyond Google

The search landscape has shifted dramatically, and Google no longer holds the monopoly it once did. 

While it still leads with 18.8% of the global search marketshare, platforms like Instagram, Baidu, Snapchat, and Amazon are gaining traction, each carving out its own space in how users search for and interact with content. 

Instagram has secured its position as the second-largest search platform, reflecting a clear trend: search behavior is diversifying.

For multifamily marketers, this shift means that SEO strategies can’t rely solely on Google anymore. With users increasingly turning to alternative platforms to discover properties, neighborhoods, and community experiences, the goal must be to optimize for multiple search engines and social platforms to stay relevant and visible. 

The future of SEO lies in embracing this fragmented search ecosystem and crafting strategies that work across platforms.

Why Google Isn’t the Only Search Game in Town

While Google continues to be a leader in search, its dominance is gradually shrinking as users explore platforms tailored to specific needs. For multifamily properties, this shift signals a need to diversify SEO strategies and rethink digital multifamily marketing efforts. Platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Amazon are becoming integral to how users search for information, make decisions, and engage with brands.

Instagram, for example, has evolved into a powerful search engine in its own right. Users frequently search for local businesses, community visuals, and reviews on the platform, making it an invaluable tool for multifamily marketers looking to enhance user experience. Between Instagram’s visual appeal and ability to optimize posts with long-tail keywords, marketers can connect with potential renters where they’re already searching.

Snapchat offers another avenue, especially for targeting younger demographics. Its visual-first approach aligns well with creating high-quality content that resonates with users deciding where to live. Incorporating keyword research into captions and leveraging geotargeted filters can boost visibility for multifamily properties in local searches.

Although primarily a marketplace, Amazon plays a surprising role in organic searches related to housing essentials and living spaces. Multifamily marketers can use this platform to create content that links back to their properties, like blog posts about decorating small apartments or tips for maximizing storage. This strategy increases organic traffic and strengthens the marketing plan by addressing users’ specific search queries.

Relying solely on Google rank means missing opportunities to connect with your target audience across platforms where they spend significant time. Diversifying your content creation efforts to optimize for multiple platforms ensures that your multifamily property ranks higher in organic searches and builds trust with potential renters.

Strategies to Optimize Beyond Google

If you only optimize your content for Google, you’ll likely miss out on many prospects. This is why we recommend the new SEO approach. 

What’s the “new” SEO? It’s “search everywhere optimization.” This means we must take more ownership to optimize beyond Google.

SEO is evolving and you need to adapt to help maintain overall traffic levels through new ways of thinking and modern practices. 

Even Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said, “One of the ways to be successful with Google Search is to think beyond it.”

Here are some key strategies to help you succeed:

1. Optimize for Visual Search on Instagram

Instagram is a powerhouse for visual storytelling. The demand for quick, visually engaging content is reshaping how people search. Video content is shared twice as much as other formats, and 58% of Instagram users report feeling more connected to a brand after watching their Instagram stories. Social media platforms now serve as discovery tools, helping users find local businesses, community events, or even apartment listings.

Create content that highlights property amenities, neighborhood culture, and resident experiences. Use location-based hashtags, geotags, and Instagram Stories to enhance discoverability. High-quality, engaging visuals are more likely to appear in search results and resonate with users exploring apartment living.

2. Leverage Local SEO on Multiple Platforms

While Google Business Profile is crucial, expanding local SEO efforts to include platforms like Bing and Yelp can amplify your visibility. Ensure your property listings include accurate and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) details across all platforms.

3. Embrace Short-Form Videos for Snapchat

Snapchat’s focus on ephemeral content makes it a valuable tool for showcasing quick property tours, community events, or local attractions. Short-form video content optimized for Snapchat can help you connect with younger audiences searching for lifestyle-oriented apartment options.

4. Enhance E-Commerce Style Listings on Amazon

Amazon’s search functionality isn’t just for products. It’s increasingly used to explore service offerings and local listings. Multifamily properties can capitalize by creating product-style listings that detail apartment features, benefits, and even move-in packages.

5. Incorporate Schema Markup Across Platforms

Structured data remains a cornerstone of multifamily SEO, but its application must extend beyond Google. Use schema markup to enhance your property listings on Instagram, Amazon, and other platforms to ensure search engines and users can easily interpret your content.

6. Track Cross-Platform Search Behavior

Use analytics tools beyond Google Analytics to track engagement and search trends across platforms. Understanding how your audience interacts with each platform allows you to fine-tune your strategies and allocate resources effectively.

7. Spark Interest With TikTok SEO

TikTok is also a major player in reshaping search behavior. Users turn to TikTok for quick, authentic reviews, how-to guides, and viral trends that often create or reignite search demand on platforms like Google or Amazon. For example, products that gain traction on TikTok, like turmeric skincare or Lululemon’s belt bag, see surges in related search terms across other channels. Multifamily marketers can apply the same principle by creating TikTok videos showcasing property amenities or neighborhood highlights, sparking interest that leads to deeper searches elsewhere.

TikTok SEO involves more than just hashtags. Saying keywords in the audio, using text overlays, and adding keywords in captions and transcriptions all contribute to improved visibility. Embedding TikTok videos on your website can also increase engagement and complement traditional SEO strategies.

8. Attract High-Intent Audiences on Pinterest

With over 450 million active users monthly, Pinterest has become a vital visual search engine that multifamily marketers can leverage to increase brand awareness, drive organic traffic, and engage potential renters. Pinterest users are intentional searchers; this means they often use the platform to gather inspiration or make purchasing decisions, making it an ideal place to attract high-intent audiences.

Pinterest operates on a search-based algorithm, similar to Google. Research relevant keywords using tools like Pinterest Trends or keyword research tools. Focus on terms that resonate with potential renters, such as “luxury apartments,” “pet-friendly communities,” or “downtown living inspiration.” Incorporate target keywords naturally into pin titles and descriptions to improve search discoverability. Create video pins showcasing property tours, local attractions, or resident testimonials to capture attention and engage users.

The New Rules of Multifamily SEO

The rise of alternative search platforms doesn’t mean Google is obsolete, but it does mean multifamily marketers need a more nuanced strategy. Prioritize platforms based on your target audience’s preferences and behaviors. 

For example, if your demographic is Gen Z, focusing on Instagram and Snapchat might yield better results than traditional Google SEO. Conversely, Amazon’s utility-driven search features could be more effective if you’re targeting families or professionals.

Diversifying your SEO efforts ensures that your property remains discoverable across various search contexts, whether it’s a renter looking for reviews on Instagram or exploring nearby amenities on Snapchat.

Looking Ahead: A Multi-Platform Future

As search behavior continues to evolve, staying ahead requires a mindset shift. Think beyond Google to create a comprehensive presence across platforms. By optimizing for Instagram’s visual searches, Amazon’s utility-driven queries, and Snapchat’s ephemeral content, you’ll position your property to attract renters no matter where they search.

In a world where Google no longer owns search, the key to success lies in flexibility, creativity, and a willingness to meet your audience where they are — across every platform that matters.

The Experiment That Could Redefine Search

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is an ambitious experiment that aims to revolutionize how we interact with search engines. However, like any groundbreaking innovation, it’s far from a finished product. 

Just as self-driving cars require years of refinement, testing, and real-world adaptation, SGE needs time to mature, improve its technology, and assess its impact on users.

Yet, there’s a growing assumption that SGE — and generative AI platforms like ChatGPT or Bard — will completely disrupt search as we know it, replacing traditional methods and consolidating how we find information. 

But this binary thinking oversimplifies the evolution of technology. Just as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and X each carve out unique roles in the social media ecosystem, multiple platforms and models can coexist in the search landscape.

Every platform serves a specific purpose, and user behavior adapts based on the context. While SGE Google and AI-driven platforms bring exciting possibilities, they’re not one-size-fits-all solutions. Traditional search still holds value, offering depth and precision in ways AI hasn’t mastered yet. 

What is SGE?

Before diving into the misconceptions, let’s first clarify what SGE is all about.

SGE represents Google’s effort to enhance traditional search using AI. It aims to provide users with deeper, more intuitive search results for every query. The goal is to transform how people search, simplify complex inquiries, and deliver faster, more actionable insights.

According to Google, SGE enables users to:

• Ask more nuanced and descriptive questions that go beyond traditional keyword searches.
• Quickly grasp the essence of a topic with curated links to explore further details.
• Kickstart tasks like drafting content or generating images directly within the search interface.
• Seamlessly continue their search journey with conversational follow-ups and suggested next steps.

At its core, SGE isn’t just about answering questions — it’s about reimagining how we interact with information, making the process more dynamic, contextual, and efficient.

Why does Google SGE matter?

SGE represents the next evolution of search engines. Rather than displaying a list of blue links, SGE provides AI-generated responses to user queries, often summarizing key information from top-ranking content. This means that search engines like Google are moving toward offering users direct, concise answers without requiring them to click through multiple sites.

This shift changes the game for multifamily marketers. If your property’s website, blog, or content marketing strategy isn’t optimized to appear in SGE responses, you risk losing visibility and, ultimately, potential leads. Traditional SEO principles still apply, but they must be expanded to align with how AI curates and prioritizes content.

What’s the impact on multifamily marketing?

1. Shifting visibility from clicks to summaries

Google SGE reduces reliance on traditional organic clicks by summarizing content directly within the search engine results page (SERP). If your content isn’t surfaced in AI summaries, this could mean fewer direct website visits for multifamily properties.

However, the upside is that well-optimized content has the potential to be featured in these summaries, increasing your visibility to renters at a critical stage in their search journey. Being included in an SGE response could position your property as a trusted, go-to source.

2. Increased importance of informational content

Renters often use search engines to explore neighborhoods, compare amenities, or find advice on leasing. SGE prioritizes content that answers these queries comprehensively and accurately. Thus, producing high-quality, value-driven informational content is more critical than ever.

Blogs, FAQs, and resources tailored to renter pain points — such as “best neighborhoods for families” or “tips for leasing your first apartment” — can position your property as an authoritative source that SGE highlights.

3. AI-powered local search optimization

SGE leverages AI to improve local search accuracy. For multifamily properties, this means that appearing in SGE summaries for queries like “best apartments near downtown Austin” or “pet-friendly apartments in Miami” requires a renewed focus on local SEO tactics. Accurate Google Business Profiles, consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) data, and localized content are crucial in being featured.

AI Disclaimers and Compliance

As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, ensuring transparency and compliance has become a priority for businesses leveraging these tools. Integrating SGE into search engines like Google amplifies this need, as users demand clarity and authenticity in the content they interact with.

Why do you need AI disclaimers?

A Q2 2024 Sprout Pulse Survey revealed that 94% of consumers believe all AI content should be disclosed, highlighting a growing concern about transparency. Furthermore, 46% of consumers are less likely to buy from a brand that posts AI-generated content without acknowledgment. This sentiment underscores the importance of building trust with your audience by clearly stating when content is created or assisted by AI.

Many publications, including Google itself, have begun adding disclaimers to articles produced entirely or in part by AI. These disclaimers inform readers and reinforce a brand’s commitment to transparency and ethical practices.

How can multifamily marketers comply?

Incorporating AI disclaimers into your content strategy ensures compliance with emerging best practices while fostering trust among renters:

• Transparency in Content: Include disclaimers on blog posts, emails, or FAQs indicating when AI tools were used in content creation.
• Blend Human Creativity with AI: Balance AI-generated outputs with human insights to maintain an authentic voice that resonates with your audience.
• Train Your Team: Equip your marketing team with guidelines on using AI ethically and disclosing its involvement appropriately.

Adapting Your Strategy for SGE Success

As clickthrough rates decline, ads become less common, and long-tail queries gain prominence, multifamily marketers must adapt to thrive. Here are actionable ways to ensure your strategy aligns with this new era:

1. Optimize for conversational queries

SGE responds to conversational, natural-language questions such as “What are the best luxury apartments in Chicago?” Your content needs to mirror this format. Create blog posts, FAQs, and landing pages that address these questions directly. Use tools like ChatGPT or Google’s “People Also Ask” data to uncover common renter questions and answer them comprehensively in your content.

2. Create long-form, comprehensive content

SGE favors detailed, authoritative content. If your site lacks in-depth resources about your property, community, or the renting process, now is the time to build them. Write detailed blog posts, such as “10 Things to Know Before Renting in Downtown Denver,” incorporating local insights, amenities, and tips to position your property as a trusted expert.

3. Emphasize structured data

Structured data helps search engines understand your content, improving its chances of being included in SGE summaries. Multifamily properties can use schema markup for local business details, reviews, pricing, and amenities. Implement schema for apartments to showcase your property’s unique selling points, such as floorplans, neighborhood details, and available units.

4. Prioritize high-quality local SEO

Local search is crucial for multifamily marketing, and SGE heightens the importance of accurate, localized information. Ensure your Google Business Profile is updated and reflects your property’s offerings. Include location-specific keywords in your meta descriptions, page titles, and content to ensure visibility in location-based queries.

5. Leverage multimedia content

SGE often integrates videos and images into its responses. Multifamily properties that create visually engaging content like property tours, community highlights, and testimonials are more likely to stand out. Create short, engaging videos optimized for YouTube and embed them on your site to increase the likelihood of appearing in search engine results pages.

6. Prioritize E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E-E-A-T) have always been crucial in SEO, but they are even more important in a generative AI world. SGE prioritizes content that exudes credibility and reliability. To excel:

• Showcase experience through user testimonials, case studies, and real-life success stories.
• Highlight expertise with well-researched blog posts and insights.
• Build authority by earning backlinks from reputable sources and optimizing local SEO.
• Reinforce trust through transparent AI disclaimers and high-quality, factual content.

7. Optimize for long-tail keywords

SGE’s focus on detailed, conversational queries makes long-tail keywords more important than ever. By diving deeper into niche topics, you can increase the likelihood of your content being included in SGE responses.

Instead of targeting general terms like “luxury apartments,” optimize for queries such as “luxury apartments near public transit in Denver” or “pet-friendly studio apartments in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood.”

8. Anticipate lower clickthrough rates

With SGE providing detailed summaries directly on the SERP, users may click through less often. However, this doesn’t diminish the importance of your content — it simply shifts its role. High-quality, scannable content will likely be featured in SGE summaries, ensuring your brand remains visible even if clicks decline.

Pro Tip: To measure your content’s success beyond traditional clickthrough rates, focus on engagement metrics like time on page, bounce rate, and conversion rate.

9. Prepare for fewer ads

As Google integrates SGE, the volume of ads may decrease, making organic visibility even more competitive. To maintain a presence:

• Double down on SEO strategies that align with AI, such as content that answers user queries comprehensively.
• Invest in high-value ad placements that offer tangible ROI rather than spreading your budget across low-performing campaigns.

Adapting to What’s Next

The future isn’t about one technology replacing another — it’s about how these platforms evolve, specialize, and find their place in a constantly shifting digital ecosystem.

Time will tell how SGE reshapes search, how users adapt, and how businesses respond. But what’s clear is this: navigating this new terrain requires a thoughtful strategy, an open mind, and a willingness to adapt to what’s next.

Why Apartment SEO and Multifamily PPC Are Essential for Effective Marketing

Digital multifamily marketing has evolved rapidly. While a well-designed and responsive apartment website can walk prospects through the renting process, it cannot bring them to the site independently.

Here’s where the dynamic duo search engine optimization (SEO) and multifamily PPC step in.

Diving Deeper: The Magic of SEO & PPC

Imagine you’ve started a new band and are planning your first gig. How would you let people know? Flyers are a traditional yet effective promotional method. But what if those carefully designed flyers were merely piled on a street corner, untouched?

Your multifamily website is like that flyer. It’s compelling and beautiful by itself, but how will your target audience find it?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – Think of SEO as strategically placing those flyers where your potential renters often visit. The ultimate aim? Climbing the ranks on search engines like Google. This is achieved by understanding your property’s unique features and aligning them with what your target audience is searching for. It’s not just about pushing your narrative; it’s about stepping into the searcher’s shoes. By understanding their needs, frustrations, and interests, you can position your brand to meet them right where they are. This process extends to your website content, blogs, social media, and back-end coding.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) – This is a tad more aggressive. Using the band analogy, it’s like sending a band member into a popular club to hand out flyers directly to people who’d likely attend the gig. It costs more, but the results can be substantial. These ads appear prominently on search engine results. The beauty of PPC? You only pay when someone clicks to view your content.

The Synergy of SEO and PPC

Using both these methods together is where the magic happens. SEO lays the groundwork for a consistent and long-term online presence. It’s like building your band’s reputation. On the other hand, PPC can be the quick jolt of attention you need, such as announcing a debut album or a special event.

In essence, while SEO is the marathon, ensuring consistent visibility, PPC is the sprint, giving instant boosts when required. They’re integral for an effective multifamily digital marketing strategy in today’s competitive landscape.

Partners in Crime

Don’t just build a website and hope for the best. With a potent combination of SEO and PPC, backed by deep industry research and a clear understanding of your target audience, your property can stand out in the bustling apartment market. Remember, understanding your residents is a continuous journey, and it should form the backbone of all your digital marketing strategies.

Top Tips for Adding SEO and PPC to Your Campaign

Whether you are new to multifamily property marketing or looking to sharpen your approach, implementing SEO and PPC can seem daunting. However, with the right strategy, you can harness their full potential. Here are six top tips to ensure your campaign stands out:

1. Prioritize Content Creation

High-quality, relevant content is the backbone of SEO. Update your website with regular blog posts, infographics, and videos that provide value to your audience. This not only increases your website’s credibility but also keeps visitors engaged.

2. Mobile Optimization Is Crucial

More users access websites from mobile devices than desktops. Ensure your multifamily property website is mobile-friendly. A responsive design, faster load times, and easy navigation can significantly improve user experience and boost your search rankings.

3. Utilize Local SEO

Most renters search for properties within their desired area. Optimize your website for local searches by claiming your Google Business Profile, gathering positive reviews, and ensuring your name, address, and phone number are consistent across all platforms.

4. Use Laser-focused Targeting

The beauty of PPC is its ability to reach specific demographics. Use the insights from your market research to target specific age groups, interests, or behaviors. This ensures your ads reach those most likely to convert.

5. Regularly Test and Optimize Your Ads

Digital trends and audience preferences can shift rapidly. Regularly A/B test your ad copies, designs, and calls to action. This helps identify what resonates most with your audience and refines your approach accordingly.

6. Set Clear Campaign Objectives

Are you looking to drive immediate rentals, promote a special offer, or increase brand awareness? By setting clear objectives, you can tailor your PPC campaign, choose the right bidding strategy, and measure your success more accurately.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Remember, SEO and PPC are two sides of the same coin. When implemented together, they can amplify each other’s results. For instance, the keywords that perform well in PPC can inform your SEO strategy. Similarly, the insights gathered from SEO analytics can guide your PPC targeting. By maintaining a cohesive approach, you can ensure a seamless and efficient multifamily marketing campaign.

How to Support Consistent Growth for Your Multifamily Business

The multifamily market has seen a paradigm shift with the rise of inbound marketing. A comprehensive perspective is vital as you construct your marketing funnel, from crafting insightful blog posts to launching targeted Facebook ads.

New marketers eager to build captivating campaigns and hone their content marketing efforts might sometimes overlook crucial elements like the leasing agent’s strategic role and the nuances of the target audience.

Without a dynamic strategy for enticing potential customers, even the most detailed funnel risks stagnation. Ensuring that every facet of your marketing efforts works harmoniously is essential for generating loyal customers.

Focusing on the Funnel

A successful marketing idea hinges on mastering the inbound marketing funnel. For those who are new to this approach, it’s common to launch numerous campaigns with a keen focus on the buyer’s journey at every stage.

However, the true secret lies in optimizing strategies for prospective customers. Emphasizing search engine optimization (SEO) ensures your business consistently appears atop search results, making it more visible to potential customers.

Campaigns certainly have their place, but the key to long-term success is concentrating efforts at the funnel’s top. This is where initial interest from potential customers is captured.

Without this interest, there’s no pool of leads to nurture or engage with. Excellent customer service and content tailored specifically for your target audience is essential. With this approach, you can guarantee a steady flow of visitors and create opportunities to convert them into long-term customers or clients.

Making Your Multifamily Marketing Funnel Scalable

The key to any business growth is scalability. But how do you translate a marketing funnel to meet scalability needs?

The first requirement is to look solely at the numbers. If you are struggling to bring in 1,500 web visitors per month and are only converting that traffic to leads at a rate of 3%, the outlook for company growth is not promising.

When faced with this kind of issue, it is essential to change your funnel, albeit one at a time. Again, your concern should be primarily on your traffic generation or how to increase that visitation from 1,500. If nothing else, an increase in site traffic to around 5,000 monthly with a steady lead rate of 3% can still significantly impact your top-of-funnel multifamily leads from 45 to 150 a month.

But how do you increase this traffic to such a rate? Again, your focus should be content. Experimenting with your content tilt, improving your content amount, and changing how you promote your content can contribute to higher traffic.

Maintain Consistent Conversion Rates

Achieving a scalable marketing funnel hinges on the stability of conversion rates, a crucial metric for multifamily marketing professionals. The effectiveness of your efforts, particularly in areas like landing pages, forms, and special offers, plays a significant role in driving these conversion rates.

For instance, if you’ve historically experienced a 5% conversion rate from visitors to leads and a subsequent 1% from leads to actual customers, it’s paramount that these figures remain steady or, even better, show improvement to ensure the potential for long-term growth.

Consistent conversion rates don’t just offer a static picture; they enable forward-thinking marketers to predict the number of potential customers or clients that may enter the lead generation pool within a given timeframe. Moreover, closely monitoring these rates allows you to gauge the number of leads likely to transition further down the sales funnel.

The integration of well-maintained buyer’s journey content, coupled with feedback from your sales team and tactics such as multifamily SEO, ensures that your content resonates with the target audience and that you are on track to meeting the overarching objectives of your marketing campaign.

Keeping Up With the Content

For businesses seeing inbound success, it is tempting to lapse in your efforts or change direction due to comfortable growth. However, this can be incredibly damaging to your business. Your content needs to be consistent.

Again, we return to the issue of scalability. Knowing that content is the basis of bringing in multifamily traffic, it’s important to maintain that generation to maintain results. But how do you do that without your content growing stale? It’s a matter of knowing your audience so that you can take a leading approach in content creation.

Ideally, as you grow, it should be simple for your business to put processes in place to become a content machine. Keeping up with your content ensures your business can continue to grow easily.

Leveraging Technology for Insightful Thought Leadership

Multifamily businesses can’t afford to lag. Integrating technology and data analytics into your marketing approach can offer significant advantages.

1. Harnessing CRM Systems

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are no longer a luxury but a necessity. These platforms give you a holistic view of each prospective customer, tracing their journey from mere visitors to committed customers or clients. Analyzing this data lets you pinpoint where potential customers or clients might drop off, allowing for timely interventions and targeted strategies.

2. Data-Driven Decision Making

Relying on gut feelings is a strategy of the past. Today, successful multifamily marketers bank on actionable insights derived from data analytics. By studying patterns, behaviors, and preferences of potential customers, marketing strategies can be fine-tuned to match the exact needs and desires of the target audience. This ensures higher conversion rates and, ultimately, more signed leases.

3. Automated Marketing Campaigns

Automation in marketing can be a game-changer. Imagine tailoring specific email campaigns for different segments of your audience, triggered by particular actions they take. This ensures that the content is relevant to the recipient and reaches them opportunely, increasing the chances of conversion.

4. Continuous Learning and Adaptation

The digital landscape is ever-evolving. What works today might not be as effective tomorrow. Therefore, continuous learning and staying updated with the latest marketing trends, technological tools, and best practices are crucial. Regular training sessions, workshops, and webinars can help multifamily marketers stay ahead of the curve.

While content marketing fundamentals remain rooted in understanding and catering to the buyer’s journey, the tools and technologies available to us have greatly expanded. These tools can help you maintain traffic and ensure sustained growth and expansion in an increasingly competitive market.

Boosting Your Multifamily Digital Marketing: Leveraging Semrush’s Site Health Score for Success

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the cornerstone of any successful multifamily digital marketing campaign. And while numerous strategies and best practices abound, one often overlooked area that can make a significant difference in your multifamily SEO is your website’s health. 

One tool that stands out for measuring site health is Semrush’s site health score. Let’s deep dive into what it is, its impact, and how to use it to skyrocket your multifamily SEO traffic.

Understanding Site Health Score

The health of a website is determined by various factors, including its speed, responsiveness, and the absence of errors or issues. Semrush’s site health score is an aggregate metric that evaluates your website’s overall performance and user-friendliness, ranking it out of 100. This score is based on the number and severity of on-site issues detected.

Why Is Site Health Important for SEO?

• User Experience: A healthy multifamily website offers a smoother user experience. Slow-loading pages or broken links can deter users and increase your bounce rate, negatively affecting your SEO ranking.
• Search Engine Crawlers: Google and other search engines prioritize websites that offer a better user experience. If crawlers encounter too many errors on your site, they may index fewer pages.
• Site Speed & Responsiveness: Users and search engines favor a fast-loading and responsive website. Google considers page speed a ranking factor, especially on mobile devices.

How to Track Your Site Health Score With Semrush

• Dashboard Overview: Log in to Semrush and navigate to the ‘Site Audit’ tool. Here, you’ll find an overview of your website’s health score and a list of issues.
• Issue Tracking: Semrush categorizes issues as Errors, Warnings, and Notices based on their severity. Delving into each category helps identify both major and minor issues that need fixing.
• Prioritize & Address: While fixing all issues is ideal, start with the most severe ones. Tackle errors first, then warnings, and finally, notices.

Tools to Complement Semrush’s Site Health Score

While Semrush offers comprehensive insights, it’s always good to cross-reference using other tools. Here are a few:

• Google PageSpeed Insights: Provides information on page speed and gives optimization suggestions.
• GTmetrix: Analyzes site speed performance using various metrics and offers actionable recommendations.
• Moz Pro: Offers site crawl reports to detect and fix SEO issues.

Tips to Boost Your SEO Traffic With Site Health Optimization

• Regularly Audit Your Site: Regularly schedule site audits to detect and address issues promptly.
• Optimize Images: Large images can slow down your site. Use tools like TinyPNG or Compressor.io to compress images without compromising quality.
• Implement Browser Caching: This reduces the load on your server, making your website load faster.
• Minimize Redirects: Each redirect can slow down the page loading process. Try to keep them to a minimum.
• Optimize CSS & JavaScript: Use tools like CSSNano and UglifyJS to minify your code, improving loading times.

The Bottom Line

The significance of a site health score cannot be understated in the realm of multifamily SEO. With tools like Semrush, tracking and optimizing your site’s health has never been easier. Remember, a healthy website isn’t just about appeasing search engines — it’s about providing your visitors with the best experience possible. And in the vast digital landscape, a positive user experience is paramount to success.

Ready to boost your multifamily SEO traffic through a stellar site health score? Contact Criterion.B today to implement these strategies, and watch as your digital presence thrives!

Pin to Win: Boosting Social Media Marketing and Multifamily SEO One Board at a Time

In today’s digital age, traditional methods of finding multifamily properties, like scouring the classified sections of newspapers or searching through Craigslist, have taken a backseat. The spotlight now is on dynamic and interactive platforms for social media marketing, and Pinterest is leading the charge as an unexpected yet potent tool.

For those still unfamiliar with this platform, Pinterest is much more than just another image-sharing site. It is a powerful repository of visual inspirations and ideas, neatly organized into “Boards.” Unlike many other platforms, it’s a place where users don’t just scroll and like; they engage, plan, and dream. This unique behavior makes Pinterest a compelling channel for social media marketing, particularly for multifamily properties.

Pinterest and Its Influence on Multifamily SEO

For multifamily property marketers, the crux lies in ensuring that your property website ranks high in search engine results. High multifamily SEO ranking translates to increased traffic, more leads, and a bolstered brand reputation. Here’s where Pinterest comes into play, acting as an unexpected booster for multifamily SEO. 

Let’s explore how:

1. Setting Up Your Pinterest Profile

Your first step in Pinterest marketing is creating an account representing your business. Use your full business name and ensure that your Pinterest bio gives an immediate sense of who you are, complete with logos and essential contact details. Remember, a Pinterest marketing agency would stress the importance of consistency across platforms.

2. Board Creation and Management

Think of boards as visual chapters of a book. While the temptation is to create many, quality trumps quantity. A handful of well-curated boards can do wonders for your Pinterest marketing strategy. 

Categories to consider include:

• Showcasing your property: Highlight rooms, amenities, and events.
• Tips and advice: From interior decoration ideas to space-saving hacks.
• Local guides: Offer insights into the neighborhood and local attractions.
• Lifestyle: Share easy recipes or DIYs for apartment living.

3. Harnessing Multifamily SEO

Keywords are the pillars of any SEO strategy, and Pinterest marketing is no different. Integrate relevant multifamily SEO keywords into your Pins’ titles and descriptions. This ensures search engines recognize the relevancy of your Pins, propelling them (and your property) to a wider audience.

4. Steering Potential Renters Your Way

Every Pin should serve a purpose, and in the case of multifamily properties, it guides interested parties back to your main website. Edit the source link of your Pin to ensure it leads back to your site. An engaging caption can further tempt users to make that all-important click.

Bringing Pinterest Into Your Social Media Marketing Fold

With its visually-driven platform and engaged user base, Pinterest offers multifamily properties a unique avenue for social media marketing. Collaborating with a Pinterest marketing agency can further refine your strategy, ensuring you harness the platform’s full potential. 

As the digital landscape evolves, staying adaptive and innovative is vital. And, in the realm of social media marketing, Pinterest might just be the secret ingredient you’ve been looking for to elevate your multifamily SEO. So, why wait? Dive in and pin your way to success!

14 Google Business Strategies for Effective Multifamily SEO

In the ever-evolving world of multifamily marketing, ensuring a strong digital presence isn’t just beneficial — it’s essential. 

With the growing importance of search engine optimization (SEO) in multifamily properties, one cannot overlook the power of the Google Business Profile. 
Here’s how to supercharge your multifamily SEO using this game-changing tool.

Understanding Google Business Profile’s Origin

Google Business Profile is the offspring of the erstwhile Google Places and Google+Local Pages, which were map-based and social platforms, respectively. By bringing these two together, Google offers a user-friendly platform packed with features, ensuring a multifaceted boost for multifamily SEO.

Google Business Profile By the Numbers

From analyzing engagement metrics to understanding their effects on local search positions, these numbers craft a narrative that can shape your digital approach.

• 84% of business-related searches are exploratory, with a mere 16% being specific searches.
• About one-third of local enterprises appear in over 1,000 exploratory searches monthly.
• 56% of user interactions with Google Business listings result in visits to the company’s website.
• 64% of customers turn to Google to obtain contact information for local enterprises. 
• During weekdays, 94% of calls to these local businesses are initiated from Google. 
• On average, a business gets noticed in more than 1,000 monthly searches through this platform.

14 Must-Know Multifamily SEO Facts and Tips

• Spotlight on Maps: Having a Google Business Profile is like planting a flag on the digital map. It allows your property to shine on Google Maps, displaying key details such as the property name, contact details, and valuable user reviews.
• Consistent Updates are Key: Ensure that the information on your profile is up-to-date. An outdated phone number or address can turn potential renters away in frustration.
• Multiple Platforms, One Profile: Google Business Profile ensures your property’s visibility across various platforms — Google Search, Maps, and the former Google+. A digital trifecta, this increases your multifamily SEO strength.
• Transition Note: If you had a Google Places account, Google automatically moved you to a Google Business Profile. But remember to check and refresh your information periodically.
• The Social Edge with Google+: With the integration of Google+, your property can now organize virtual hangouts, curate content for specific circles, and share updates, enhancing multifamily SEO.
• Community Engagement: Use Google+ to share local events or news about your property. Google then indexes this content, making it discoverable in relevant search queries.
• Interactive Customer Care: Google+ also lets customers leave reviews and ask questions. Engaging with this feedback boosts your online reputation and displays a commitment to the community.
• First Impressions Matter: Ensure you have a captivating cover photo and a completed profile to capture interest at first glance.
• SEO Footprint Expansion: Every time your property appears on a Google page, your multifamily SEO footprint grows, enhancing your online visibility and attractiveness to potential renters.
• Staying Current: Regularly update your information. Fresh and accurate content is a cornerstone of successful multifamily marketing.
• Claim Your Space: Verifying your Google Business Profile is simple but crucial. Claim and verify your account to fully harness its multifamily SEO potential.
• Increased Engagement: Google+ features help you connect with individuals and businesses of similar interests, broadening your community and engagement.
• Maximizing SEO Impact: As you consistently update and engage on your Google Business Profile, Google rewards you with better search result placements, optimizing your multifamily SEO efforts.
• Forge Ahead in the Digital Landscape: Embracing the multifaceted features of Google Business Profile positions your property for success in the digital age.

The digital realm offers myriad opportunities, and with tools like Google Business Profile, multifamily properties can significantly enhance their online presence and multifamily SEO. 

Ready to dive deeper and fully unlock the potential of your online strategy? Criterion.B’s expertise can guide the way. Connect with us, and let’s elevate your multifamily marketing game!

Generative AI vs. Human Writers: Why You Need BOTH in Your Strategy

By now, you’ve likely heard about OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other chatbot artificial intelligence tools.

And if you haven’t heard of these AI writing tools yet, settle in and don’t skim over the good parts of this blog because this one is important. 

Generative AI has taken the marketing world by storm. With advancements in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, AI copywriting has become an increasingly popular tool for any business to interact with its customers — and the multifamily market is no exception to this growing trend. 

AI-powered writing tools, in particular, are a leading example of how generative AI is changing the marketing world. But while these tools can automate some multifamily marketing processes, human writers and editors are still essential. 

Why? ChatGPT might be revolutionizing how you handle content marketing, but did you know it isn’t always factual? Did you know some generative AI content is considered plagiarism?

We ALL have our limits, and that includes AI writing tools. We found those limits and think sharing them is important so you can utilize ChatGPT (and similar tools) to support your apartment marketing efforts the RIGHT way.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT stands for “Chat Generated Pre-Trained Transformer” and is an AI-powered chatbot that utilizes an NLP model developed by OpenAI. It uses machine learning algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data to generate content that reads as if a human wrote it. 

Since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, the world hasn’t stopped talking about it. There are many use cases and ideas, but we haven’t seen enough comprehensive use cases to leverage it in multifamily marketing. 

Generative AI Tools and Industry Growth

The generative AI market is booming, with over 2,000 tools now available to help businesses create content, streamline workflows, and innovate across industries. The rapid expansion of this market is fueled by growing interest in AI-driven solutions and substantial investment. In fact, between 2022 and 2023, total investment in generative AI skyrocketed by an astounding 407%. Let’s explore some of the leading tools driving this transformation:

• ChatGPT (OpenAI): A widely used conversational AI tool capable of generating text, answering queries, and assisting with creative projects.
• Google Bard: An advanced conversational AI by Google that excels in generating detailed responses and explanations.
• Gemini (Google DeepMind): Combines generative AI capabilities with Google’s vast knowledge graph for nuanced and reliable responses.
• AlphaCode (DeepMind): A coding-specific AI designed to assist developers in writing and debugging software.
• GitHub Copilot: Powered by OpenAI, this tool enhances coding efficiency by providing contextual suggestions and code snippets.
• Peppertype: Offers content templates for writing articles, meta descriptions, and marketing emails.
• Rytr: Creates SEO-optimized titles, blog posts, emails, and advertisements with a focus on ease of use.
• Jasper: A content generator tailored for marketing teams, featuring multi-language support, collaboration tools, and content templates.
• Copy.ai: Focused on content marketing, this tool generates blog posts, social media updates, and email campaigns.
• MidJourney: A leading AI tool for generating stunning visual designs and artwork.
• Stability AI: Known for developing tools like Stable Diffusion, specializing in high-quality image generation.

A Market on the Rise

The generative AI industry is experiencing unprecedented growth, attracting interest from businesses across sectors. From crafting marketing content to automating repetitive tasks, these tools offer transformative potential. With investment levels surging and innovation accelerating, generative AI is poised to reshape how we approach creativity, productivity, and problem-solving.

Whether you’re a marketer, developer, or business leader, understanding and leveraging generative AI tools can provide a significant edge in today’s competitive landscape. As the market evolves, staying informed and experimenting with these technologies will be key to unlocking their full potential.

ChatGPT by the numbers

• On March 14, 2023, OpenAI launched GPT-4 technology in the ChatGPT Plus Plan, which allows it to generate 25,000+ words in output. As well the model understands 26 languages.
• ChatGPT reached one million users within a week of its launch and 57 million monthly users in the first month.
• ChatGPT crossed the 100 million users milestone in January 2023.
• 13 million individual active users visited ChatGPT per day as of  January 2023.
• Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI, gaining 46% of the company’s stake. OpenAI received $ 1 billion from Microsoft in the initial stages of development.
• ChatGPT owner OpenAI predicts that by the end of 2024, they will generate revenue of $1 billion. $200 million in revenue is expected by the end of 2023.

The benefits of AI-powered writing tools

The primary advantage of ChatGPT is its ability to produce large volumes of content quickly and efficiently. This makes it an ideal tool for marketers and content creators who must quickly produce a high content volume. Additionally, ChatGPT can provide marketers with fresh ideas and perspectives on a given topic, helping them to create more engaging and compelling content.

Regarding blog writing and marketing, generative AI is an excellent tool for generating ideas and starting the writing process. By providing a prompt, such as a topic or a keyword, ChatGPT can quickly generate several paragraphs of text that can serve as a jumping-off point for further refinement by a human writer or editor.

Moreover, ChatGPT can help marketers create optimized content for search engines, which is essential for driving website traffic. ChatGPT can suggest keywords and phrases that can improve a blog’s search engine ranking by analyzing search queries and content related to a given topic.

7 limitations of AI in digital multifamily marketing

While generative AI offers several benefits, it is important to understand its limitations. ChatGPT’s writing is generated based on algorithms and statistical patterns, so it may not always capture the nuance or tone that a human writer could convey. ChatGPT also has limited knowledge of cultural and contextual factors that may impact how a specific audience receives content.

Additionally, ChatGPT may struggle to generate content for complex or technical topics requiring high expertise. In these cases, relying on a human writer or editor with the necessary knowledge and experience to create high-quality content may be more effective.

1. AI lacks creativity and personalization.

Despite the many advantages of ChatGPT, human writers and editors are still necessary in today’s marketing world. Human writers bring a level of creativity and personalization to their writing that AI-powered tools cannot match. They can inject personality and voice into their writing that resonates with their audience and helps to build a connection with them.

Furthermore, human writers and editors can provide a level of quality control that AI-powered tools cannot match. They can review content generated by ChatGPT to ensure that it is accurate, engaging, and error-free. They can also ensure that the tone and style of the writing are consistent with the brand’s voice and values.

When you compare content written by AI vs. a human, AI doesn’t have a lot of creativity or personality. Take the following paragraphs as an example. One was generated by AI, and the other by me (the Manager of Content at Criterion.B). I wrote a few paragraphs about web design — specifically, the No. 1 mistake marketers make when building or redesigning their websites. 

After writing my version of the topic, I asked ChatGPT to “Write a couple of paragraphs about the No. 1 mistake marketers make when building or redesigning a website.”

Here is my take on the results:

I ran both pieces of content through a plagiarism checker. My content had 0% duplicate content. Meanwhile, 5% of the AI-generated content was considered plagiarism. 

Additionally, as you can see, my content was much more informal, specific, and personalized. The AI-generated content (while it is good content) is much more formal, structured, and even a little bit stale in comparison.

While it’s not a bad paragraph and could be used in a blog somewhere, imagine an entire blog written using ChatGPT and how it would sound. The AI-generated content is a bit heavier to read, which could lead to a higher bounce rate over time if all your content is AI-generated.

2. AI lacks originality (possible plagiarism alert!)

ChatGPT is not your content creation savior. Sure, it’s powerful and helpful, and maybe the tool will improve significantly in the months and years to come. But for now: relying on ChatGPT for ALL of your content is a disaster waiting to happen.

AI learns from existing content on the web, so it replicates what is already out there. This means it could be a literal copy of something else online. (See the above example where the AI-generated content had 5% plagiarized content.)

3. AI utilizes an outdated learning model.

Generative AI cannot always provide the correct answers. Did you know that some content from ChatGPT and other writing tools is inaccurate information? This is because AI pulls data from top ranking articles or from what it can find online, so the stats you might see in your content might be inaccurate, outdated, and likely inaccurate. Think about the disclaimer provided in all generative AI results about how it’s “experimental” and users should always fact-check the results.

4. AI lacks emotional intelligence.

AI may be able to simulate human writing, but it lacks emotional intelligence. Human writers and editors can use their emotional intelligence to understand customer needs and write specific content centered around those needs. Emotional intelligence is crucial to successful multifamily marketing, as customers are more likely to engage with a business that understands their needs and values.

5. AI does not know your brand voice.

Every business has a unique brand voice and tone representing its personality and values. Human writers and editors are essential for maintaining and developing a consistent brand voice across all apartment marketing channels. Artificial intelligence tools may be able to write blogs, emails, and website content, but they cannot understand your authentic brand voice. ChatGPT has a lack of context, so AI is not recommended to be used by businesses. The bottom line: Generative AI does not know your business like you do.

6. AI content has errors.

We are all human (except AI, ha!) and make mistakes. But when you rely on an AI writing tool to generate content for you, you expect it to be nearly flawless. Or, at the very least, free from major errors.

I’ve been testing ChatGPT and other writing tools like Jasper.ai for several months and discovered the content is riddled with errors. Everything from run-on sentences and passive writing to missing punctuation and duplicate content.

Consider the below example. Jasper.ai generated the first paragraph and includes a variety of grammatical errors. While these errors are insignificant, they are still errors that would not be there had human-generated content. Then, compare the “After” paragraph, which is the same AI-generated content that was then edited by me (an actual human editor). Notice the difference in the paragraph’s flow, clarity, and readability. 

Although Google doesn’t penalize grammar and spelling outright, the bots that scan your content may find it harder to understand what the page or article is about, which could result in lower page rankings and perceived credibility.

7. AI content is not guaranteed to rank well.

Fun fact: Google doesn’t love AI-generated content. Google did release its own AI writing tool, Bard, so the space may change in the coming months and years, but for now, Google can sniff out AI content a mile away. 

And did you know that Google punishes AI-generated content? That means anything a chatbot spits out will NOT boost your apartment SEO ranking. In fact, it’ll actually hurt it.

How will AI affect search? 

Quality still matters over quantity. Just because ChatGPT can help you crank out more content does not mean you will rank well for those pieces. You need an SEO expert to help you rank and strategize effectively.

ChatGPT content lacks EEAT (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trust). You need this in your content to do well in Google search engine result pages (SERP).

Google provides users with TONS of answers to their queries based on SEO strategies, keywords, backlinks, etc.

A chatbot provides one singular answer. Just one answer. How does the chatbot know the ONE answer to that query? Is bias involved? What if they pulled inaccurate information for the answer? Consider these questions when using ChatGPT, Jasper.ai, Bard, and other tools to help generate answers to your queries and content for your blog.

Will AI replace humans? 

No! Remember, ChatGPT requires human editing. Effective apartment marketing requires tapping into the human element, which is something AI can’t do (yet). Natural language processing could change this in the years to come, but for now, ChatGPT is more of a stepping-off point for your content.

Marketers should harness AI to help batch-create content and save time, then use human editing to refine, hone, and detail the pieces. That’s how you create quality content that resonates. The key is to use AI for what it does best and supplement it with strategic human input.

How to beat your competition at the content marketing game.

So … outdated content, factual errors, plagiarism, and no guarantee of good SEO? That’s not a great recipe for your digital marketing strategy if you ask me.

ChatGPT is an excellent tool to start the writing process, but it should be viewed as a jumping-off point rather than a complete replacement for human writers.

There’s no replacement for human ingenuity. Over the next year or so, AI-generated content will explode. ChatGPT has changed everything, and it’s made everyone (including your competition) think they can pump out a bunch of content without their audience noticing.

But what happens when Google evaluates that content? It will notice the lack of originality. It will read like a robot wrote it — because a robot did! That’s what your competition is going to do. And what’s the best way to compete with your competition? Beat them at the content marketing game!

Want to see the effect the human touch can have on your content? Book a call with Criterion.B now. We’ll get started on your customized strategy and show you how to BEAT your competition with real-life, human-generated content personalized to your business and audience. We’re ready to chat and answer your questions!

Why Video Is Important for Your Apartment SEO

As technology continues to improve and become more ingrained into our daily lives, video has taken the main stage. Platforms like TikTok have made binging short, quick videos easy for anyone with a smartphone. YouTube countered this with its feature called “YouTube Shorts.” 

However, video isn’t just for show. There are fundamental benefits that videos add to your apartment SEO efforts. Not everyone is energized by recording videos of themselves for their properties. However, these may inspire you to reconsider an SEO video marketing strategy.

Local Geodata of Videos

Similar to photos you take from your smartphone, videos capture embedded and local geodata within the files. For example, Brotherly Love Real Estate, a homebuyer starting in Philadelphia, PA, expanded to the west coast. They began their SEO video marketing efforts in Southern California, utilizing videos to help increase their rankings. 

Brotherly Love Real Estate went to each city they wanted to rank in, recorded a video, posted it directly to YouTube, and placed it on their respective website pages. This website shows how they now buy and sell houses in San Diego from the success of their videos.

The geodata gets stored in the video file through location-identifying features from the smartphone. Google recognizes that, allowing it to carry weight when considering which multifamily website to rank for certain local search terms. It can feel tedious at times to record videos and then upload them. However, the results can be worth pursuing.

Increases Time on Page Through SEO Blog Writing

Another ranking factor that Google considers when determining which websites to show for a certain query is time on page. The more real, local users spend on your multifamily website, the more authoritative Google will consider you. They assume that if people spend tons of time reading through multiple pages or posts on your site, you must know what you’re talking about. Your content is viewed as credible, trusted, and rank-worthy.

Adding a video to your pages and posts is a great SEO video marketing strategy to encourage users to linger on your pages for longer. Over time, this will boost your apartment SEO. It also makes your SEO blog writing more robust. 

Certain people prefer to learn audibly or visually. For these types of people, videos are sometimes preferred over long blogs full of text. Videos will add a different channel for your users to consume your content and get value from it.

Provide Additional Web Traffic

Google likes to see traffic from different channels (sources). For example, if your property website gets traffic from Google search, Twitter, and Pinterest, it will assume you are a more legitimate business than others that only get Google search traffic. This shows Google that people find you from different areas of the internet, which is a good sign. You can show traffic through your videos on both YouTube and TikTok. This will help boost your apartment SEO efforts.

Additionally, the more traffic you get to your site, the more other apartment SEO metrics can increase. Users can find you through YouTube and then begin crawling your property website. Your time on page for certain pages can increase. 

Ideally, you can create a naturally flowing funnel for users to continue watching your videos. They can hop from YouTube into your property website through a link in the video description. From there, they can start exploring the other videos on your website’s different pages.

Shows Legitimacy

The more places you are around the internet, the more trustworthy you appear to search engines. If you have a large following of subscribers on YouTube or TikTok, that carries weight with your rankings. You are viewed as an authority in the online space regarding certain topics. 

Your brand also appears more legitimate to the renters surfing your property website. For example, showing your face to potential apartment leads on your site will add credibility to your multifamily brand. They will naturally feel more comfortable with your apartment communities if a more personal connection is made through your SEO video marketing.

Users will be encouraged to continue crawling your website if they trust you. A high bounce rate is a negative factor to search engines. Bridging the gap of personal connection between your property brand and your users will decrease the number of people that bounce directly after hopping on to your site. 

Videos encourage people to continue browsing other areas within your site, thus making it easier to get more prospective renters on your pages and convert them. SEO video marketing will only increase in popularity as we head into the future. You must keep up with this trend and use it to your property’s advantage.

Jenn is an experienced writer for the real estate industry and a house flipper for We Buy Houses in Denver. If she’s not swinging a hammer, she’s either writing about different real estate topics or reviewing investment property opportunities.

4 Things You Likely Didn’t Know About Multifamily SEO

There is no shortage of competition within Google’s SERPs in the real estate industry. As you niche into subsections on real estate, the competition becomes even tighter. Property management companies in the multifamily space must fight tooth and nail to reach the top of Google’s rankings and keep their position. With such intense competition amongst property managers online, you must have a clear plan on how to master SEO. The more relevant keywords your multifamily website shows up for, the more potential business you ultimately interact with.

Today, we will bust four surprising myths about multifamily SEO that you might be uncertain about.

1. No-follow Links Don’t Matter

Since many people within the multifamily SEO space would argue that backlinks are the most important ranking factor, it makes sense to start here. The last time that you had the opportunity to get a no-follow backlink pointing back to your site, did you accept? It is a myth that no-follow backlinks carry zero weight. There have been statements made in the past from people within the SEO space that no-follow links don’t pass domain authority. Many people stop here and don’t look any further.

While no-follow links do not pass domain authority, they do pass other great SEO signals that can help your apartment website. Additionally, large website publications like Business Insider only give out no-follow links. Suppose your property management business gets a link from Business Insider talking about how great and relevant you are to the multifamily industry. In that case, Google will see that as a great thing! You’re likely to experience a boost in rankings even though the link is set to no-follow. Although they don’t pass direct authority, plenty of other SEO benefits are passed, making these worth pursuing.

2. Viral Content Isn’t Worth Chasing

Google considers website traffic a huge ranking factor when ranking real estate companies. One way to get a huge surge of traffic is to create a viral piece of content. For example, property management companies of large multifamily buildings have created a funny, parody-style music video showing their property to potential tenants. Another common example of creating viral content is when people need to sell a house in the luxury real estate market. Real estate professionals will record flashy drone footage highlighting a mansion sitting on a massive estate. These eye-catching, memorable videos ultimately draw traffic to the website, which helps boost apartment SEO.

The cherry on top of making viral content is when the content is relevant to the local community where your property is. Not only will your multifamily website catch real, local traffic by legitimate internet users on legitimate IP addresses, but you also may generate a few apartment leads from it. Attempting to create viral content seems overwhelming at first. It’s hard to know where to start. If you can crack the code and generate something truly special, you will boost your multifamily website’s rankings and generate apartment leads.

3. No One Reads Anymore

The myth has some truth to it. Many people do not read anymore. However, some people surprisingly still do. That’s why creating meaningful, relevant, and useful content on your apartment website is important. Your goal is to create useful guides that address the needs of your target audience. Offer solutions to their needs, or at least useful perspectives, through engaging content.

You don’t have to only use words for your content. Switch things up and include videos, infographics, and other engaging features that you can include on a page. This will help keep users on your multifamily website from bouncing. If people leave pages once they arrive, it signals to Google that your site might not be that good. Keep your content relevant, engaging, helpful, and diverse.

4. Pictures Don’t Matter

A picture says one thousand words, right? Pictures matter in SEO for several reasons. The quality of the photo is important to gain trust and credibility once someone hits your site. If you’re using too many stock photos, that will turn people off, and they will likely bounce. Add photos of your property to help encourage people to rent from you.

Pictures also play a role in your local SEO efforts. Google picks up geotags from photos depending on where they were taken. Depending on how the image was transferred, saved, edited, or added to the site, it could remove the geo-tag. For property managers that want to show up for local keywords, it’s important to have geo-tagged photos throughout your multifamily website. That tells Google, in the background, that you are a legitimate, local business and not a scammer.

Multifamily SEO Is a Moving Target

No matter how much you dial in your multifamily SEO efforts, new algorithm updates will emerge, and things will change. Google has a great way of keeping multifamily marketing professionals on their toes. As you dismiss myths within the online space, new ones will arise that you’ll be forced to create an opinion on. Test and measure things as often as possible without breaking your website. This will help you improve your website’s health, SEO, and rankings.

Jenn is an experienced writer for the real estate industry and a house flipper. If she’s not swinging a hammer, she’s either writing about different real estate topics or reviewing investment property opportunities.