How to Do Keyword Research for Your Real Estate SEO Strategy
When it comes to building a content strategy and writing blog content, a lot of agents have difficulty figuring out what to write about. Often, because it’s easiest, most will stick to writing about their listings or monthly real estate market trends and stats, but in most cases, that’s the wrong approach to take.
That’s because that kind of content becomes outdated quickly. Since your content will take time to rank in search results, and since your long-term goal is to rank for a long time, it’s key that you write evergreen, quality content that will be relevant and still valuable for the searcher months or even years into the future.
But to meet those goals, the content you write should also be based on what people are actually searching for and how they’re searching for it.
Keyword research is the process of understanding what your target audience is searching for, how often they’re searching it, and how competitive those terms are, so you can structure your content around topics that actually have the chance to rank and bring in the right traffic.
That research, done before you begin writing, is what separates a content strategy that gets results from one that’s built on guesses.
★ Want to learn more about building a quality, evergreen content strategy? Have a look at these posts:
- Creating an Evergreen Real Estate Content Strategy
- Creating a People-Powered, People-First Content Strategy
- Optimizing Your Content for Humans (And Not Just for Search Engines)
Understanding Ranking Difficulty
When you research a keyword or keyphrase using a professional keyword research tool, one of the first things to look at is how difficult it will be to rank for that term.
Most keyword research tools show a difficulty score out of 100, with 100 being the most competitive. As a general rule, anything above 40 is considered hard to rank for, and the higher the number, the more established your SEO strategy needs to be before it’s realistic to compete for that term.
The difficulty of the keyphrase should match where you are in your SEO strategy. If you’re just getting started, focusing on lower-difficulty terms gives you a better chance of ranking sooner and building momentum. If you already have a strong strategy in place with content that’s performing well, you can start working toward more competitive terms.
It’s also worth doing an actual search for the keyphrase you’re researching and looking at what’s currently ranking. If the first page is filled with well-written, authoritative content from established websites, that’s a strong signal that competing for that term will take significant effort. But if the existing content is thin, outdated, or not particularly helpful, that’s an opportunity, even if the difficulty score is moderate.
★ Want to learn more about building a successful SEO strategy? Have a look at these posts:
- The Components of a Successful Real Estate SEO Strategy
- Building a Successful Real Estate Off-Page SEO Strategy
- Why Building Trust Is a Key Part of a Successful SEO Strategy
Understanding Search Volume
Just because you think something gets searched a lot doesn’t mean it actually does. That’s why understanding the search volume for your keyphrase is so important.
Search volume tells you the average number of searches per month, in a specific area, for a given term. That information helps you decide whether a keyphrase is worth the time it takes to write about, based on whether enough people are actually searching for it.
As a general rule, keyphrases with a monthly search volume of at least 50 are worth considering, but if your keyphrase is more long-tail and specific, lower volume can still be worth writing for if the intent behind the search closely matches what you’re offering. A keyphrase with 20 monthly searches that perfectly describes a situation your target audience is in can be more valuable than a keyphrase with 500 monthly searches that’s broad and generic.
Understanding Search Intent
Volume and difficulty tell you whether a keyphrase is worth targeting, but intent tells you whether the people searching for it are the right people for your business.
Search intent is about understanding what someone is actually looking for when they type a specific phrase into a search engine or ask a question to an AI platform. Are they looking for general information? Are they trying to solve a specific problem? Are they comparing options? Are they ready to take action?
For example, someone searching “what is a real estate agent” is in a very different place than someone searching “how do I sell my house during a divorce.” The first is informational and broad; the second is specific, emotional, and much closer to needing an agent. Both have value in a content strategy, but they serve different purposes, and the content you write for each should reflect that.
When you combine keyword difficulty, search volume, and search intent, you get a much clearer picture of whether a keyphrase is worth your time. The best opportunities are the ones where the difficulty is manageable, the volume is sufficient, and the intent aligns with the people you actually want to reach.
Think in Topics, Not Just Keywords
One of the biggest shifts in modern SEO is the move from targeting individual keywords to building topic ownership. Instead of writing one post about one keyphrase and hoping it ranks, the more effective approach is to build a cluster of content around a broader topic, where each piece targets a different angle or question within that theme.
For example, if your research shows that there are multiple related keyphrases around selling a home during a divorce, that’s not just one blog post; that’s an opportunity to build a content pillar. Each post answers a different question, links to the others, and together they tell search engines and AI platforms that you’re the authority on that subject.
This is where keyword research connects directly to your broader content strategy. The individual keyphrases you research become the building blocks of a topic ownership strategy that compounds over time, and that kind of depth is exactly what both traditional search engines and AI platforms are looking for when deciding who to rank and recommend.
★ Want to learn more about building a topic-based content strategy? Have a look at these posts:
- Switching Your SEO Strategy from Keyword Matching to Topic Ownership to Get Better Leads
- Building a Long-Tail Real Estate Keyword Strategy
- Building an Answers Engine Optimization (AEO) Strategy for AI
Research First, Write Second
If you’re working towards building a strong SEO strategy as part of your overall digital marketing strategy, keyword research is what makes sure your effort is pointed in the right direction. It tells you whether a topic is worth writing about, whether you have a realistic chance of ranking for it, and whether the people searching for it are the kind of people you want to attract.
The content that performs best in both traditional search and AI search is content that’s built on research, written with depth and authority, and structured around the topics and questions your target audience is actually looking for. That’s what keyword research helps you find, and it’s what makes the difference between content that ranks and generates results and content that sits on your website without ever being seen.
Want to learn more about SEO and get more traffic to your website? Our SEO, AEO, and AI Visibility Strategy Guide is a mix of curated content and self-guided workbook that will help provide insight on how you can build and implement a modern SEO and overall search strategy.
