Due to the recent rise in video demand, video marketing has become a marketing channel of its own. The real estate industry is no exception to this trend. With the majority of home buyers searching for properties online, it makes sense for real estate businesses to invest time and resources into video marketing.

However, merely creating videos isn't enough. Real estate video SEO is the key to ensuring your videos actually rank on Google's search engine pages (SERPs) and get desired traffic. Like traditional SEO techniques, video SEO for real estate helps optimize your videos for search engines while following best practices for video production.

Below, we discuss the best SEO practices for real estate video production. You'll also learn tips and tricks to capture real estate (pun intended) on the first page of Google.

Why Is Real Estate Video SEO Important?

Before we dive into the strategies and techniques, you need to understand the significance of real estate video SEO. Here's why video SEO for real estate is a game-changer.

Used By Your Competitors

One of the best ways to stay relevant in the market is to be a step ahead of your competitors or at least keep up with them. Many real estate businesses have already started incorporating video content into their marketing, and it's about time you do so, too.

According to Statista, 78% of marketers deem YouTube to be the most effective video marketing channel. Since Google acquired YouTube, your YouTube videos can help you rank on Google's first page.

Highly Effective Form of Marketing

In a Wyzowl report, 88% of marketers said that video is an important part of their marketing strategy. Keeping this in mind, if you take the right real estate video SEO measures, you can expect a high ROI.

In the same report, 90% of marketers said that they have seen a good ROI with video. However, that's only possible if your video is seen. Real estate video SEO helps ensure that.

Accessibility by Search Engines

Over the years, it has become visible to search engines that people want to watch videos about their queries. It's no longer just text and images; videos are a primary source of information now.

That's why Google has a separate tab for ''Videos'' where you can find video results related to your search query. If you use video SEO for real estate, you have a better chance of appearing in this section. Depending on the type of query, you may even rank on the ''All'' page of SERPs.

Google's Search Generative Experience

Google has rolled out the Search Generative Experience (SGE), an AI-powered tool designed to answer users' queries in the most precise manner above the organic SERPs. If your real estate business can manage to appear here, you're golden.

As the SGE becomes global, the need for optimization will spike. Before that happens, you should ensure the video SEO for your real estate business is good enough to secure a top spot in the SGE.

High Click-Through Rates

According to Backlinko's analysis of over a million search results, if you move one spot up in the search results, the click-through rate (CTR) for your website goes up by 2.8%. Also, only 0.63% of Google users click on something on the second page.

These figures should be enough to emphasize the importance of video SEO for real estate. Being on the first page is imperative, as it gets you more views, leads, and conversions. Real estate video SEO helps you achieve this by keeping you in the top results, which is where most of the searchers find the information they need. 

6 Real Estate Video SEO Strategies to Rank High on Google

Let's look at how to implement video SEO for real estate in your marketing use cases.

1. Focus on High-Search Queries

Understandably, you want to create videos on topics that people are searching for. You shouldn't go on making videos about the rise and fall of the real estate business throughout the last century if your audience is mainly interested in the current housing prices.

You can use a keyword research tool to find the queries people are searching for.

However, simply finding a list of keywords won't be enough. You also have to focus on the search intent. Ideally, you want to focus on keywords for which people want to watch videos.

For example, if we search for places to buy a house in Tampa, Florida, we see that the keywords ''best places to live in Tampa'' and ''best neighborhoods to live in Tampa'' rank high in video search results.

On the other hand, in the regular search results, the keyword ''best places to buy a house in Tampa'' is #1. While this might seem like a small difference, it can make a huge impact on the success of your real estate video.

To understand searcher intent in detail and learn how you can analyze it, watch this video from Ahrefs:

Many keyword tools won't show you the search intent, and you'll only get the list of keywords that people are searching for. However, Semrush is a comprehensive keyword research tool with advanced filters. When you get the keyword results in Semrush, go to the Advanced Filters drop-down and click on SERP features.

From there, you can select all video-related features: video, featured video, and video carousel. The keywords you get from this filter will be suitable for your real estate video SEO efforts. 

2. Optimize Video Titles

The title is the first thing people see when your video appears in the search results. So, make sure you have an attention-grabbing and descriptive title that accurately represents the content of your video.

Include relevant keywords in your title to improve its ranking potential. However, they should flow naturally and not feel forced or spammy.

Keep the title concise and under 60 characters. Otherwise, it may get truncated in Google SERPs. Another important tip is to add numbers to your title. For example, your titles should read like ''10 Tips to..'' or ''Top 5 Places to..''

Here's an example of such a video on Google about the suburbs that are best for buying a house in Seattle. The title is the right length, has a number, and contains the keyword ''best Seattle suburbs to buy a house.''

Question-based titles are also good for video SEO for real estate. For instance, ''How to Find..'' or ''What Are the Best..'' are some examples of effective question-based titles that can attract searchers.

Check out this video to learn how to write a title that gets clicks:

3. Optimize Video Descriptions

Just like meta descriptions are important for regular web pages, video descriptions help search engines and viewers understand the content of your video.

Here's how to optimize video descriptions:

• Add a hook: Start your video description with something that grabs the viewer's attention, such as a question or a statement.
• Add target keywords: Add your primary keyword in the video description. Google crawlers use these keywords to understand where to rank your video in search result pages.
• Consider the length: If you go beyond 120 characters, the rest of your description may be truncated in search results. Keep it concise and to the point. However, since you'll post your video on YouTube or other platforms, too, you'll want it to be detailed so that people know what they can expect. However, for SEO purposes, write the first 120 characters strategically so that search engine users are also somewhat informed.

For example, in this video about the Seattle real estate market, the description tells you that you'll learn about current stats and the video creator's personal thoughts on them. 

4. Embed Videos on Your Website

Another tip to take your video SEO for real estate business to the next level is embedding your videos on your website. However, make sure you're choosing the relevant web pages.

For example, Florida Life Real Estate is a real estate company based in Florida. They have embedded a video on their homepage discussing all the best locations to live in the state.

Here's the video:

You can tell that this tactic has impacted their site's SEO because when you search for real estate businesses in Florida, their website is the second highest result in the Google Business listings.

Embedding your videos on relevant web pages boosts SEO in two ways. First, your YouTube video can rank in Google search results. Second, the webpage on which you have embedded the video will rank higher than if it didn't have a video.

Google recommends making video the most prominent part of your web page. You can do so by embedding videos above the fold at the top of your web page, making them the first thing visitors see.

5. Add Schema Mark to Pages With Videos

When you embed videos to a web page, also include schema markup to tell search engines what your video is about. Think of the schema markup as a way to label your video so that search engines can understand and index it correctly.

Google has a schema makeup testing tool that you can use to validate your web page’s schema makeup. 

Thanks to schema markup, Google will not just show your video as a plain result. Instead, the search engine will add the video title, description, length, thumbnail, and upload date. All this information creates a richer search result that helps you stand out from the competition and boost your click-through rate.

Watch this video to learn how to add schema markup to a web page:

6. Create Attractive Thumbnails

An important part of real estate video production is creating attractive thumbnails for your videos. Thumbnails are the small images that represent your video on YouTube and in Google search results.

When creating a thumbnail, use high-quality images that represent your video content. You can also use text overlay to make your thumbnail more informative. Go for custom thumbnails rather than just relying on the automatically generated ones. Google reports that 90% of well-performing videos have custom thumbnails.

You can learn more about video titles and thumbnails in this video:

Look at the thumbnails that top-ranking real estate videos are using and take inspiration from them. For example, when you search for ''real estate in the US,'' all thumbnails in the top results have the narrator's picture along with some text.

You can use this as a cue that the audience is likely to respond positively to such thumbnails. So, they can help improve video SEO for real estate businesses. However, do not try to copy someone else's thumbnail exactly, as it may come across as unoriginal and reduce your credibility.

Conclusion

Real estate video marketing, like marketing for any other industry, requires a focus on SEO and quality video production. The guide has covered how to perfect video SEO for real estate.

Besides focusing on video quality and editing, you should also take SEO best practices into consideration. From creating optimized titles and descriptions to embedding videos in web pages and adding schema markup, these real estate video SEO strategies will help your videos rank on Google.

We live in a time where 89% of consumers report that they want to see more videos from brands in the future. So, it's more important than ever for you to implement the techniques of video SEO for real estate in your branded videos.

‍