Easy Ways Video Can Elevate Your Apartment SEO Strategy
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a long-term investment and strategy. Yet, you and your team can use short-term tactics to help your community show up on searches more often and organically, with things like video.
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Otherwise, continue reading below for tactical ways to optimize videos for search engines like Google and social sites. Find tangible tips from our friend, Siobhan Park, Head of Training & Marketing at Repli, and Kristi Fickert, VP of Enterprise Growth at Realync.
What are Three Ways Multifamily Can Use Video to Their SEO Advantage?
Siobhan said:
Social Media. Social Media is the best platform to convey your company culture and community lifestyle. Generating video content that takes users “behind the scenes” of the community creates trust and credibility with the users—one of the most important aspects of your social media presence. Here are a few examples of ways to incorporate video content on your community’s social media page:
- Resident Testimonials
- Resident testimonial videos provide powerful social proof for your prospects. Residents become your advocates to prospective renters through their validation that you really are who you say you are.
- User-generated content
- UGC is the modern-day word of mouth. Reshare video content that your residents create and share around the community. This is an easy way to increase engagement and maintain authenticity.
- Floor plan/community walk-throughs
- Simply take your smartphone and create short video reels walking through the community and/or model floor plans. Show off different aspects and perspectives of amenities and floor plan interiors that aren’t necessarily shown on the website.
- Community lifestyle
- Create fun and engaging videos that promote and display the lifestyle at your community. Great examples of this are resident events, weekends at the pool, and game nights at the clubhouse. Give your users a backstage pass to what life is like at your community.
- A day in the life of team members
- Creating video content with employees is a great way to allow residents to get to know team members better. In addition, it showcases your company culture which builds transparency with your users and gives your social media account a more authentic feel.
Website. Videos evoke a more emotional response than images or text, and after the first quantitative requirements of price and location, renters want a place that looks and feels like home. What are some ways to capture that feeling with video on your website?
- High-quality video as the homepage banner: You want customers to see the beauty of their new home right when they land on the homepage of your website, and placing a high-quality video of the apartment & amenities – large and above the fold – will do just that.
- Drone footage: High-quality, fly-over footage shows customers the entire atmosphere of your community – the building itself, glimpses of the neighborhood/scenery surrounding it, and the outdoor amenities.
- Virtual tours: Using video for virtual tours is the closest thing customers can get to seeing your community without ever visiting. Incorporate this on a dedicated and easy-to-navigate-to page of your website.
Advertising (Video Ads). Video is one of the most popular and engaging forms of advertising. Using video in your advertising strategy is an easy way to entice prospects and stand out amongst your competitors. With people spending, on average, up to 19 hours a week consuming video content, it’s no wonder that it’s one of the best, yet biggest missed, opportunities for multifamily.
How Should a Multifamily Lease-Up Get Started with SEO and Video?
Siobhan said:
It’s best to get started on your SEO strategy as early as possible during a lease-up and there are some easy ways to use video to your advantage.
1. Get as Much Information as Possible
Before reaching out to the SEO or creative team, finalize the community name, brand logo, color theme, amenities, and floor plan layouts. Provide each team with enough information to generate great SEO content and video renderings that reflect the new development and the brand image.
2. Optimize Your Website or Landing Page as Much as Possible
Keep in mind that SEO is a long-term game. As Google puts more credibility to well-written content designed for humans, creating SEO content with your prospects in mind while utilizing keywords within website content, page titles, and meta descriptions will always set you up for success in the long run. Don’t forget to optimize your video content on the site as well!
3. Pay Attention to Your Competitors
Since you’re new to the area, your competitors might have more credibility on Google. Still, your new development has unique selling points that stand out. Combine keyword strategy and video content already working for your competitors with content that highlights the brand-new aspects of your new development for maximum impact.
4. Tell Google Maps You’re Here
Set up your Google Business Profile listing for your lease-up property and fill out as much information as possible. By getting a head start on optimizing your GBP listing, you’ll start building credibility and a local presence. If you’re not offering a hard hat tour or aren’t welcoming any foot traffic yet, make sure to address that in the business descriptions and exclude any business hours for now.
With the excitement of the new development, there will be a lot of curiosity about what the apartment community will look like. As we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words, but video is worth a billion. Take users on a journey by sharing videos of the property through the development and early leasing process. Get people excited as you show them what you’re building from the ground up.
How Can Multifamily Use Video with Their Google Business profile?
Siobhan said:
Not only does SEO love video, but customers also love it. Using video on your Google Business Profile listing can increase customer trust in your brand, increase engagement and conversions and ultimately improve your local visibility. Videos can be up to 30 seconds in length, should be a resolution of 720p or higher, and no more than 100MB in size.
Here are some great ways to incorporate video with your Google Business Profile:
Add Videos to Your Listing
Maximize your GBP listing by adding as many photos and videos of your property as possible. Show off your property, amenities, and apartments from different angles in different seasons. Show prospects what it’s like to live at the property 365 days a year!
Include Videos in Your Posts
Try to post on Google Business Profile at least once a week and include a video whenever possible. Trying to push a certain floor plan or unit? Include a video! Prospects are far more likely to engage with a video than with a photo.
Looking for some video ideas? Here’s a list of our favorite ideas:
- An explainer video – Tell your prospects more about your property – who you are, why they should rent from you, what the property or neighborhood is like
- Amenity or apartment tour – Take prospects on a virtual tour of your property and get them excited about everything you have to offer
- Neighborhood feature – Take a tour around the neighborhood and show off some of the great things right outside your property
SEO Budgeting: What Should You Do? (Step One)
Kristi said:
Step #1: Whether you’re handling SEO in-house or partnering with an agency, focus on these free basics, first:
- Optimize meta titles and descriptions for your pages
- Make sure images and videos aren’t taking up too much bandwidth, slowing down page speed
- Create a blend of quality content with facts and keywords. Keywords like “apartment communities that accept pets”. You want to get into your renter’s head when it comes to long-tail keywords and what they’re searching.
- Ensure your local listings are all correct and reflecting the exact same information, consistently. For example, you don’t want your Google Business Profile to say you close at 6 p.m. and your Yelp or even ILS listings to say you close at 5 p.m. Google wants to see consistency across your business listings (think office hours, telephone numbers, contact information, addresses), so audit these periodically, especially when seasons or occupancy changes affect your business’ operating hours and procedures.
SEO Budgeting: What Should You Do? (Step Two)
Kristi said:
If you’re a beginner with SEO, our friends at Knock covered this topic in-depth!
Step #2: Once your free SEO efforts are checked off the list, it’s time to get strategic and, time to make sure you aren’t sabotaging your SEO efforts.
Next, take these points into consideration:
- Renter behavior is always changing. Make sure you’re subscribed to and staying in-the-know about what renters are doing and how they’re changing their shopping habits – you’ll want to reflect this on your website, in your content and on your local listings. When you remove friction and make it easy for prospect’s to do business with you, they’ll stay on your page longer, consume more content and turn into converted leads for your community.
- Don’t forget to leverage the power of “group advertising” when it comes to your portfolio of communities. You don’t always need to market your communities separately, especially if you have multiple communities in the same market or neighborhood. Use that volume to your advantage and pool together budgets to create landing pages that promote all of your sister communities (for example, if you have five 300-unit buildings within a specific suburb, you can create some SEO authority around that. Your content could look like this: “Choose from 41 apartment floorplans in the heart of Dallas”).
- Ensure your website (and videos!) are accessible and meet current WCAG standards
- Add closed captions to all of your videos. Videos with captions are viewed 12X more and can help boost your SEO. Plus, 92% of people watch video with the sound off, and it’s hard to convince them to rent with you if they can’t hear what you have to say.
- Incorporate FAQ’s into your website and add Q&A to your Google Business Profile. Renters today are impatient, and this satisfies their immediate need for information but also compliments your SEO efforts because, in doing so, you’re also building more content for your site and your listings. If renters aren’t posting questions on your Google Business Profile, you can post a question (and immediately answer it).
SEO Budgeting: What Should You Do? (Step Three)
Kristi said:
Step #3: Measure! See what’s performing with Google analytics, Search Console and your tool analytic suite
As multifamily associates, our job is to rent apartments and take care of people and while we all might have some knowledge and expertise about SEO, the rules and strategies are constantly changing. So, if you’re working with an SEO partner, that’s great! They’ve got the time and resources to stay ahead of the curve and can usually help you achieve greater results. A great way to strengthen that partnership, learn more about SEO yourself and ensure your strategy is top notch, is to ask quality questions when you’re meeting with your supplier partner. Here are some questions to get you started:
- What is preventing us from hitting our targets/benchmarks?
- What are we/you learning from this month’s campaigns?
- What’s something you’re excited about with our campaign/account?
- What should we be testing/trying out?
- What can we be A/B testing?
- What threats should we be looking out for?
- What keywords is your agency using? How often are they being evaluated and tracked?
Ready to Get Real?
Accelerate Leasing
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Speed Up Lease Up
by providing construction updates and showcase your space without having to do hard hat tours.
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PRE-LEASE OCCUPIED UNITS
by ‘showing’ them without having to physically tour the space by sending pre-recorded videos.
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CONVERT A HIGHER PERCENTAGE OF YOUR LEADS INTO LEASES
when you receive notifications when prospects are viewing videos to cater your follow up.
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SPEND LESS TIME TO CLOSE EACH LEASE
by removing roadblocks and barriers in the leasing process.
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INCREASE SIGHT-UNSEEN LEASING
by making it a breeze for out-of-market leads to choose your community.
Improve Community Engagement
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PROMOTE YOUR PROGRAMS BETTER
via pre-recorded videos by linking via social media or internal apps.
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DECREASE MAINTENANCE REQUESTS
by creating maintenance videos.
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REINFORCE COMMUNITY RULES
by receiving notifications when residents are viewing videos to know who has seen a message and who hasn’t.
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REDUCE REPETITIVE QUESTIONS
because consumers retain 10% of a message when reading it via text, but 90% of a message when viewed in a video.
More Than Software
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Virtual Training
is available for every property utilizing Realync.
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Make your video efforts consistent
with one set, standardized process and platform.
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TRACK ENGAGEMENT And Usage
across your entire portfolio.
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Partner with the Realync Team
to create a personalized training program to be rolled out across all properties.
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Are you Ready to Get Real?
Talk with us today to see how Realync’s platform can 4X your lead-to-lease conversion!
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