Real Estate Link Building: Guide, Stats, & Tips

SEO may be as competitive as The Hunger Games, but the 2024 real estate market is Survivor, Squid Game, and Shark Tank all in one. With pending home sales jumping 7.4% in September, first-time buyers making a comeback, and remote work dictating buyer behavior, marketing trends are shifting faster than available stock. In this high-stakes landscape, 41% of home buyers are now finding their real estate agents online, underscoring the crucial role of digital presence and targeted online strategies in capturing buyer attention.

Whether you’re a real estate agent or a broker, these trends shape your marketing strategies. You need to know how to reach the right audience at the right time, whether you’re targeting older millennials or up-and-coming Gen Zers, and how to gain trust, credibility, and a spot at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

One way to achieve this is through real estate link building, an SEO strategy that boosts online visibility, drives high-quality traffic, and establishes your authority in the real estate market. 

Ready to learn more? In this guide, we cover everything you need to know about real estate backlinks so you can outrun and outrank the competition.

With the US real estate market projected to reach $155.60 trillion by 2029, the importance of real estate backlinks is clear. These links significantly boost SEO and online visibility, both of which are key to attracting potential clients.

When quality backlinks drive traffic to your website, they enhance your site’s authority and credibility, signaling to search engines that it’s trustworthy and relevant. This leads to higher rankings in search results, making it easier for prospective buyers and sellers to find your business online. 

For real estate agencies where local visibility is crucial, link building also helps to establish a strong presence in search results, driving targeted traffic and increasing the likelihood of converting visitors into clients.

SEO and link building for real estate isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. You need to implement effective link building strategies specific to the industry. The tactics required include:

Guest Posting

With guest posts, you’ll create and publish content on another authoritative website or blog in exchange for a backlink to your site. While there are free real estate backlink opportunities available, generally, a post will cost between $50 and $500 (or more) depending on the site’s ranking and authority. With a solid guest posting strategy, your real estate business will reach new audiences, build client trust, and educate potential buyers and sellers. 

In SEO terms, guest posts are valuable as they generate high-quality backlinks from reputable, relevant websites, boosting your search engine rankings. These real estate backlinks also establish your business as a trusted expert in the field, making it easier to attract clients searching for property-related information. 

To find leads for sites that accept guest posts, use your primary keyword, such as real estate agent in Florida, real estate business in Atlanta, Colorado realtor, with a search query, e.g.:

• Keyword + “guest post”
• Keyword + “write for us”
• Keyword + “contribute to our site"
• Keyword + “contributing writer” 
• Keyword + “become a contributor” 

Need more search query ideas? Use our real estate guest post search queries template.

How To Find Guest Post Opportunities:

1. Research: Search for blogs in your niche with engaged audiences using Google’s advanced search operators.

Brainstorm some trend ideas for today: What are some trending topics in real estate right now?

Sustainability and Energy Efficiency in Real Estate

• "sustainable real estate" + "write for us"
• "green building" + "guest post"
• "energy-efficient homes" + "become a contributor"
• "eco-friendly real estate" + "guest post guidelines"

Technological Integration in Real Estate

• "virtual reality real estate" + "submit a guest post"
• "AI in real estate" + "write for us"
• "real estate technology trends" + "guest post opportunities"
• "blockchain real estate" + "submit article"

Remote Work Influence on Housing Preferences

• "remote work real estate trends" + "write for us"
• "suburban living demand" + "contribute"
• "real estate remote work shift" + "guest post submission"
• "home office real estate trends" + "submit a guest post"

Investor Activity in Real Estate

• "real estate investment trends" + "become a contributor"
• "real estate market insights" + "guest post"
• "real estate investor opportunities" + "submit your article"
• "investor insights real estate" + "guest post guidelines"

Affordability Challenges in Housing

• "affordable housing trends" + "write for us"
• "home affordability issues" + "submit guest post"
• "housing market affordability" + "contribute article"
• "real estate market analysis" + "guest post submission"

2. Analyze the website: Choose sites with strong domain authority and search visability.

3. Find the right contact: Look for a guest post email or contact form. 

4. Draft a proposal email: Reach out with content ideas that add value.

Niche Edits

Niche edits are links inserted into existing content on a relevant website. For real estate SEO, niche edits are advantageous because they provide high-quality backlinks from established, contextually relevant pages, which increase potential referral traffic and search rankings. This real estate link building strategy also delivers faster results as the pages are already ranked, boosting your chances of ranking for real estate-specific keywords and search queries. 

Additionally, you benefit from a diversified link profile with newer and older content, and you increase your long-term SEO value, as niche links are usually placed in evergreen content that retains its relevance.

Look for pages updated within a specific timeframe:
"real estate market" after:2023-01-01

5 Steps To Finding Niche Edits : 

1. Research: Look for authoritative sites in the real estate niche. SEO tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz can help you locate content aligning with your focus.
2. Analyze the website: Check its DA, traffic, and audience relevance to ensure it’s a good fit. 
3. Analyze the piece of content: Identify articles where a link to your site would naturally add value.
4. Find the right contact: Locate the editor’s or webmaster’s contact information.
5. Draft a proposal email: Write a personalized email explaining why your link would enhance their content, highlighting any mutual benefits.

Linkable Assets

Linkable assets are exactly what they sound like. They’re high-quality, valuable pieces of content or resources that attract backlinks from other sites and encourage audience sharing. 

By creating linkable assets tying in with Google’s E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authority, and trust) framework, you can enhance your authority and credibility by positioning your real estate site as a knowledgeable source. This authority increases trust with search engines and users, boosting rankings and reputation in the market.

High-quality, shareable content also attracts organic real estate backlinks, leading to better visibility on search engines. With improved rankings, you can capture more organic traffic from prospective buyers, sellers, and investors looking for reliable information in the industry. 

Types of linkable assets for real estate:

• Guides and eBooks (e.g., Home Buyers Guide or How to Sell Your Home Quickly)
• Market research reports
• Case Studies and Success Stories 
• Interactive tools and calculators (e.g., mortgage calculators)
• Visual assets (e.g., infographics on market trends)
• Neighborhood and City Guides

How can we improve EAT factors in real estate link building?

Want to know what the experts said? These are their answers:

Ron M

President Ron Buys Florida Homes

Improve EAT by publishing expert content and showcasing credentials. Building links from reputable sites in your industry and community can boost your authority and trustworthiness.

Harpreet Singh

SEO advisor

Make sure you promote your realtors when you create blog content. Leverage your qualifications, expertise in your about page. Use high quality pictures, use client success stories, create content that shows you understand the local market you are selling in. If you're a Vancouver realtor, cover topics your clients care about in-depth. For example, it doesn't make sense to use examples from Toronto or Montreal.

John Sukowaty

Senior SEO Strategist at Lazydays

Testimonials would be key here. Will show trustworthiness and would prove content as authoritative.

Steps to create and promote linkable assets

1. Identify Target Audience and Goals: Define the specific audience and set clear objectives for the linkable asset.
2. Choose the Type of Linkable Asset: Select an asset type in a format most accessible and engaging for your audience.
3. Conduct In-Depth Research: Gather credible data, conduct surveys, or analyze market trends to add value to your asset.
4. Create High-Quality, Engaging Content: Create visually appealing, easy-to-read, and mobile-friendly content.
5. Optimize for SEO: Use relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and proper formatting, including internal and external links and alt text for images. Also, ensure the content is easily shareable with embedded social media buttons.
6. Promote the Linkable Asset: Reach out to industry influencers, bloggers, and journalists who may be interested in linking to your content and share the asset on your social media channels, email newsletters, and relevant online communities.

What are some creative link-building strategies for real estate that go beyond traditional methods?

We asked SEOs and marketers with years of experience in the real estate sector. Here’s what they said:

Harpreet Singh

SEO advisor

Statistics-based pieces, most popular neighborhoods to move to in a city, dog-friendly parks, best cafes / in a neighborhood, safest neighborhoods in a city. The goal is to create useful content. If your content is useful, people have an incentive to link to it.

Andrew Fortune

Broker /Realtor Great Colorado Homes Inc.

Create custom data posts using MLS data to get backlinks from local companies. I created a blog post showing which zip codes in my city have appreciated the most in the last 5 years. Local businesses link to it all the time.

Great Colorado Homes

A real estate brokerage in Colorado Springs, CO

Reaching out to writers from Zillow, Inman, and Realtor.com and get put on their list of people they reach out to when they need a quote on something. These links have a ton of authority.

Ally Moisse

Account Executive Pearl Lemon Group

Some creative link-building strategies for real estate include hosting local events or webinars, which can attract backlinks when promoted by local businesses or influencers. Developing neighborhood guides or market reports can also encourage local news outlets and blogs to link to your site. Sponsoring local charities or sports teams is another great way to get featured on their websites. Additionally, collaborating with local influencers for property tours or reviews can generate high-quality backlinks while increasing your brand visibility.

Adam Chahl

Realtor PLACE Real Estate Team

In my experience, thinking outside the box can really pay off. For example, creating partnerships with local schools, organizations, or businesses can provide opportunities for unique backlink placements. Another creative approach I’ve found useful is hosting or contributing to local events and getting coverage from local media or bloggers. In my opinion, even creating hyper-local content—like neighborhood spotlights—can attract links from local influencers who care about those areas.

Buying Backlinks

Buying backlinks is the practice of paying for links from other websites to your own to boost your site's authority and ranking in search engine results. This can include paying for placements in blog posts, sponsored articles, or link lists on other sites. 

However, buying real estate backlinks is risky if you don’t know how to do so safely, and it can lead to penalties, such as a drop in rankings or, worse, de-indexing. 

To stay safe and buy reputable backlinks, always ensure the donor site is relevant to the real estate niche or closely related, isn’t full of spam links or spam content, has quality content that’s updated regularly, and ranks for relevant keywords.

Steps for buying backlinks

1. Identify Reputable Link Building Services: Research established link building services specializing in high-quality placements, focusing on companies with a good track record, reviews, and transparency in their process. Verify the service prioritizes placing links naturally on reputable, niche-relevant websites rather than spammy or low-authority sources.
2. Set a Budget: Define a budget based on your link building goals, the quality and authority of desired sites, and competitive market rates.
3. Ensure Backlink Placement on Relevant, High-Authority Sites: Work with the link building service to target high DA websites relevant to your industry and audience.
4. Monitor Quality to Avoid Penalties: Use SEO tools to assess the quality and authority of acquired backlinks. Regularly audit your real estate backlinks to identify low-quality or suspicious links, and consider disavowing any that may harm your site’s ranking to search engine penalties.

Analyzing Real Estate Competitors' Backlinks

Competitor backlink analysis is the detective part of link building for real estate brokers. 

To complete an analysis, you’ll examine the backlink profiles of competing websites to understand their link building strategies. This involves identifying the sources, types, and quality of backlinks competitors have acquired, providing insight into how they achieve their search engine rankings and visibility.

You can make data-driven decisions that impact your SEO performance by identifying potential link building opportunities, understanding competitor content strategies, and benchmarking performance expectations. By creating targeted content that enhances your domain authority and credibility, you’ll boost your search engine rankings, leading to increased visibility and organic traffic. 

Steps to analyze competitors

1. Identify Top Competitors: Look for direct and indirect competitor websites ranking well for your target keywords.
2. Use Backlink Tools: Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, or SERanking to gather data on your competitors' referring domains, anchor texts, and overall link quality.
3. Identify High-Quality Linking Domains: Review the list of backlinks to pinpoint high-quality linking domains. Focus on websites with high Domain Authority (DA), relevant content, and significant traffic, which can enhance your own backlink strategy.
4. Use Collaborator’s My List for Domain Management: Track your competitor analysis and manage domains and projects effectively with our handy My List feature to ensure your link building strategy is always optimal. 
5. Outreach for Similar Backlinks: Develop a tailored outreach strategy to request similar backlinks for real estate content. Create personalized messages to site owners or editors, explaining the value of your contribution and why linking to your site would benefit their audience.

Blogger & Influencer Outreach

The influencer market tripled between 2019 and 2023 and is tipped to reach $24 billion in 2024. To implement blogger and influencer outreach, you’ll need to establish relationships with bloggers and social media influencers in your industry. From there, you can collaborate with those who have established audiences and credibility.

The benefits of blogger and influencer outreach for real estate link building are myriad. In addition to capitalizing on credibility to improve yours, you’ll also increase your access to targeted audiences and get more high-quality real estate backlinks from authoritative sites. 

Steps to working with influencers

1. Identify real estate influencers and bloggers: Research and compile a list of influencers and bloggers within the real estate niche who have a strong following and regularly engage with their audience.
2. Reach out with a personalized proposal: Create a personalized outreach message highlighting why you admire their work and how a collaboration could be mutually beneficial. 
3. Arrange collaborative content: Work together to create engaging content, such as interviews, guest posts, sponsored content, or social media campaigns, that resonates with both audiences.
4. Track engagement and backlinks: After publishing collaborative content, use tools like Collaborator’s Raccoon SEO Link Tracker to monitor engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and website traffic to gauge its effectiveness.

Sponsor Local Businesses & Events

Real estate businesses are in a prime position to promote themselves with local sponsorships. You can enhance your local presence while boosting brand recognition by financially supporting events, organizations, or community initiatives in exchange for promotional opportunities.

In turn, this boosts your SEO as your brand becomes more visible, which can lead to an increase in local search traffic. When a real estate business sponsors local events, it often gains backlinks from event websites, news articles, and social media mentions, contributing to improved domain authority. These local backlinks for real estate websites are often more valuable for local SEO as they’re so geographically targeted, increasing their relevance.

Steps to leverage sponsorships

1. Identify local events and businesses to sponsor: Research and compile a list of relevant local events, organizations, and businesses that align with your brand values and target audience.
2. Propose sponsorship that includes a backlink: Explain to potential sponsors how your sponsorship can include real estate backlinks to your website from their online platforms. 
3. Showcase sponsorships on both your site and the partner’s site: Maximize cross-promotion by ensuring the sponsorship details are prominently displayed on both sites. 
4. Utilize sponsorship for community engagement and brand visibility: Take advantage of the sponsorship to actively participate in the event, engage with the community, and showcase your brand's commitment to local initiatives.

Reviews and Testimonials

Peer recommendations are a powerful form of marketing, with 92% of consumers reading online reviews and testimonials before purchasing a product or service. These testimonials provide valuable social proof and demonstrate a real estate business's credibility and reliability. In turn, this attracts backlinks for real estate sites from industry-related websites and blogs.

When positive reviews are featured on high-authority platforms, they enhance link building efforts and encourage more potential clients to choose your services over competitors, thereby driving higher conversion rates. Search engines also favor businesses with numerous positive reviews, which improves local SEO rankings and increases visibility in local search results.

Steps to leverage reviews

1. Offer testimonials for real estate products or services: Encourage clients to provide testimonials about your real estate products or services to enhance your credibility and reputation in the market. 
2. Request backlinks in exchange for genuine reviews: When collaborating with satisfied clients or industry partners, ask for backlinks to your website in exchange for genuine reviews about your services.
3. Share positive reviews on your website and social profiles: Share testimonials online to reinforce your brand’s reputation and trustworthiness while encouraging more satisfied customers to share their experiences.

UGC Platforms Such as Quora and Reddit

The user-generated content (UGC) market hit $5.36 billion in 2024, and it’s still growing. In the real estate industry, UGC often includes clients sharing their experiences, showcasing properties they purchased or rented, reno or remodeling before-and-afters, or posts about the neighborhood. This user-created content provides far more authentic insights than slick and polished marketing campaigns do. 

For SEO, UGC is incredibly valuable as it enhances your engagement and reach and boosts the credibility of your brand. This attracts backlinks from relevant sites and blogs that value genuine testimonials and user experiences.

UGC also provides a continuous stream of new material, improving your site’s search visibility and ranking and attracting more organic traffic. Best of all, it’s cost-effective and a great way to get free real estate backlinks. As UGC is customer-created, there’s no financial outlay from your side. 

Steps to utilize UGC

1. Create profiles on Quora and Reddit: Ensure your profiles have professional information, a clear profile picture, and links to your real estate website.
2. Identify relevant questions or threads: Use the search function to find relevant questions or threads related to real estate, join subreddits dedicated to real estate, and regularly browse for active discussions.
3. Provide valuable answers with non-promotional links: Use your expertise to address questions comprehensively and provide answers that provide real value to readers.
4. Engage regularly to build credibility: Regularly answer questions, comment on threads, and respond to other users.

Local Directories

Local directories are online listings like Google My Business, Realtor.com, Yelp, Zillow, and Chamber of Commerce directories. Each directory categorizes businesses by industry and location and allows users to search for companies in their area. 

These directories are where every real estate business wants to be. They verify your legitimacy and location and improve your local search rankings, making you more visible for geographically targeted queries. They also encourage local backlinks for real estate agents and drive more traffic to your site, making it easier for potential clients to reach out, view properties, or book consultations.

Steps to use local directories:

1. Identify top local directories: Look for well-known national and local directories that are relevant to real estate and popular in your target market.
2. Ensure accurate business information: Make sure your business name, address, phone number, website URL, and social media links are accurate and up to date on all listings.
3. Add rich descriptions and relevant links: Use relevant keywords that highlight your real estate expertise, specializations, and value to clients and include links that direct readers to important information.
4. Maintain consistency across directories: Use the same business Information across all channels and regularly update your listings to ensure they stay current. 

What are the best ways to get local backlinks for a real estate website?

Here’s what SEO experts and real estate markets had to say:

Ally Moisse

Account Executive Pearl Lemon Group

Partner with local businesses: Collaborate with local service providers (e.g., home inspectors, movers) and exchange backlinks. Submit to local directories: Get listed in local business directories, chambers of commerce, or real estate-specific listings. Sponsor local events: Offer sponsorships for community events or charities in exchange for a backlink on their site. Create local content: Write about local market trends, neighborhood guides, or events to attract backlinks from local news sites or blogs.

Martin Orefice

CEO Rent to Own Labs

One great option that has worked for us in some markets is to partner with related services like house cleaners, home organizers, inspectors, contractors, and movers.

Harpreet Singh

SEO advisor

Creating noteworthy statistic-based posts and then reaching out to local publishers. Example House prices in Cloverdale, B.C are 20 percent above the national average. Another option is to sponsor / partner with local organizations like sports clubs, or sponsoring a BBQ or a picnic. By engaging in the community you're improving brand presence, as well as earning backlinks.

Grant Clayton

CEO 1 Percent Lists

Reach out to your sphere of influence of local business owners such as title companies, insurance brokers, mortgage brokers, and request to post content on their site that you can backlink to your own site.

John Sukowaty

Senior SEO Strategist at Lazydays

Local directories are helpful in this case and can be the best backlink source for real estate sites.

Top Citation Sites for Real Estate Agents

Social Media 

According to the National Association of Realtors, 92% of realtors use Facebook, 68% use Instagram, 52% use LinkedIn, and 26% use YouTube. By sharing valuable content, engaging with followers, and networking within industry circles, you can join your industry peers in leveraging social media platforms to gain quality backlinks, boost SEO, and establish authority in your field.

But not every social media platform is created equal, and each plays a different role in a real estate link building strategy.

LinkedIn is ideal for networking and thought leadership, engaging with relevant real estate groups or individuals, and connecting with influencers.

Facebook is good for community building, content sharing that helps to build real estate backlinks, and local SEO.

Instagram is best for sharing visual content, influencer partnerships, and creating brand awareness with branded hashtags. 

Steps to leverage social media

1. Share content and linkable assets: Regularly post valuable content, like market reports, property guides, and infographics, to attract engagement and encourage followers to share links to your site.
2. Join real estate groups and communities: Actively participate in real estate-focused social media groups to connect with potential clients and share insights.
3. Collaborate with influencers in real estate: Partner with local real estate influencers to extend your reach and attract backlinks through their established audience.
4. Build relationships and encourage shares: Engage with your followers and other professionals by commenting, sharing their content, and responding to inquiries.

Personal Branding 

There are more than 3 million active real estate licensees in the US, so the importance of real estate backlinks shouldn’t be underestimated if you want to get noticed. With personal branding, you can share your unique value proposition and what sets you apart in the market.

A strong personal brand showcases your expertise, values, and approach to real estate. By creating and continually cultivating your brand, you can attract more leads, strengthen client relationships, and drive business success.

Steps to building a personal brand

1. Develop a professional profile on LinkedIn and other platforms: Create a polished, consistent profile across social media highlighting your expertise, achievements, and unique approach to real estate.
2. Share expertise through blog posts, webinars, and interviews: Regularly share valuable insights on market trends, buying/selling tips, and industry news to position yourself as a knowledgeable resource and encourage organic real estate backlinks.
3. Build relationships with other professionals: Actively network with other real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and local businesses to expand your connections.
4. Encourage natural real estate backlinks by being recognized as an authority: Become a trusted voice in the industry by offering expert commentary and advice.

How can I measure the ROI of my real estate link building efforts?

We asked SEO and marketing experts. This is what they said:

Andrew Fortune

Broker /Realtor Great Colorado Homes Inc.

Keep a list of all the links that you have built and record the pages rankings before and after the link has been posted. Analyze the list every month to see what is working best and what is not.

Martin Orefice

CEO Rent to Own Labs

Measure it holistically with metrics like unique site visitors. This will include other forms of marketing and outreach, of course, but it's the bottom line that you really care about.

Adam Chahl

Realtor PLACE Real Estate Team

Measuring ROI in real estate SEO can be tricky, but it’s essential to focus on both direct and indirect results. In my opinion, the best way to track ROI is by using tools like Google Analytics to monitor referral traffic, lead generation, and conversion rates from specific backlinks. For me, comparing these metrics before and after link-building campaigns helps determine if the effort is paying off. Keep in mind that SEO is a long game, so sometimes the payoff is in building authority and trust over time.

Link building for real estate brokers and businesses requires a solid strategy to boost your visibility, credibility, and SEO rankings. 

Effective real estate link building tactics build trust and credibility, position you as an authority in your niche, and help you retain relevance across a variety of online and social channels.

By focusing on non-spammy effective real estate building tactics, you can get your business and brand in front of your target audience and encourage engagement and conversions. 

Find the best sites for real estate and start building links with us!