Property searches often begin with Google, leading to a jungle of listings where every real estate business fights to stand out. The competition is fierce, with everyone fighting to climb the search engine ranking and capture the attention of potential clients.
In this post, we discuss the fundamental strategies that boost top London real estate agents’ Google.com presence, enhancing their visibility and odds of attracting clients.
Real estate listings – the hierarchy
When we Google the ‘estate agents London’ keyword (search volume ca. 1,500 monthly), 5 paid ads appear on the first search engine results page, positioned above organic (not paid) listings. These are followed by several Google business profiles showcasing basic business info and their London addresses.
Let’s look closer at the companies that aren’t paying for Google Ads yet still manage to secure top spots in search results. We’ll explore their search engine optimization tactics with a strong focus on keywords, meta titles, descriptions, the number of domains linking to them, and their Google business profiles.
SEO Result #1 – Foxtons: Estate Agents in London
Foxtons secures the top spot in Google’s organic search results. The company operates 50 offices in London and surrounding counties, and presents itself as “London’s leading estate agency, with over 1,300 highly motivated professionals working across our network of interconnected branches“.
Meta Title and Description
Meta title
Foxtons Estate Agents in London. Properties for Sale, Short & Long Lets
Meta description
Renowned for our service and celebrated for our results. Offering properties for sale, and short and long lets in London. Discover more about our services.
The meta title strategy of Foxtons Estate Agents is quite unique as it starts with the company name “Foxtons” followed by the key phrase “Estate Agents in London.” Starting your meta title with the most relevant keyword is more common practice. After the period, it lists “Properties for Sale, Short & Long Lets” – meaning that Google will most probably detect keywords like “London properties for sale”, “London short lets” and “London long lets”, all together getting ca. 1000 searches per month.
The meta description begins with a catchy slogan and includes keywords such as “Properties for sale”, and “short and long lets in London.” The closing sentence of the meta description is an invitation to engage – “Discover more about our services.” It doesn’t repeat the company name or mention a founding year. Their meta description is 130 characters long (it can be 160 characters at maximum)
Homepage Keywords
Directly leading to the company’s homepage are about 4,000 keywords (UK location), like ‘property for sale’ or ‘rightmove for sale’, and the entire site ranks for 116,000 keywords.
We exported all of them to an Excel spreadsheet so you can see which phrases give Foxtons the edge in organic search results in the United Kingdom.
You can consider using them to enhance your company’s Google ranking [Google Spreadsheet Link].
Referring Domains
The number of domains linking back to the company’s website is 2,458. These contribute significantly to the company’s visibility and ranking on Google.
Local SEO – Google Business Profile
Each location has a separate business profile featuring the name, phone number, address, and office hours. Their main category is “Real estate agent,” and on average, they publish Google Business updates monthly.
Website Color Scheme
Vibrant colors dominate: green, white, and yellow. The real estate website is rich in photographs and features a clear layout.
SEO Result #2 – Marsh & Parsons London Estate Agents
Positioned second in Google’s organic search results, Marsh & Parsons prides itself on 27 local offices across London.
Meta Title and Description
Meta title
Marsh & Parsons: London Estate Agents & Property Management | Marsh & Parsons
Meta description
Marsh & Parsons, serving as London’s Premier Estate Agent since 1856, specializes in property sales, lettings, and new development property management.
The strategy behind the meta title and description for Marsh & Parsons hinges on: “London Estate Agents” – the primary and most significant keyword. “Property Management” – the secondary keyword. The “|” symbol is followed by the company name, creating a classically structured meta title that aligns with all the latest guidelines. We recommend employing a similar technique.
The meta description starts with the company name, location, and founding year—details that build user trust and serve as a valuable information source for Google. It then includes keywords such as “property sales,” “property lettings,” “new development,” and “property management”.
Meta descriptions should be capped at 160 characters. When listing keywords separated by commas, there’s no need to repeat the core word—for example, “property sales, lettings” instead of “property sales, property lettings.” Google can parse this, allowing the page to rank for full keywords while fitting more keywords into our business description.
Homepage Keywords
Surprisingly, typing the company’s domain without the “https://” protocol or “www” into Ahrefs shows no keywords leading to Marsh & Parsons’ homepage. Only after adding “www” and the domain name do we find that the homepage at marshandparsons.co.uk ranks for 601 keywords. You can see these keywords in the file below and use them to better position your real estate agency in London. [Google Spreadsheet Link]
It’s important to note that the file is sorted by Volume (column B), indicating how many times a keyword was entered into Google within a month in the UK area. Users made these entries but did not necessarily click on them.
Also, consider that a person might have typed a specific phrase several times last month, contributing to the monthly Volume of that keyword.
Column D, named Current Position, tells us where a company ranks monthly in search results for a particular keyword.
For instance, the keyword “estate agents” was entered into Google 33,000 times last month, with Marsh & Parsons ranking on the 6th page of the search results (current position: 57)—each page displays 10 organic (free) results.
Keyword Difficulty, indicated by column C in our generated file, informs how challenging it is to rank for a specific keyword.
Following our example, the keyword “estate agents” has a Keyword Difficulty of 47 (on a scale of 0 to 100), reflecting moderate difficulty. Ahrefs enables us to thoroughly analyze this value by entering the phrase into the Keywords Explorer, selecting the location United Kingdom and the search engine Google, showing that, on average, links from 74 different websites are needed to reach the first page of organic search results.
However, this number is an estimate since the domains linking to the page vary in quality (not all links are equal). The less general the keyword, the lower the difficulty of ranking for it. The second position in our generated file: “martin and co” has a Keyword Difficulty of just 1, indicating it’s very easy to rank for. Ahrefs suggests that only 2 links are typically required to reach the first page of Google’s search results.
This keyword was searched 12,000 times last month, placing Marsh & Parsons at position 69, or the 7th page of results, a spot rarely visited.
Referring Domains
The websites linking to the Marsh & Parsons page total 598. Importantly, not just the quantity but also the quality and relevance of these links matter.
Google Business Profile
Given its 27 locations, the company maintains separate business profiles for each branch, allowing contact with the nearest office. These profiles list only the name, phone number, location, and office hours.
Website Color Scheme
The dominant colors are white and brown with red accents. The site features clear tabs and an accessible chat in the bottom right corner.
Link Intersect Analysis
I have generated a report in the Ahrefs SEO tool that provides insights into the domains and websites linking to the top five organic search results for the keyword ‘estate agents London’.
This is an excellent way to understand the off-page SEO strategy of real estate agents in London, which has helped them secure top positions on Google.
SEO tip: You can reach out to these sites to similarly position your real estate agency in London in Google and other search engines.
Summary
Observing the common elements in the strategies of estate agencies in London positioned on top of the Google search engine, one can see that each of these companies has multiple branches, each with its own Google business profile.
Their websites are rich in photographs, featuring a clear layout and distinctive color schemes specific to each company. Meta titles and descriptions are mostly classically crafted, each featuring popular real estate search terms and a company name. Each company has many referring domains pointing to its site, enhancing its visibility in search engines.
I encourage you to analyze the keywords in the shared files to understand better how to optimize your website and win the real estate market in your area.