The year 2016 for commercial real estate tech has been very exciting, as we reach a tipping point in the industry.  Below is a round up of the most popular headlines that made news in the CRE tech community this past year.

Did we miss anything? Please share in the comments.

CRE Tech Has Nothing to Do With Tech and Everything to Do With People

February 15, 2016

CRE technology is built to support the business of real estate. At the end of the day, the business of real estate is less about managing physical assets and more about empowering teams of executives, investors, accountants, property and project managers, vendors, consultants, third-party service firms and others to make complex, unified decisions.

Read the full article by Pauline Nee on Honest Buildings

Trends Shaping the Modern #CREcosystem

March 10, 2016

The commercial real estate industry has reached an inflection point as traditional business practices succumb to market pressures that new technologies are creating. Despite negative rhetoric around lagging adoption rates in Commercial Real Estate (CRE), we see professionals discovering clever ways to leverage data transparency and real-time collaboration. Still, as business processes respond to the influx of new solutions, the basic building blocks of the industry remain intact.

Read the full article by Craig Hancock on RealMassive

A Seismic Gen Z Workforce Shift Is Coming: Are You Ready?

March 28, 2016

A lot of us are just getting used to working with the millennial generation, that collaborative, flexible, socially-conscious demographic that makes up the majority of the current workforce.  Their preferences have had a profound impact on commercial real estate – changing the game in terms of workplace design and culture, and fueling the growth of the real estate technology sector. In fact, 54 million of them believe that technology plays second fiddle these days.

Read the full article by Jonathan Schultz

How a Tenant – Centric World Will Accelerate CRE’s Tech Revolution

April 18, 2016 

What changes should the commercial real estate industry brace itself for in the coming years? It boils down to one theme, expressed by Real Data Management CEO Peter Boritz: disrupt or be disrupted.

Read the full article by Scott Klocksin on Bisnow

Inside the Real Estate Crowdfunding Land Rush

May 9, 2016

Investors used U.S. real estate crowdfunding platforms to pour $484 million into real estate projects last year, according to research published by the Cambridge Judge Business School.

Read the full article by Patrick Clark on Bloomberg

CRE Data and Business Intelligence

24 May, 2016

CRE startups and established industry players alike are focused on a central question: how can we harness technology to grow and improve performance? For many, one of the challenges is what to do with ‘big data:’ collecting and managing real estate data to enable clients to make meaningful business decisions.

Read the full article by Lisa Stanley on CRE.Tech

Why Commercial Real Estate Still Lags in Adopting New Technology

June 24, 2016

At the 2016 ULI Spring Meeting in Philadelphia in April, ULI convened a meeting of chief executive officers of real estate tech startups, and other senior executives of real estate firms that have had success in adopting new technology, to ask “Why has commercial real estate been slow to adopt new technology, what are the impediments, and how can they be overcome?”

Read the full article by Joseph Stecher on Urban Land

BREXIT’s Impact on Commercial Real Estate Technology

July 19, 2016

On June 23rd the unthinkable happened. The United Kingdom voted, by a narrow margin, to leave the European Union and forego the benefits of being part of the biggest trade group the world has ever seen. How the Brexit plays out will be the deciding factor for many companies on whether to stay, or move their London headquarters elsewhere. Taxes could go up, trade could be more costly and travel could become more difficult for companies operating out of London.

Read the full article by Franco Faraudo on CRE.Tech

Pokemon Go’s AR Technology: Implications for Commercial Real Estate

July 27, 2016

The release of Pokemon Go, a location-based augmented reality game, this month brought with it an entirely new dimension for the commercial real estate business. The game is an emerging technology blend of augmented reality (or AR, which superimposes digital information onto a real environment) and more fully immersive virtual reality.

Read the full article by Diana Bell on NREI Online

How Blockchain Will Change The Real Estate Market

August 1, 2016

With Blockchain technology still in its infancy, this CRE transformation is not going to happen overnight. It will take innovative and forward-thinking real estate firms to lead the way and convince the masses that blockchain is the correct path to take. Regardless of the road ahead, this new failsafe technology could make the transaction process streamlined, safe and transparent.

Read the full article by Bernard Hoefsmit on NGKFGCS

Disruptive prop tech changing the GCC market

September 12, 2016

Property businesses in the GCC are quickly adopting new technologies including 3D tours and drone, revealed a new report released ahead of last week’s Cityscape Global conference in Dubai.

The Disrupting Real Estate: The Impact of Technology and the Industry’s Future report by Middle East research firm Orient Planet Group said Gulf Cooperation Council nations including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have been slow to adopt technical innovations in online real estate, but are now catching up and using emerging prop tech such as virtual reality, augmented reality and drones.

Read the full article on Property Portal Watch

How will the push for net zero buildings change real estate?

20 September 2016

Commercial buildings account for nearly 65 percent of energy use in LA and with California state construction standards requiring all new builds to be net zero by 2030, this facility – which generates more energy than it needs, storing it in batteries and discharging back to the grid – is ahead of the curve and the epitome of a new breed of building.

Read the full article by Jim McClelland on JLL Real Views

How Virtual Reality Could Revolutionize The Real Estate Industry

October 3, 2016

Virtual reality is quickly becoming mainstream. No longer limited to gamers and early adopters, the VR industry is projected to generate $4.6 billion in revenue in 2017, garner 171 million users by 2018, and become a $35 billion industry by 2025 according to a report by Goldman Sachs. The immersive media platform company Matterport has launched CoreVR, making available the world’s largest library of 3D Spaces.

Read the full article on CRE.Tech

How Technology Is Revolutionizing CRE Investing

October 13, 2016

Commercial real estate investing is a growing industry where personal relationships are pivotal—and these relationships are commonly built via face-to-face meetings and document-heavy correspondence. Sponsors and investors have typically exchanged information through low-tech and high-touch channels, without a great reliance upon technology.

Read the full article by A.J. Chivetta on NREI Online

How Predictive Analytics Can Change Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

October 19, 2016

It’s no secret commercial real estate is heavily data-driven, as the deals brokers and owners make in any given market depend on a number of key points: levels of availability, new space being built, employment trends — the list goes on and on. Every commercial real estate brokerage collects mountains of data around these characteristics.

Read the full article by Dan Spiegel on Colliers

How Trump’s Presidency Could Impact Real Estate

November 10, 2016

Though Mr. Trump is a real estate man, his policy platform has been largely vague on real estate proposals. 10 points on how certain real estate issues may play out under President Trump and of their potential impact to consumers.

Read the full article by Lawrence Yun on Forbes

Drone Use Rises in the Construction Industry

November 14, 2016

While this use is a boost to property videos, drone technology isn’t limited to high-flying property marketing. Drones have applications for the commercial real estate industry that are just starting to be explored.

Read the full article on Real Estate Tech News

VTS, Hightower merge in landmark CRE tech deal

November 29, 2016

VTS and Hightower announced a $300 million merger, in what observers are already calling a landmark deal for the commercial real estate technology space.

Read the full article by Konrad Putzier on The Real Deal

It’s true:

In the world of commercial real estate, high quality photos are absolutely critical.

The photography on your commercial real estate website provides the first critical impact and can make a drastic impression for any potential tenant, broker or investor. Even the most unattractive buildings can engage more people and pique interest with the right use of photography best practices.

© Trent Bell Photography

 

If nothing else, remember this:

For any commercial real estate project, one of the best marketing investments you can make is on professional photography.

Why?

Because good quality photos can be used across many different marketing touch points such as your website, print collateral, and listing portals. In the increasingly competitive CRE marketplace, it can give you an edge and make a big difference in how quickly it takes to capture initial interest for selling or leasing your property.

We asked 7 leading commercial real estate photographers to share their most critical advice for planning to shoot your property:

1. Hire a professional

Buying good photography can actually give you a substantial return on your investment. You may be inclined to go with a less expensive photographer, but consider that the images you show can make a big difference in how long it takes to sell your property and the price that you may get for it.

Ed Wolkis Photography

2. Clearly share your objectives

Work with a photographer who asks questions about what you’re trying to achieve and understands how to showcase that. Are you marketing amenities? The view? The location near downtown or transportation hubs? The fact it’s fully leased? A photographer who doesn’t ask about the goal of the photos, about what you’re trying to achieve, is almost guaranteed to not give you what you need.

Andrew Buchanan Photography

3. Declutter your space

The reality is that good photography is more than just snapping pictures. We need a thoughtful shot list coordinated with the marketing team, an interior space to be truly ready and clean.

Josh Pabst Photo

Marketing a property is about selling the space, the location, its benefits and advantages not the stuff inside the space. Try to remove as much stuff as possible without the space feeling empty or cold. The stuff give the space proportions but too much makes it small.

James Meyer Photo

Have the landscape crew tidy up around the property and add any seasonal-color plants ahead of time (NOT on the day of the shoot). Also have the maintenance crew wash the windows, check for graffiti, replace burned out bulbs, power wash grubby spots, and tend to anything broken. Reschedule any deliveries, exterior maintenance projects, or one-time events scheduled on that day.

Andrew Buchanan Photography

4. Plan well in advance of shooting

Well ahead of time, decide which, if any, tenant spaces you’d like to photograph and start securing permissions well in advance with those tenants. Photography requests may need to get passed through a legal dept., the home office, etc. and may take a surprisingly long time. While it’s not impossible to pull off something like this with just a few days’ notice, that’s not a recipe for getting the most for your money. Cleaning, maintenance, reserving spaces, and securing permissions from tenants will all make for better images and all need to happen ahead of time. And having the flexibility to wait on the best weather conditions for exterior images is important too. An experienced photographer should be able to get you at least a few really good images in almost any conditions, but giving him or her the time to plan ahead and be flexible means you’ll get a lot more useful, and better quality, images for your money. After all, you wouldn’t pay for a professional business portrait and not comb your hair or think about what clothes to wear, right? So why wouldn’t you take the time to make your property look its best before its “portrait”?

Andrew Buchanan Photography

I’m very aware that time is often a constraint. In order to speed the entire process, I use Google Earth and sun charts to understand site conditions, use weather tracking apps, and I offer clients the ability to sign quotes digitally.

Josh Pabst Photo

We like to use a pre-production checklist to help the process move smoothly and avoid any unexpected obstacles. It includes things like checking lightbulbs to make sure they’re all working, turning off sprinklers the day prior to the shoot, having windows cleaned prior to the shoot, having someone available to help the photographer that’s familiar with the space if problems arise (like tripped breakers or other maintenance issues), and parking control. Cars in the way of the exterior shot can really be distracting. We always ask if (if possible) to block out the parking spaces directly in front of the entrance.

Tony Roslund

5. Determine the best time of day

Usually the most important feature is the street view of the property. Take note of the direction of the sun. Most properties will look best when the sun is low and shining on the building. Determine the best time of day for this. If the building is facing north, it will never get direct sunlight, so plan to shoot at a time when the sun is not behind the building, shining into the camera. Sometimes the best solution for this is an overcast day or a dusk photo.

Ed Wolkis Photography

Lighting is critical. Try to avoid harsh sun as well as dark shadows. A soft, even balance makes the best photos.

James Meyer Photo

6. Avoid depicting a season or time of year

Avoid dating your photos by showing images depicting a season or time of year other than the one that is current. Buyers detach when it’s summer and they see property images from a winter month and vice versa.

James Meyer Photo

7. Keep things straight and balanced

Verticals should be vertical.
Everything should be in focus.
Use anchor points (furniture or details) to connect one photo to another.
Get a proper white balance.

Tony Roslund

Make sure vertical lines are vertical and horizontal lines are horizontal. Images with crooked walls or sloping floors turn buyers off. Buyers can’t put their fingers on it necessarily but they view these types of images less favorably.

James Meyer Photo

8. Emphasize location

When a commercial property is located on a strategic point it’s very important to emphasize this, because location is the biggest value of any property.

Shay Velich Photography

9. Remember to coordinate with all involved parties

Like any relationship, communication is key. Commercial real estate photography coordination can get messy and convoluted. There are many people involved: Potentially the broker, building owner group, building management and engineers, marketing team, and the photographer all trying to stay on the same page. Clients should really have one person in contact with the photographer. That one person should be responsible for coordinating with each party. He/She needs to first understand the desires of the broker and owner, and have knowledge of what the marketing team is looking for. Additionally, he/she needs to coordinate with building management so they may grant access to various spaces.

Josh Pabst Photo

10. Get a (legal) model release

People. Photographers should get model releases from anybody captured in a photo. In commercial type jobs those on location need to be informed they may appear in photos being taken and a release should be obtained prior to the shoot.

James Meyer Photo

© Tony Roslund Photography

Do it yourself

Here are some[optinoid id=1988] extra tips [/optinoid] on how to take on a property photo shoot by yourself.

Further reading: The Commercial Real Estate Photography Guide: Pricing, Delivery Time and Planning Tips 

For anyone that wants to improve their real estate marketing efforts for their CRE business, it’s important to stay on top of the latest trends and best practices. Fortunately, there are many excellent marketing blogs overflowing with information to help you do just that.

From industry insiders to professional thought leaders and agencies that have done a bit of it all, these 10 blogs will help you become a better real estate marketer.

Social Media Blogs

Simply Measured

Simply Measured is all about Social Analytics and Social Listening. They produce a handful of products in the space, including a robust API, so their blog posts focus more intently on the data side of social media.

If you’re like a lot of business owners and marketing managers and want to know that your efforts on social media will have a return, this is the blog to read.

★ Top Posts from Simply Measured:

Dangerous Social Marketing Habits and How to Break Them
It’s easy to use social media, and therefore it is easy to use it wrong. This post goes deeper than best practices to discuss the bad habits a lot of marketers use and how to break them.

Social Media Needs a Rebrand: How We Graduate to the C-Suite
A direct and keen discussion of the role social media plays and how a lot of people in the marketing space view it within the marketing toolbox. A must read if you are considering starting a social campaign.

Buffer

A few years ago, you wouldn’t necessarily find a lot of corporate blogs on this list. But content marketing has changed that, and few companies better embody that than Buffer, a company that has zero marketing budget, and instead relies on its team to produce world-class content that drives visitors to the site.

Their Buffer Social blog covers all things social media, as well as more general marketing topics, tutorials for use of their Buffer tools (and other tools in the space), and much more. It’s a great place to start when learning about the power of social media marketing.

★ Top Posts from Buffer:

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy from Scratch
A monster guide that provides a comprehensive roadmap to build a social media strategy with a step-by-step plan.

Email Marketing Blogs

Customer.io

 

Customer.io is a messaging product that helps to improve delivery rates, open rates, and everything else related to email and communication with clients. Their blog reflects this with frequent articles discussing all things email and customer messaging.

From A/B testing to delivery rate improvements to the sliding scale of key metrics that depend on your industry and marketing goals, this is a must read when building out email campaigns.

★ Top Posts from Customer.io:

The Formula for Driving Action in Your Emails
Janet Choi, who voices most of the posts on the Customer.io blog, dives deep into a real world experiment and how it performed in driving action within an email campaign.

The Princess Bride Formula for Memorable Welcome Emails
This is the kind of post that makes this site a joy to read. Clever, insightful, and pretty funny.

Copyblogger

The Copyblogger team has built a small media empire out of his blog, which started as a focus on all things blogging. It has since then become one of the must read online outlets for conversion-focused, content-driven marketing efforts, specifically as they relate to email marketing.

While you will also find plenty of articles on blogging in general, website content creation, and marketing tips, the email content is among the best and is a must when preparing for your next campaign.

★ Top Posts from Copyblogger:

5 Innovative Email Marketing Tips That Drive Readers to Action
A dive into specific, actionable tips you can use in your email campaigns to drive people to take action when they open your messages.

Which Email Marketing Strategy Should You Choose: Full Meal or Just Aroma
A discussion of two different styles of marketing emails: the short and enticing and the long and full of useful information.

SEO Blogs

Backlinko

Backlinko is one of the most successful SEO-focused blogs on the Internet, and yet it only has a handful of posts compared to most sites on the topic.

Why? Because the founder, Brian Dean, has made an effort to focus on quality over quantity, spending 50+ hours on every post he writes and promotes and only publishing every 5-6 weeks. As a result, he has posts that generate millions of pageviews per month and is well regarded in the SEO space.

★ Top Posts from Backlinko:

Link Building Case Study: How I Increased My Search Traffic by 110% in 14 Days
This is Brian’s premier post and one of the first to catapult him to the top. It’s also still incredibly relevant and he updates it frequently to stay fresh. Describing the core of his own content strategy, it’s a must read if you’re publishing content on your site at all.

Search Engine Roundtable

Barry Schwartz is one of the most prolific bloggers on the Internet. He has produced tens of thousands of articles for his own website and those to which he contributes, including SearchEngineLand.

Where Brian Dean covers the depth of concepts in SEO, Barry covers the news, changes, and goings on of the SEO world – a space that is constantly changing. To stay up to date on how you should be optimizing your site and your content, keep his site on your radar.

★ Top Posts from SE Round Table:

12 Years Covering The Search Industry
SE Round Table publishes a LOT, so take a look at the top posts of 2015 for a good sense of what you’ll find.

Content Marketing Blogs

Neil Patel

Neil takes an approach similar to Brian Dean in that his posts are incredibly long, incredibly detailed, and pervasive in the marketing world due to their quality. He doesn’t publish nearly as often as other thought leaders, but when he does, the content provides deep insights into how to build relationships, drive action, and provide value in the content you write.

He does cover other topics on the blog beyond content production, but since the core of his success and his business model is in building content, this is where his site really excels.

★ Top Posts on NeilPatel.com:

The Beginner’s Guide to Writing a Data-Driven Post
This is the handbook for bloggers looking to build long, insightful, data-driven posts. The kind of posts that will generate massive organic traffic, huge share numbers in social media, and true thought leadership status.

Follow These Long Form Content Examples to Boost Your Rankings
A hybrid content and SEO post, this one covers the kind of content and subjects that help their authors build strong positioning in the search engines.

Unbounce

Unbounce is a landing page and conversion rate optimization company and therefore a lot of their content focuses on exactly this. They discuss how to make the best possible landing page using case studies and data-driven strategies. But more importantly, they talk about how to create experiences for users that will keep them coming back, and drive them to visit that landing page in the first place, almost all relating to content.

It’s a nice cross-section of all the different elements that must come together in a successful campaign to actually drive action.

★ Top Posts on Unbounce:

Are You Missing This Vital Ingredient in Your Content Strategy?
One of the most popular types of posts on the Unbounce blog is the “you’re doing it wrong” post. It started with their coverage of landing page do’s and don’ts and has extended now into content strategy and other marketing topics. This is a great example as relates to content.

13 Warning Signs Your Web Copy Stinks
This is one of the more popular posts on the Unbounce blog and again it hits on the “you’re doing it wrong” angle. If you enjoy posts that carefully illustrate the things you should avoid doing, this one is a very effective.

Hubspot Inbound Marketing Blog

Hubspot’s blog used to post 200-300 posts per month. These days they are down to a pedestrian 100 posts per month, each of them a deep dive into a topic related to inbound marketing.

Their marketing blog in particular has the kind of reach and depth that it’s hard to miss. Search for a topic related to marketing and you’ll almost certainly see a Hubspot article on the homepage, and while almost every post drives to a download or Hubspot product discussion of some sort in the footer, the content is impartial and action-oriented – it’s a great place to start for anyone getting into inbound marketing.

★ Top Posts from Hubspot’s Marketing Blog:

Reasons Inbound Marketing Campaigns Fail – And What to Do About It
A visual walkthrough what works and what doesn’t in inbound marketing. This is as good example of the type of content frequently posted by Hubspot, providing insights into how what they do works.

How Content Marketing Impacts Your Bottom Line
An in-depth infographic, the staple of many Hubspot blog posts, with insights into how to make content marketing work for your bottom line.

Content Marketing Institute Blog

Joe Pulizzi and the Content Marketing Institute team has put together a healthy portfolio of materials related to content marketing over the last decade. The blog is the heart of it all, with dedicated articles about content production, curation, lead nurturing, and more.

Focused on more in-depth and case study driven content than the action-tips style of post that Hubspot delivers, CMI’s blog is a nice counterpoint when reading up on inbound marketing.

★ Top Posts from Content Marketing Institute:

Build a Successful Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps
Written by the company’s founder, Joe, this article contains the 10 page framework CMI uses for building out a plan.

12 Things to Do After You’ve Written a New Blog Post
One of the big points preached by the CMI team is that content production is only part of the formula. Successful inbound marketing requires promotion in equal or greater measure. This post dives into the 12 things you should be doing after you write and publish something to ensure it gets traction.

Conclusion

Whether you’re building the digital presence of a business that has been active for years or you are launching a new real estate endeavor, success will be tied closely to your marketing efforts.

That’s why the marketing blogs in this article are so important. From industry best practices to hot new trends, they cover a bit of everything, and can provide the insight needed to stay ahead of the constantly evolving curve.

SEO marketing for real estate is one of the most effective ways to move the needle for your company or property marketing efforts.

To stand out in the crowded commercial real estate market, regardless of location, tenants and investors need to find your website first and foremost amongst your competitors.

You’ve likely heard of SEO (search engine optimization), knowing just enough to realize how competitive the space can be and that a haphazard attempt won’t get you very far.

You know it’s important, but have no idea where to start, and what kind of investment is going to make the most sense for your business.

To help overcome those obstacles, we’ve compiled this guide to help identify the specific things Google looks for in websites when establishing rankings and how commercial real estate websites can improve their SEO performance.

Why is SEO So Important

Imagine having to pay for every pair of eyeballs that visit your website. Every single one. It would cost a fortune, especially with the ridiculously high cost of digital advertising in the commercial real estate industry.

Here are some examples of what it would cost if you were to pay Google for sponsored keywords (Adwords):

• “New York Office Space” – $22.34 cost per click
• “Houston Office Space” – $17.53 cost per click
• “NNN Properties for Sale” – $18.28 cost per click
• “Real Estate Investment Firms San Francisco” – $18.98 cost per click
• “Retail Lease Rates” – $19.59 cost per click

Now imagine getting hundreds or even thousands of clicks  without having to pay for ads. That’s what SEO provides – an organic flow of traffic from search engines that you don’t have to pay for one at a time.

Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet.

There will be heavy long term investment in your website, brand, and off-site elements to achieve visibility in Google’s search results for competitive real estate-related terms. But once you do, all that investment will pay itself back many times over.

Ranking Factors

What exactly is Google looking for when they decide which sites will rank on the first page for a given search term and which do not?

According to MOZ, one of the foremost expert SEO firms, the following 9 factors are most important for SEO impact.

• Domain level links
• Page level links
• Page level content and keyword targeting
• Page level content features such as length, readability, uniqueness, etc.
• The quality of the experience users have when they visit your site
• Brand metrics including mentions in the media, association with larger entities, etc.
• Keyword matches in the domain and URLs
• Length of domain name, the extension used in the domain, SSL certification, etc.
• Social media metrics including volume and quality of the mentions received

Let’s dive deeper into each of these factors, how they directly influence your search engine ranking positions (SERPs) and what you can do starting today to affect them.

There are two sides to any SEO strategy – the things you directly control on your website and the signals that other websites send in the form of backlinks to your content.

We’ll tackle each of these individuals with some of the specific factors that matter most in commercial real estate.

Further reading: 

10 Crucial SEO Ranking Factors You Need to Know (Optinmonster)

On Page SEO

What is On Page SEO? Any factor on your website you can improve or optimize that affects how it ranks in the search engine results. This most refers to your web page’s content, user experience, HTML source code and other technical factors.

There are dozens of factors that you can directly control on your website that have an impact on how Google views and ranks your content. This is the foundational work you must do if you want to be considered and avoid potential penalties against your content.

Important Factors for On Page SEO:

Keyword Research
Your website needs to use the terms and phrases that your ideal prospects are searching for. At the same time, you want to optimize your site for the keywords that have the largest possible traffic within those that are appropriate. To do this, keyword research and optimization of your site’s H1 tags, descriptions, and core content is important.

META Description and Page Title
The META description is what users will see when they find a page from your website in the search listings. It should clear, easy to read, and detailed about what they will find on that page. Use all 160 characters. Similarly, the Page Title should describe what the page is about and use all relevant keywords at least once within 70 characters.

Site Performance
Google’s algorithm is built to measure the user experience more than anything. If your site has roughly the same degree of content quality as a competitor but is easier to use, you will rank better nine times out of ten. For this reason, your site needs to be quick, easy to navigate, and generally pleasant to look at.

URL Structure and Navigation
Specifically, navigation plays a big role in a site’s user-friendliness. Can someone find everything they need within 2-3 clicks? Or must they dig through convoluted menus and messy inter-linking of pages? Similarly, URLs should be easy to read and follow logical hierarchy.

Content Development and Uniqueness
Content that is well-written, unique and only found on your website are crucial factors for SEO. Google will ignore pages that use content found on other websites. Known as “duplicate content”, this can be detrimental to your website, reducing the volume of original, useful information for visitors. Your site needs a good balance of high quality, original, and in-depth content.

Frequency of New Content
At the same time, content should be updated regularly. In commercial real estate, this can be done with greater ease than many industries because of the nature of the business. New properties, updates to property descriptions, or recent listings all make for good new content, as does a regularly updated company news and blog.

Property Specific Targeting 
This is vital for real estate SEO. Not only should each property you represent have its own page, targeting both location keywords and the property address and name, but you should consider a standalone URL just for that property.

Mobile Responsiveness
Google no longer lists websites in mobile search results if the site is considered to not be “mobile-friendly”. This means it should display with a custom, easy-to-use mobile-version when someone is on a phone or tablet. This can represent upwards of 20% or more of your total traffic, so it’s incredibly important.

Further reading:
The On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet (Neil Patel)

22-Step On-Page SEO Checklist (Robbie Richards)

Off Page SEO

What is Off Page SEO? Any factor that is not on your website that affects how it ranks in the search engine results. This mostly refers to promotional signals related to social media, links from other websites, and other factors that impact your overall ranking and they come in several different forms

Everything above sets the table for your website. It establishes a strong platform, and a smooth running machine that ticks every box Google has when evaluating a site. This next batch is focused more specifically on how the rest of the Internet looks at your website.

Google’s algorithms have long relied on backlinks to determine rankings. Each link you receive from another site acts as a “vote” for your authority. The higher quality the website sending you such a vote, the more valuable it is. So a good balance of volume, quality, and specificity are important to show that your content has a broad reach, is highly regarded by top rated sites, and answers specific questions that people in your field are asking.

Below are some of the specific types of links that have the largest impact on SEO as a whole.

Important Factors for Off Page SEO:

Link Building
Commercial real estate is primarily local, and so too should the links you generate to your website. This means generating links in local property listing sites, writing guest articles or posts for local newspapers or blogs, and getting visibility form any local (or national) associations or organizations you are involved with. These links are targeted and are considered highly valuable.

Press
Getting in good graces with local reporters can be beneficial, but so too can carefully targeted and well-timed press releases. News mentions from PR efforts can result in both increased brand equity and dozens of local, high-authority backlinks if the story is sufficiently newsworthy.

Outreach and Community Building
By interacting with other business owners, participating in the Chamber of Commerce, networking with local reporters, and working with local charities and events, you can generate links online from offline efforts. This is one of the key ways that real estate SEO crosses offline and online marketing efforts.

Social Media
Social media can provide thousands of signals to Google, each of them a vote for the quality of your content. While a Like on Facebook isn’t as valuable as a backlink from an established new site, you’re likely to get a lot more of them. Social signals from the big 5 social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn), along with the dozens of smaller ones can generate a lot of visibility and may have an impact on your rankings.

Further reading:
Link Building: The Definitive Guide (Backlinko)

Tips to Improve Your Website

For those reading this right now, wondering what you can do, specifically, to make an impact sooner than later, there are a lot of options. But there are certain things that have a greater impact than others.

The core of good SEO is the user experience – every major update to the Google Algorithm, every announcement from their web spam team, and every ranking factor they weight heavier than others is built on this core concept. They want people using their search engine to find the answers to their questions.

That means a website that is easy to use, loaded with high quality, relevant content, and that guides user’s as efficiently as possible to what they are looking for. The following tasks will help you to provide that experience and improve the overall performance of your website from the user’s perspective.

Detailed Property Descriptions
Creating a detailed and unique commercial property description is vital. These pages have a high chance of ranking well in search, but only if they contain relevant images and videos, and a good amount of text describing the property.

Use of Images and Videos
Original photos, images, and videos have extremely high value and can help to differentiate your site from those of your competitors. Aim to have at least one photo for every 300+ words of text on a page, and include 5+ images and 1+ video for every property listing

Regular Content Updates
The content on your website is extremely important. This starts with the property listings and descriptions that form the core of your site’s content, updated availabilities for each of these properties, and company news announcements. Additionally, a blog has tremendous brand and marketing value, but it also helps to improve your SEO performance by adding new, relevant content to your website on a regular basis. Focus each blog post on at least one keyword term you are targeting to ensure maximum potential value.

Page Speed
If your site loads slowly, people are more likely to leave before they find what they need. Google’s site speed test tool will tell you if your site performs within their expectations. If it doesn’t, look for ways to reduce load time with light weight images, videos, and JavaScript. This is especially important for mobile versions of your website.

Further reading:
The Essential Checklist for Launching and Effective Property Website

Link Building for Real Estate

If off-page SEO is so important, how do you actually generate those links to your website? Fortunately, there are many ways to build these links quickly and effectively in the commercial real estate space. These include:

Mentions in the Press
Links from press are extremely valuable so make sure any references to your properties or your business in the includes backlinks. If they do not, contact the journalist to get those links added.

Links from Commercial Real Estate Websites
If you are listing your properties in major commercial real estate websites, you’ll have the opportunity to include links to your website and to property website.

Links from Associations
Chances are you belong to one or more real estate-related association. If so, you can typically acquire a link for your website. For example, if you are a CCIM member you can include your link on your profile in the CCIM member directory. Same holds true for many other associations.

Guest Blog Posts
Writing guest posts for trade journals, blogs and other commercial real estate websites can help create visibility for your personal brand and positively impact your search rankings as well.

Wikipedia Links
Creating a Wikipedia page for your property and citing your website as a source can be an effective way to gain a powerful backlink from a top rated site. Typically, for a high profile properties a Wikipedia page may already exist.

Further reading:
40+ Ways to Promote your Commercial Property

Reporting & Metrics

Now that you have a good handle on improving your website and building links, you might be wondering if it’s been worth the effort.

The only way to find out is by measuring your success and building a real estate marketing report that includes a few key metrics. SEO is a long-term play and results usually grow slow and steady.

Here are some SEO metrics worth considering:

Visits
How many people visited your website from Google? The overall impact for all of your SEO efforts should broadly translate into more visits and probably the most relevant factor of success you should measuring.

Links
Gauge your website’s influence by analyzing link metrics such as the total number of inbound links or referring domains to your pages. The goal is to increase link volume from highly authoritative sites.

Keyword Rankings
Check the rankings of specific keywords you are targeting as well as overall keyword visibility for your website. Ideally, you want to see keyword movements trending upwards and increasing the number of keywords you show up for on the search engine results.

Site Performance
The page load speed of your website’s pages are a ranking factor that need to be kept in check. Keep track of your pages speed as well as any page errors on a periodic basis.

SEO Tools

It’s easy to look at everything in this article and grow weary. It’s a lot.

But don’t think of SEO as a massive project with a big price tag. It’s much more than that.

This is an investment on par with any property in your portfolio. Good real estate SEO will help you to achieve what no advertising campaign ever could – persistent, organic authority in the world’s largest search engines. Hundreds or possibly even thousands of searches a DAY related to your properties.

There are no shortcuts here. No easy button you can hit to push your site up the rankings and become the highest ranked site for any one set of keywords. There are plenty of people out there who will claim there is (and gladly take your money), but this is a long game, and the people who succeed are the ones who take that time and invest carefully in their business.

If you’re ready for the next step, there are hundreds of powerful tools on the market (many free) you can use to start researching and taking action.

Here are some we recommended:

Ahrefs

Ahrefs.com is a comprehensive SEO tool that can be used free on a limited daily-access basis to research your current Google Rankings, backlink performance, get content ideas, and keyword opportunities. This works for both your site and your competitors.

Moz Open Site Explorer

Moz Open Site Explorer is also freemium, with limited daily use to get in-depth link analysis of your website as well as compare performance of a competitor’s site.

Similar Web

SimilarWeb will compare a website with others, to help you find relevant unknown competitors. High quality content you can emulate, and potential keywords and content topics.

KeywordTool.io

KeywordTool.io is a powerful tool for any SEO keyword research you might perform. It provides estimates of total search volume, along with the cost to advertise and suggestions for other terms you might target.

Google Trends

Google trends allows you to see the recent movement of search volume for a term or overall trend, along with recent news stories and events related to it.

GTmetrix

GTmetrix is a performance analysis tool that gives  you insight on how well your site loads and provides recommendations on how to optimize it.

With these tools and the checklists above you can utilize SEO to boost your rankings, generate more organic (free) traffic to your site, and drive more interest from potential prospects.

It’s no secret:

Commercial real estate marketing is highly fast-paced, highly competitive and constantly changing.

 

What worked yesterday, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be effective today.

This means that CRE companies that have stepped up to make marketing an integral part of their DNA are seizing massive advantages and leaping way ahead of the curve.

We got in touch with three of Boston’s prominent CRE marketing leaders to give us insight into what it takes to work as a commercial real estate marketing executive today.

Thinking about a career in CRE marketing? Want to know if you’re cut for it?

Keep reading.

Key Responsibilities

What exactly does a CRE Marketing Director do?

The job description can vary depending on the size and type of company. In general, a commercial real estate marketing director is responsible for the overall marketing success of an entire organization and works in a multi-disciplinary setting alongside top executives, brokers, creative professionals, agencies, and externals clients (building owners and investors).

Here’s what the experts say:

New business development and property marketing strategy are the primary core responsibilities of most CRE Marketing Directors today. Communications and corporate branding are the secondary areas of focus that also fall under the realm of this role.

  Taidgh H. McClory

We are constantly thinking about cool ways to leverage new technology to drive response, generate a palpable buzz in the marketplace, and report back to our clients with metrics that demonstrate that our leasing and marketing programs move the needle.

  Steve Steinberg

Some of the main responsibilities of a CRE Marketing Director include developing marketing strategies and social media initiatives across all service lines that deliver your company’s message and unique selling propositions (USPs), as well as implementing corporate branding practices.

You have to be able to create and measure the success of not only your internal marketing programs, but also your client’s marketing programs. A public relations program is also a large component of marketing that helps enhance Cushman & Wakefield’s image and positions us to be thought-leaders in what can be a crowded marketplace.

  Linda M. McDonough

Experience and Skillsets

What does it take to be successful in CRE Marketing?

With the emergence of new tech-savvy decision makers, changing behavior of tenants and investors and commercial real estate marketing software, the commercial real estate industry is poised for innovation and rapid change.

There are a number of critical skillsets and qualifications needed to have a successful career in CRE marketing.

Here’s what the experts say:

In today’s environment, some of the best professionals in CRE marketing are creative problem solvers first and foremost, early adopters/testers of technology and master project managers with the ability to translate and lead internal and external customers through the marketing process. However, at the end of the day it is critical to have a deep understanding of the commercial real estate industry from both the owner and occupier point of view.

  Taidgh H. McClory

It is critical to get to the heart of every asset, their characteristics and differentiators. Then position each property in a distinctive, streamlined fashion. Attention spans for brokers and tech driven users are shorter and shorter. It is important to engage your audience quickly or you’ll lose them.

  Steve Steinberg

One of the skills necessary to be successful at CRE marketing first and foremost is the ability to adapt to changes in the way marketing is done, whether adopting new technologies or using social media. Technology continues to be a powerful force in our industry, and staying ahead of the trends gives us a great ability to understand and collaborate with our clients.

You also need to understand who you are marketing to and use the most effective tool in your marketing efforts. For instance, our millennial clients are more open to using technology and like to engage over Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or even Snap Chat while some of our other clients prefer to communicate via email. I use social media to drive business and establish Cushman & Wakefield as thought leaders in the commercial real estate field. Social media is a powerful way to make new connections and foster existing relationships with clients and fellow industry professionals, not only in Boston, but throughout the country. I have met various people through Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and share market information as well as leads and business introductions.

Finally, prioritization is definitely a necessary skill, as I am always juggling many projects at once.

  Linda M. McDonough

Where to Find CRE Marketing Jobs

Now that you’re ready for a new career in CRE marketing, where do you begin to look for jobs?

There are a number of approaches to take.

Start with your own network (friends, family, colleagues). There is nothing more effective than getting introduced to a company by a trusted mutual friend that opens the door for you.

Events and meetups are also a good place to start and can often lead you to meet the hiring managers directly.

There are also plenty of options online:

1. Hiring companies

A good place to start is by visiting the careers sections of the companies you are interested in. Most of the larger CRE firms have dedicated job portals with hundreds of career opportunities across the country.

Below are links to the career pages of five of the largest commercial real estate brokerages:

• CBRE
• JLL
• Cushman & Wakefield
• Colliers
• Newmark Grubb Knight Frank 

2. Headhunters

For more senior positions, headhunters can be an effective option to explore. There are a number of CRE companies working with external recruiters and this could be a good bet if you want to land an executive career. Firms like Gilham, Golbeck, & Associates, Gillian Executive Search, and Real8 Group are exclusively focused on commercial real estate and always in search for candidates.

3. Generic job boards

Another good place to find available jobs is by through large job boards like Linkedin or Indeed that are feature-rich and allow you to filter by location, seniority and company. Also, most job boards let you save searches and send you email alerts when a relevant opportunity has been posted.

Your commercial real estate website has approximately 10 seconds to make an impact on a visitor.

According to a study by Nielson Norman Group, the first 10 seconds of a web page visit are critical for a visitor’s decision to stay or leave. The research shows that web pages have a negative aging effect and after about 30 seconds the curve becomes relatively flat.

So how do you create impact in 10 seconds or less?

Avoiding these 5 mistakes will help make sure you keep your potential clients engaged to learn more about your property and increase your chances of generating new prospects.

Let’s dig in.

1. Poor Quality Photos

It’s cliché but we all know this: first impressions are critical.

If you’re thinking about saving money by not hiring a professional photographer, you’re making a very costly mistake.

Photos provide the first impact of your listing (not to mention all other marketing materials) and are key to capturing the initial interest of a prospective tenant or investor during those precious 10 seconds.

Make the investment on high-end professional photos.

Professional photographers can turn your property into a beautiful composition, capture essential building details, and transform uninteresting properties into attractive ones.

Whether you have a beautiful class A office building or an unappealing lower class B industrial space, professional photos can provide impact across all your marketing touch points.

In addition, hiring a professional photographer helps you save time and reduce stress compared to doing it yourself. Touch-ups, resizing, sky changing, and exporting photos all takes up valuable time and can be frustrating if you don’t know what you’re doing.

2. Generic Property Description

Do not create a property description with generic, thin copy.

Words can be powerful: make sure your property overview is informative and provides important highlights about the property. They key is to get to the point quickly and keep it short and sweet (aim for 80 to 150 words).

A lot of CRE professionals provide a general overview but with diminishing attention spans, it’s important to craft a well-thought-out commercial real estate description to hook interest quickly.

Here’s a good example:

If you don’t know where to start, here are some questions worth answering:

• What type of property is it?
• Where is it located?
• Who is it for?
• What benefits could the prospect enjoy?
• What tenants are already there?
• Are there any recent upgrades?

3. Weak Benefits

What makes your property special?

Why should anyone choose your property and not a competitor’s?

Provide clear, compelling advantages and make sure it is relevant to your audience. If you are targeting millennials in a high-tech market, then focus more on building amenities and relevant local area amenities than technical building specifications.

It’s important to spell out descriptive qualities that makes your property stand out.

Look at the adjectives used above to help drive the message home:”fully flexible”, “excellent signage”, “prompt customer service”, “abundant parking”, “superior access”, “extensive onsite amenities”.

Remember, it’s not just what you say but how you say it.

4. No Floor Plans

After photos, floor plans are the most important element on your property listing to help drive engagement and capture interest.

Floor plans are key for three reasons.

1. They keep your visitor engaged with your listing for more time
2. Prospects scan start visualizing their space and further elevate their interest
3. Saves you time by reducing any prospects that are not a good fit

If you don’t have floor plans, capturing serious interest from prospects is going to be an uphill battle.

The good news is that it’s a battle that can be avoided.

5. Missing Call-to-Action

The primary objective of your online listing is to get prospects to contact you. Therefore, it’s important to have a convincing and visible call-to-action.

Essentially, tell your visitor: what should they do next?

Do you want them to schedule a property tour? Request more information? Contact a broker? Execute a NDA?

Always help point the way to the main objective of the page. Don’t think a random telephone number or generic contact form by itself is going to convince visitors to get in touch.

Provide a short, clear instruction that is very visible on the page and lets your visitor know what you would like them to do.

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What other mistakes do you think could be ruining your property listing? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.