Keywords for real estate SEO and paid search
The keywords for real estate are lopsided. The largest phrases belong to people shopping for homes on big listing sites, and the searches that point at an individual agent sit well below them. Below are the real phrases we found, ordered by size, so that pages and ads can start from the right ones.
How this list was pulled
A short row of agent searches beside a long lawn of other errands
We pulled 650 searches around real estate agents, homes for sale, selling a house and buyer agents. Two groups swamp everything else. One is home shopping, where the biggest phrases are word-order twins of homes for sale
and many carry the name of a listing site. The other is people asking about the trade itself: pay, licenses, classes and jobs. Neither group is looking to hire an agent.
The searches an agent can use are the ones that ask for a person: real estate agent near me
, local real estate agent
, the seller-side and buyer-side wordings and the rental and commercial forms. They are smaller, and each one lands on a page the agent controls. The sections below sort them, and the last two tables show which phrases an ad account must never bid on.
What a person wants, the wording it takes, and the page that answers
| What the searcher wants done | Wording that shows up | Page the agent hangs for it |
|---|---|---|
| Someone to help them buy | real estate agent buying a house and real estate buyer agent | A buyer-side page for each town served |
| Someone to help them sell | real estate agent for selling a house | A seller-side page for each town served |
| Someone for a rental | real estate agent for rent and real estate rental agent | A rental page, written apart from the sale pages |
| Someone for a commercial space | commercial real estate agent | A commercial page that names the property types handled |
| Someone close by | real estate agent near me and local real estate agent | Map listing plus town pages, built to agree |
Searches that ask for an agent, by sign size
| As typed | Sign size | Reason the phrase gets typed |
|---|---|---|
| real estate agent | Billboard | Looking for any agent at all, near or far |
| real estate agent near me | Roadside | Looking for an agent within reach, using the map |
| local real estate agent | Yard sign | Comparing agents tied to one area |
| real estate agent for selling a house | Yard sign | A seller-side search |
| real estate agent buying a house | Yard sign | A buyer-side search |
| real estate agent to buy a house | Yard sign | Another buyer-side wording |
| commercial real estate agent | Yard sign | A search for commercial space |
| real estate agent for rent | Yard sign | A rental-side search |
| real estate buyer agent | Rider | A buyer-side search that names the role |
| buyer agent near me | Rider | A buyer-side search tied to the map |
Property-type searches, mostly written by home shoppers
| As typed | Sign size | What the agent can do with it |
|---|---|---|
| homes for sale | Billboard | Too broad and too crowded to be worth a page |
| homes for sale near me | Billboard | Map and town pages carry this one |
| mobile homes for sale | Billboard | A page only if the agent works this property type |
| manufactured homes for sale | Roadside | The same call, for the same property type |
| trailer homes for sale | Billboard | Another wording of that property type |
| tiny homes for sale | Billboard | A page only if the agent works this property type |
| modular homes for sale | Roadside | A property-type page for agents who take these on |
| mobile homes for sale near me | Roadside | A map-facing wording of the same type |
Why these stay on the lawn
Property-type and place searches mostly belong to the big listing sites
Phrases such as homes for sale
and its property-type forms are typed by people browsing listings, and the results pages for them are crowded with large sites. An agent page rarely answers what a browser wants. Where the agent does work a property type, a page that names it plainly, written from facts the agent can document and approve, is a fair use of the phrase.
The same goes for place searches. They show real demand, but a page for a whole state or a big city asks for more than one agent can document. A page for one served town fits better, and the local SEO work on the local SEO page is where those pages begin.
Place searches: where the demand is large and the pages should stay small
| As typed | Sign size | Page the agent builds |
|---|---|---|
| homes for sale in texas | Roadside | Town-level pages for the places served, not a state-level page |
| homes in florida for sale | Roadside | Town-level pages for the places served, not a state-level page |
| homes for sale north carolina | Roadside | Town pages grouped under a service-area page |
| homes for sale in houston | Roadside | A city page only if the agent serves the city |
| homes for sale in orlando | Roadside | A city page only if the agent serves the city |
| new jersey homes for sale | Roadside | Town pages grouped under a service-area page |
| connecticut homes for sale | Roadside | Town pages grouped under a service-area page |
| homes for sale in new hampshire | Roadside | Town pages grouped under a service-area page |
Seller-side wordings the agent can answer with a page
| As typed | Sign size | Page or ad that answers |
|---|---|---|
| sell my house | Yard sign | A seller-side page with a way to reach the agent |
| how to sell my house | Rider | A page of answers drafted by the agent for approval |
| how do i sell my house | Rider | The same page, reached by another wording |
| getting my house ready to sell | Rider | An answers page; the agent decides what to say |
| should i rent out my house or sell it | Rider | An answers page that stays on the agent's own services |
Phrases to shut out of your ad account
| Phrase to shut out | Sign size | Who owns the errand |
|---|---|---|
| how much does a real estate agent make | Roadside | Someone weighing a career in the trade |
| real estate agent salary | Yard sign | Someone job hunting or studying |
| how to become a real estate agent | Roadside | A person starting the license route |
| real estate agent license | Yard sign | A license applicant |
| real estate agent jobs | Yard sign | A job seeker |
| real estate agent class | Yard sign | A course shopper |
| real estate agent practice test | Yard sign | An exam candidate |
| real estate agent commission | Yard sign | Someone researching how agents are paid |
Where the searcher stands, and how a page or ad replies
| Step in the decision | Giveaway in the phrasing | Reply from the page or ad |
|---|---|---|
| Browsing without a plan | Only a property type or a place, no word for a person | Leave it to the listing sites and spend the ad budget elsewhere |
| Comparing agents | Words such as local or near me joined to agent | Town pages whose facts match the map listing |
| Choosing a side | Buying, selling, renting or commercial named in the phrase | A page aimed at that side, closing on a call or a message |
| Researching the trade | Salary, license, class, jobs | No reply at all: block the phrase in the ad account |
Questions an agent asks about the keyword list
Which searches should an agent go after first?
Begin with the agent searches near the top of the second table: the near-me wordings and the buy-side and sell-side forms. They ask for a person, and each can land on a page the agent writes. Property-type pages come next, but only for property types the agent really handles.
Why are the biggest numbers missing from the list to chase?
They belong to home shoppers and are tied to listing sites. A phrase can be typed a hundred thousand times a month and still never be a search for an agent. The agent searches are smaller and far closer to the work.
Does a bigger size mean a page will show up there?
No. A size only counts how often the phrase was typed in the data we pulled. Plenty else decides where a page appears, and no position is something we or anyone else can promise; our job is to write the pages and report what moved.
How do the salary and license searches get blocked?
Inside the ad account they join a block list, which tells the campaign to stay quiet on those phrases. The first version goes in before launch; later additions come from the search report, and the account itself is the agent's own.
Ready to pin these phrases to pages and ads?
Hand us your coverage towns and property types, by note, or by phone with our CEO at a chosen time, and these phrases get sorted into pages, ads and the block list.
Which towns and property types should get a page first?
List the towns you serve, the kinds of property you take on and whether you work the sale side, the rental side or both. Leave out every client name, every street address and every detail of a transaction.
Ready to set the post in the lawn?
Book a thirty-minute window and our CEO will ring to discuss the pages, map listing work and ads that would carry your name into search.
The sign in the picture is drawn for show and says nothing about results.