SEO for Property Managers - Part 3 Keyword Identification

KEYWORD IDENTIFICATION

Luckily for property managers this step is pretty short. In 99% of markets there are 5 keywords to optimize for on the property management side, and about 3 on the home rental site. Property managers can compete for homes for rent terms to help with tenant acquisition, but much of this traffic goes to dominant national players like Zillow and craigslist. Property managers that want to grow their businesses are best served focusing on management account acquisition, and marketing their vacancies with the bigger companies for free.

While it might vary slightly in some markets, optimize for the following terms for management account acquisition:

Property Management

Property Managers

Property Management Companies

Property Management (in)

Property Managers (in)

Depending on the market this basket of terms will capture 95+% of the traffic for investors looking to hire property managers. It is always a good exercise to add the state and its two letter identifier in the tags and content to make sure that the search engines can determine the correct city in the event of two cities in different states like Portland, OR and Portland, ME.

Again, it is going to be difficult, but not impossible to compete with large national rental advertisers like Zillow, Trulia, craigslist, Homes.com, Rentals.com, etc. for rental terms. Many companies attain rankings for these terms which creates a great benefit in terms traffic and usage data for the company site. Usually companies able to obtain these rankings are large local companies with more than 100 vacancies at any given time. Since property managers need to create a listing section anyway, it is a good idea to optimize for the following terms:

Homes for Rent

Rental Homes

Houses for Rent

Rentals

And if you manage apartments:

Apartments

Property management companies optimizing for these terms will make their property management websites relevant for these searches and set the stage for success with the rest of their SEO efforts.

David Borden

Co-Founder

With a resume that includes West Point graduate, Captain of the West Point Team Handball team (which, interestingly, is also referred to as “Borden Ball” around the world. Google it. We’re not sure which name came first, but we’re pretty sure Dave could tell you), US Army Chinook helicopter pilot and Co-founder, President & CEO of what is now the leading website in the country for advertising long term residential rentals, it stands to reason why Dave has a place at the PMW kitchen table...

With a resume that includes West Point graduate, Captain of the West Point Team Handball team (which, interestingly, is also referred to as “Borden Ball” around the world. Google it. We’re not sure which name came first, but we’re pretty sure Dave could tell you), US Army Chinook helicopter pilot and Co-founder, President & CEO of what is now the leading website in the country for advertising long term residential rentals, it stands to reason why Dave has a place at the PMW kitchen table: his appetite for success. And, well, because he keeps us laughing. As our resident funny-man (possibly self-proclaimed), his booming voice can be heard spreading the PMW gospel to anyone who’ll listen. And, frankly, even those who have no interest in property management. (Don’t they teach “Inside Voice” at America’s oldest military academy?) But his high-decibel, funny ways become awfully serious when it comes to staying one step ahead for the good of our customers; because Dave has been there. As a second-generation property manager from Colorado Springs, CO, he knows the struggles that property managers go through and painstakingly dissects every step of their process to come up with ways to ease their burden. As former CEO & President of RentClicks (which went on to become Rentals.com), he strategically positioned their business to become NARPM’s first official partner and was awarded NARPM’s National Affiliate of the Year three times. When he’s not devouring industry information at our kitchen table, you might find him bellying up to a plate of wings while watching his beloved (understatement) Broncos, flipping channels in search of a historical documentary, searching out a tennis match or preaching the ways of the world to his pre-teen sons, Andrew and Brady.