Use Backlinks to Get Your Apartment Community Ahead in Search

by May 7, 2018Apartment Marketing, Blog, Search

If you’re sprinting to improve your website’s rank in search results, you’ve probably heard that building a team of backlinks can help. However, getting other websites to link to yours can seem like a marathon of work with little payoff.

That’s why lots of apartment marketers just forgo earning backlinks altogether. It’s an understandable mistake, but one that can put your property behind in the race long term.

 

Here are 3 reasons why backlinks can help your leasing team win the race to more digital leads:

1. Links Can Help Drive Referral Traffic

Consider that great local business you partnered with, for an event or your resident rewards program. It would be great if, in addition to providing your residents with tasty tacos or discounted hot yoga classes, they mentioned you on their website and linked back to yours.

It’s pretty likely that a backlink (also called an “inbound link”) will send at least a few visitors your way, driving referral traffic. And if you grab the attention of those visitors while they’re on your website, you might end up with some solid leads.  

2. Links Can Boost Visibility For Your Brand With Your Target Audience

If you teamed up with a biz, it’s likely that something about their brand aligns with yours. So who better to put yourself in front of than their customers/clients?

However, that doesn’t mean that partners are your only sources for backlinks. There are plenty of people, places and things that can help increase brand awareness among the renters you’re after. (More on that later.)

 

3. Links Can Help Build Your Reputation Offline and Online

Lots of apartment companies make significant contributions to their communities through food and toy drives, volunteering, sponsorships and more. We know you’re happy to help wherever you can, that you don’t give back for applause, but that shouldn’t stop you from sharing what you’ve done.

Talk about your philanthropic efforts on your website. Putting that information in front of visitors helps create a good reputation and makes it possible for other websites to link back to it, raising your profile in the “eyes” of search engines.

Simply put, search engines see backlinks as a vote of confidence. When one website connects directly to another, it indicates to search engines that others affirm its content.

If numerous websites link to the same webpage or website, search engines conclude that content is worthwhile and may be a valuable component of a SERP. Therefore, backlinks can positively impact a website’s ranking or search visibility. (Learn more about this concept by visiting the Moz website.)

Now that you know how beneficial backlinks are, it’s time to step toward acquiring or creating them.

17 Sources For Backlinks To Your Apartment Community’s Website

  • Your corporate portfolio website
  • Sister property websites
  • Local listings, like Google Maps, Yellow Pages, etc.
  • Have your property staff include a link in their LinkedIn bio.
  • Your local apartment association
  • Get involved in a local issue or philanthropic cause; then, create a page about it that local news can link back to.
  • Get listed in the member directory (or as a sponsor) of your local chamber of commerce or neighborhood business association.
  • Student housing? Get listed in your local university’s off-campus housing resources.
  • Submit a press release to your local business journal (or other media outlets that provide development updates) anytime you offer a new service or make a significant upgrade to your property amenities or apartment interiors; create a page with visuals on your website so there’s a place to link back to.
  • Have vendors take photos of their work (landscaping, renovations, etc.) and share them on their company website with a link back to yours.
  • Sponsor a local sports team or league; make sure your sponsorship includes a link back to your website.
  • Offer a unique or novel community amenity. (Ex. WC Smith – The community dog at 2M garnered national coverage)
  • Achieve local contest/award nominations — Best Apartment Community, 40 Under 40, Property Manager of the Year, etc.
  • If your community is eco-friendly (LEED certified, has community recycling programs, etc.), you may find opportunities to get links from green business directories.
  • Sponsor/host a local class or meetup group; sponsor a neighborhood running or cycling group; host a business networking meeting in your clubhouse; host a yoga class out by your pool. Not only is this great for link-building, but it also gives you an opportunity to get more people to your property who might not otherwise have a reason to visit. Get links back from the local organizations’ websites, Meetup.com, etc.
  • Host a community event, like an Easter egg hunt, toy drop-off, blood drive, public safety meeting, etc. You should be able to get links to your site from the city and other sources that share community news.
  • If you work with local employers to offer a preferred employer discount, create a page on your site highlighting the offer, then share it with the employer and work with them to get a link back to your landing page.

Creating awareness for your property or brand, and using your brand story to persuade prospects to learn more about what you have to offer, aligns your SEO strategy with how renters shop for apartments today. Learn how you can achieve your leasing goals by walking through our behavior-based approach to SEO.