Girl Scouts and cookies, Beyonce and Jay-Z, the internet and cats – some things are just better together. And when it comes to online lead generation, there’s no pair quite like search engine optimization (SEO) and digital advertising. Here’s how they work together to engage renters and generate the best quality leads for your property.

Why SEO: Build a Solid Foundation

According to Internet Live Stats, there are more than 86,000 searches per second on Google each day (this figure updates in real-time, so the number may be different when you click on the link). If you want to attract your fair share of traffic, you need to have a dialed in SEO strategy.

SEO refers to the process search engines use to “crawl” content on the web. Crawling is what search engines like Google do to assess whether or not a website will provide quality answers to users’ queries. Keywords, title tags, links, and content (the copy or words on the website, images, and videos) all contribute to where a website ranks on the search engine results page (SERP).

Keep the following tips in mind when developing your SEO strategy:

  • Create high-quality, original content that speaks to both renters and search engines. 
  • Provide website visitors with a frictionless experience that makes it easy for them to achieve their end-goal – scheduling a tour or leasing a unit online.
  • Link to authoritative sites and examine where your inbound links are coming from – search engines will send more renters your way if you validate the value your property and services provide.

Why Digital Advertising: Attracts the Best Leads

Digital advertising delivers paid traffic to your website. These ads show up in search results, on social, and across the Microsoft and Google Display Network. Placement of ads and where they appear has to do with keyword placement and usage – doing it well requires an in depth understanding of your renter and when/where/how they want to engage.

The most effective ads increase brand recognition by putting your business front and center in search results. Paid search drives targeted traffic to your website, which helps pre-qualify renters by attracting searchers longing specifically for your services. 

More advanced digital advertising solutions leverage automation, technology, and data science to optimize campaigns for the greatest number of qualified leads.

Why They Work Together: Consciously Coupled

Now that you know the basics of SEO and digital advertising, it’s time to dive into why they work so well together. Having a strong search presence is essential for driving traffic to your site and generating leads from potential renters. If your website is SEO-friendly, it gives digital advertising a greater chance at success. Using a strategic combination of the two helps boost your brand’s long-term visibility so you stay top of mind – and top of SERP. 

If you’re launching a new website, digital ads can also help by shoring up the lead generation gap between go-live and ramp-up of your new site. Remember, it takes time for new domains to achieve authority and relevance for a specific industry. Once you have an SEO-friendly website and properly targeted sponsored ads using the right keywords, you have better odds at showing up at the top of searches. 

Take the Next Step – Predictive Marketing

If you want your SEO and digital advertising to achieve power couple status, it needs to be actively managed. For SEO, that means maintaining the structural integrity of your website and continuously optimizing for search. On the digital advertising side, this is where predictive marketing plays a role. 

Predictive marketing uses data science to find the best renters and actively engages them on the channels and platforms where they are most likely to convert. While there are a lot of benefits for marketers, we focused on outlining the top five in our new infographic, 5 Benefits of Predictive Marketing. Download your copy now.