Posted by REW Marketing on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 10:15am.
Will sold data actually drive traffic to your real estate website? Does it have any SEO value at all?
The short answer is: yes.
But understanding why and how to use it is tricky.
So let's learn a little more about using MLS sold data for real estate SEO…
In real estate, "sold data" refers to information about properties that have recently been sold in a particular market. This data typically includes details such as the sale price, property features, and the length of time the property was on the market before it sold.
Real estate professionals use this data to gain insights into the local market and to inform pricing and marketing strategies for new listings.
Sold data is also valuable to buyers who want to understand the market value of a property they are interested in, and sellers who want to learn about the potential value of their home.
The main reason why you should incorporate sold data into your online content is because people want it. It’s that simple.
People look for sold data for a number of reasons, from simple curiosity to research for imminent real estate decisions. Providing that data on your website means providing value and, as we know, developing helpful content is generally one of the best strategies for improving your search ranking.
By incorporating sold data into your website's content, you can establish yourself as a trusted resource in the real estate industry. Put that data behind a registration form and you can generate buyer and seller leads from it as well.
Overall, using sold data is great for building a trustworthy brand identity and for generating leads from your website.
Here are some ways that you can incorporate sold data into your real estate website.
A feed of recently sold homes that users can browse
While sold data can be good for SEO, it’s not suitable for every site and its effectiveness is overshadowed by many other changes and factors that should take priority.
To make the most of sold data for your real estate website, remember the following:
And finally…
One of the challenges we've seen with sold data is that it accumulates. The goal with regular MLS data is to show active properties, so it makes sense that the data is purged shortly after the home is sold. This means there's a fairly steady amount of data as homes are added and removed on a regular basis.
With sold data, this isn't the case. A sold home never becomes "unsold", which means the data sticks around for years at a time. That creates a drain on your database and can also add hundreds of thousands of pages to your site, impacting speed and ultimately the user experience.
There's no magic number for how many sold listings to keep on your site but if it's impacting performance, it's too much. Consider purging sold data every year or two to keep your site running in tip top shape.
Here's a graph showing Google search performance for 16 months after adding sold data to CarlyCarey.com:
Clicks, impressions, and average search position for searches including the word "sold"
That’s around 84,000 clicks in 16 months from people looking for information on sold homes!
You can read more of an analysis of this case and using sold data to drive traffic on the Real Estate Webmaster forums.
Sold data in real estate refers to information on recently sold properties, such as sale price, property features, and time on the market. Real estate agents and brokers typically access sold data from multiple listing services (MLS) or their local real estate board.
Sold data is used by real estate professionals to analyze local market trends and inform pricing and marketing strategies for new listings.
Buyers and sellers find sold data useful for estimating property values and informing real estate decisions.
Sold data can be presented via a dedicated feed, showcased in agent bios or business profiles, highlighted on social media, or collated in the form of infographics and market trend reports. By restricting access to registered users only, sold data can be used to generate leads.
Providing sold data on your website is a strategy for improving your search ranking because many people find the information helpful. Sold data can also help establish you as a trusted resource to potential clients and generate leads through site signups.