Real estate agents know that despite the onset of the digital age, the housing business is still all about people and relationships. Helping folks buy and sell their homes, one of the biggest decisions of their lives, requires building a lot of trust. But guess what? Real estate agents can build that trust through more than face-to-face interactions; they can build it through search engines. That’s right, by adding local events to their websites, agents can significantly increase their search engine visibility and ensure repeat visitors to their sites.

So how does it work, exactly? In a few ways. When real estate agents post local event listings on their websites, they show their engagement with a particular community, they use keywords that search engines pay attention to, and they engage with past and potential customers, which can help them bring in business. Let’s look at each of these three factors in more detail.

Local Events Show Engagement With the Local Community

Visitors to a real estate agent’s website don’t want to see someone who serves people throughout the state or, worse, the nation. They trust agents who are dialed in to their own communities. Real estate agents who know a lot about the places they serve can help customers land their dream houses and sell their homes for a good price. One excellent way agents can demonstrate this is to list local events on their websites. This shows that agents have a finger on the pulse of their communities, which in turn indicates that they will be more likely to be helpful to someone looking for real estate expertise in that area.

Regular Event Listings Up Search Engine Rankings

Search engines rely on complex algorithms to sift through vast seas of online material and return the results that will be most helpful to the user performing the search. While gaming the system is the subject of entire libraries, real estate agents should keep in mind the basics: keywords and update frequencies. Many people don’t know that some of the most powerful keywords are cities and states, because they increase the chances of a site being returned to a local searcher. And updating frequently tells the Web bots that your content is more likely to be current — and thus relevant. Since event listings require both location details and constant updating, they are ideal for catching a search engine’s notice.

Local Events Bring People Back

Even if someone isn’t looking for a house yet or has just bought one with a real estate agent’s help, keeping that person around is in an agent’s best interest. Such people may not only be a source of referrals; they might need a realtor’s help in the future. Giving them a reason to keep visiting the website keeps that particular agent fresh in their minds and reduces the chances they will go to someone else when the time to buy or sell rolls around.

Zealder’s Event Manager makes it easy to add local events directly to your website. While many of our members are familiar with using this feature to list open houses, it’s also a great way to list other events taking place in your community. Check out our Manage Event tutorial for assistance with adding events to your website.