Do real estate agents need their own website?
Your Domain and realestate.com.au profiles, agency page and own website each do a different job: what each is good at, and why to use all four.
Some vendors search your name. Others haven’t picked an agent yet and search “real estate agent” plus their suburb. Being found for those searches is local SEO, and it’s harder than ranking for your own name, because every agency, portal and agent in the area wants the same results.
There are no real shortcuts, and some popular ones break Google’s rules. What works is a site that’s genuinely useful about the suburbs you sell in, backed by proof that you sell there.
If you don’t yet come up for your own name, start with how to come up first when vendors search your name. Everything below builds on it.
How Google decides local results
Google’s guide to improving your local ranking says local results are mainly based on three things:
- Relevance: how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for
- Distance: how far the business is from the person searching
- Prominence: how well-known the business is, which includes how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has
Google also says there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. That covers the map results. Your own website competes in the ordinary results underneath, where the content of your pages does most of the work.
1. Build suburb pages that are actually useful
A page about each suburb you work in can help you be found for searches about that suburb. It can also go badly wrong.
Google’s spam policies describe doorway abuse as sites or pages created to rank for specific, similar searches. One of Google’s examples is having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page. Thirty near-identical pages, each with a different suburb name swapped in, is exactly that.
The same policies cover scaled content abuse, which includes using generative AI tools to produce many pages without adding value for users. If you use AI to help write, the test is whether the finished page adds something, not how it was drafted.
A simple check: would a vendor who lives in that suburb learn something from the page, or recognise their own streets in it? If not, it isn’t ready.
| A useful suburb page has | Leave out |
|---|---|
| What you know about the suburb: its streets, housing types and what buyers ask about | Copy that would read the same if you changed the suburb name |
| Your recent sales there, linked to each listing | Suburbs you don’t actually work |
| Your current listings in the suburb | Long lists of nearby suburb names |
| Observations you can stand behind, such as what’s selling and to whom | Market statistics you can’t source |
| A clear next step, like booking an appraisal | Keywords repeated for the sake of it |
Start with your two or three core suburbs and do them properly. Add more as you build a track record.
2. Use sold results as local proof
A sold listing is the strongest local signal you have, for vendors and for search engines. It says, in plain terms, that you sold a home on this street in this suburb.
- Show your sold listings on your own site, with the suburb named on each one.
- Link them from the matching suburb page, so each page has evidence attached.
- Only show your own results. If a sale was shared with a colleague, say so.
- Check what you can publish. Your licensee may have a policy on sale prices and campaign photos, which are usually licensed to the agency or photographer, not to you.
3. Set up your Google Business Profile
Your Business Profile is what appears in Google’s map results and in the panel when someone searches your name. Individual agents can often have their own, within Google’s rules. Our Google Business Profile guide covers who’s eligible, how to set it up and the mistakes to avoid.
For local search in particular, link the profile to your own website, and if you’re set up as a service-area business, choose only the suburbs you actually work.
4. Keep your name, address and phone consistent
Search engines connect your profiles by matching your details. Use the same name, the same office address or service area and the same phone number on your website, your Business Profile, your portal profiles and your agency’s page. Small differences, like a nickname in one place and a different number in another, make that matching harder.
5. Earn reviews, honestly
Google’s local ranking guide says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business’s local ranking. They help vendors decide, too.
- Ask after a good result, while the experience is fresh.
- Never offer anything in return. Google prohibits incentives for reviews.
- Reply to every review, including the critical ones.
- Use reviews accurately elsewhere. Consumer Affairs Victoria’s advertising guidance says agents must not use testimonials that are exaggerated, misleading or false. Quote them as written.
6. Link your own pages together
Google’s SEO starter guide says it mainly finds pages through links from other pages it has already crawled. Inside your own site, that means every page should be reachable by a sensible path:
- your home page links to each suburb page
- each suburb page links to the sold and current listings there
- each listing links back to its suburb page and to your contact page
Use link text that says where it goes, like “Recent sales in Paddington”, rather than “click here”.
7. Get mentioned locally
Links and mentions from other local websites help Google judge how well-known you are. Good sources are the ones you’d want anyway: your agency’s profile page linking to your site, a community group you’re involved with, a local newsletter or local news coverage of a notable sale.
Don’t pay for links or swap them. Google’s policy on link spam lists buying or selling links for ranking purposes, including exchanging goods or services for links, and excessive link exchanges. Sponsorship links are fine, but Google says paid links should be marked as sponsored or nofollow, so don’t count on them for ranking. Sponsor things because they’re good for your name locally, not for the link.
8. Measure what’s working
Google Search Console is free and shows which searches your site appears for. Look for searches that include your suburb names. They show which suburb pages are working and which need more depth.
What to expect, and when
Google’s starter guide says some changes take effect in a few hours and others can take several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether a change has helped.
In practice:
- Your name is the quickest win, because few other pages are about you.
- Your suburbs take longer, because you’re competing with portals, agencies and other agents for the same searches.
- Results build up. Each sale, review and useful page adds to the last.
Google’s own advice on hiring an SEO puts it plainly: no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google. Be wary of anyone who promises one.
How we help
Every Starter and Pro website is built search-ready, with clear page titles, structured data and a sitemap. Your site has a section for the suburbs you work, and shows your current and sold listings, which come across from Domain and realestate.com.au.
On Pro, you also get a blog for suburb guides and market articles. Our AI writes a first draft on a topic you choose, and it opens in the editor for you to check, make your own and publish. Pro also shows your Google Business Profile reviews on your site, word for word, and includes website analytics.
Our online marketing service goes further. We review your site and profiles, help you set up Google Search Console and your Business Profile, keep your details consistent across your profiles and portals, and can run Google Ads on your name and suburbs. It’s quoted separately, based on your suburbs and goals, and any ad spend is paid to Google with a budget agreed before anything runs.
For more on being found, read how to come up first when vendors search your name, Google Business Profile for real estate agents and the agent website checklist.
Based on Google’s published guidance at the time of writing. Google updates its policies from time to time, so check the linked pages before you act.
