Free course available

The free SEO course for estate & letting agents.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation — making your website easy for search engines to find, understand, and trust, so it appears higher when someone searches for something related to your business.

The vast majority of buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants now start their search online, often long before they ever speak to a human. If your website isn’t visible, fast, trustworthy, and genuinely useful at that exact moment, you lose that business to whichever agency did show up — not because they’re better at the job than you, but because you were invisible at the exact moment it mattered.

Every fix below works one of three ways: direct (Google’s algorithm measures it and uses it as a ranking input), indirect (it changes customer behaviour, and that behaviour is what Google eventually notices), or it’s a prerequisite (doesn’t boost ranking, just makes ranking possible at all).

Take it in however works for you

Start the course

Read it here, lesson by lesson.

Watch on YouTube

The full SEO course, narrated end to end.

Listen on Spotify

The same course as an audiobook, for the car or a commute.

Download the resources

11 free templates & checklists.

Every fix in the course, in order — drag to browse, or leave it to scroll itself.

Technical Foundations

The groundwork Google needs just to find, load and trust your site at all.

Optimise Core Web Vitals / page load speed

Direct

Make sure your site actually works on mobile

Direct

Enable HTTPS / SSL (the padlock icon)

Direct

Keep every page reachable within a few clicks

Direct

Submit an XML sitemap to Google

Prerequisite

Check robots.txt isn't accidentally blocking your site

Prerequisite

Fix duplicate content and broken redirects

Direct

Set canonical tags on any duplicate pages

Direct

Monitor server uptime

Direct

Remove intrusive pop-ups that block the page on arrival

Direct

Add schema markup — price, location, business type

Prerequisite

Real Estate-Specific Risk

Problems unique to property sites — syndicated portals competing with your own listings.

Add a self-referencing canonical tag to listings synced to portals

Direct

On-Page & Content

What's actually written on the page, and whether it matches what people search for.

Research the words customers actually search, not your own internal language

Direct

Write specific page titles and meta descriptions, not generic ones

Direct

Write content from real local knowledge, not generic AI output

Direct

Make sure key pages fully answer the question, not just part of it

Direct

Break up long pages with subheadings and short paragraphs

Indirect

Mention your actual town or area naturally on key pages

Direct

Include your phone number directly in meta descriptions

Indirect

Off-Site & Authority

What the rest of the internet says about you, beyond your own website.

Earn genuine backlinks from relevant local sites

Direct

Participate genuinely in local Reddit and forum discussions

Direct

Match your name, address and phone number exactly everywhere

Direct

Keep your details consistent across every directory and portal

Direct

Local & Business Profile

Your presence on Google, Bing and Apple Maps — often the first thing anyone sees.

Claim and verify your Google Business Profile

Prerequisite

Set the correct category — not the generic default

Direct

Complete every profile section — hours, photos, description

Direct

Post to your Google Business Profile weekly

Direct

Claim Bing Places and Apple Business Connect

Prerequisite

Trust & Authority (E-E-A-T)

Whether a stranger has a real reason to trust you with a six-figure decision.

Write genuine, specific bios for each team member

Direct

Ask for reviews at the right moment, every time

Indirect

Reply to every review within 48 hours

Direct

Never incentivise or gate reviews

Prerequisite

Measurement

Knowing whether any of this is actually working.

Set up analytics and track where enquiries actually come from

Prerequisite

Playing It Smart

Genuine competitive advantages, once the fundamentals are covered.

Regularly check a named competitor for gaps you can exploit

Prerequisite

Technical Foundations

The groundwork Google needs just to find, load and trust your site at all.

Optimise Core Web Vitals / page load speed

Direct

Make sure your site actually works on mobile

Direct

Enable HTTPS / SSL (the padlock icon)

Direct

Keep every page reachable within a few clicks

Direct

Submit an XML sitemap to Google

Prerequisite

Check robots.txt isn't accidentally blocking your site

Prerequisite

Fix duplicate content and broken redirects

Direct

Set canonical tags on any duplicate pages

Direct

Monitor server uptime

Direct

Remove intrusive pop-ups that block the page on arrival

Direct

Add schema markup — price, location, business type

Prerequisite

Real Estate-Specific Risk

Problems unique to property sites — syndicated portals competing with your own listings.

Add a self-referencing canonical tag to listings synced to portals

Direct

On-Page & Content

What's actually written on the page, and whether it matches what people search for.

Research the words customers actually search, not your own internal language

Direct

Write specific page titles and meta descriptions, not generic ones

Direct

Write content from real local knowledge, not generic AI output

Direct

Make sure key pages fully answer the question, not just part of it

Direct

Break up long pages with subheadings and short paragraphs

Indirect

Mention your actual town or area naturally on key pages

Direct

Include your phone number directly in meta descriptions

Indirect

Off-Site & Authority

What the rest of the internet says about you, beyond your own website.

Earn genuine backlinks from relevant local sites

Direct

Participate genuinely in local Reddit and forum discussions

Direct

Match your name, address and phone number exactly everywhere

Direct

Keep your details consistent across every directory and portal

Direct

Local & Business Profile

Your presence on Google, Bing and Apple Maps — often the first thing anyone sees.

Claim and verify your Google Business Profile

Prerequisite

Set the correct category — not the generic default

Direct

Complete every profile section — hours, photos, description

Direct

Post to your Google Business Profile weekly

Direct

Claim Bing Places and Apple Business Connect

Prerequisite

Trust & Authority (E-E-A-T)

Whether a stranger has a real reason to trust you with a six-figure decision.

Write genuine, specific bios for each team member

Direct

Ask for reviews at the right moment, every time

Indirect

Reply to every review within 48 hours

Direct

Never incentivise or gate reviews

Prerequisite

Measurement

Knowing whether any of this is actually working.

Set up analytics and track where enquiries actually come from

Prerequisite

Playing It Smart

Genuine competitive advantages, once the fundamentals are covered.

Regularly check a named competitor for gaps you can exploit

Prerequisite

The end goal: becoming the obvious, undisputed number one estate and letting agency in your area — for sales and lettings alike.

One note: this guide covers traditional SEO (Google, Bing, Apple). GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) — making sure AI tools like ChatGPT recommend you directly — overlaps heavily but has its own guide.

One honest pattern worth noticing before you start: almost nothing on this list is genuinely hard to do once. What’s hard is doing all of it, correctly, at the same time, and then keeping it that way for years while a market, an algorithm, and a set of competitors keep moving underneath you. That’s the actual challenge this guide can’t solve for you — and it’s flagged specifically, item by item, throughout.

Why it’s free

“I learned this the hard way, over a whole career, and I don’t want anyone else to. This exists so every agent gets a genuine shot at being their best — and when you’re stretched too thin to do it alone, that’s exactly when we step in.”