SEO for real estate agents. The searches that buy, and what links cost.
Seller searches are worth far more than buyer searches for most agents, and far less contested than listings.
Searches: DataForSEO, United States, English. Link prices: Placement API Backlink Price Index, September 2026. Collected 2026-09-28.
Ship· Page improvements
The searches that buy.
Buying and comparing searches with at least 100 a month, ranked by volume times what advertisers pay per click. These are the pages worth improving first.
- Neighbourhood pages earn local links and rank for long-tail buyer searches.
- Portals own listing searches; don't spend links competing with them.
| Search | Kind | Searches/mo | Ads CPC |
|---|---|---|---|
| real estate agent | Comparing | 201,000 | $10.93 |
| sell my house faster | Buying | 9,900 | $104 |
| near me real estate agent | Comparing | 90,500 | $11.01 |
| sell my house | Buying | 5,400 | $150 |
| sell my house for cash | Buying | 4,400 | $132 |
| real estate agent near me | Comparing | 40,500 | $9.65 |
| sell my house as-is for cash | Buying | 2,400 | $144 |
| real estate agent for selling house | Buying | 8,100 | $39.29 |
| real estate agent for selling a house | Buying | 14,800 | $21.17 |
| broker and real estate agent | Comparing | 49,500 | $5.72 |
| best real estate agent near me | Comparing | 14,800 | $17.38 |
| quickly sell my house | Buying | 1,300 | $130 |
| sell my house as-is | Buying | 1,300 | $126 |
| sell my house for cash quick | Buying | 1,300 | $122 |
| sell my house for cash near me | Buying | 1,000 | $153 |
| pay for real estate agent | Comparing | 12,100 | $11.36 |
| need to sell my house fast | Buying | 880 | $125 |
| commercial real estate agent broker | Comparing | 12,100 | $7.88 |
| realtor estate near me | Comparing | 40,500 | $2.08 |
| real estate agent utah | Comparing | 6,600 | $12.34 |
- Lower quartile
- $69.75
- Median
- $176
- Upper quartile
- $349
| Claimed DR, all subjects | Websites | Middle half | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| DR 20–29 | 48,775 | $81–$332 | $174 |
| DR 30–39 | 42,432 | $86–$357 | $171 |
| DR 40–49 | 20,524 | $111–$506 | $232 |
| DR 50–59 | 14,530 | $124–$641 | $260 |
| DR 60–69 | 6,135 | $213–$1,042 | $483 |
| DR 70–79 | 5,108 | $342–$1,647 | $726 |
| DR 80–89 | 834 | $506–$4,148 | $1,399 |
| DR 90–99 | 115 | $383–$3,651 | $1,062 |
Scale· Backlinks
What links cost here.
What websites in real estate ask for a link: the cheapest price for each website across every marketplace, suspect websites left out. Higher-rated websites cost more, as the table shows; these are asking prices, not what was paid.
Your numbers
Would links pay back for you? Enter what a customer is worth.
Each search is modelled moving from #7 to #4 into the top four. That takes 20 to 50 links depending on how well linked the results above are, priced from the table above: the real estate median, or a higher DR band where the competition is stronger. Half the modelled gain is counted, as a hedge against rankings that don't move as planned.
Starting assumptions for a typical real estate agents business, not data: replace them with yours. At these, each visitor from a buying search is worth $90.
20 of 20 buying searches pay back within 12 months.
$62,500/month for 3 months
A link budget that funds all of them at a natural pace, expected to bring in $1,026,360 a month once the links are live (risk-adjusted).
- Searches a month
- 9,900
- Extra clicks, #7 → #4
- about 436
- Value per visitor
- $90
- Extra revenue a month
- $39,240
- × 50% confidence
- $19,620/mo
- 30 links at $232 (DR 40–49)
- $6,968
- Payback
- under a month
| Search | Extra revenue/mo | Payback | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| real estate agent | $397,980 | under a month | Worth it |
| real estate agent near me | $80,190 | under a month | Worth it |
| realtor estate near me | $80,190 | under a month | Worth it |
| near me real estate agent | $179,190 | under a month | Worth it |
| real estate agent for selling a house | $29,295 | under a month | Worth it |
| best real estate agent near me | $29,295 | under a month | Worth it |
| broker and real estate agent | $98,010 | under a month | Worth it |
| pay for real estate agent | $23,940 | under a month | Worth it |
| commercial real estate agent broker | $23,940 | under a month | Worth it |
| sell my house faster | $19,620 | under a month | Worth it |
| real estate agent for selling house | $16,020 | under a month | Worth it |
| real estate agent utah | $13,050 | under a month | Worth it |
| sell my house | $10,710 | under a month | Worth it |
| sell my house for cash | $8,730 | 1.2 months | Worth it |
| sell my house as-is for cash | $4,770 | 1.5 months | Worth it |
| quickly sell my house | $2,565 | 2.7 months | Worth it |
| sell my house as-is | $2,565 | 2.7 months | Worth it |
| sell my house for cash quick | $2,565 | 2.7 months | Worth it |
| need to sell my house fast | $1,755 | 4.0 months | Worth it |
| sell my house for cash near me | $1,980 | 5.3 months | Worth it |
Extra revenue is risk-adjusted: 50% of the modelled gain.
Big, but not for links
Searches to answer, not to buy links for.
The biggest learning searches in this industry. Worth good content and internal links to the pages that sell; rarely worth link money.
| Search | Kind | Searches/mo |
|---|---|---|
| home property value estimate | Learning | 33,100 |
| how much is my home value | Learning | 22,200 |
| real estate agent buying a house | Learning | 14,800 |
| home value | Learning | 14,800 |
| appraiser home value | Learning | 14,800 |
| what is the value of.my home | Learning | 12,100 |
| real estate agent occupation | Learning | 9,900 |
| agent vs broker real estate | Learning | 9,900 |
Run this on your own site. With your real numbers.
Ship/Scale replaces the guesses on this page with your Search Console and analytics data, then shows which of your real estate agents pages would pay back.
Pro is $99/month. Free has no subscription fee: you pay your own AI and data providers. Backlinks cost extra on both plans.