In the dynamic realm of digital real estate, discovering fresh growth hacks can be the key to inching ahead of competitors. Today, I want to unpack a growth hacking approach I employed on a real estate website I manage. The outcome? A noticeable uptick in traffic, proving the value of thinking outside the box.

Most real estate sites feature landing pages tailored to broad search terms—think “homes for sale in New York” or “apartments for rent in Boston.” But here’s a challenge: With so many players in the game, how do you make it to the top of Google’s coveted first page? It’s not a cakewalk, especially if your site isn’t a household name.

But here’s a twist: What if potential homebuyers or renters are using more specific terms in their searches? Phrases like “Homes for sale under 2M in New York” or “Apartments for rent under 2k in Boston” could be goldmines. Why? Because many sites aren’t optimized for these combinations of filters in searches. Seeing this gap, I saw an opportunity and decided to leap.

Here’s what I set in motion:

• For each property page on the website, I introduced a dynamic link somewhere on the page. Take, for instance, a home in Toronto priced around $1,995,000. The link text would be something like “More homes for sale under 2M in Toronto”:
  • If the property were a condo, the link would start with “More condos…”.
  • A rental property? It adjusts to “… for rent under…”.
  • For pricing nuances, it’s rounded and featured in the link: “…under 2M in…”.
  • If the property were in New York, the link would read “… in New York”

A simple click on this link directs users to a dynamic landing page: {domain}/Toronto-Real-Estate/for-sale/homes-under-2000000.

• Crafting the landing page was next:
  • Titles and headers dynamically adjust based on the original link’s criteria.
  • Search results mirror the link’s specifics, displaying listings for sale in Toronto under 2M, for instance.

The technical side of things? Surprisingly smooth. Setting this all up took about 3-4 hours.

Now, a word of caution on SEO tweaks: They’re not about instant gratification. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Patience is key, and sometimes it’s a bit of a waiting game to see the fruits of your labor.

But in this endeavor? The payoff was evident and sweet.

The data speaks volumes. The image below captures the past month’s traffic linked to this method. Using the distinct “under” term in our URLs, we pulled in 1,569 new site visits, a significant uptick in engagement.

Understanding and tapping into the evolving search behaviors of users can transform your traffic stats. This experiment underscored the importance of nuance in search optimization. With a mix of insight, creativity, and technical tweaks, the digital real estate landscape is ripe with opportunities waiting to be harnessed.

Patrick Arlia is the co-founder of Repliers, a service that empowers Realtors to use data from their MLS on their website.