Sydney’s real estate market is one of the most searched industries in Australia. Buyers, sellers, renters, and investors are searching Google constantly, and the agents who appear at the top of those results have a significant advantage. Yet most Sydney real estate agencies are making the same avoidable SEO mistakes.
This is not a list of technical jargon. These are the specific, practical things Sydney agents get wrong, and what to do instead.
Relying on the Portal Listings to Do the Work
Domain and realestate.com.au are doing well in Google. But they are ranking for their own brand, not yours. When a buyer searches “real estate agent Mosman” and sees a portal listing, they are not finding your agency. They are finding a marketplace where you are competing against every other agent in that suburb.
Your agency website needs to rank independently. That requires investment in your own domain’s authority, not just paying portal listing fees.
Generic Suburb Pages With No Real Content
Almost every Sydney real estate agency has suburb pages. Almost all of them are thin. They list a few statistics, say something vague about lifestyle, and include a contact form. Google sees these pages as low-value because they offer nothing that dozens of competitors are not also offering.
The agencies ranking well for Sydney suburb searches have pages that are genuinely useful. Market trend data, school information, infrastructure updates, local business highlights, and relevant sold results. It takes more effort, but it is the difference between ranking and not ranking.
What a Good Suburb Page Looks Like
- At least 600 words of genuinely useful, suburb-specific content
- Updated regularly to stay current
- Internal links to recent listings in that suburb
- Local schema markup to help Google understand what the page is about
Ignoring Google Business Profile
For real estate agents, the Google Business Profile is a critical asset that most treat as an afterthought. A well-optimised profile showing your agency’s location, photos, services, and recent reviews can drive significant local search traffic, especially for people searching for agents in specific Sydney suburbs.
Regular posting, responding to reviews, and keeping your profile complete and current all contribute to local pack visibility.
No Content Strategy Between Listings
Real estate agency websites live and die by their listings. But listings come and go. A buyer who visits your website today and finds only expired listings will not come back. Building a content strategy around market insights, buyer guides, and neighbourhood articles keeps your website relevant between campaigns and builds long-term SEO value.
Keyword Research Skipped in Favour of Guesswork
Many Sydney agents optimise for the terms they think people search. “Real estate agent” plus suburb name. But the actual search behaviour is far more varied. People search for “homes for sale,” “property for sale,” “houses for rent,” “off-market properties,” and dozens of other variations. Without proper keyword research, you are optimising for a subset of the actual demand.
Building an Agency That Ranks
The Sydney real estate agencies that rank well on Google are not doing anything magical. They have invested in good website foundations, built genuine suburb content, maintained their Google Business Profile, and published consistently over time.
For help building an SEO strategy that works in Sydney’s competitive real estate market, see our Sydney SEO services.
