Turn Your Website Into a Deal Machine | Real Estate SEO Strategy That Works

Keith Sant (00:00)
the Google leads that, you know, where people are physically Googling, how do I solve my problem? Like the quality of that lead was just so much hotter than like, you know, ringless voicemails or texting or cold calling or anything like that. And so I just went all in on, you know,

figuring out how I could get more Google leads as cheap as possible.

Scott Bursey (01:50)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey.

And today we’re talking about one of the most powerful, often misunderstood assets in real estate, digital gravity. You know, most investors are still chasing deals with dollars, but our next guest is showing pros how to generate deals with data. He’s the driving force behind SEO meets REI. And he’s here to show us how to turn a website into a nonstop deal generating machine.

It is a pleasure to have you here. Keith Sant. Keith, welcome to the show.

Keith Sant (02:25)
Absolutely, Scott. Thank you so much for that introduction and thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (02:28)
Absolute.

Well, it’s our pleasure to have you here and for our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please tell us how did your career begin and what is your main focus now?

Keith Sant (02:40)
Yeah, so I started back in 2017 doing real estate. I did a few flips and whatnot and I got a pretty good return on, I felt really good about that. I’m like, man, I could probably do this like full time. And so just started learning everything I could about real estate. And I heard about this thing called wholesaling and I’m like, wait, I don’t have to put out my own money or deal with realtors and staging and all that stuff that goes along with it.

And so I kind of went all in on wholesaling and been doing it for quite a while. I got, I realized pretty quickly that all leads aren’t the same. Like I did all types of different marketing channels, but

I realized like the Google leads that, you know, where people are physically Googling, how do I solve my problem? Like the quality of that lead was just so much hotter than like, you know, ringless voicemails or texting or cold calling or anything like that. And so I just went all in on, you know,

figuring out how I could get more Google leads as cheap as possible.

And I got really good at doing SEO from my own company, Kind House Buyers, outside of Washington. people kept asking me for years to do it for them, but I’m like, I’m busy, close my own deals, da da da. But back in 2022, I actually shifted and started doing SEO full-time for people.

So I still get a ton of leads on my sites. But what I do now is I send all my leads to one guy. He closes the deals and we split it 50-50. And that freed me up so I could do SEO full-time for everyone. And I’ve been doing that for last four years and it’s been really, really amazing.

Scott Bursey (04:12)
The feel that you bring is power of passive lead flow. That is awesome. And on that note, what are some of your core strengths?

Keith Sant (04:21)
Definitely marketing, but then also like I just love helping people. You know, I’m a helper. think, you know, maybe selfishly I get like a helper’s high. But yeah, it’s a lot of fun for me if I could help you. you know, I’ve done, especially in the marketing space, I’ve done enough things wrong to know what to do right. And if I could help people like avoid a of the rookie mistakes I made along the way, I’m all for it.

Scott Bursey (04:25)
Ahem.

Absolutely. And what’s one of the first things that you’d our listeners to know about your business?

Keith Sant (05:37)
as far as like SEO meets real estate investors, mean, like a lot of people dismiss SEO because it takes so long. You know, people want that instant gratification. Like I’m going to, you know, I could turn on some PPL, so, you know, paper lead or PPC or, know, or just send out direct mail. And like my phone’s going to start ringing this week, but at the end of the day, SEO is going to be your cheapest cost per deal out there. It just takes a little bit of time to.

to get there. like hands down, it’s gonna be your cheapest and best lead source like out there. I got guys that have been with me for a while and like they’re getting leads for like $30 a lead now. In the same market where they were spending like 350, 400 a lead on pay per click.

Scott Bursey (06:21)
Keith and in your view where do most investors drop the ball when trying to implement an SEO strategy for their for local market?

Keith Sant (06:29)
You know, there’s two parts to that. So like there’s two parts to SEO. Half of it is everything that’s on your website. So it’s dialing in all your pages, know, your headings, what words to put on there, et cetera. The biggest thing I see people dropping the ball on that is just copying someone else’s website. You know, like they teach you in school, like plagiarism is bad, et cetera. I don’t really care about like a moral standpoint, but Google will see that.

And like you don’t want stuff that’s the same as someone else’s. It doesn’t work that way. Yeah, you might get a ⁓ temporary boost, then typically you fall down just as quick. And then the other part on that is using a lot of AI content is like people right now, Google said multiple times and they want content written for people, by people. And it’s…

It’s more than just that too, because we have these AIs, you know, kind of these LLMs scraping the internet and for like answers for us. And we’re at a point now where we’re having, you know, the AI quoting AI written content and a lot of it’s wrong. So then we get this crazy negative feedback loop and Google and nobody wants that. And so they’re, they’re scraping as much AI written content off the web as they possibly can.

And I’ve seen a lot of really good sites that were crushing it last year just completely tank because they were using AI to write their content. So yeah, those are some of the biggest things like the on-page stuff. I guess I could, yeah, I probably shouldn’t get into backlinks. That gets a little technical and I know we don’t have too much time.

Scott Bursey (08:07)
Well thank you for that and that’s spot on. It really is in many different avenues. And let me ask you this, what do feel is one of the major opportunities right now?

Keith Sant (08:17)
I mean, definitely, SEO right now is, ⁓ a lot of it’s in the AI search results, right? ⁓ It’s like the wild west, like, it’s like the beginning of Google where you could kind of throw anything at the wall and if you’re doing any activity whatsoever, you have an opportunity and a shot to show up. used to just be able to, if I wanted to rank for sell my house fast, I just had to write sell my house fast X amount of times on a page and that would work. And that was like all I had to do.

That’s kind of how it is right now with the LLMs. Showing up in ChatGDP, there’s not a ton, you know, there’s a few different little things you gotta do, but you’re able to show up really quick and it’s a huge low-hanging fruit right now.

Scott Bursey (08:59)
And what strategy are you going to be implementing over, let’s say, the next 18 to 24 months?

Keith Sant (09:40)
I mean, definitely doubling down on that for a lot of clients. It’s not huge right now because it’s all hype, or it’s not all hype, but people are hyping it up like it’s, you know, like, oh, I wanna rank number one in LLMs, but like at the end of the day right now, AI search is like 5 % of search. Google is still like the big dog. 95 % of people are still on Google.

that’s definitely gonna shift the other direction over this next 18 months. So we wanna definitely, you know, kind of focus more of our efforts, but at the same time, not just cut off and like, I wanna rank, you know, you don’t just wanna burn down the Google house just to get on the LLM’s good side if, you know, you’re only gonna show up from 5 % of the searches anyways. so, yeah, it’s definitely a healthy mix.

Scott Bursey (10:33)
And Keith, obviously no one has a crystal ball, but where do you see this going in your expertise vision?

Keith Sant (10:41)
I think, you know, people are always seeking out information, right? They’re always going to seek out information. The, the amount of searches has actually gone up, recently, like AI has actually made, you know, AI overview on, Google and, and chat, like they’ve actually made searches more fun, more interactive. You actually see more people searching for questions and answers right now than almost ever before.

So like the searching isn’t gonna go away. It’s where they search and how they search is gonna change over time, right? And just like in the beginning, we’re over on Ask Jeeves or whatever, right? I don’t know if a lot of people even remember that, but like in that chain, and we’re on Yahoo and AOL and Google and yeah, so like definitely things are gonna change. don’t think search is never gonna go away though.

like ever, it’s just gonna be the way and where people search.

Scott Bursey (11:35)
Sure and if you could tell us how did you assemble your team what strategies did you employ?

Keith Sant (11:40)
my gosh.

Feel like I got really lucky. Found a couple really good people after some trial and error and honestly some of the best new hires from them, from there was referrals from them. I’ve actually had like, you know, two, like one.

A lot of employees now employ their family members or friends and they’ve been some really, really good assets. We have like 22 employees right now, which is crazy. I never thought I’d manage 22 people or have a company with 22 employees, but it’s been really fun and definitely a learning curve and a spot for me to grow.

Scott Bursey (12:18)
Absolutely, and you’ve done a great job for a pro just starting. What single SEO metrics should they focus on above all others for a fast traction?

Keith Sant (12:30)
I mean, the very first thing any person should do is make sure they have a Google business profile set up. It’s not traditional SEO, a Google business profile is that map, getting on the map. Like if you Googled McDonald’s and you see three McDonald’s near you, that’s what a business profile is, is getting on the map. So if anyone Googles something like cash for houses near me or sell my house fast in Fort Worth or…

you whatever, like you’re there in that map pack. It’s free to do. And then once you have that thing set up, there’s some simple optimizations you can do, like fill it out. If you just fill it out really well, make sure you have a location, you know, actually show a visible location. There’s products you can add, like, yeah, I have a product, free cash offer on your house, I’m 24 hours or less. Like, don’t leave the products.

You know, there’s a ton of services that you can add. The cool thing about SEO in general is you don’t have to have the best website in the world or you just have to be a little better than the guy next to you. And so, you know, if the guy next to you has 10 reviews, you want to get 15. If he has 20 pictures on his profile, get 30. If he’s got five services, you get 15. Like just do a little better than the guy in front of you and you’ll win.

You know, it’s really cool and I love SEO because it’s, you you don’t have to have a lot of money to really get going, especially if you’re kind of bootstrapped and doing it on your own. Like I’m a, I’m a huge fan of the underdog. and, and this is one of the ways that you can, that’s the fastest free way to start getting leads and to start showing up as your Google business profile.

Scott Bursey (14:09)
That was an excellent breakdown. And Keith, what sort of golden nuggets or advice can you leave with our listeners here today?

Keith Sant (14:57)
Man, a lot of it is just, don’t sleep on it. A lot of people wait because they think it’s gonna take time, but like a lot of things in life, like a year from now, you’ll wish you started a day. Whether working out or eating healthy or going to church or whatever, you might be putting off. You should just do it today. Start today, open that business profile.

you know, rewrite your content, make sure you have your city pages, just, ⁓ you know, don’t sleep on it because, yeah, you’re just wasting time, especially right now.

Scott Bursey (15:32)
So one designed, this is a question that I’ve got to ask and we need to know what ProSecret would you like our listeners to know about for long term?

Keith Sant (15:50)
For long term, ⁓

Scott Bursey (15:51)
long term.

Keith Sant (15:52)
man.

I mean, there’s a lot of, especially in SEO, there’s a lot of tempting, know, a lot of people that are gonna tell you to do this or very quick, you know, very quick, you know, quick hacks or, you know, but like, really like if it feels spammy, if it sounds spammy, like don’t do it. Like, cause again, like.

I was talking to you before, like my website’s like an asset. You know, I get like 60, 70, 80 leads a month, you know, over a hundred during the summer times and like the peak selling season, you know, Washington’s pretty seasonal. So, you know, it’s a little, it’s a little on the lower end right now, but like, get a ton of leads every month.

And it’s on autopilot. I already did all the SEO work back in 2019, 2020, 21. And so now I just put a few hundred bucks a month on my site just to maintain my rankings and kind of show Google that people are still talking about me and I’m active. But like, so I would never do anything to jeopardize that. And there’s a lot of, you know.

like going and buying backlinks off of Fiverr or something like don’t do that. You’re going to burn the thing down. Don’t just pump out mass content written by AI or really any content like everything should have a purpose and you should know what you’re doing before you just start messing with things. If you don’t know what you’re doing, stop. Like don’t do it.

Scott Bursey (17:13)
That ⁓ was

excellent long-term vision, Keith, and your insights today have been worth the price of admission. This has been outstanding. For those of our listeners that would like to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what is the best way for them to reach you?

Keith Sant (17:31)
Yeah, mean, my cell phone, 253-293-9789. That’s usually the easiest way to get a hold of me. You can find me on Facebook, Keith Sant. We have an SEO meets Real Estate Investors Facebook group with over 2,500 people in it where we do like free live calls and answer questions and help people out along the way. And if you’re interested in like just paid stuff, like, and you want it done right the first time, can.

go to our site, seomeetsrealestateinvestors.com and we’re happy to do like a full service thing for you.

Scott Bursey (18:03)
Keith, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Keith Sant (18:07)
Absolutely, I appreciate it Scott, you take care.

Scott Bursey (18:09)
and to our listeners, we appreciate each and every one of you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ve got a lineup of exceptional guests, just like Keith, who are making huge moves in the market. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you on the next episode, everyone.