New Avenues: The Evolution of SEO and How to Stay Ahead
Search is about to get a lot more complicated.
Customers no longer just turn to Google when they search for a new apartment. They’re increasingly looking to artificial intelligence tools for advice and consulting social media sites for additional perspectives on where to move next.
For marketers, this could mean a turn away from the data-driven, keyword-focused SEO content strategies of the past. To be ready for the next generation of search, a new approach is needed.
According to research from Omnicom Media Group, 54 percent of consumers reported that no single search platform meets all their needs. Instead, customers may use a variety of sources to search for info.
“Prospects don’t follow the same search patterns anymore, but the common thread is trust,” said Melissa Brady, senior vice president of marketing, communications and customer experience at Fogelman Properties. “The brands that show up consistently, with accurate and compelling content across multiple touchpoints, are the ones that win.”
Moving up the funnel
One way to take advantage of consumers’ changing search habits is to bulk up on your top-of-funnel marketing topics, according to Kyle Jones, agency manager for REACH by RentCafe. AI tools excel at top-of-funnel queries where users are interested in gaining high-level information about a property or an area before committing to applying.
“It’s the ‘what,’ ‘where,’ ‘when’ and ‘why’ questions that aren’t being searched on Google as prominently,” Jones said. “It’s when users are kind of getting their feet wet and figuring out what they want to do, and they have a lot more nuance in their searches.”
To access these early-stage queries—whether they take place on Google or an AI engine—one tactic that marketers can employ is neighborhood marketing. With this method, you write content for an apartment site that focuses solely on the neighborhood a property is located in.
Essentially, neighborhood marketing means discussing a neighborhood in the context of a city—rather than the traditional practice of discussing a property in the context of a neighborhood.
Prospects don’t follow the same search patterns anymore, but the common thread is trust.
—Melissa Brady, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Customer Experience, Fogelman Properties
From a technical SEO perspective, this provides authority to a property website for queries related to a targeted neighborhood, allowing apartment sites to “climb one rung up the optimization level,” according to Jones.
Fogelman, for example, has created a dedicated website about downtown Memphis. Once a user reaches the site, they can learn about the neighborhood in a general sense and then discover various Fogelman communities in the area.
“It’s written in a clear, conversational tone and structured to be easily understood by both people and generative engines,” Brady shared. “By creating localized content hubs, we’re helping prospects visualize their life in that area and naturally guiding them toward our properties within it.”
Social media as a search engine
Beyond AI, more consumers—especially the Gen Z demographic—are turning to social media platforms such as TikTok for top-of-funnel style searches, including broad searches about neighborhoods. A survey conducted by Forbes Advisor and Talker Research, for example, found that 46 percent of Gen Z and 35 percent of Millennials turn to social media before search engines.
“You fish where the fish are,” recommended Brandon Hornibrook, a digital marketing consultant at Quantum Digital Experience. “There’s an opportunity there to use that visual medium to differentiate your brand and your experience and also to capture a target market that you might not necessarily capture through Google and traditional search.”
Because this trend is especially prevalent among younger generations, Jones suggested that a social-heavy search strategy could make sense for student properties, while communities targeting older generations should focus on traditional search methods and other social media platforms like Facebook. Of course, it’s always crucial to maintain compliance with fair housing marketing rules, which limit targeting certain demographics.
Don’t forsake SEO for the new, shiny toy quite yet.
—Kyle Jones, Agency Manager at REACH by RentCafe
Don’t forget the fundamentals
Search choices are rapidly expanding. Hornibrook compares the emergence of AI chatbots and social media search to when American consumers first gained media alternatives beyond the TV network giants ABC, CBS and NBC. So how can you navigate all the options?
Despite the changing landscape, the basic strategies of SEO will still apply, Jones said, because the actions in bottom-of-funnel marketing, like completing an application, are still done on a property web page.
“We’re seeing that traditional search engine traffic is still the No. 1 driver of leads and leases,” Jones noted. “So don’t forsake SEO for the new, shiny toy quite yet.”
Many tactics for GEO, or generative engine optimization, complement traditional SEO ones. For instance, generative engines are attracted to long-form content, such as blog posts, which can be easy to integrate into an existing keyword-focused SEO strategy.
Chatbots are also drawn to specificity on web pages, since users of these tools often input specific questions about a neighborhood or property. To account for this, Jones recommended adding an FAQ section to any property site that lists additional info that might not otherwise fit in with content elsewhere on the site.
As for budgeting time and resources between all these marketing channels, the key is an integrated approach that uses each platform’s strengths to reach a target audience. Social media content can help to drive brand awareness, GEO and neighborhood marketing can highlight properties in new types of searches and SEO can continue to drive lease closings.
“The next phase of marketing isn’t about chasing algorithms,” Brady said. “It’s about building authority, clarity and connection that stand the test of every platform shift.”
