86.3% of real estate websites don't use RealEstateAgent or RealEstateListing schema, the code that tells Google a site belongs to an agent or lists homes, and 46.1% have no schema markup at all, the second highest rate of 15 industries.
Analysis of 487 real estate websites · US real estate Google Business Profiles and their websites, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.86.3% of real estate websites don't use RealEstateAgent or RealEstateListing schema, the code that tells search engines the site belongs to a real estate agent or lists homes.
- 2.46.1% of real estate websites have no schema markup of any kind, the second highest rate of 15 industries and well above the 32.9% average.
- 3.45.4% of real estate websites miss at least one basic SEO element on their homepage, the fourth highest rate of 15 industries, against a 37.9% average.
- 4.29.6% of real estate homepages have no meta description, the summary Google can show under the link in its results, and 28.7% have no H1 heading.
- 5.25.1% of real estate websites have no XML sitemap, the file that lists a site's pages for search engines, against an 18.3% average across 15 industries.
Summary
A couple planning a move searches for a real estate agent in the neighborhood they want, and for homes for sale there. Google shows national listing portals, brokerages and a handful of local agents. The agents whose websites Google understands clearly have a chance to appear alongside the portals; the rest are left to hope a buyer finds them some other way.
Search engines rely on a few basic signals to understand what a page is about: a page title, a short description, a main heading, a secure connection and schema markup, code that states in machine-readable terms that this is a real estate agent, which areas they cover and how to reach them. They cost almost nothing to add and help Google's results and its AI answers describe the business correctly.
Real estate websites miss more of these than most industries. 86.3% don't use the schema types made for agents and listings, and 46.1% have no schema at all, the second highest rate of 15 industries. 45.4% miss at least one of the four basics on their homepage, the fourth highest rate, most often the meta description.
What we measured
In September 2026 we took 487 real estate websites listed on US Google Business Profiles and checked each homepage for four basics: a title tag, the page name shown as the blue link in search results; a meta description, the summary Google can show under that link; at least one H1 heading, the main headline on the page; and HTTPS, the secure connection shown by the padlock in a browser. A site fails the basic check if its homepage misses any of the four.
We also recorded whether the homepage title was too long to show in full on Google, whether any page on the site could not be added to Google's index, whether the site had an XML sitemap, the file that lists a site's pages for search engines, and which schema types each site used. Schema markup is code that states in machine-readable terms what a business is, where it is and what it does. We ran the same checks on websites in 15 industries, from accounting to HVAC, so each real estate figure can be compared with the 15-industry average.
Most real estate websites never tell Google they are an agent
Schema.org, the shared vocabulary Google and other search engines read, has types made for this industry: RealEstateAgent for the agent or brokerage and RealEstateListing for a home for sale. They let a site state who the agent is, the areas they serve and the details of each listing in a form search engines can use directly. Only 13.7% of real estate websites use either one, fewer than one in seven.
46.1% of real estate websites have no schema at all, second only to accounting firms among 15 industries and well above the 32.9% average. The schema that real estate websites do use is mostly generic: WebSite (on 35% of real estate websites), SearchAction (23%), WebPage (19%) and PostalAddress (19%).
Real estate websites miss the basics more than most
That is the fourth highest rate of 15 industries, well above the 37.9% average. Real estate homepages trail the average on every one of the four basics: 29.6% have no meta description (against 23%), 28.7% have no H1 heading (against 24.5%), 5.5% have no title tag (against 2.8%) and 3.3% don't use HTTPS (against 2.2%).
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 487 real estate websites · US real estate Google Business Profiles and their websites, September 2026
| Check | Real estate | 15-industry average |
|---|---|---|
| Fail at least one basic check | 45.4% | 37.9% |
| No H1 heading | 28.7% | 24.5% |
| No meta description | 29.6% | 23% |
| Title too long | 16.6% | 20.1% |
| No XML sitemap | 25.1% | 18.3% |
| Page not indexable | 20.1% | 15.2% |
| No title tag | 5.5% | 2.8% |
| Not on HTTPS | 3.3% | 2.2% |
| No schema markup | 46.1% | 32.9% |
The gaps reach beyond the homepage. 25.1% of real estate websites have no XML sitemap, against an 18.3% average, and 20.1% have at least one page Google cannot add to its index, against 15.2%. On a site whose value is dozens of neighborhood and listing pages, pages that are missing from the sitemap or blocked from the index are homes buyers cannot find.
Real estate ranks fourth worst of 15 industries
Across the 15 industries, the share of websites failing at least one basic check runs from 26% for HVAC companies to 53.1% for accounting firms. Real estate, at 45.4%, sits fourth from the top, behind accounting, manufacturing and restaurants.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 487 real estate websites · US real estate Google Business Profiles and their websites, September 2026
WordPress runs 26.7% of real estate websites, and real estate sites on WordPress fail the basic checks 63.1% of the time, well above the 45.4% for real estate overall. Many agent websites run on listing and brokerage platforms instead, where titles, descriptions and headings come from the vendor's templates.
What this means for real estate agents
Add RealEstateAgent schema to your homepage with your name, brokerage, the areas you serve and your phone number, and make sure each listing page carries listing details search engines can read. It is the biggest gap on real estate websites, and it helps Google and AI answers describe you correctly when a buyer or seller searches for an agent nearby.
Then fix the basics on the pages that matter most: your homepage, your neighborhood pages and your agent pages each need their own title, meta description and one H1, and all of them belong in your XML sitemap. If your site runs on a listing or brokerage platform, ask the vendor for control over these fields. Our real estate seo work starts with exactly these checks.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/real-estate-website-seo-audit">86% of Real Estate Websites Have No Real Estate Agent Schema - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). 86% of Real Estate Websites Have No Real Estate Agent Schema. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/real-estate-website-seo-audit
86% of Real Estate Websites Have No Real Estate Agent Schema - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/real-estate-website-seo-audit