Avoiding the bipolar website and blog
Does your website or blog need Prozac? Does your site ramble on and on touching on everything from phone cards to razor blades and eventually getting around to your listings, local information and maybe somewhere in there what a great agent you are? If so, here is a valuable prescription for your site.
Quality Content is king in the world of SEO.
When you are writing for the web, you must stay focused and on-topic, if you stray too far from the intended theme of an article, you will devalue your content to search engines. We’ve already established that search engines for all their technical mumbo jumbo aren’t really that smart. They want to see that your content is clear, concise, dense with keywords, centralized in theme and generally stays on point. If you insist on discussing how great you son is at soccer and what’s happening with Paris Hilton at length on a site selling homes in Denver, you will lose the interest of a search engine. (I didn’t just pull that one out the air, we actually have a client that needed convincing that talking about the Pairs and Nicole Fued was unacceptable on their real estate blog) While, I may write long, wordy blogs, you don’t have to. It’s not necessary. A solid 250-500 word post is all you need. If you feel the need to become overly wordy in each article, you will actually decrease your keyword density. If you feel compelled to include poison words like FREE and HURRICANE KATRINA in every entry, your site is not going to be ranked well.
The web, just like your customers like short, sweet, to the point content. Also, much like your customers, engines don’t want a whole bunch of useless off-topic info. Don’t use your site as an extension of your print campaign or to discuss how you didn’t like the last season of the Sopranos. That means minimize your sales pitch and rants and maximize your expertise. You need to provide valuable, useful information to your potential customers. If you are selling homes, provide useful information on what the market conditions are in your area, what listings will move first, where the hot areas of town to buy are... I’m not talking about giving away your entire body of expertise so people don’t need your service, but you ought to be able to provide some expert advice that will help to further your role as an authority in the field. People like to know they are dealing with experts that know what they are doing. Prove it by providing regularly updated content that gives helpful tips related to your farm area, the real estate industry as whole and your specific listings.
SEO Content Rules
Rule 1: KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid.
You don’t have to write a book with each post. Keep each article on topic and short. If you feel the need to be prolific, great! But write more articles that are shorter and do not combine topics on a single page.
People like content that is split up with bullet points and has lots of white space. It helps them read and digest what you have to say better.
Rule 2: Write with keywords in mind.
Have a list of keywords you would like the article you are writing to be searchable by. Be sure to include those keywords and repeat them frequently throughout the article to increase keyword density and relevancy. Keywords are specific terms that you would expect your customer to search for your site by. Think to yourself, “what would I enter in Google to find my site and how can I incorporate those words into this article?”
Check the keyword density of your articles with the Widexl Meta Tag Analyzer. Having a reasonably keyword density is the sign that you do not, in fact, have a bipolar website/blog.
Be careful: while you want a reasonable density- too much density looks likekeyword spamming and freaks out Google.
Rule 3: Provide regularly updated content to your site.
Fresh content tells engines that they should check the site more regularly. If an engine sees that you haven’t updated your content in six months or more, it simple won’t crawl you that often. So, fresh content invigorates a site and helps with SEO. The best way to accomplish this is to integrate a blog into your website.
Rule 4: Provide useful information.
What kind of stuff is a customer looking at your site interested in? Buying, selling, mortgages, local attractions… The list is endless. Write about those things. You are an expert in both how to buy and sell real estate and your local farm area, so let your customer know that by writing content that is less sales pitchy and more valuable. You can divulge helpful tips or entertaining facts without giving away your secrets. Be sure to include content that speaks to a customer and gives them a reason to bookmark your website.
Ideas for writing engaging real estate content that is on point
Resources:
Real Estate Blog Writing 101
Copyblogger
- Hold a contest. Like Sellsius recommend, hold a local content on your blog. Call out to local photographers and house hunters alike to take pictures of local attractions. You can even notify a local newspaper of your “blog contest.” If your town is small enough, it may even get picked up! Judge your entries and post the winners on your site. This kind of contest, keeps it local and engages the community as a whole. Check out Teresa’s pumpkin contest!
- Be sensational. I always call out Christine’s Blog for covering the Billy Joe home sale, so I’ll do it again here. This was brilliant. It completely opened her blog up to a whole new audience and made her easier to find on the web while still keeping on the topic of New York and home sales.
- Give a lesson. Hey, I am the undisputed world champion of real estate technology tutorial marketing! (don’t let that Jim Cronin at the Tomato see this… we might have to have a blog-off). Give a solid lesson on how to stage a home for sale. Or provide a “top 10” list of things to do before a closing. People like to learn things that directly relate to their lives and how to be successful at their tasks. Spend the time to write a solid tutorial at least once a week. It is a sure fire way to keep your readers engaged. A good example of a great tutorial marketing Realtor is Jay, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy.
- Be entertaining. Even if you are telling people how horrible the market is in your area, make ‘em laugh. If you can make the boring content entertaining, people will line up (subscribe to your RSS feed) just to hear what kind of wacky thing you will say next. Take a look at TLW’s blog. She’s engaging because she makes you laugh but get’s her point across. Not a boring post on her blog! People love her for it. Look at all the comments BB and her amass!
- Make complex topics understandable. Make sure that no matter how complex the topic you are writing about is, you make it understandable. I can talk about canonicalization all day long, but understanding my mortgage… forget it. Nobody likes to feel confused and stupid because they read a post, so if you are writing on a complex subject, have another agent in your office review it- get a second pair of eyes to see if you wrote intelligibly.
Mary McKnight
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I am curious which is more important. Great information and content, or great appeal (humor, pictures, etc.), though I am pretty sure your answer will be a balance of both. I have heard that people will turn off a web site quickly if it doesn't contain enough visual content and too much informational content.
Thanks again for the information, and I really do not understand how your average rating is less than 4. I give you a 5 just about every time I rate your posts.