Hopefully after you read this blog you will decide to nominate it for a feature

#1: Because it is a case study that proves great blogging brings relevant search engine traffic (And that our stats aren't just high because other Realtors and webmasters are reading our blogs and commenting on them)

#2: Because I actually did math - I hate doing math, but I did some for you - so rate it a 5 and nominate for a feature!

Ok that was shameless - but seriously I think this case study is something every AR blogger will be interested in - I originally posted this at my REW Blog, under the heading - Blogging brings real traffic

Blogging brings real traffic.

Earlier today, we were having a discussion on the forum about using tags in your blog and it was stated by one of the members that we should care more about the SEO benefits of our blogs VS the actual benefit to our readers because this Realtor (And I quote) was "not convinced the general public is reading these things"

Now I already knew better and have been teaching bloggers and webmasters for years to always write and construct your content first and foremost for the benefit of the reader. Only after you have made sure that your writing is as good as it can be, go back and adjust where you can (Without sacrificing quality) and tune for SEO - This btw mainly means massaging your title's and headings a bit to make sure they contain some elements of your target phrases. (But remember it's not worth losing readability just to get a keyword in there) - Alright this is supposed to be a case study, so I'll stop tooting my own horn and get to the point

Blogging Case Study

On August 30th 2006 (Almost one year ago) I posted a blog article about the Northwest MLS and how I felt they were bullying one of their own members (Who also happened to be a member of Real Estate Webmasters Forum) to date this article has been read by 9375 unique visitors. I am going to use this blog post, and the Google Analytics data from my blog to demonstrate to all of those real estate bloggers who think that the only people that ever see our REW Blogs are other members and Realtors.

The blog post in question is located at: http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/blogs/morgan-carey/58/show/ for anyone who would like to reference it.

And now for the data!

Google Analytics Data:

Total Unique Visitors
NWMLS 1658 unique visitors
Combined Phrases containing NWMLS (328 different phrases) 2131 unique visitors
Northwest MLS 338 unique visitors
Combined Phrases containing "Northwest MLS" (197 different phrases) 664 unique visitors

These figures represent a grand total of 2795 unique visitors directly from Google searches and I have not even gone all that deep into the referring data, there are quite possibly this many more visitations brought into the blog post from other phrases that - quite frankly - I didn't even need to get into because just these numbers alone prove me point.

Also keep in mind that these figures only reflect traffic from the Google search engine, there are still many more visitations that have come by way of Yahoo, MSN and other search engines.

So what does this mean? Well let's crunch some numbers

With a total of 9375 unique visitors, just the Google traffic from 2 phrases (And their variations and long tails which total 2795) we can safely assume that 29.8% of traffic (And this is DRASTICALLY UNDER CALCULATING) has been brought to the blog post directly from relevant searches. If I had to estimate or guess, I would say that in reality no less than 50% of traffic that reads your REW Blog each time you post is a potential customer that was actually interested in what you had to say about some relevant subject and NOT just another member of Real Estate Webmasters that is a Realtor looking for blogs to comment on.

The moral of the story

Writing great blog posts that are properly (Not overly) optimized focusing on the subject matter and your intended audience will bring you a TON of relevant search engine traffic - and we all know relevant traffic means potential customers - and customers mean commissions right?

I hope this case study has inspired you to approach your topic selection (Hopefully using blogalytics) with the goal of providing the most relevant and insightful content possible realizing that it isn't just your fellow real estate bloggers that will be reading it

So what are you waiting for - GET BLOGGING!