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Coffee Shop Talk - A New Look at Blogging for SEO

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with RealSupport Inc.

I was in a coffee shop the other day and overheard a small business meeting taking place.  Now, I am not in the habit of eavesdropping, but when I heard the term SEO, my ears perked up.  As a blogger, I know that one of my main responsibilities is to use key words throughout our clients blogs in order to organically boost their SEO.  It’s a tried and true tool that works.  (If you haven’t tried it, you need to!)

 

In the conversation, two of the people were part of the small business and the other person was their web designer.  He was talking about the key words and links he was going to create for them throughout their new, custom designed website.  I was impressed, this small business seemed to be on the right track with investing in a solid website that was up to date and peppered with SEO boosters throughout.  I kept listening.

 

The web designer went on to talk about the company’s blog for SEO.  “The website is great for SEO,’ he said, ‘but the blog will keep you at the top. If someone goes to Google, you want to be found on the top of the list.”  Wow!  I wanted to stand up and applaud this web designer!  He knew what he was talking about and was letting this small business know exactly what it was going to take to be most effective in their marketing. 

 

Sadly, when our clients are running low on funds, one of the first things to go is their real estate blog. Why?  Real estate blogging is somewhat ambiguous, just like other social marketing like Facebook or Twitter.  There isn’t a great way to measure your return on investment... or is there?

 

Did you know that you can see your real estate blog working for you?  Try this:  Go to your real estate blog and see what key words your Real Estate Virtual Assistant is using to boost your SEO.  (Now, if you don’t find any key words linked throughout each blog post; you’re in trouble.  Using and linking key words are what boosts your SEO!)  After you’ve grabbed a few of these key words; test them in Google.  Do the search yourself and see where your company comes up in the search engine.  

 

If you’re not on page 1 or page 2; you’ll need to either up how many times your Real Estate Virtual Assistant blogs for you each week, or give it a little more time if you’ve just started your real estate blog.

 

Let's look at an example.  Our client, Oak Shores Realty, has us blog for them at least two times a week.  I’ll blog real estate tips, community events or home tips each Tuesday and Thursday.  They also have us blog their new properties that come on the market, market statistics and local news as needed.  This has translated into major success for them in their Google ranking!  By searching one of their key words in Google, Lake Nacimiento Real Estate, you’ll see they’re at the top of the list on page 1!
 

 

The truth is, you can see your real estate blog at work for you!  It’s a vital part of boosting your SEO which enables people to easily find your company at the top of search engines.  And, as we know from the conversation I overheard, even professional web designers see the necessity of having a dynamic blog.

 

Not quite where you’re hoping to be with blogging?  Let us help!  We understand it can be hard to keep up with it consistently when you’ve got a ton of other work on your plate, or you may not even have a real estate blog yet.  We would love to talk with you and answer your blogging questions.  We can set up a custom blog for you and maintain it each week, so the next time you Google your key words; you’ll be happy with the results!


Allie Coyle
Blogging & Copywriting Specialist 

 

Comments (3)

George Fanucci
CoreFact.com - Los Altos, CA
Internet - Technology - Business - Solutions

Allie — You nailed it. Keywords on links and keywords in titles are the key to success for any blog.  I have heard a story from an agent using AR who blogged about a local event in town.  That blog post went to the top of Google for that long-tail keyword phrase, the name of the local event, resulting in many comments on the blog, and a few new clients!

Suggsted!

Feb 09, 2012 10:24 AM
Laura Cerrano
Feng Shui Manhattan Long Island - Locust Valley, NY
Certified Feng Shui Expert, Speaker & Researcher

Yeah Allie, It is such a fine line between between being an effect SEOer and being a spam bot.

 

Love and light,

Laura

Feb 09, 2012 12:33 PM
RealSupport, Inc.
RealSupport Inc. - Schaumburg, IL
- Virtual Real Estate Marketing

George- You are absolutely right! It's so important to utilize keywords effectively. Have you head of Google Adwords? You can use it to type in a word or phrase you'd like to convey in each blog post and see what major keywords go along with that topic. You obviously want to consistently include your geographic area and real estate in your keywords, but this is a great tool to use to see what words people are typing in to search engines and to develop your keywords around that. Thanks for commenting, and we hope that this post proved to be helpful to you!

Laura-Thanks for the comment! There is such a fine line between being effective and being spammy, but the key is to work your keywords in to your blog post in a way that makes sense and doesn't throw off the flow of your article. This takes practice and a keen eye, but we find that reading your work out loud before posting it really helps. We hope that you'll continue to read our blog! Thanks so much for your input!

Feb 15, 2012 09:46 AM