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Writing Your Real Estate Blog Primarily to Google is a Squandered Opportunity.

By
Real Estate Technology with Real Estate Tomato


Hitting-google-missing-the-markThanks to the recent frequency and quality of guest posts, I’ve had the pleasure of taking a little time off from shouldering the content on the Tomato.  Keeping in stride, we have another treat for you.  Todd Carpenter, ubiquitous RE.net participant, and owner and author of the globally appreciated mariah.com (a web 2.0 real estate network of websites), just emailed over this solid piece weighing the value of blogging for Search Engine exposure.

Writing Your Real Estate Blog Primarily to Google is a Squandered Opportunity.
By Todd Carpenter


What’s the difference between a blogging expert and a real estate expert?

Blogging experts may or may not understand how the real estate industry operates. Take, for example the theory forwarded that, for the sake of superior Google search results, bloggers should not write about their community. That instead, they should stick to posts that are only about real estate itself.

You’ll get no argument from me that a real estate blogger should blog about real estate. Blog about your listings. Blog about your open houses. Blog about market conditions. Blog about foreclosures. You’re a real estate agent, of course you should write about real estate.

Blogging this way and you’ll get search engine traffic. However, blogging only about real estate means leaving much of a blog's marketing power at the table.

Some experts scoff at the idea of blogging about the community, or local businesses, or even writing a restaurant review. These topics may not drive in large numbers of web driven leads, but let’s face it, you can BUY Internet leads. You’re not in the Internet leads business. You’re in the real estate business.

Step away from blogging for a minute and think about how successful real estate agents market in the real world.

Referrals are key to driving a successful real estate business. I’ll take one referral from a real live human over a hundred from Google. Referrals from past clients are very powerful, but you can use you’re blog to create a referral stream from people you’ve never worked with before.

 ...Continued - Where is John going with this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN TRUNCATED FROM ITS ORIGINAL LOCATION, AND THE REMAINDER OF IT CAN BE FOUND BY SIMPLY CLICKING BELOW:

Writing Your Real Estate Blog Primarily to Google is a Squandered Opportunity.

IT HAS BEEN CHOPPED BECAUSE THIS IS A SYNDICATION OF THE ORIGINAL, AND IT HAS BEEN PROVEN THAT FOR SEO PURPOSES IT IS NOT A GOOD STRATEGY TO POST THE SAME ARTICLE IN ITS ENTIRETY IN MORE THAN ONE LOCATION.

Get Juiced

 

Comments(12)

The Michael Pierce Team
Better Homes & Gardens Kansas City Homes - Leawood, KS
Kansas City Real Estate Experts
I think that it is mostimportant to blog about Real Estate on your blog but it is also important to post blogs about the area as well.  At least that will be seen as pertinent information for leads considering a move to the area.  When people are moving from out of town, they not only want to work with someone who is knowledgeable about real estate, they also want someone who is knowledgeable about that area as well.  See you at the Tomato.
Mar 31, 2008 03:30 PM
Susie Blackmon
Ocala, FL
Ocala, Horses, Western Wear, Horse Farms, Marketing

Love writing and blogging and am working on improving every day to enhance my value to potential clients... not Google.

XXOO


Apr 01, 2008 01:14 AM
Peter Wolf
Coldwell Banker - Valley Village, CA
Blogging about the area is about Real Estate.  We don't just move into a house, but a neighborhood.  Most clients want to know where they can shop, eat, walk, take the dogs, buy groceries, etc.  My old manager used to tell the story about the restaurant reviews he did in his newsletter that became a must read. 
Apr 01, 2008 06:26 AM
Doris Freeman
Zach Taylor Real Estate - Gallatin, TN
Broker/Agent, 615-961-7799
Thanks for the post I am new at this blogging and such so any good information, I appreciate.
Apr 01, 2008 12:42 PM
Sharon Simms
Coastal Properties Group International - Christie's International - Saint Petersburg, FL
St. Petersburg FL - CRS CIPS CLHMS RSPS
Of course we should blog about real estate, but much of selling real estate is selling lifestyle, so it's important - IMHO - that we write about the lifestyle as well. Someone has to want to live in our area before they want to buy a property here.
Apr 01, 2008 01:05 PM
Anonymous
Liz Provo

As the owner of a for sale by owner advertising service in Massachusetts, I introduced a series of articles for our monthly real estate magazine which focused on local communities in Western Mass.  I invited local college students who were majoring in journalism/English/marketing to discover a community and write about it from an angle that was not easily provided in some of the cookie cutter town websites.  We were very pleased with the efforts and results and intend on continuing the series in our new Buyer's Guide To 4 Sale By Owner & Builder. The authors were not paid for their articles/photos, but did get reprint rights for their portfolios as they became legitimate published authors.  We have considered doing snippits of our community articles to include in our blog here on Active Rain or in our Massachusetts 4 Sale By Owner Real Estate Blog

Apr 02, 2008 12:19 AM
#6
Russ Ravary ~ Metro Detroit Realtor call (248) 310-6239
Real Estate One - Commerce, MI
Michigan homes for sale ~ yesmyrealtor@gmail.com
I disagree, many people are calling me or emailing me because I know about the area and the communities.
Apr 02, 2008 01:33 AM
Sherry Kotvis -Work. Live. Play
eXp Realty - Temecula, CA
Have A Life Worth Living!
I've been researching Realty Blogging and research indicates that blogging is brand building. In essence we as Realtors are building our brand and positioning ourselves as the experts. As a blogger, we are creating our own niches by localization. As we localize ourselves Googles search engine picks up on key identifiers. Search engines pick up on these identifers from blogs more than web-sites. With this being said, your blog will rise to the top of the search engine based on key words or tags.  Choose your tags and be consistent. This is what brands you and creates your niche in the marketplace...
Apr 09, 2008 09:30 AM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel
Thanks for the post. I often wondered about it. I will read the entire article.
Apr 09, 2008 11:22 PM
Lars Roma
Seattle, WA

Tomato, I don't have great expectations in wining any biz or even leads from my blogging.  So far I have learned much more, your biog being a good example, than I have "given" so far, so for me it has been a gold mine of marketing ideas.  But I also feel it does provide some degree of branding and awareness.  With more eyeballs on the Internet looking for homes than are reading our printed Real Estate Book these days, it seems that the Internet is the place to be, so blogging is a powerful tool for us and best of all, for the most part , its free.  When was the last time time an agent or broker had a real estate  column published in their local newspaper that the paper didnt charge for?

My gut tells me this blogging thing has some traction, if I can find the right trails........thanks for the post!

 Also, love your site! 

Apr 11, 2008 06:31 PM
Real Estate Tomato
Real Estate Tomato - Cottonwood, CA
Real Estate Website Design Done Beautifully

Rich,

Whether directly or indirectly, I believe that a dedication to (solid) blogging is going to improve anyone's career... be it RE, or any other consulting business.  Right on, Man.  Glad to have your readership.

Apr 15, 2008 09:34 AM
Tiffany L. Young
Young Real Estate Group - Weston, FL
GRI, ABR - South Florida Real Estate
Thank you for the great post.  Very Informative, I hope that more of us put that good advice to practice. I know I will.
Apr 20, 2008 10:18 AM