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Content Marketing best practices

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Marte Cliff Copywriting

We've been hearing lately that blog posts need to be 1,000 to 1,500 words long for SEO, and my question was "What about the readers? Will actual people take the time to read that much?"

Neil Patel has the answer to that and 6 more questions about content marketing in this morning's Quick Sprout blog post.

It's worth your time to read, because you just might be doing some of the things that he says will harm you rather than help. 

A reminder before I go - Neil writes about the mistakes you can make in placing your content. I believe he assumes that you'll do what I harp about all the time:

  1. Keep your paragraphs short
  2. Leave some white space
  3. Use subheads and bullet points
  4. Check your spelling
  5. Check your grammar
  6. Check your word choice
  7. Proofread for typos

If you follow Neil's 7 points and my 7 points, you'll have content that people will both see and read. 

Comments (23)

Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Patty Da Silva, Davie, Southwest Ranches Cooper City, Plantation, Weston, REALTOR You're right - for some reason pictures or other graphics do make a difference. 

Oct 03, 2014 03:44 AM
Sybil Campbell
Fernandina Beach, FL
Referral Agent Amelia Island Florida

Marte, great advice, I think most people today won't take the time to read an extremely long blog or one that has really small font.  Bullet points are a good idea too.

Oct 03, 2014 04:30 AM
Women of Westchester Working Together
Women of Westchester Working Together - West Harrison, NY
Women helping Women get ahead

I'm off to read this.  Neil Patel is awesome and I've followed him for a while.  Re: 1000 - 1500 word posts, yes, I think they really can and do work when as customer is searching for info and knowledge.  Many of my top posts are in this range and a couple even longer. I get calls about these posts all the time - both local and across the country.  I can tell from the Google analytics and time on page, too.

 

Please note that this is different from all of us reading/commenting on here.  Different target audience and different purpose.   

Oct 03, 2014 05:06 AM
Beth and Richard Witt
New York, NY
The best Retired Brokers !!!!

Thanks for the tips Marte... Off to read what Neil has to say... Happy Day...

Oct 03, 2014 05:34 AM
Donna Foerster
HomeSmart Realty Group - Parker, CO
Metro Denver Real Estate Assistant

Marte~ I don't believe someone will read a post that long unless it's critical information that they NEED.

Oct 03, 2014 09:21 AM
Kathy Streib
Cypress, TX
Home Stager/Redesign

Marte- I'm going over to Neil Patel's post after this.  For me, I've always liked the Peanuts approach to things.  Get the point across without a lot of words.  For fun, I wrote a post that was about 1000 words and I was bored just writing it.

Oct 03, 2014 11:08 AM
Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate
Fred Griffin Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker

An excellent "short list" of great Content Marketing tips.  Thank you, Marte! 

Oct 03, 2014 11:30 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Sybil Campbell You make a good point about the font.

I have a client I love who let his "web guys" install a font I hate. It's not too small, but it's too "faint." I have to work to read the copy, so I wonder if there's any point in me updating his pages and adding more. 

Our goal always should be to include good copy - and to make it easy to read.

Oct 03, 2014 11:44 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Women of Westchester Working Together Debbie, you are so right. When a post gives information that people need and want, they'll read more. Heck, I read your posts about flooring even though I'm not planning on buying any right now. It's just interesting to learn. 

Richard & Beth Witt I think you'll appreciate his wisdom. 

Donna Foerster Neil points that out in his post - different blog posts have different purposes.

Oct 03, 2014 11:48 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Kathy Streib You gave me a giggle. Sometimes I write things I think are boring - and I delete them! 

 

Oct 03, 2014 11:48 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

@Fred Griffin - Thanks. 

Oct 03, 2014 11:49 AM
Joan Whitebook
BHG The Masiello Group - Nashua, NH
Consumer Focused Real Estate Services

I have to say that when I click on posts that are that long, I either leave or I only read a few paragraps, so I just wonder how this will work out.

Oct 03, 2014 01:04 PM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Joan - Read what Neil has to say about that. He recommends that business to consumer NOT be that long. 

Oct 03, 2014 01:22 PM
Tammie White, Broker
Franklin Homes Realty LLC - Franklin, TN
Franklin TN Homes for Sale

As long as there's something worthwhile in a post with 1,000 words, I'm good.

Oct 03, 2014 02:03 PM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Tammie White Yes - it has to be a subject I'm really interested in, and has to give me something I didn't already know. 

Oct 03, 2014 02:10 PM
Wayne Martin
Wayne M Martin - Chicago, IL
Real Estate Broker - Retired

Marte, mpst of my posts are 10 to 15 times shorter depending on the benchmark you use! Enjoy your day!

Oct 03, 2014 09:41 PM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Wayne Martin And according to Neil, that's just fine. 

Oct 04, 2014 05:15 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Walls of text are a huge turn off, and when I roll up on something with a ton of errors in the text, I get turned off immediately.

Oct 05, 2014 10:21 AM
Tammie White, Broker
Franklin Homes Realty LLC - Franklin, TN
Franklin TN Homes for Sale

Marte, I write market reports every month with a brief (500 words) explanation. These posts are designed to direct sellers to my website. Anyhow, I rank on page one of Google for many of these reports. Yesterday, I saw a market report on AR that was very short and sweet. It's primary purpose was to send the reader to the writer's website. Only one problem--I Googled this neighborhood and the post was nowhere to be found in the SERPs. Why not? My opinion is the blogger didn't include an explanation in excess of 300 words. I understand what you are saying about lengthy posts but if consumers can't find them, what good are they?

Oct 08, 2014 02:57 PM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Chris Ann Cleland I don't even try to read walls of words - unless they're from a client, so I have to. 

Tammie White From what Neil has gathered, it appears that the number of words don't matter as much as the value of the words AND the graphics. He cites statistics for a site with extremely short posts that's doing very well. It really is a puzzle. My opinion: If what you're doing works, keep doing it! 

Oct 09, 2014 02:29 AM