WHAT IS A REAL ESTATE MARKET REPORT
A real estate market report is a monthly record of what’s trending in the real estate industry. The reports can be established on a national or local level. Information reported in a monthly real estate market report includes statistics for single-family homes, townhouses, and condos. The market data covers trends in home buying and selling, median home values, median price per square foot, number of transactions, and other pertinent information about the area’s real estate. Real estate market reports are used by real estate professionals as well as individuals interested in buying or selling real estate in the near future.
WHY IS MONTHLY REAL ESTATE MARKET REPORT NECESSARY FOR LEAD GENERATION?
Real estate agents create monthly real estate reports for a variety of reasons, but primarily to generate leads. With the publication of a monthly market report, real estate professionals can:
- Establish authority and expertise in their industry
- Gain rank in search engines
- Drive traffic to a website
- Garner social shares
- Use reports as an email marketing blast.
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THINK SEO: KEYWORDS, TITLE, SLUG, SNIPPET
The main goal of creating monthly real estate analysis reports is to gain rank in search engines. When a user types in the query, “Real estate in Las Vegas” - or any related phrase about buying or selling in your area, you want to be amongst the top results on the search engine results page (SERP). Before you begin writing your market report, think about SEO.
KEYWORDS
Google no longer appreciates over-using a specific keyword. Instead, the search engines analyze data to determine what the main keyword is, but also what other related keywords competing websites contain. For example, a real estate website may have a focus keyword, “Real Estate Market Report”, but will also contain similar words such as:
- House
- Home
- Listing
- Housing
- Stats
- Data
Determine what your focus keyword will be, and then make a list of related words and phrases to use throughout your post. Embrace the world of synonyms to stay away from keyword stuffing.
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TITLE
The title of your post should be clear, concise, contain your focus keyword, and consist of about 55 characters, or 6 words. The title, also called a title tag or H1 header, is what catches the attention of the reader as well as the search engines. Although it is possible to generate separate titles for the blog post, SEO title, and social network titles, you can keep it simple by writing up one snappy 6-word, 55-character, eye-catching, informative headline.
In WordPress, when you title a blog post, WordPress automatically creates the HTML title tag code, or makes the title as the H! Heading. There's no need to include special HTML code or repeat the title in the body of the post. WordPress does that for you.
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SLUG
Your slug is the part of your pages URL or web address that appears after the / in your domain name. For example, if our title is, “How to Create a Real Estate Market Report to Get More Leads”, then our slug might be, “Real-Estate-Market-Report-Tutorial”
When someone visits that link, their address bar will then display, for example:
http://www.LoriBallen.com/real-estate-market-report-tutorial
SNIPPET
Your snippet is the short paragraph that appears beside your link on a search engine results page. This paragraph should compel users to click your link rather than the other links on the search engine results page.
When you don’t create a specific snippet, Google uses the text from the first paragraph in your article. However, the content is cut off after around 160 characters. Rather than let Google repeat your first sentences, why not craft a snippet designed to catch your reader’s attention without being cut off as an incomplete thought?
Your snippet should answer the question, or promise to answer the question, posed by the user in their search query. In a few short words, tell your reader what they’ll discover when they click on your link. For example, here’s a snippet weighing in at 150 words:
What’s hot this month in LV Real Estate? Is this a good time to buy, or is it a seller’s market? Discover median home values, cost per sq. ft., and get a free, 15-second home valuation.
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INTRO
When you’ve got your post titled and your keywords, synonyms, and related phrases defined, it’s time to go to work. Before you lay it all out on the line, you’ve got to catch the attention of your readers in the first paragraph. Your first paragraph should be written well enough that the reader chooses to continue reading. Although you don’t need skill like Shakespeare or the vocabulary of an English professor, if you fail to capture the reader in paragraph one, it won’t matter what you write in subsequent paragraphs. You’ll have lost your audience before you’ve begun.
As with the title, slug, and snippet, you want to use your keyword “magic” in your introductory paragraph without being guilty of keyword-stuffing. Here, you’ll tell your reader what they will gain from reading the rest of your real estate market report. For example:
“In this February 2017 issue of the Las Vegas Real Estate Market Report provided by Ballen Vegas, discover what’s trending: how many listings are hitting the market? How long do houses stay on the market before selling? What is the median home value in Las Vegas this month? And what does this mean for you? Here’s the deal:”
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H2, H3 TAGS
H1, or Heading 1, is the title of the blog post. However, H2 - H6 tags, or heading tags, serve two purposes.
First, they add to the readability and overall quality of an article or blog post by breaking up content into sub-topics. When H1 is the Heading or Title Tag, then H2-H6 are subheadings. The title is the topic, the subheadings are supporting topics. H2-H6 tags display in various font sizes and formats, adding visual separation between topics.
Secondly, H1-H6 tags are used by search engines. Search engine spiders crawl the web, scanning content, piecing together what the artificial intelligence comprehends as relative content.
WHEN CREATING YOUR REAL ESTATE MARKET REPORT, SOME H2-H6 TAGS COULD INCLUDE:
- Numbers - Example: December saw 4,127 single family homes sell. These properties sold on average at $1.78 per square foot, which was a median sales price of $329,000. (You can obtain your real estate market data through your Title or Escrow company, MLS, or by searching Google for Real Estate Market Housing Stats.
-
Median Prices
- 3 bedroom
- 4 bedroom
- 5 bedroom
- Las Vegas homes with pools
- A Look at the Condo Market
- A Look at the High-rise Market
- What does this Data Mean?
- How Can this Data Help if You Are Buying a House in Las Vegas
- Where is the Benefit of this Data if You Are Selling a House in Las Vegas?
The more specific you can get to your real estate niche, the more lucrative your market reports will be in terms of real estate lead generation. For example, in Seattle, a good sub-topic would be “Floating Homes”. You can also break down local real estate market reports by neighborhood, zip code, etc.
INTERNAL LINKS
Internal links are links within your market report, article, or blog post that lead the viewer into other areas of your website.
Community pages in your website are pages created specifically for a particular area. Community pages often offer a brief overview of an area, local schools, parks, public transportation, climate, and other facts pertaining to that neighborhood.
Property pages in your website are pages created with IDX widgets to showcase homes in a particular price range, location, school zone, zip code, or by features. For example, you could use IDX Broker to create a widget showcasing single family 3 bedroom homes under $200,000. When you plug the widget (copy the html code) into your page, your page can display a table of properties matching that criteria.
CREATING WIDGETS FOR PROPERTY PAGES
Using IDX Broker, creating custom widgets for your community and property pages is quick and practically painless.
First, create a new post in your WordPress site titled appropriately, such as “Single Family Homes in Las Vegas Under $200,000”.
In IDX Broker, click
-
Designs
-
Widgets
- Create
-
Widgets
When asked what type of widget you want to create, select “Showcase”.
Properties to feature: Enter “custom search”, then “advanced search”.
Select the following:
ONLY
- active (not under contract)
- single family
- in Las Vegas
Then same your search as (example) “Single Family Homes in Las Vegas”
Next, you can optimize your widget’s views. Recommended settings for the purposes of creating property pages is 3 column, 15 listings then prompt to click for more.
Click “Build a Widget”.
Once you click “Build a Widget”, IDX Broker will display for you a bit of javascript code. Copy that code. On your WordPress post, click the “text” tab, then paste the javascript code into the body.
When you return to the "visual" tab, you'll see a small placeholder image. However, when you preview your post, you'll be able to see the table of properties created for you via IDX Broker.
The purpose of creating property and community pages in advance (or on the fly as you build your market report) is to direct your viewer to a place where they can view properties for sale. Anywhere in your real estate market report that you state facts about a property type, location, price, or feature, you can then link that text to the property page you created.
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Did You Know: Ballen Brands designs websites tailored specifically to real estate agents. Find out how to get your B.R.E.W. (Ballen Real Estate Website). Get in touch with us to find out how we can be your lead generation team.
ADDITIONAL USES OF INTERNAL LINKS
Another way to use internal links is by linking to articles that may be of interest to buyers or sellers. For example, you may link to an article you’d previously published called, “10 Tips for First-Time Home-Buyers”. Or, “How to Stage Your House to Sell”.
Keep in mind that the longer a visitor spends on your website, and the more actions (clicks) that user takes, the more authority you earn in the search engines. Furthermore, by providing valuable, useful information to the viewers, you foster relationships that have the potential to blossom into business relations.
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CATEGORIES AND PARENT PAGES
WordPress allows blog posts to be sorted into categories, and to be divided into parent or child categories.
Category: (CITY) Real Estate Market Report. Place each market report into that category. When the category is used as a menu item, it pulls up all the posts in an appealing way.
Example: http://ballenvegas.com/category/las-vegas-real-estate-market-report/).
Using categories for your WordPress blog posts serves two purposes. First, the categories make it easier for viewers to find items of interest. Second, the categories pack their own SEO punch and could turn up in search engine results.
In WordPress, each category can be customized with its own slug, description, and SEO settings. When you create a category for real estate market reports, take the time to set up the category’s settings for higher search engine rankings.
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FEATURED IMAGE
Each blog post you create should have a featured image, and your real estate market report is no different. Featured images are important because they add visual interest to your blog post, and attract views through social sharing. Furthermore, when you upload an image to your WordPress media library, you have the option to customize the title, caption, description, and alt attributes for increased SEO juice with pictures.
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VIDEO
Video is a great feature to include in your real estate market reports. Not only does video add visual interest and additional learning for your viewer, but can also increase the amount of time a visitor spends on your website, and the amount of actions (clicks) that viewer takes while on your site. Increased time on site and increased actions add authority to your website in search engine rankings.
Keller Williams real estate agents have the benefit of taking advantage of the KW Video Library. The library offers a wide array of pre-recorded videos wherein you can record your voice using a pre-determined script. The Keller Williams Video Library includes a national market report. Although the national real estate market report offers some benefit, a localized report would hold more power when it comes to generating leads.
Another way to include video is by using a dash-cam in your car while you drive around various neighborhoods. Best practice suggests that you have a driver so that you can focus on what it is you’re wanting to convey, such as highlights from your real estate market report.
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CONCLUSION
Writing a monthly real estate market report doesn't have to be rocket science. Mark your agenda for the monthly task, gather the facts from available resources, then follow the steps for generating your local market analysis. Your report can help establish you as an expert in your industry, in your area, can nurture relationships by providing valuable information, and pack a punch for search engine rankings.
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