Now that ActiveRain has starting focusing all local content posts on the Localism platform it is important for all of to utilize the power and potential authority of the site for our search engine benefit. If you are blogging on ActiveRain and posting local content to Localism that you already see the value in using these systems but what maybe troubling is how to get content all over localism effectively.
What do I mean by effectively? I mean that you want to create synergies between current online strategies to increase the level of importance associated with the local content post. How can this be done? Here is what I do to make it all happen effectively and some will probably not like me for sharing this secret but as we all know most people won't do it anyways. But if you want to get the most out of your online market then follow Toby's five marketing phase tricks.
- Neighborhood Orientated Pages
- Uploading Images
- Marketing Reports
- Listing
- Events and News
Neighborhood Orientated Pages - This is the most comprehensive portion and requires more effort than all others combined.
First: Take an afternoon to go out and take pictures of the neighborhoods (start with one), drive around the neighborhood noticing features and attributes that make it distinctive while thinking of items to write about.
Second: After taking the desired number of pictures drive directly to a computer. It will assist in keeping everything fresh in the memory.
Third: (If you have a website you can edit) Create a brand new webpage for the neighborhood on your website. To illustrate this here is what I do, The Marysville homepage is the hub for all new local information and the neighborhood pages are neatly categorized under the main body. These pages aren't to complex and simple in design but highly targeted to my keywords and include many pictures.
*Tech Tip - make sure all the links to the page work correctly
Fourth: Login into ActiveRain and post a synopsis of the page created on your website with links that point to the page on the website anchoring the link with the name of the neighborhood, view Rock Creek blog example. Also post at least one image but not all, save those for the website. After spell and grammar checking the post submit it to the city and neighborhood that it belongs too.
*Tech Tip - if the neighborhood isn't already added go ahead and add it while gaining a few points
Uploading Images
After completing the four steps above go to over to Localism and find the neighborhood that was just added or posted about. Upload all the images for that neighborhood and provide keyword rich descriptions, Cedarcrest South image on Localism (link removed since image was deleted by staff).
*Tech Tip - avoid keyword stuffing
*Tech Tip - images can't be uploaded to a neighborhood until their is written content for that neighborhood
Market Reports
These are easy to do and the information is even easier to obtain. Login to your local MLS and they should have some reports there for you to see. It is easy just to copy the information straight over and post a bunch of numbers so using your professional skills may inferences on what direction is going from the data provided. These types of reports have a lot more value associated with them because they require more thought (I should take my own advice here).
Blogged Listings
In my opinion this is the most overlooked feature on ActiveRain because there are no points associated with listings. Points are not the objective, well placed blogs on search engines is. An example is a Marysville two story we have listed, currently STI, is #1 on Google for Marysville two story and our website is #3 (links from the blogged listing to our website), view results. Utilizing these keywords is the goal and using listings is a great way to get more keywords. If you don't have listings of your own you might want to advertise someone else's listing.
*Tech Tip - check with the local MLS with regards to advertising someone else's listing
The listing by numbers group has a lot of useful information on how to list on ActiveRain/Localism but the only I don't like is using the address as the title. Why? Because they are not the most effective search terms. Who do you know that is searching by address? Not to me...To get the best results use a short descriptive titles with no characters.
Related Blog: Blog Titles: Making them Effective, How to blog for local traffic
Events and News
This category is more fun to post to than all the others in my opinion. Why? Because usually these activities are fun and easier to talk about than just real estate, real estate and more real estate. Yesterday I did a fun post on Marysville's adult softball league that has registration information and how much fun it would be to participate in. It is nothing flashy for lengthy but it has all the pertinent information along with the documents to download (I called the city and they faxed them over then they were scanned as jpegs and hosted on my website).
News is something else that can get great search results. A post about a new Senate Bill about new construction warranties is a great way to get some extra traffic. News post are more difficult to rank high on search engines because a blogger has to compete with the very large news sites out there. But every few clicks helps.
Conclusion
Taking all these steps to blanket ActiveRain and Localism a blogger will gain tons of free traffic from the web while improving the in-coming links to their own website. All it takes is a time investment but the long-term payouts are enormous.
*Tech Tip - the more work that is put into a particular city on Localism the longer it will stay on the homepage under the US map, notice Marysville, WA.
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