Once upon a time long long ago (at least by Internet standards) you could write just about anything and find yourself ranked highly.
Was ActiveRain the king of SEO back in the day?
Or maybe a mix of knowing what was going on, teaching the lessons and also not having the same competition?
Flash forward to today and there's competition, and plenty of it.
Big portals. Big brokerages. And that's just for starters.
Now mix in agent websites, either provided by their brokerage or the agent's own Wordpress or similar site. It's really not that costly (relatively speaking) to enter the arena.
So is ActiveRain still relevant to the consumer? Is it still a valid blogging tool to gain business?
The answers? In my opinion, maybe to the first and yes to the second.
Do I think a typical consumer has ever even HEARD of ActiveRain, much less come here to search for real estate information AS A STARTING POINT?
I'd put Mattress Mack betting on the Superbowl kind of money on that being a big NO.
They're probably NOT coming to the site and going to the Feature page.
They're certainly not heading to the Leaderboard to find out who has five million points.
Frankly I don't think the platform is easily searchable for the average consumer to come here and find a specific result that has local meaning for them.
So you might think all this means ActiveRain is a total waste of time to gain consumer attention, right?
But here's the thing. I KNOW consumers do find our content on ActiveRain, but it's not because they started here, but they did finish here.
Write the right content and you as a Rainmaker can still find yourself on page 1 of the search results.
Go short tail and the big portals and brokerages will bury you deep in the results.
Zillow, R.com and others spend millions and millions making sure they're top of mind when it comes to consumers and general home searching. I'm not going to match their $$$ for Cincinnati homes for sale, and I don't have the time to develop the extensive content (even if I could figure out and keep up with the latest Google recipe) to beat them.
But what I can do using ActiveRain is continue carving out small pieces of the pie, long tail, unique, relevant, evergreen style.
I know consumers are interested in new construction patio homes, condos on Landen Lake, golf course condos, etc.
If I take the time to write informative posts that are VERY specific to what the consumer needs, the calls will come.
I know firsthand which posts have performed well and led to closing table meetings. Posts about specific subdivisions, new construction projects, etc.
Those posts are how we make ActiveRain relevant to the consumer.
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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