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How To Rank Your Active Rain Blog Post

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Real Estate Technology
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Although much has been said about Active Rain's ranking power lately, ranking a blog post on Active Rain can still be done if you follow some basic steps.


1) Try ranking for a long tail term and not a head or short term.

Examples of long tail terms:
homes for sale with pool in (area)
homes for sale with in-law apartment in (area)
lakefront homes for sale in (area)

Examples of head and short terms:
homes for sale
homes for sale in (area)
real estate

2) The Title of your post should contain your target term; for example, Homes For Sale With Pool In Quincy, MA.

3) The SEO Title of your post should contain your target term; for example, Homes For Sale With Pool In Quincy, Massachusetts.

4) The Meta Description should contain your target term and related terms written differently; for example, Search the latest homes with a pool in Quincy - Both, inground and above ground.

5) The body of your post should be at least 500 words long, but longer is better. It's best to consolidate two short similar posts into one, than having two short posts.

6) The body of your post should contain keywords and terms related to the main term; for example, Quincy, Massachusetts, MA, Mass, pool, pools, inground, above ground.

7) The body of your post should contain images with the file names and alt tags containing keywords related to the main term.
For example, an image of an inground pool could have the alt tag, inground pool in Quincy MA, and the file name, quincy-ma-inground- pool.jpg

8) Videos are a good addition to a post also.

9) Link out to relevant pages, for example, a page on your website listing homes for sale with a pool in Quincy, MA.
Be specific with your anchor text, your link should be something like "Click Here For Homes With A Pool In Quincy, MA".

Link more than once from the blog post with a variation of the above link, for example, "View The Latest Homes With An Inground Pool"

10) Link from other old posts or pages that you have to this post. You can use your own website, a partner's website, AR posts, AR comments, etc. Please don't spam AR - do it where it makes sense and helps make your point.

Don't just link once to it, link to it again in a couple of months, six months from now, etc.

11) Re-visit the blog post in a couple of months and add something to it - a new image, new paragraph, a chart.


By the way, these tips are not only for Active Rain posts, they'll work with any website.

Comments(33)

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Carol Williams
Although I'm retired, I love sharing my knowledge and learning from other real estate industry professionals. - Wenatchee, WA
Retired Agent / Broker / Prop. Mgr, Wenatchee, WA

Hi Dario,
What a wonderful tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. I need to be more conscious of this on my golfing website. 

Dec 10, 2019 08:32 AM
Dario Ferreira

Thank you, Carol Williams 
Yes, the long tail is where it's at.
It's amazing how much is there for the picking.

Dec 10, 2019 11:23 AM
Anna "Banana" Kruchten
HomeSmart Real Estate - Phoenix, AZ
602-380-4886

Dario excellent tips of ranking and long tail searches. I don't blog that much on AR but when we were doing it full scale we did  a lot of market reports using your points, and consistently were ranked once,twice and sometimes three times on page one for several sites. Dick Greenberg taught me years ago how to make that happen. He's still doing it.

Dec 10, 2019 09:20 AM
Dario Ferreira

Anna Banana Kruchten CRB, CRS , thanks for the comment.


Yes, just the basics on a strong website can rank a page very well.

Dec 10, 2019 11:24 AM
L. Scott Ferguson
Ask4Ferguson - Your House-SOLD Name in Real Estate - West Palm Beach, FL
Sunny Florida Real Estate Professional

Man I wish I could of 're-blogged' this.  I just emailed it to myself to start dissecting my site!  Thanks Dario!

Dec 10, 2019 02:01 PM
Dario Ferreira

Hope you can use some of the tips to help you. 

Dec 10, 2019 02:48 PM
Marco Amidei
RE/MAX Suburban - Libertyville, IL

Thanks for the information

Dec 10, 2019 06:06 PM
Dario Ferreira

You're welcome.

Dec 11, 2019 09:06 AM
Debra Leisek
Bay Realty,Inc Homer Alaska - Homer, AK

Pretty sure I have never ranked in the Google world at all

I will bookmark this and come back to it.

You certainly gave us some excellent information! Thank you

Dec 11, 2019 12:05 AM
Dario Ferreira

You should definitely try - good luck.

Dec 11, 2019 09:05 AM
Barbara Michaluk
Weichert Realtors | Phone Direct 240-506-2434 | 301-681-0550 office - Silver Spring, MD
Leisure World Specialist / Full Service REALTOR

Thanks Dario for sharing this reminder about long tails. I work in a specific niche for active seniors and this has been my strategy.

Dec 11, 2019 04:51 AM
Dario Ferreira

Definitely a good strategy :)

Dec 11, 2019 09:01 AM
Lisa Weiler
PM LLC - Los Angeles, CA
Interior Design Expert & Home Stager

These are great tips!

Dec 11, 2019 02:12 PM
Dario Ferreira

Thanks

Dec 11, 2019 04:00 PM
Alan Brown
Coldwell Banker Realty - Davenport, FL
34 Years of Real Estate Experience .

Very goof information Thanks for sharing

Dec 11, 2019 03:47 PM
Dario Ferreira

Thanks.

Dec 11, 2019 04:00 PM
Endre Barath, Jr.
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties - Beverly Hills, CA
Realtor - Los Angeles Home Sales 310.486.1002

OK you can not have everything writing that gets you on Google and make friends on Active Rain:))) just kidding nice to see these ideas, now with that said do you have any proof of the pudding? So those who are doubters can see that this stuff really works? Endre

Dec 11, 2019 10:22 PM
Dario Ferreira

Thanks for your comment, Endre Barath, Jr. 


Here's an example of an AR blog post that ranks, and I didn't even try too hard:
How To Get Backlinks For A Real Estate Website
It has over 2000 views already.


If you want better examples outside of AR, I can message you privately - let me know.

Dec 12, 2019 03:57 AM
M.C. Dwyer
Melody Russell Team at eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Felton, CA
MC Dwyer-Santa Cruz Mountains Property Specialist

Dario Ferreira I'm delighted that your post was featured!    So helpful of you to write, in plain English, these steps so all of us can understand how this technical stuff works.

Is there a way to find how many people are searching Google on a hypothetical long term tail phrase, so we can optimize our blogging efforts?

Dec 12, 2019 09:09 AM
Margaret Goss

M.C. Dwyer - that's a great question! Would love to know that too.

Dec 12, 2019 10:11 AM
Dario Ferreira

Thanks for the kind words.


To find keywords, I usually use a combination of tools:


1) Google Trends (https://trends.google.com/)


Good to compare terms. For example if you want to find out what's searched more, "homes for sale" or "houses for sale".


Start with one term, then on the next page add a comparison term.


2) Google autocomplete (Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo also have them)


Start typing in a term and see what it's suggested to you - these are the most searched terms.


For example, start typing "Felton homes for sale with", it will give you "with pool", "with acreage", "with land"


Just "Felton homes for sale" will give you a bunch of choices also.


3) Google "Search Related to xyz"


Whenever you do a search, at the bottom you'll get a bunch of terms related to it.


For example, if you search "Felton homes for sale", you'll get a bunch of terms under "Searches related to Felton homes for sale"


4) Google Ads (Adwords)


You can use the Keyword Planner > Get search volumes and forecasts


5) Spyfu.com


Paid, but you can see some results for free.


6) SEMrush.com


Paid



I'll probably write a more indepth blog post about keywords soon.


 

Dec 12, 2019 03:48 PM
Roy Kelley
Retired - Gaithersburg, MD

Thank you very much for sharing your experience and your advice.

 

Dec 15, 2019 11:33 AM
Dario Ferreira

You're welcome, my pleasure.

Dec 15, 2019 03:49 PM
Roy Kelley
Retired - Gaithersburg, MD

I was going to reblog this post but the option was not available.

Dec 15, 2019 11:34 AM
Dario Ferreira

Sorry, Roy Kelley , but I don't like too many copies of the same content fighting for the search engines "love". It's an SEO thing.

Dec 15, 2019 03:50 PM
Dorie Dillard Austin TX
Coldwell Banker Realty ~ 512.750.6899 - Austin, TX
NW Austin ~ Canyon Creek and Spicewood/Balcones

Good morning Dario Ferreira ,

What an excellent post and so glad to see it featured. Exceptional advice and going to go through and read it again!

Dec 16, 2019 06:27 AM
Dario Ferreira

Thank you very much, Dorie Dillard CRS GRI ABR 


Hope it helps.

Dec 16, 2019 08:05 AM
Jan Green - Scottsdale, AZ
Value Added Service, 602-620-2699 - Scottsdale, AZ
HomeSmart Elite Group, REALTOR®, EcoBroker, GREEN

Excellent information about ActiveRain blog posts and ranking.  I've used a lot of that in the past when I blogged more frequently.  I'll have to get back at it with your advice!

Dec 20, 2019 11:08 AM
Dario Ferreira

Thanks, Jan Green 

Dec 20, 2019 11:40 AM
Debe Maxwell, CRS
Savvy + Company (704) 491-3310 - Charlotte, NC
The RIGHT CHARLOTTE REALTOR!

Hi Dario! Thanks for the tips! We used to rank almost immediately here and by using longtail keywords. Now, even coupled with sharing, sharing, sharing on social media, it's rare that those longtails work even minimally for me. 

I can post a similar post on my website and it will rank much quicker than on here and the crazy thing is that it's only me blogging on my website; you'd think the 50-100 regular bloggers here on AR would make a huge difference! 

Dec 20, 2019 08:07 PM
Dario Ferreira

You're welcome, Debe Maxwell, CRS 


Good for you, it's ideal to rank your own website as opposed to AR.


Couple of things:

- Social shares don't help with SEO

- Many blog posts don't help either, they actually can hurt.
Just think of all the similar posts that exist on AR. The search engines have a difficult time picking one to rank if 200 posts are "talking" about the same thing.

Dec 21, 2019 08:56 AM
Michael J. Perry
KW Elite - Lancaster, PA
Lancaster, PA Relo Specialist

Thanks for the reminder about the specific Longtail searches  !!!!!!!

May 11, 2020 02:44 PM
Dario Ferreira

You're welcome.


If you consistently target long-tails in your website, eventually you'll have more leads than you can handle.

May 11, 2020 02:56 PM
Kris Collis, Associate Broker
Smart Way America Realty - East Stroudsburg, PA
Professional Results you Expect 570-801-5525

Dario, this is the clearest, most informative description of titles, how to choose them and how to rework your posts over time. Your comments expanded with more great ideas.  Thanks for posting, love the specific examples. I'm sure many will benefit.  A ver well featured blog.

May 11, 2020 03:02 PM
Dario Ferreira

Thank you, hope you can use some of the tips.

May 11, 2020 04:39 PM
Georgie Hunter R(S) 58089
Hawai'i Life Real Estate Brokers - Haiku, HI
Maui Real Estate sales and lifestyle info

Hmm, more good food for thought as we are always looking for better ranking on Google.

May 11, 2020 08:44 PM
Dario Ferreira

Yes, we all want better rankings :)
Thanks

May 13, 2020 11:12 AM
Jeff Dowler, CRS
eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Carlsbad, CA
The Southern California Relocation Dude

Hi Dario:

I read this before and bookmarked it, but came back to read to refresh my memory. Nice to see a bunch of additional tips and suggestions! Thanks!

Jeff

May 13, 2020 11:03 AM
Dario Ferreira

Thank you, Jeff.
Hope you can use some of the tips.
They work especially well in IDX sites.

May 13, 2020 11:13 AM
Patricia Feager, MBA, CRS, GRI,MRP
DFW FINE PROPERTIES - Flower Mound, TX
Selling Homes Changing Lives

Dario Ferreira - thank you! This was very educational!!!

Dec 29, 2020 11:39 AM
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