Driving qualified traffic to your site through the search engines will increase your traffic to lead conversion ratio

You are a Realtor. So, you need to write highly focused real estate content if you want to be found through the search engines for terms related to real estate.

If you think that a real estate blog will be your platform to rant and rave about local politics, favorite recipes and community event calendars? Think again. Your local newspaper website probably already does that much better than you could dream of. Your real estate blog is about, get this, REAL ESTATE. You are not a journalist! You are a Realtor. So, you need to write highly focused real estate content if you want to be found through the search engines for terms related to real estate.

You are not a journalist. You are a Realtor. You are not an event planner. You are a Realtor. You are not your town's newspaper. You are a Realtor. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Here is a simple example of why you want to be found for real estate terms:

According to KeywordDiscovery

4,669 people searched for Orlando Real Estate

By contrast only

277 people searched for Orlando Museum(s)

So, not only would being searchable by real estate terms net you more QUALIFIED traffic but it would also net you MORE traffic. Who knew?

What type of traffic do you want to your real estate blog?

You want people visiting your site that are searching for real estate or real estate related terms. These are what Joe of Sellsius calls "transactional real estate visitors." These are people looking to buy or sell real estate now (i.e. in the next 3 months). This is the kind of visitor you most need to attract because they mean business NOW.

Do you care that you have 500 people visiting your blog everyday searching for nude beaches in your town? Probably not. Wouldn't it be much better to have 500 visitors a day that have searched for condos for sale in Long Beach? If someone is searching for museums, nude beaches or the fate of your town's oldest tree, they are more than likely NOT interested in learning about real estate, not interested in searching for properties and may even be put off by the fact that they landed on a real estate site when searching for an unrelated topic. This is not to say that you should never cover community stuff, but you should put yourself on a strict blogging diet of 80% real estate related topics and no more than 20% off topic community pieces. (If you have a brand new blog- lay off the off-topic posts until Google "gets" your blog) You can also very easily work in a restaurant review in a listing post by simply stating the top 10 restaurants near this home or condo...

What makes a real estate consumer visitor unique in the world of Internet traffic?

Real estate consumers represent a very unique type of Internet visitor. They are likely to only visit and re-visit your site during the finite time that they are buying or selling a home. Why? Because the real estate consumer has a purpose. He/she is looking for one of three things to search listings, to find a realtor or to find their home value. They are NOT actively seeking your views on community politics or museums in the area or reviews of restaurants unless they somehow relate to a listing description! And just to flip that coin, when someone is looking for museums in your area, they are probably NOT looking for a real estate site. So, qualify your traffic through search by writing highly focused, hyper local real estate content.

Celebration Orlando Real Estate

Teri Isner of Celebration Orlando real estate has had her blog for over a year and had been guided to write about all manner of community events and attractions. The result? The phone rang relentlessly. The problem? She became the town's event planner. People were calling but they were calling to ask when the car show was or what hours the water park was open. Not exactly what she was hoping for. Another downside to this method of blogging was that you couldn't find her blog with two hands, a flashlight or the url in Google for the terms related to Celebration or Orlando Real Estate. Now, since she has changed her blogging strategy and now posts about real estate in Celebration and Orlando, she has begun to climb into the SERPs and currently site pretty on the second page of Google for many of her prime terms (continued attention to the hyper local real estate content strategy will net her even better results). The difference it made it in her business? The phone rings with real estate deals, her real estate lead generator sends her new clients daily.

The Hyper Local Blog Theory

Some of the most successful real estate blogs out there are what we call hyper local blogs. Meaning, they focus almost entirely on the various topics of local real estate and/or mortgages. These blogs tend to stay away from journalistic community pieces and more often than not pen longer posts somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 word plus posts at least 3 days per week. These types of blogs that focus on only local real estate and use their most valuable keywords throughout each post have a greater percentage of success than blogs that cover every local topic from things to do, local services, restaurant reviews and gossip etc.

Convert search traffic to leads

Because most new traffic coming to your blog will be through the search engines and people that find your blog by typing in real estate search terms want one thing... the ability to search for homes or find their home's value.

The content you write is the bait, your search tools and lead generators are the hook! So, if you consider that you are roping in the readers through search, you have to offer them something compelling once they get to your site. And, fact is, nobody but your mother, brother and dog care what you have to say enough to read your blog daily, so use your content to get search traffic to your site but then guide readers to your lead generator through a graphical call to action. That is what you want right? To generate leads? And not surprisingly, that is what the consumer wants too- to interact with your site and start searching for homes or find their home value.

How to write a successful real estate blog that qualifies visitors through search:

You can easily qualify your visitors and make your site more relevant to search engines by laser targeting your posts by writing about real estate instead of being the community guide for everything from nude beaches to restaurants.

1. Target a single keyword with each post.

Your most valuable keyword will always be "your farm area + real estate." Wanna test that theory? Use KeywordDiscovery and you can see search volume per day for any given keyword or term.

Read also: How to select the best possible keywords for real estate blogs

2. Write posts at no greater than a high school reading level.

Google actually has readability filters.

The preferred readability level is high school. So, don't bust out every polysyllabic word you know trying to impress people. Neither readers nor search engines want to be talked down to, so make sure you write in plain English. Otherwise you come off like a pompous know it all that nobody wants to work with.

To check your readability level use: WebsiteGrader

3. Use a trusted formula for writing posts.

For those of you new to copywriting techniques, there are trusted formulas for writing an article that is engaging, easy to scan and well suited for human and search engine visitors. The formula entails: a keyword rich title, keyword use in the post and the use of scanable formatting.

To see the actual formula, read: Formula for a Successful Blog Post

MYTH: single property websites drive traffic
RealTyger: the other other real estate desktop and social network
How to generate leads from your real estate blog: we have proof
Canonicalization: is it killing your website?
Long tail, short tail and coat tail searches

http://www.rsspieces.com/002661

http://www.rsspieces.com/driving-qualified-traffic-to-your-site-through-the-search-engines-will-increase-your-traffic-to-lead-conversion-ratio

Posted on March 18, 2008 14:17:50

Comment from: Heath Coker [Visitor]

· http://www.REindex.com

I think your "... You are a Realtor. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. " is Great! There are so many sites that try to be all the things you mention from town hall to the local paper. One thing that I find gets repeat visitors is Non-MLS listings. Find a few sellers who will sell if you can find a buyer, disguise their listing picture so they don't get calls from anyone but you, and put those on your site. People will come back to see your new "secret" listings. You may even get visits from other agents trying to see what you hav that they don't. We call them pocket listings or open listings in MA. Gotta go wash up! LOL!

Permalink March 18, 2008 17:22:35

Comment from: Cyndee.Haydon [Member]

· http://www.clearwaterrealestatetampahomes.com/

Mary, I couldn't agree more - we have experienced the same thing. All traffic is not the same. Recently a blog of ours experienced going from Page 1 to page 3 or 4 for our my key "real estate" term and the sitemeter traffic numbers don't tell the whole story since the traffic changed from "real estate" related to "local malls", "local colleges", etc. and we defintitely felt it in our pocketbook.

Permalink March 18, 2008 19:11:41

Comment from: Daniel Bates [Visitor]

· http://www.mymcclellanville.net

I get your point, but I guess my blog is just one those rare blogs that doesn't apply. I pretty much broke every one of your rules and have found great success. Like most niche bloggers, I am in a small market. By writing about local events, people and places (journalism) I now come up 2nd for searches for "McClellanville" and 3rd for "McClellanville Real Estate". Which do you think gets more clicks? Obviously more people do a search for a city, than real estate + city name, but I would agree that a lot of the visitors via "McClellanville" search are not interested in buying real estate at the moment, they may at some time and that's what we call a long range view (a key to success in real estate) and it helps me rent out my rental homes as well. I am a journalist, I am a Realtor, I can be both!

Permalink March 18, 2008 19:27:24

Comment from: David and Kristin Small [Visitor]

· http://www.grandstrandagents.com

For someone looking to start a new blog outside of ActiveRain, this is great information! Also, I love the tip about the restaurants and the listings! That means it's OK to post listings on a blog, correct?

Permalink March 18, 2008 21:51:06

Comment from: BawldGuy Talking [Visitor]

· http://www.bawldguy.com

Mary,

Every time I read you, I walk away more impressed than the last time. You flat know your stuff. I'm hoping you can help me.

I'm running into a wall of silence more imposing than any I've run into on the net before.

There are so many blogs who've succeeded using your advice. Here's what I can't find out.

What's their batting average with the incredible number of leads they're generating? If John Doe is generating 10 leads daily, and they're 'real estate' leads -- folks who're serious now, ready to move within the next 90 days -- what's the conversion rate? What would you predict? What's your experience?

If it was only 2.5%, in baseball a pathetic .025 batting average, this would mean a sizable income. If the area's median home price is say, $250,000 or so, closing 7½ deals monthly at 3% a side this would generate over $50,000 monthly, and over $600,000 a year.

One would think a 2.5% conversion rate with folks 'ready to move in 90 days' is setting the bar pretty low. Where do you suggest I search in order to find a reliable expectation for conversion rates?(conversion equaling a closed escrow)

Thanks again for your excellent post. Your ability to talk in rich detail sets you apart.

Permalink March 18, 2008 22:49:27

Comment from: Ann Cummings [Visitor]

· http://www.NewHampshireMaineRealEstate.com

Mary - you've certainly made a believer out of me some time ago. I used to spend tons of time writing about community things, and I was doing the same as Teri. I now write real estate with a little amount of community stuff mixed in, and the leads have increased and I know I'm climbing for my keywords and consumers are finding me for real estate. Thanks for all that homework - it's an ongoing process, but it works for sure!

Permalink March 19, 2008 05:27:56

Comment from: Kaye Thomas [Visitor]

· http://beachcityrealestateinfo.blogspot.com

I write about strictly local real estate and events dealing with the real estate market.. Yesterday I got a call from some guy wanting to know how to get to the sand dunes he can run on because of an article I wrote about Sand Dune Park 8 month ago...I'm still laughing

Permalink March 19, 2008 10:54:22

Comment from: Johan [Visitor]

· http://helpmetoblog.com

Hi A very interesting answer to a real question many real estate bloggers should know about. And I need to answer to myself; more or less and finding the balance.

I have noted that guest houses, bed and break fast joints and local things to do through local businesses provides me with goodwill if I post about it.

When I find people are searching for a guest house I'll write a post on how to get there and then share it with the guest home owner + as a "good" blogger I tend to get higher rankings for these post in the small village we live in. The owners tend to refer buyers to me for doing that ;-)

I use the generic footer plugin on my blog to share what I am what I do. This has helped me a great deal to advertise my service on each and every post. (It can become a boring sig after a while and it's worth changing the generic footer regularly. BTW. I have noticed that Google has given me great exposure for the keywords used in my footer).

Another tip: I am using the simple forum plugin and noticed that if I use it to link posts to my forum (As can be done with this plugin) I get high rankings from the forum post.

Regards

Johan

my personal real estate blog is at http://simonstownrealty.info

Permalink March 19, 2008 11:55:30

Comment from: Karl Burger [Visitor]

· http://www.pensacolarealestatenews.com

Love this article, as always. You are the bomb when it comes to blogging. I remember writing several articles about red tide at our local area beaches. I still get calls once in a while asking me if it is safe to go swimming at the beach. I always laugh at those calls, but I'd just as soon not have to deal with them. Lesson learned.

Permalink March 19, 2008 22:49:15

Comment from: Michael Pierce [Visitor]

· http://www.michaelpiercerealestate.com

Mary,

I could not agree more. I find a lot of Realtor Blogs that have next to nothing to do with Real Estate. I try to stay focused on topics that people buying and selling homes in the area care about.

Permalink March 23, 2008 13:22:30

Comment from: Angel Diaz [Visitor]

Wash, Rinse, Repeat..I agree, stick to what you know. You know real estate, so focus on real estate. It sounds like we should know that but sometimes we tend to stray away from what we know and what we are good at. I would say that most home buyers will look at the houses and the prices listed then check the type of neighborhood the homes are located in or by. If you are in the business to sell cars, sell cars, if you sell vacuums sell vacuums if you sell real estate sell real estate, you get the point. You don't want people surfing through your site. You want people who will surf, stop and most important, BUY! Good post with great information.

Permalink March 24, 2008 15:02:24

Comment from: ANN [Visitor]

Awesome post I need help in blogging. Don't exactly know how I'm not a good writer but would like to trying but don't know how to start. HELP!

Permalink April 04, 2008 10:25:01

Comment from: Guest [Visitor]

· http://www.rsspieces.com

Funny to come back to this post now- I checked Daniel Bates' site in Google and suprise... much farther down the first page of Google than he warrants. All the big boys sit on top of him- Yahoo and Trulia. Maybe if he stopped writing about his weekend trips and about real estate- he'd be able to over throw the titans. But then again, why bother when you have all kinds of traffic that want to hear about vacations in SC. Wonder how many deals he has closed this year directly from his blog. I know how many Cyndee, Laurie and Diane have.

Permalink June 21, 2008 17:12:56

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