12 Real Estate Blogging Tips for Beginners

Posted at 10:24h by Morgan Taylor 4 Comments

0 Likes

Share

Real estate blogging is a great way to set your business apart and generate leads. But it can be a little daunting early on. What do I write about? How do I create blog posts people will read? What if I’m a bad writer?

If you are asking yourself any of these questions, don’t worry!

Here are 12 real estate blogging tips for beginners. We’ll walk through them step-by-step to show you how to create a real estate blog and take your business to a new level.

WHY YOU SHOULD BLOG

Are you on the fence about starting a blog? Let’s get you off it. With some effort and dedication, blogs have the ability to transform your business.

•SEO
First and foremost, a blog can drive new traffic to your site. A strategic post with good SEO practices can get your real estate site on page one.

This will attract new visitors to your site and help you generate leads.

•Expertise
As a real estate agent you know a lot about your community. And you have access to a lot of important information about your community. A blog can help you become an expert in your local real estate market and convert sales.

•It’s Fun
Have you ever wondered why there are so many television shows about real estate and so few about economists? Real estate is inherently interesting. It’s a fast-paced, sexy industry. And people want to watch and read about it in their free time.

KEEP A LIST OF IDEAS

Now let’s get into the real estate blogging tips for beginners. The very first thing you should do when starting a blog is create a list of ideas.

Open a new Word or text document. Then write down every blog idea you have currently.

“What if I don’t have any ideas?” Mine some from these sources.

•Google AdWords
Do you have a Google AdWords account? Create one. This is going to help you generate blog posts now and into the future.

Once you have your AdWords account (it literally takes seconds to create), navigate to Keyword Planner.

Here, you can enter a number of terms into the search fields. And Google will return the most popular keywords related to this term along with a measure of competition for this term.

Pick one of these keywords and build your blog idea from there.

Example:

We talk a lot on our blog about RETS feeds. And I want to generate more posts on this subject.

So I open my keyword planner, type in “RETS Feed,” and look through the results.

I see the term “IDX website.” This could be built into the blog post “Five Steps to Connect a RETS Feed and build an IDX Website with Strong SEO.”

I see the term “IDX Solutions.” This could be the blog post “IDX Solutions Explained: 6 Things You Need to Know About RETS Feeds, iFrames and FTP.”

You get the idea.

•Frequent Questions
Do you get some questions over and over again from clients? It’s a sign that this information is not available on the web. Provide it and you’ll start seeing new traffic.

•Industry Terms
All industries have a jargon. And you can bet leads are Googling these terms to help them understand what is going on. Define these terms on your website you’ll suddenly have the attention of a new segment of buyers and sellers.

•Market Data
People want to know what’s going on around them. You have access to this information through your MLS or brokerage. Take a look at some of the market trends and build a post.

•Interesting discussions
Good conversations make good blog posts. Think about an interesting discussion you had recently about real estate. See if you can transform it into a post.

Need some more ideas? Here are 11 real estate blog post ideas for free.

All in all, you should have 15 to 20 blog post ideas. There is really no reason not to start blogging right now.

Keep this list running. When you get a good idea, add it. When you finish a post, remove it.

LUKE’STIP#1

NUMBERED LISTS

Did you notice something I did there? Check out my hypothetical blog post titles.

•”Five Steps to Connect a RETS Feed and build an IDX Website with Strong SEO”

•”IDX Solutions Explained: 6 Things You Need to Know About RETS Feeds, iFrames and FTP”

Both are in the numbered list format. Why? Numbered lists are easy to understand. They are also the most shared on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.

Format your blog posts in the same way to see maximum benefits.

OUTLINE

One of the biggest questions for new bloggers is how to get from an idea to a fully publishable blog post. The answer is outlining.

In fact, outlining is one of our key real estate blogging tips for beginners.

Simply take your blog title, and answer it.

If your blog is “Five Steps to Connect a RETS Feed and build an IDX Website with Strong SEO,” write out the five steps.

Then turn each step into a paragraph. Then write an introduction and an ending.

That’s it. You have a blog post. You don’t need to be William Shakespeare.

Just keep to this formula. Build from an outline and you’ll have strong copy on your website faster than ever.

SEO

Now that you have a blog post, you need to make sure people can find it. This is going to take a little SEO strategy.

Remember the keyword you generated from Google AdWords? You should make sure it appears in some key places in your blog post. This will ensure maximum exposure to search engines and better rankings.

In our case, the keyword was “IDX Website.”

We should include IDX website in the following locations:

•Url
www.yourwebsitename.com/blog/connect-rets-feed-build-idx-website-strong-seo

•Title
“Five Steps to Connect a RETS Feed and build an IDX Website with Strong SEO”

•Body
It should reappear occasionally throughout the body of the post.

•Description
Just like the page title, your keyword should be included in the page description.

•Photo names
And photos you upload to the page should have a related title (i.e. rets_feed_idx_website_seo.jpg)

STAY LOCAL

The fact of the matter is that real estate is competitive. So to stand out from the crowd, you are going to need to develop some niche marketing.

The best way to do this is to stay hyper local in your blog content. Let’s look at an example.

Open Google and type “Pennsylvania real estate.” What do you see? All portals, right?

Now type in “chester country pa farms for sale.” You see the change? Suddenly the results are less portals and more small and medium agents and brokers.

This is where you want to be. Let’s be real. Without a massive budget, you aren’t going to out compete Zillow and Trulia for the most popular keywords. But by staying local, you can dominate your market and build. The more specific the better.

LUKE’s TIP:

USE PHOTOS & VIDEO

Photos and video are some of the most popular content on the web. This is where real estate agents have an automatic and huge advantage as bloggers.

Browsing home photos is fun, even for those not currently looking to buy a home. Ideally, you want people to find your blog, and then get stuck there clicking through beautiful images and interesting video.

USE INTERNAL LINKS

Every blog you create should include several links to other blog posts you’ve made and other pages on your site.

This will make it easier for your leads to find more interesting content. It also will provide you search engine ranking benefits.

Every time you link to an old blog post, Google will reindex it and associate it with the relevant keywords.

SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Of course your blog posts are only as good as how far as they travel. So you should back up your blog with a robust media strategy. You should use all the big ones. We mentioned Twitter and Facebook earlier. You also should build accounts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube.

But don’t forget some of the others. For example, most people don’t realize but you can build a strong page and publish on LinkedIN, too.

BUILD BACKLINKS

Backlinks are text elsewhere on the Internet that link back to your site. These are largely driven by your content. If your blog posts are definitive and demonstrate expertise, other people are going to be more likely to link to and share them.

But there are a few other things you can do to make sure you leave a paper trail around the web.

•Relevant comments

Leaving good comments on others’ blog posts (especially if you can be the first to comment) can lead more people back to your own blog.

•Unlinked Mentions

Create a Google alert for you or your business. Anytime anyone anywhere publishes your name or business name online, email them. And ask them to hyper link the text back to your site.

•Promotion

Try to develop a list of bloggers and content producers that cover related topics. When you publish a blog, email them and promote it.

REPEAT FREQUENTLY

There you have it. You successfully created a blog post, ensured it will remain visible online, and took steps to promote it.

You will want to repeat this process frequently. The best blogs publish 2+ times a day. They have dedicated staff to research ideas and generate content.

You don’t need to publish at that rate, but you should publish regularly. This will help build predictability for your readers and keep them coming back.

GUEST POSTS

Your blog also can be a tool to build your professional network.

Cultivate guest posts. This will allow you to build connections with other professionals in your community and improve your own blogging.

KEEP GOING

The last thing I want to say is to keep going. Most of your blog posts will generate a few views then fail. Some will hit and it will be the most amazing thing in the world. But most will fail. Don’t forget this.

You need to keep moving and leave the failures behind. This will help you find more hits and develop your blogging authority.

Like the post on real estate blogging tips for beginners? Leave a comment below. Or check out How to Get Press Coverage And Generate Real Estate Leads.