Whew....
I have watched blogging become THE buzzword in real estate circles.
First off...I have NOTHING against blogging. For those who want to do
it, go do it. It can work well.
BUT.....I see a lot of confusion about the subject. I also see WAY
TOO MUCH beating of the drum in favor of it. I also see more and more
HORRIBLY presented websites that use the blog content as the home
page of the site.
The FIRST question to ask about starting a blog is this: What are
your goals?
If the goal is SEO rankings, then I can emphatically say that
starting a blog to get rankings is not necessary. In fact, it may be
detrimental, if you have not put your optimization ducks in a row
first, or built them into your blog posts, in a structured way.
More to the point, a well-structured SEO effort, with proper link
building, will outrank an unfocused blog with few links all day long,
and take less time and cost to get there. I see that all the time. In
fact, many of our clients are RELIEVED to find out that they get
rankings without the need to blog all the time.
If anyone thinks that a blog will get better rankings because it is a
blog, that is just a fantasy promoted by blog fanatics who refuse to
face reality. Google could CARE LESS if the content on a website
comes from a blog page. Google cares about the content itself, and
how it is presented and linked. This is EASY to prove. Just look at
well-ranking sites in competitive markets. Many of them DO NOT have
blogs. Of those that do have blogs, you will find crafty blog authors
who understand SEO concepts that own them, and they also get links to
their site, often from other blogs, in the form of comment posts.
If the goal is to provide information to prospective clients, then
starting a blog to provide that information is not necessary. In
fact, again, it can make the process of finding that information more
difficult for the consumer. A well-structured site with controlled
navigation is usually superior when trying to steer visitors.
Case in point, I can show you many agent sites that are nothing but
blog pages, front to back. All of the content on the site is built
and delivered through the blog interface. Now, when a REAL PERSON
shows up on that site and goes to the home page, they DO NOT get
information about that agent, their expertise, or their focus, and
certainly not their listings. Instead, they are confronted with the
RANT OF THE DAY from that agent about the mortgage market, in the
form of a blog post. Then another rant under that one about using a
Blackberry. Then comes a third post that has no appeal to the client
at all. It's there to attract other agents.
The prospective client will quickly LEAVE THIS SITE, out of
frustration and confusion. They came to the site to find out about
homes for sale in their community, and instead, they get pounded over
the head with mind-numbing industry nonsense that appeals ONLY to the
agent community. The only question to answer is how quickly can they
CLOSE THAT BROWSER WINDOW, or hit the back button?
Web marketing is constantly going through fads. Blogging is just the
latest. Yet good rankings have followed almost the exact same formula
for YEARS. Build content, optimize it for the primary and secondary
keywords, and get links to it. Blogs CAN be used to help do that, but
usually they are not. Instead, agents beat all around the bush with
their blogs. Usually because they really do not understand SEO
concepts, and they have read that blogging will solve all of their
SEO problems.
I've seen all kinds of SEO fads. I guarantee to everyone that in one
year from now, there will be posts from a lot of agents to this
effect: "I tried blogging, and spent hours and hours writing posts to
it, and I can't see any return from it, so I stopped doing it." No
kidding.
Blogging is NOT search engine optimization. It can be used for that,
but the concept of blogging itself is just a means to put words on a
Web page. Lots of words. If those words are all over the board, in
terms of subject and focus (and from what I have seen on a lot of
agent blogs, they are), then the blog might actually hurt, not help
the goal of both optimization and lead generation. Especially if a
real person lands on one of those pages, and becomes confused or
turned off by rants and non-topic posts.
A blog is powerful tool. It can be easily misunderstood, and
subsequently, misused.
If you want to achieve good search rankings, then focus on doing what
that takes. Here's a multi-page document that was specifically
written for real estate professionals, using real estate examples:
Search Engine Optimization Basics For Real Estate-Related Websites
http://www.domaindrivers.com/seobasics-realestate-main.htm
I hope it helps.
Also, you can create your own optimized pages easily with our new
landing page tool, here:
http://www.domaindrivers.com/pagegumbo/pagegumbo-test.asp
http://www.domaindrivers.com/pagegumbo/pagegumbo.asp
The first link is an "example" page, and the second is a live tool
that you can use at anytime. The tool forces agents to put more of
the secondary real-estate related keywords on their pages.
Best regards,
Dirk Johnson
Partner - Operations
DomainDrivers LLC
djohnson@domaindrivers.com
703-406-4698
http://domaindrivers.realtown.com
We're an approved RealTalk/RealTown vendor:
http://DomainDrivers.InternetCrusade.com
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