When it comes to your real estate blog SEO, there’s a lot to consider.
We talk the big talk on getting you interested in blogging to generate real estate leads on your real estate website (or tweaking the posts you get from Easy Agent PRO).
Where we’ve been slacking, though, is by not taking this advice to the next level — by neglecting to let you know that your brilliant blog posts need to be optimized if you hope for them to help you rank in Google.
Shame on us. We are, however, about to remedy the situation.
For a digital marketing tool that makes ranking higher on Google easy, see how LeadSites make the difference.
1. Come up with an intriguing topic
Man, isn’t that one the bane of each and every blogger who puts fingers to keyboard? So, let’s make it easier. Get a handle on what your readers long to know about and work that into your real estate blog SEO.
To find that out, head to Google Trends. Enter your search term (I entered “buy a house”) and, on the next page, ensure that the search results returned are from the U.S. I used the “past 12 months” as a time frame. Here are the results:
• What credit score is needed to buy a house in 2019? (actually, it said 2018 but I changed it for you)
• Should I buy a house in 2019?
• Can you buy a house without a down payment?
• Is it better to build or buy a house?
• How much money do I need to buy a house?
• FHA loan requirements
• Is it a bad time to buy a house?
• Saving to buy a house
• Using a 401k to buy a house
The first thing that stands out to me is that most of the Google queries about buying a house appear to be from first-timers.
That makes sense since repeat buyers probably feel they know the process pretty well.
Next, there seems to be uncertainty about the 2019 housing market. Allaying their fears would be brilliant blog post fodder.
Then, notice the questions about money. Down payment, how much is needed to buy, saving to buy, using their retirement accounts to buy and FHA loan requirements all have to do with the financial aspect of buying a home.
Now you know what information buyers are actually searching for. And, since we now know that money is a buyers’ biggest concern, you also have a nifty title for your post. So, let’s sit down and write about “What Credit Score is Needed to buy a House in 2019?”
But, first, we may need to tweak that title.
A good tip when thinking about your real estate blog SEO is to figure out how competitive the keyword you’re trying to rank for is.
A Google search of the exact phrase turns up only three organic results, two of which use the exact phrase in the title. And, these two sites are probably ones you can’t compete against for the first page.
Consider localizing it: “Credit Score Needed to Buy a House in 2019 in Emerald City.”
You’ve just taken the first step to amping your real estate blog SEO – writing about something that your target audience actually wants to read about.
Then, you’ve ensured that they’ll find your post by using the very phrases that they’re searching on Google.
2. Grab some keywords to boost your real estate blog SEO
Head on over to Google Adwords. If you don’t have an adwords account, you’ll need to open one. Google supplies a walk-through of that process, here. In a nutshell, when you land on the aforementioned page, click on the blue “Sign up for Google Ads” button and follow the process.
Once in the platform, click on “Tools” in the top nav bar and then click on “Keyword Planner.” On the new page, click on “Find New Keywords.”
Enter the key word you’re curious about. Since our reader wants to know about credit scores, I entered “credit score” and here are some high-ranking keywords that came up:
• Free credit score
• What is a good credit score
• How to improve credit score
Since you’ll want to write a juicy, fact-filled and valuable post, these are all topics that need to be discussed. And, they are key phrases that you can work naturally into your post to boost your real estate blog SEO. In fact, number two and three would make brilliant subheadings.
As an aside, “requirements to buy a house,” “buying a home” and “buying a house” are three more you might want to work in somewhere.
Now you need to choose one key phrase as primary and relegate the others to a secondary position.
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3. Time to write your real estate blog post
The best way for a non-professional writer to get words on the page is to free-write.
Don’t think about real estate blog SEO, don’t think about anything other than making sure your post is engaging enough to keep the reader sticking around. Avoid adding fluff.
If you’ve ever read a recipe blog you know how absolutely frustrating it is to have to sit through the blogger’s life story pinned to the top of every recipe. Just tell me how to make the damn casserole.
When you’re finished free writing, go over the post and answer the following questions:
- Did you keep the promise you made in the headline? It’s easy to get distracted and veer in another direction.
- Have you answered any and all questions that you think the reader may have?
- Is your tone conversational?
- Does the post follow best blogging practices? These include keeping paragraphs to a maximum of five sentences, using subheadings and bulleted lists and adding photos in appropriate places throughout the post.
- You can find free images at Pixabay, Pexels, New Old Stock (vintage photos) and DesignersPics.com
Once you’ve determined that the post is engaging and valuable you can then address the SEO aspects, spelling, grammar and blog structure.
4. Ignore those stupid green and red Yoast dots
If your blog is using the Yoast SEO plugin, and it “thinks” you’ve made SEO mistakes it will let you know by listing your blunders and then color coding them according to how severe they are.
Many agents will stop at nothing to gain favor from the Yoast gods and earn a big, fat, green dot.
And, their posts end up reading like the very posts that Google purged, en-masse, years ago.
“Your keyphrase, or its synonyms do not appear in the first paragraph. Make sure the topic is clear immediately.”
First, the topic was mentioned three sentences ago in the TITLE of the piece, the <H1> tag, upon which Google places a whole lot of credence. Google also gives “less importance on keyword density and more weight on quality content,” than it has in the past, according to Tom Dupuis at Online Media Masters.
He goes on to suggest that, yes, you should still use your focus keyword a couple of times but, keep in mind that Yoast will give you the red dot even when you use a variation of your key phrase because it only recognizes exact matches.
More important, is to focus on your click-through rates instead of the color-coded “SEO for dummies” system.
5. Optimize your images
All those purdy images you downloaded (for free!) need some love to boost your real estate blog SEO as well. Ensure that the first image’s title contains your blog post’s title.
Later images should be descriptive so that Google understands what they’re about, but try to keep it close to your keywords, if possible.
Next, is the alt text tag (short for Alternative Text), which is primarily for web accessibility (for the visually impaired).
The tag does serve a purpose for your real estate blog SEO, by providing search engine crawlers more context to the image. Moz.com, for instance, uses a photo of pancakes as an example (this isn’t the photo they used, but you’ll get the idea)
Alt=”pancakes” is just OK, according to the pros at Moz.com. Consider taking it further to alt=”stack of pancakes with powdered sugar and raspberries”
Learn more about alt text and how to use it at Moz.com.
Bonus tip for building a lead-generating real estate blog post
Before hitting the “publish” button on your blog post, take a look at the URL. There’s no rule that says you have to use the auto-generated URL. As long as you keep it relatively short, change it to include at least one of your keywords.
Our example post could be changed to: https://worldsbestagent.com/good-credit-score or something similar.
Happy writing!
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from theokbrowne digest https://www.easyagentpro.com/blog/real-estate-blog-seo/
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