When it comes to real estate blogging, there’s content … and then there’s great content. In this article, you’ll learn how to create the latter and stand out from the crowd.
It takes a lot of time and effort to create great content for a real estate blog. But the results are worth it. Over time, you’ll be rewarded with better search engine results, more traffic, and more leads from potential clients. All good things!
Creating Great Real Estate Blog Content
So, what’s the difference between “regular” and great blog content? In a word — usefulness. If you publish content that’s truly useful to your target audience, you’ll be able to stand out in a crowded field.
Having been in the real estate blogging game for more than 15 years, I’ve learned a few things about creating effective blog content. And today, I’ll boil it all down into 10 specific steps.
1. Identify your target audience and what they need.
You can’t write useful real estate blog content until you know who your audience is. Are you writing for home buyers, or sellers? If you’re writing for buyers, what kind of information do they need in order to succeed in the market? The same question applies for sellers.
Maybe your audience includes first-time buyers, or homeowners who are thinking about selling in the near future, or people who relocating from elsewhere. You get the idea. The point is, you have to know exactly who you’re talking to and what kind of information they need. Then, you can create real estate blog content that addresses those needs.
I recommend creating an audience “persona” for this very purpose. In the marketing world, a persona is a fictional profile that represents a specific group of consumers, shoppers or customers. You can apply the same concept to your real estate blogging efforts.
2. Create an objective statement for your blog post.
Before you start writing your next blog post, make sure you know what purpose it serves. Ask yourself, what is the point of this blog post? What am I trying to accomplish here? You can combine this with your audience persona from step #1 for even better results.
For example, when writing real estate blog content, I might decide that my purpose is to bring local home buyers up to speed on current market conditions, with an emphasis on the inventory situation. Notice this is a very specific goal with a specific audience in mind.
This is the first step to creating great content. You have to know what you’re trying to accomplish and who you’re trying to reach, before you start writing.
3. Create an outline to keep yourself on track.
Take it from someone who has written thousands of articles and blog posts over the years. An outline will save you time and energy, while producing a better finished product. It will help you get from the starting point to the finish line, without getting lost along the way.
And don’t worry. I’m not talking about those complicated essay outlines you had to create for high school English class. For real estate blog content, your outline can simply include a title, an objective, and the key points you want to cover.
4. Conduct a thorough round of keyword research.
Keyword research tools help you identify the specific words and phrases people are searching online, as they relate to your real estate blog content. You can also use these tools to generate topic ideas to support your long-term blogging efforts.
Some of these tools are free, while others charge a monthly or annual fee. For example, Google offers a free keyword research tool known as Keyword Planner. To access it, you only need to have a Google account. Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush offer more advanced features, but charge a fee for them.
You could also start typing some keywords or topics into Google, to trigger the “auto suggestion” feature. You’ve probably seen this in action many times. You start typing some words into Google, and it makes suggestions based on those words. These suggestions represent actual search trends. So it’s a great way to identify keywords for blogging purposes.
Just don’t get too obsessed about keywords. Choose topics you think your readers will find helpful, and write a real estate blog post using straightforward language. That’s the basic blueprint for creating good content.
5. Write like you’re explaining a topic to a friend.
When it comes to writing for the web, a casual and conversational tone typically works better than an academic or professorial tone. Don’t obsess about sentence structure and word choice. Just write in a clear, concise manner using your natural voice.
A long time ago, a senior copywriter told me to write like I’m explaining something to a friend. Those are words of wisdom, and they can help you create great content for your real estate blog.
6. Incorporate real estate data and statistics.
This is one of those things that distinguish great real estate blog content from mediocre material. If you really want to make your articles and reports more useful for the reader, include specifics to support the topic.
For instance, instead of just saying that the market is “hot” right now, provide some statistics to back it up. You could incorporate data relating to home price trends, sales activity, the supply situation, etc. Most of this data is easily accessible online – so why not use it?
Remember, you are creating real estate blog content with a specific audience in mind. You’re trying to educate your readers and make them better informed. You can’t do that by providing a bunch of generalities. You have to dig deeper and incorporate data, statistics, quotes from experts, etc.
It’s more work, but that’s the price you pay for creating great content on a real estate blog.
7. Provide comprehensive, in-depth information.
Don’t let anyone tell you that “people don’t read online,” or that the only “skim” through articles. This might be true for the latest celebrity gossip on people.com. But when it comes to serious financial matters like real estate, people will read lengthy content.
A real estate blog post should be as long as needed to cover the topic thoroughly. It might end up being 700 words long – or more than 2,000. The ideal length can vary depending on the complexity of the subject. But don’t feel like you have to “keep it short” just because you’re writing for the web.
While it’s okay to create lengthy articles on a real estate blog, you do need to format them for easy reading. And that paves the way for tip #8…
8. Format blog posts with short paragraphs, bullets, etc.
Have you ever stumbled across an article online, only to discover it was one big, dense block of text with no paragraphs? It wasn’t easy to read, was it?
When creating content for a real estate blog, try to apply the best practices of online writing. Break up your content into easily “digestible” chunks, by using short paragraphs. Use headers and sub-headers, like the ones used in this article. Use bullet points when creating a list or a series of steps.
These efforts will help your readers consume your content, which is exactly what you want.
9. Proofread and optimize before publishing.
No one can write with 100% accuracy all the time. Typos happen. Even so, you should at least strive for perfection when writing content for your website.
Publishing a real estate blog post full of typos and grammatical errors probably won’t help you win any new clients. Well-written content, on the other hand, shows that you have good attention to detail. And that’s an important trait for a real estate professional.
So, before you click the publish button, do a thorough round of proofreading. You’re looking for typos and grammatical errors, obviously. But you also want to make sure your content reads well. The best way to do this is by reading it out loud. If something sounds clumsy or convoluted, revise until it sounds better.
During the proofreading phase, you can also optimize your real estate blog content with the keywords you identified earlier. Incorporate keywords in a natural way, without overusing them ad nauseam. This will increase the chance that your post comes up in relevant search results.
10. Use website analytics to monitor performance.
Website analytics tools can help you figure out how your real estate blog content is performing over time. They can show how many visitors you are receiving, how long they’re staying on the page, and other useful insights. You can also see how you rank within the search engines, on a page-by-page basis.
Armed with this information, you can expand your real estate blogging efforts over time. You can find out what kind of content resonates with your audience and generates the most traffic. Without a basic analytics program installed, you won’t have any of these insights.
So there you have them, 10 steps for creating great content on your real estate blog. If you found this article helpful and want to continue your blogging education, be sure to check out my e-book. It picks up where this article leaves off, with a wealth of tips, tactics and strategies to help you succeed.