Does your real estate website have a blog? I can almost hear some of you ‘why would I need a blog, I just need my listings on there and that’s it. I don’t have time to “blog”!’. Perhaps you think posting on social media is enough, and for some it may be. But for those of you who want to grow their real estate business via their online presence, you simply need to have a blog in today’s highly-competitive world.
Here’s why: blogging is an inexpensive way to drive more traffic to your website, convert traffic into leads, provide you with social media content, build relationships with clients, and much more. Without a blog, you’ll find it really hard to compete with other agencies who have jumped on the blog-bandwagon and are reaping the benefits of it. To show you why, we’ve put together 6 reasons you should have a blog on your website (and regularly post on it)!
1. Boost your SEO
Writing blog posts is a fantastic way to boost your Search Engine Optimisation. There are three aspects as to how blogging does that:
- Search engines such as Google love it when websites are active and regularly updating content. If a website is active, search engines will be checking in frequently to see what new content has to surface. So, think about your current website – do you often update your pages or add new ones? Unlikely. By regularly posting new blogs, you’ll cue Google and other search engines to check your website.
- Simply put: the more pages you have, the more opportunities you’ll have to show up in search engine results. Every time you create and publish a new blog post, it means you add another indexed page to your website. So, every blog post is an extra opportunity to show up in rankings and drive more organic traffic to your website!
- Lastly, blog posts provide you with the opportunity to insert the keywords that people are searching for. Where you may be quite limited with your standard website-pages, this definitely isn’t the case with your blog! You can create separate blog posts for each specific question clients often ask, and the keywords they use in their searches. If they ask you the question, they’ll likely search for it on Google as well.
2. Drive more traffic to your website via social media
In addition to boosting your SEO and driving organic traffic via search engines, blog posts are one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website via your social media channels (especially when targeting sellers). Again, you’re quite limited with your standard website-pages. There are only so many times you can share these on your social media, especially in your organic, unpaid posts.
Blog posts provide you with the opportunity to share valuable content with your followers, linking straight back to your website. Write a captivating sentence to accompany your link, and we’ll guarantee people will click on the link and visit your website to read the full post! Chances are, they’ll complete your call-to-action or stick around to browse on your other pages. Can you see how this is way more valuable than only sharing a photo on social media without a call to action or link back to your website?
3. Convert more of your traffic into leads
On top of driving more traffic to your website, blog posts can also help you convert that traffic into leads. Similar to how each new blog post is a new opportunity to show up in search results, each post is a new opportunity to generate leads.
This one is very straightforward – simply add a clear, lead-generating call-to-action to each post.
This will usually be an attention-grabbing button that leads to a form where your visitor fills out their details. Ideally, you want to offer something for which someone would be willing to exchange their information. For your real estate website, this could be something such as offering a free appraisal.
4. Build relationships with potential and current clients
Connecting with your clients, both current and potential, is an important way to build trust and establish relationships. Blogging can help with this, as it is a great way to talk in a more conversational way to your target audience.
The great thing about blog posts is that it provides you with the opportunity to share more humanising content. A good example would be company news. If you’ve hired a new agent or administration assistant, introduce them on your blog. If you booked great success with a client and they have a captivating story, turn it into a case study on your blog. This type of content helps to show your audience the human side of your brand, which in its turn helps building trust.
5. Create opportunities for sharing
One major benefit of writing blog posts is that they simultaneously provide you with great content for your social media – you can simply repurpose your blog posts, rather than coming up with completely new ideas for your social channels. And if you think it’s worth sharing your blog content on your social media, others might think so too!
Blog posts create the opportunity for others to share your content. This can be directly via your website, or via your social media. Either way, it creates the potential for viral traffic and exponential market growth. These days, there are so many options to share a blog post – visitors can share a direct link to the post, share it on Facebook or Twitter, or email it to a friend.
6. Establish yourself as a leader in the real estate industry
By regularly providing valuable content and sharing industry news as one of the first, you will establish yourself as a leader in the real estate industry in your target audience’s eyes. Think about it this way: if prospects find answers to their questions in your blogs, they are likely to come back to you in the future to hear what you have to say, because you’ve helped them in the past. The same goes for sharing relevant industry news – if someone always finds out about important real estate news through your channels first, they will see you as an authority in the real estate industry. This will drive them back to you when they are looking for a real estate agent.
To get you started
Convinced? Great! Here are some topic ideas to help you get started with your first few posts:
- Top tips for preparing your house for sale
- How do I rent my home?
- Why should I use an agent to sell my home?
Generally, the best blog posts are answers to questions your clients have. So, if you’re ever out of inspiration – just think of questions you commonly get asked and use these as a topic for a new post (one at a time!). We’ll also be sharing a post soon with some further ideas for your blog. Don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing list to receive this straight into your mailbox.
If you’re not the best writer yourself, don’t have the time or simply don’t enjoy it, it may be worth investing in a marketing agency to help you out and do the hard work for you. At Lead Fleet, content marketing (including writing blog posts) is one of the many solutions we use within our digital marketing services. Schedule a free consultation today to find out more about how we can help your real estate business grow.
