45 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Blog Traffic in 2012

Blogging is a great way to grow your real estate business online. It simplifies the publishing process and allows you to create a large volume of content. In order to capitalize on all of that content, you need to generate traffic. And that’s what we are going to talk about in today’s lesson. Here are 45 things you can do to increase your real estate blog traffic in 2012.

Creating Better Content on Your Real Estate Blog

If you only absorb one thing from this article, make it this: The best way to increase your blog traffic over time is to produce quality content. As we progress through this tutorial, you will discover the overlapping benefits of quality website content.

1. Create useful content that helps people accomplish a task or goal. Don’t blog just for the sake of blogging. Give your content a specific purpose. If a reader finds the information helpful, he or she will be more likely to recommend it to others. This can be done through linking, social networking, and word of mouth. All of these things can help you increase your real estate blog traffic over time.
2. Use images and multimedia to enhance your blog posts, when applicable. Textual information is fine. But you may find that your audience is more responsive if you use supporting images, graphics and videos. Again, this can result in more links to your blog, which will help improve your search engine visibility and traffic levels.
3. Offer a contrary view, as long as you believe in it. I’ve noticed that bloggers tend to jump on the bandwagon, in terms of the content they publish. They just follow the herd. The world doesn’t need any more followers. This is true in the blogosphere year as well. Your real estate blog will be more successful if you share your personal views on things – even if those views go against popular opinion.
4. Use your blog to fill a void within your industry, your niche, or your local housing market. In this context, I’m talking about an information void. Find out what kind of content is in short supply, and then supply that content through your blogging efforts. Cater to under-served audiences. Cover things that no one else is covering.
5. Publish timely news on your real estate blog. What’s going on in your housing market right now? Use these current events to increase your blog traffic. Covering news is also a great way to acquire new links to your site, which has a positive impact on your search engine visibility. I’ll offer some tips for keeping up with the news a bit later.
6. Create in-depth articles, tutorials and research pieces. Avoid publishing snippets and puff pieces. The Internet is chock full of articles that offer “quick tips.” You’ll never distinguish yourself as a real estate blogger if you publish more of the same. Go above and beyond to explore and explain your topic. Your readers will appreciate it. They will be more likely to recommend your content to others. Search engines will pick up on this trend as well, and you’ll enjoy a nice boost in your rankings. All of these things will help you increase your blog traffic in 2012.
7. Conduct a survey and publish the results onto your real estate blog. Both readers and journalists find surveys interesting. This is especially true when it relates to a current event. It’s a good way to generate traffic, and it also helps you establish yourself as an authority in your subject matter.
8. Conduct an interview with an expert who is relevant to your industry. Published the interview on your blog.
9. Create a list that helps people accomplish a certain task. This blog post is a good example. I’ve created a list of ways you can increase your real estate blog traffic. Just remember what I said about “quick tips” and puff pieces. Creating a list of tips is fine, as long as you provide in-depth information at the same time. Get into the nitty-gritty of your subject matter. Make each post as useful as possible.
10. Read up on the Google Panda update. This algorithm update took effect in February 2011. It essentially raises the bar in terms of quality content and search engine ranking. You’ll be a more successful blogger if you familiarize yourself with this update. You can learn more about it in this article.
11. Improve your writing skills by reading the news. Professional journalists have certain talents you would be wise to emulate. They know how to produce engaging and original content in a timely fashion. They also know how to explain topics clearly and thoroughly. Every real estate blogger could benefit from honing these skills. It will improve the quality of your content, which will help you increase your blog traffic over time.

Using Social Media to Increase Traffic

You can use social media websites to increase your blog traffic. The possibilities here are endless. It gives you additional ways to reach your audience and promote your content. Here are some tips and ideas to get you started.

1. Does your company have a Facebook page? If not, you should consider creating one. You can link to your real estate blog from the info page of your Facebook profile. You can also showcase your new blog posts to all of your Facebook fans. When used properly, it’s an easy way to reach a large audience with minimal effort.
2. Create a Twitter account for yourself or for your company. Use your Twitter page to cross-promote your blog content. If you build up a large base of Twitter followers, you can leverage it to boost your real estate blog traffic. This also gives people another way to follow your blog. They can subscribe to it directly (and we will discuss this later), or they can simply follow you on Twitter. Either way, they will immediately know when you’ve posted something new on your blog.
3. You can promote a new blog post on Digg.com, but only if you publish something truly unique. For instance, if you publish some original research that would be useful to a large audience, you may be able to generate some buzz through Digg. Just know that Digg users are wary of self-promotional content. So you have to make sure that what you are sharing is useful or interesting to others.
4. You can increase your real estate blog traffic by publishing videos on YouTube. A common strategy is to create instructional videos with a link to the website. You can even mention the blog within the narration. For instance, if you have additional resources on your website that relate to the video, you could mention them within the video itself.
5. In addition to using social media websites directly, you should make it easy for your readers to share your content through these sites. You can incorporate social media buttons onto your blog, so people can easily share the information they find interesting. Here’s an easy way to do it.

Publishing on a Regular Basis

You can increase your traffic by blogging more often. The whole point of a real estate blog is to attract a following. A repeat visitor is much more valuable than someone who stumbles across your blog once and never returns. In order to keep people coming back, you have to publish quality content on a regular basis. The freshness factor is also important for search engine visibility. Here are some tips to help you improve your blogging productivity.

1. Use keyword research tools to identify article topics. There are several of these tools available online (WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, etc.). I recommend using the one provided by Google, because it gives you suggestions beyond the exact phrase you start with. It’s an easy way to come up with real estate content ideas for new blog posts.
2. Use Google Alerts to stay abreast of your subject matter. This is one of my favorite techniques for generating blog ideas. You start by entering a certain phrase that’s relevant to your industry and company. When the Google crawler finds new information posted online that is relevant to your chosen topic, you’ll be notified by email. This technique is useful for business research in general. It’s also a great way to identify real estate blogging topics. It will support your goal of publishing on a regular basis, which in turn will help you increase your blog traffic over time.
3. Use dictation software to increase your blogging productivity. I actually dictated this article through a software program called Dragon Dictate. This is a dictation program that uses voice-recognition technology to translate my words into text. I just speak into my Bluetooth headset, and the text appears on my computer. They have a version of this product for PC and Mac users alike. I’ve been using the Mac version for several years now. I can dictate an article in one third of the time it would take me to type it. I just give the content a good proofreading, and it goes directly onto the blog.
4. Subscribe to magazines, journals and blogs that are related to your industry or niche. This is another great way to generate blogging ideas. By subscribing to these things, you will receive an endless stream of relevant information.
5. Hire a website content expert to create a content plan for you. This is one of the services we provide to our clients. We develop content plans around topics and phrases that are relevant to the client’s audience. This helps you boost your real estate blog traffic by covering the topics people care about the most. It’s also a great way to overcome writer’s block. With the content plan in front of you, you’ll never be at a loss for blogging ideas.

Writing Blog Headlines and Titles

Your headlines and title elements are critical items when it comes to traffic and visibility. The headline is the part that appears at top of your blog post. The title element is the one that gets displayed within search results. In some cases, the headline and the title element will be the same. But some blogging programs and plugins allow you to create a title element that is unique from the headline. These two factors are important for readers and search engines alike. Here are some ways you can use them to increase traffic to your real estate blog.

1. Your headlines and titles should both be engaging to readers. If you really want to master the skill, you should buy a book on copywriting. This is the art of writing for marketing purposes. Professional copywriters are great at producing engaging headlines – it’s what they do for a living. You can apply these skills to your blog writing to boost readership.
2. You will attract more visitors to your blog if you create interesting headlines and title elements. They will see the title element within the search results, and they’ll see the actual headline when they land on your page. The title element encourages them to click through to your site. The headline encourages them to stay on the page once they have arrived.
3. Use numbers or percentages in your headlines and titles. This is an effective technique for attracting more readers. We are naturally drawn toward headlines that feature specific numbers or percentages. Professional copywriters have known this for decades. Hint: Odd numbers have been shown to boost readership more than even and rounded numbers. (There’s a reason I offered “45 ways to boost your real estate blog traffic” in the headline of this blog post.)
4. Do not use headlines for gimmicks or bait-and-switch. Readers will only resent you for doing this. Your headline should be an accurate reflection of the content found within the post.
5. Use the headline to explain how your content helps the reader. Are you writing a blog post to help people solve a certain problem? If so, you should identify the problem and hint at the solution within your headline and title element.

Networking And PR

Blogging goes hand-in-hand with networking and public relations. This relationship can go either way. You can use your real estate blog as a public relations tool. Or you can use your public relations program to promote the blog. You can even do both of these things simultaneously. The possibilities are endless. Here are some ways to increase your blog traffic through networking and PR techniques.

1. Connect with other bloggers. Seek out other people who publish blogs in your space. Share ideas with them. Start a new online friendship. As long as it’s not a direct competitor, you may be able to share traffic with each other as well.
2. Allow guest posts on your real estate blog. This is when you allow another author to publish information onto your blog. It can help you increase traffic in a number of ways. The guest author will be inclined to promote the new content. It can also help you improve the overall quality of your content. We have already discussed the importance of quality content in terms of search engine traffic and visibility. This strategy also makes your blog more useful to your readers – and that’s your ultimate goal.
3. Participate in forums that are relevant to your industry or niche. Be an active participant, not a silent observer. Many web forums allow users to create a signature line that appears under each of their forum posts. You could put a link to your blog within your forum signature. If you are active about helping people through the forum, many of them will follow the link to your blog. Thus, it becomes another way to increase your traffic and visibility.
4. Publish articles on other websites, with a link back to your real estate blog. This technique is known as article marketing. There are plenty of publishers out there who welcome useful content that is relevant to their audience. Contact the editors and publishers of websites within your industry, and ask them if they accept guest articles. Better yet, pitch them a specific article that you have already written. Include an author’s note at the end of the article with a link to your blog.
5. Contact journalists within your industry to tell them about your real estate blog. Granted, you first need to have some useful content in place before you do this. Use this technique in conjunction with the next item below…
6. You can increase your blog traffic by publishing a press release online. The release should point to a specific resource on your site. In most cases, the mere existence of a blog is not newsworthy, in and of itself. The exception to this rule is when the blogger is a high-profile figure. For example, if the CEO of a major real estate company launches a blog, it could be deemed newsworthy. So you could justify publishing a press release to announce it. In other cases, it is the content itself that needs to be newsworthy.

Real Estate SEO / Search Engine Optimization

I’ve often said that real estate blogs and search engine optimization (SEO) go together like peanut butter and jelly. There are several reasons for this. Content is the centerpiece of any SEO campaign. And blogs make it incredibly easy to publish new content on a regular basis. And when you publish great information on a frequent basis, you will start to attract links from other websites. This is the key to better search engine rankings and visibility.

This tends to have a snowball effect over time. Great content attracts readers and results in more links to your site. This improves your standing within the major search engines, which brings in even more traffic. And so the cycle perpetuates itself. Here are some ways to get more SEO horsepower out of your real estate blog.

1. Schedule a consultation call with a professional SEO consultant. Tell them you are specifically looking for ways to improve your blog’s visibility and ranking within the search engines. This person should be able to provide specific recommendations to help you achieve this goal. We provide this type of consulting, if you are interested.
2. Use an SEO plugin to create custom title elements and descriptions for each blog post. We talked about the title element earlier, and how it relates to search engine visibility and click-through rates. In some cases, you will want the flexibility to create a title element that is slightly different from the headline of your post. If you are using WordPress, you will find a number of plugins that allow you to do this. Just go to the plugins section of the WordPress website and do a search for “SEO.”
3. Acquire links through the PR and networking strategies above. Getting a link from another website is like a vote of confidence. The other publisher is saying, “Here is a website I found useful or interesting. I’m linking to it to share it with my own readers.” Search engines reward “link popularity” with higher rankings. So make sure you are promoting your real estate content through every means available.
4. Acquire links by publishing more often. If you do a good job keeping your blog updated, people will be more inclined to link to it. You will also be giving them more things to link to, by publishing a larger volume of content. People aren’t the only ones who enjoy fresh content. Search engines love it too.
5. Acquire links by publishing useful and engaging content. I’ve been harping on this topic a lot, but there’s a good reason for it. If you want to increase traffic to your real estate blog, you have to start with the content. This is the key to all of the other strategies we have discussed in this lesson. Before you can promote your content with press releases, social media or any other means, you must have something worth reading. There’s too much junk on the Internet already. The only way to distinguish your blog is through the quality of your content. Conduct original research. Share your own thoughts and insights. Publish in-depth tutorials that help people accomplish a certain goal. Offer timely news that relates to your industry. Don’t click the publish button until the information is truly valuable to your readers.
6. Create an XML sitemap to help search engines find all of your content. This is especially important for a large blog with hundreds, or even thousands, of individual posts. Search engine robots will look for an XML sitemap when they first visit your website. This helps you increase your blog traffic by improving the visibility of your content. You can learn more here, and you can create a sitemap here.
7. Practice interlinking between posts. This is when you link to a related article from the one the visitor is currently reading. Just make sure you do this in a logical and relevant way. Internal linking helps search engines crawl through the content of your website. It’s also good for “stickiness” – that is, it keeps people on your site longer by giving them more to read. It lets the reader “drill down” from one topic to another.

Gaining Subscribers

Do everything you can to convert your readers into subscribers. You don’t want people to visit your real estate blog one time and forget about it. You want them to become regular readers and repeat visitors. Of course, this all starts with the quality of your blog content. That’s what really keeps people coming back. But there are some technical things you can do as well. Here are some ways to increase your blog traffic by building a subscriber base.

1. Give people multiple ways to subscribe to your blog feed. Savvy bloggers will be able to find your RSS feed on their own, and they can add it to their feed reader for future reference. But not everyone is tech-savvy. So you must give them other ways to subscribe…
2. Use an RSS-to-email program like FeedBurner. This allows people to sign up for updates via email. They simply enter their email address as if they were signing up for a newsletter. When you publish a new post onto your real estate blog, the subscribers will receive an email notification. They can click through the links within the email to visit your site and read more.
3. I mentioned using Twitter in the social media section above. Some people prefer to follow publishers on Twitter, as opposed to subscribing to the blog. You want to accommodate these people as well. You can do this by providing a link to your Twitter page in the sidebar area of your blog.
4. Give people an incentive for subscribing. Internet marketers have been using this strategy for many years. When used properly, it can help you increase your blog traffic and grow your subscriber base. The key is to offer something of genuine value, such as a free e-book on a relevant topic. The more valuable the incentive, the more subscribers you will get.
5. Use social media websites to encourage subscribers. You can use this in conjunction with the previous tip. You can create an incentive for subscribers, and then tell people about it through your social media channels. You can see how all of these things work together in harmony.

Even More Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic

If you would like to discuss any of the strategies covered in this article, I encourage you to sign up for a consultation call. We provide a variety of services that can help you increase your real estate blog traffic. For example, we can help you develop a content plan that is relevant to your audience. We can even write some of the content for you (see our copywriting page for details).

The best way to get started is through a consultation call. I’ll use this time to get to know your company and your marketing goals. From there, I can determine where your weaknesses are and how to correct them. But it all starts with the phone call.