Is Your Real Estate Blog Easy to Use?
© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.
This post is part of the real estate blogging alphabet, a list of 26 best practices and benefits of using a real estate blog.
'U' is for Usable
It's a fact of Internet marketing that website usability direct affects website success in general. And the same fact applies to real estate blogs.
When you first set up your blog, it will be straightforward and easy to use. Most blogging programs are designed this way "out of the box." But the more you learn about blogging, you more tempted you will be to clutter up your blog with all those nifty (but often unnecessary) plugins, add-ons, and bells and whistles.
My recommendations are three-fold:
Remember, your online audience is highly skilled at hopping from one website to another while gathering information. You want to create the kind of real estate blog that they land on and stay for a while ... not the kind of blog that they quickly hop away from. Quality of content is a big part of this, but blog usability is just as important.
Related article: Blog Usability Increases Readership
'U' is for Usable
It's a fact of Internet marketing that website usability direct affects website success in general. And the same fact applies to real estate blogs.
- If your blog is easy for people to use (read, navigate, search, etc.), then you'll have better success with reader interaction and lead generation.
- On the other hand, if your blog is difficult to use, you will severely undercut your chances for real estate blogging success.
Real Estate Blogs and Clutter
When you first set up your blog, it will be straightforward and easy to use. Most blogging programs are designed this way "out of the box." But the more you learn about blogging, you more tempted you will be to clutter up your blog with all those nifty (but often unnecessary) plugins, add-ons, and bells and whistles.
My recommendations are three-fold:
- First, don't add anything to your blog that does not (A) improve the user's experience, (B) support your primary marketing goal, or (C) a combination of the two. If you start adding junk to your blog just because you can, you will do grave injury to your blog's usability.
- Secondly, have a friend or colleague check out your blog and ask their honest opinion about things like neatness, organization, usability and purpose.
- Lastly, don't assume people are going to hunt for the things you want them to find. If there is an item (or items) that you really want people to find, such as listing info, then give it prominence on your real estate blog and demote everything else.
Remember, your online audience is highly skilled at hopping from one website to another while gathering information. You want to create the kind of real estate blog that they land on and stay for a while ... not the kind of blog that they quickly hop away from. Quality of content is a big part of this, but blog usability is just as important.
Related article: Blog Usability Increases Readership
Labels: Real Estate Blogs
posted by Brandon at
9:57 AM
