Increase Your Blog Traffic with Real Estate Keyword Strategies

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Summary: Real estate blogs and search engine optimization (SEO) go hand in hand. In this lesson, I'll explain how you can increase your blog traffic with a little-known keyword strategy. It's an easy way to bring more local visitors / potential clients to your site.

I know a lot of real estate agents who spend countless hours trying to improve their Google rankings for leading search phrases. They choose the number-one search phrase for their geographical area, such as "Austin real estate," and then they focus all of their SEO efforts on that single phrase. It's a form of tunnel vision that is best avoided.

In this article, I'll explain how you can increase your website and blog traffic with a seldom-used (but highly effective) keyword strategy. But first, let's talk about the distinction between short-term and long-term SEO goals.

Long-Term SEO Strategies

Climbing to the top of search engines for the most popular keywords and phrases is a long-term SEO strategy. Sure, this kind of achievement can increase your blog traffic significantly. But it's also hard to achieve due to the high level of competition for such phrases. For example, a brand new agent in Richmond, Virginia will not earn first-page rankings for "Richmond real estate agent" for quite some time (if at all). It's a competitive search phrase, and there will already be hundreds of agents in that area vying for top position.

You should certainly include such high-traffic keywords in your website content plan, but it should be a long-term goal. In the meantime, here's what you can do to boost your blog traffic in the short term.

Don't Forget the Short-Term Approach

Many real estate agents don't realize just how many keywords and phrases can send qualified traffic to their websites. "Qualified" in this context means local folks who are researching the real estate market, either to buy or sell a home. Yes, many of these people will use the popular high-traffic phrases we talked about earlier. But just as many will use a variety of phrases that are less competitive -- and therefore easier to rank for in search engines.

For example, a lot of home buyers in Charlotte, North Carolina will do Internet searches for best areas to live in Charlotte and similar phrases. So if I were to develop some web content around that subject, I'd be able to "pull" those people into my real estate blog or website. And it would probably be fairly easy to do. Why? Because most agents are so focused on high-traffic phrases that they completely forget about the lower-traffic phrases. As a result, they neglect to write any web content around these phrases. So the traffic is there for the taking in many cases!

Keyword Strategies to Increase Blog Traffic

Specific keywords and phrases (like the "best places to live" example above) may not drive as much traffic as the generic real estate phases. But when you add them up, they can drive plenty of qualified visitors to your blog or website. That's why I recommend this as a blog strategy in particular -- it's easy to create new content through blogging. Using a real estate blog, you could write a page per day with very little effort.

Here are some keyword strategies you could use to increase your blog traffic over time:

• "Best places to live in [your city]"
• "Best areas to live in [your city]"
• General city data (population, economy, etc.)
  
• Reviews of popular neighborhoods in your area
• New construction / development
  
• Information about local schools
• A list of relocation resources (movers, utilities, etc.)
• Home values and home sales data for your area
• Foreclosure activity in your city
  
• Other real estate stats and trends with a local angle
• 21 additional ideas for blog content
  

All of these topics can help you attract local people who plan to buy or sell a house in the near future. In other words, they can attract prospective clients. This is a smart way to increase blog traffic in the short-term, while also working toward your long-term SEO goals.

Let's take a closer look at one of the items on this list -- neighborhoods. If you write a one-page overview of every major neighborhood in your city, you'll be able to pull in a lot of new traffic via the search engines. People will be able to find your blog by searching for each neighborhood individually, and also by doing a general search for "neighborhoods in [your town]." You can get information from the HOA website for each neighborhood, and then write up a report in your own words. It has to be original content, or it won't perform well in the search engines.

I recently started doing this for an Austin, Texas real estate website I own. I used WordTracker and Google's keyword tool to find out what neighborhood keywords and phrases people were searching. In the end, I had created a spreadsheet with about 25 neighborhoods on it. When combined, these phrases accounted for more than 150 searches per day through Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

By the time I finish blogging about all of these neighborhoods, I will increase my blog traffic significantly. Granted, I won't get all of those 150 searches per day -- there are plenty of other websites with information about these neighborhoods. But I'll get a big chunk of it.

You can use this same strategy to generate more traffic and leads online. It's perfectly suited for real estate blogs and websites, and there is no limit to how far you can take it.

Coldwell Banker Creates Custom YouTube Channel - Pretty Smart

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I recently blogged about the rise of social media sites as a real estate marketing tool. YouTube was one of the websites I mentioned. It seems that Coldwell Banker has taken this concept to the next level. They have created their own highly customized channel on YouTube, and they've added some pretty smart features as well.

They are allowing their agents to add videos to the channel, and the company is producing a few well-polished videos of their own. The most innovative feature, in my view, is the "browse by map" button. This lets viewers search for real estate videos that pertain to their area.

This is smart for two reasons -- it gives agents an added incentive for publishing local videos (great exposure), and it ensures the constant growth of the Coldwell Banker YouTube channel. Not too shabby.

I didn't find anything for my own city of Round Rock, Texas when using the browse-by-map feature. But I'm sure those videos will be forthcoming. Hello ... second-fastest-growing city in the country over here! But I digress.

If I worked for some other real estate franchise, I would be asking the question: "What are you doing for us agents, in terms of social media marketing?" They could all learn a lesson from what Coldwell is doing.

How Real Estate Agents Can Use Twitter for Marketing

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I've spent the last 30 minutes looking for articles about Twitter, and how real estate agents can use it for marketing / communications. Surprisingly, there wasn't much to be found. Most of the articles I came across explained how to to follow people on Twitter (as if that's rocket science) -- but they didn't offer much advice on using Twitter for real estate marketing purposes.

So I'll have to write the article myself. Here it goes.

How to Use Twitter for Real Estate Internet Marketing

First, I'd like to offer a quick definition for those who are not familiar with Twitter. Here it is in a nutshell. Twitter is a social media website that allows people to keep others informed, by posting short updates on a regular basis. Each update (or "tweet") must be 140 characters or less when types.

Millions of people and organizations use Twitter, and for many different reasons. Some people use it to keep family and friends up to speed on their daily lives. Yawn. Publishers (like CNN) use it to keep people informed about breaking news. And slowly but surely, real estate agents are starting to warm up to Twitter as well. And that brings me to the point of this article.

How can a real estate agent use Twitter for marketing purposes? Actually, an easier question to answer would be: How can't you use Twitter for real estate marketing? Here's my advice:

Visit the website and do a search for real estate in your city. This is the best way to get acquainted with how Twitter works, and how other agents are using it. For example, here's how agents in Austin are using the site. Once you see how it all works, you'll start to get some ideas (hopefully) on how you can use it for real estate marketing purposes.

A Twitter Scenario to Get Your Wheels Turning

Let's say I'm an agent in Phoenix, and I'm looking for ways to get more exposure online. I stumble across the Twitter website one day, and I decide to sign up for an account. It's free, after all, so why not? Eventually, I get the hang of using the site and new ideas spring to mind:

"I know what to do. I'll create a Phoenix real estate page on the Twitter website. I'll post updates about mortgage rate changes, local real estate news, new subdivisions, new property listings ... in short, everything a local home buyer would want to know."

Here's the end goal. If I did a good job updating my Twitter page with great links and info, people would notice. And they would want to "follow" me on Twitter, which means they would subscribe for future updates or "tweets." I could also add a Twitter link on my website and/or blog, so people could easily sign up for updates.

With the right focus, this could evolve into a useful part of my real estate marketing program. And it doesn't cost me anything but time.

Generating Home Buyer Leads - 9 Things I've Learned Over the Years

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

In this article, I plan to share everything I've learned about generating home buyer leads through a real estate website. These lessons come from the work I've done on the Home Buying Institute website over the last five years or so. In that time, I've been fortunate enough to attract millions of visitors and produce thousands of leads from home buyers and mortgage shoppers.

Please don't think I'm bragging by telling you this. There are plenty of folks who generate more buyer leads than I do. I'm only dropping these stats so you'll be comfortable with the information I'm about to share. You can rest assured that it comes from years of direct experimentation -- and not hearsay or speculation.

How to Produce Buyer Leads Online

So without further ado, here are some of the lessons I've learned about home buyer leads and how to produce them.

1. Go Long. You need to prepare yourself for a sustained campaign. Internet marketing and lead generation require a steady effort over time. It's not a one-shot deal. Think of a marathon instead of a sprint. The upside of this is that you can afford to stumble a bit in the early days, because there's plenty of time for trial and error.
2. Offer Value. When it comes to Internet marketing and lead generation, value is the key to success. The more value a home buyer perceives in a certain action, the more likely they are to take that action. If the action you desire is to have people contact you, you'll need to explain the value and benefits of that action. This value might come in many forms -- instant answers to their home-buying questions, an easier home search, etc. More value equals more buyers leads.
   
3. Learn SEO. You should learn everything you can about search engine optimization, as it applies to your real estate website. It's one of the best ways to generate hot buyer leads, because it attracts people who are actively seeking real estate information. Search engine optimization goes hand in hand with lead generation. That's why I've written step-by-step guides for each topic.
   
4. Write Plenty. When writing content for your website or blog, you should cast your net far and wide. You would be surprised by the wide variety of search phrases that home buyers use when researching real estate online. So by creating more content, you'll gain more website traffic. Write about current events in your city, real estate trends, mortgage topics, home staging, new neighborhoods and subdivisions, home builders who operate in the area ... you get the idea.
5. Combine Techniques. If you want to get the most home buyer leads from your website, you need to use more than one lead-generation technique. This also means you must experiment to find out which techniques work best for your website. My Real Estate Web Leads e-book offers plenty of ideas to get your started. I recommend following the rule of three. Find three techniques that work for you, and then integrate all three of them into your website.
6. Experiment Constantly. Other agents might tell you what has worked for them in the past, and you can certainly learn from this. But you shouldn't feel that you need to duplicate their techniques to the letter. Likewise, just because a certain technique failed for somebody else doesn't mean it won't work for you. You need to learn for yourself what works best on your website. Build your lead-generation program around your own trial and error -- not what you hear from others.
7. Remove Distractions. I've seen agent websites with a tremendous amount of clutter on them. In fact, it seems to be a trend in the real estate industry (more so than any other industry I've worked with over the years). Some agents love to scatter buttons, logos, graphics, "widgets" and other virtual knick-knacks all over their websites. This creates distraction and dilutes whatever lead-generation techniques you may have in place. Trust me on this one -- you'll produce more home buyer leads with a clean, uncluttered website.
8. Double Dip. Do you already have a real estate website that produces home buyer leads on a regular basis? If so, you should consider launching website #2. If you're happy with the success of your current site, but you still want more leads from local home buyers, you'll benefit from a second website. You might even give your new website a related but slightly different focus from the original. For instance, you could create an online guide to local neighborhoods and communities -- a great strategy for generating buyers leads and inquiries!
9. PPC Wisely. Pay-per-click programs (such as Google's AdWords and Yahoo's Sponsored Search) can help you generate leads from home buyers in your area. But you have to know what you're doing before using such a program, or you could end up wasting your money. Here are some of the most common mistakes I've seen agents make in this arena: (1) ineffective landing pages, or no landing pages at all; (2) overbidding on keywords; (3) targeting keywords that are either too competitive or too general in nature; (4) lack of follow-through in terms of lead capture. If all of this is Greek to you, then you should avoid using PPC until you've done some homework.
   

Internet marketing is all about trial and error. You must directly experiment with different techniques to find out what works for you. But you can also learn a lot from the mistakes and successes of others. That's the purpose of this article. I hope the lessons I've learned (above) help you generate home buyer leads through your real estate website.

If you'd like to learn more about real estate lead generation, I recommend that you download a copy of my e-book on the subject. It explains ten effective techniques for getting more buyer leads through your website.

How to Improve Your Google Rankings With Old Emails

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I know what you're thinking. You probably think the title of this blog post is a clever bait-and-switch designed to lure you in. You probably think: "Sure, it sounds great. But there's really no way to use old emails to improve Google rankings ... is there?" I assure you there is. And I'm going to show you exactly how to do it in this blog post.

Two Things You Need to Know...

There are two concepts you need to understand, before we go any further. The first concept is something called link popularity. People who are familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) already know what this means. For everyone else, here's a definition. Link popularity refers to the number and quality of other websites that link to your website. Search engines like Google base their rankings on link popularity -- partly, at least. So if you can increase the number of quality websites that link to your site, you can improve your website's search engine rankings.

That was the first important concept. Here's the second one. Most professional web publishers are happy to accept articles from total strangers, as long as the article is well written. And most of the time, the publishers will include a link to your website within the author's note that goes along with the article. You can see where I'm going with this.

So, by publishing your articles on various real estate websites across the Internet, you can greatly improve your website's ranking in Google, Yahoo, etc.

Turning Emails Into Real Estate Articles

Think of all the information you send to clients by email, on a regular basis. You answer their questions. You give them advice. You share your professional expertise. It's part of the job. But most agents waste their old emails by deleting them. Start saving these emails, and you'll have an endless supply of article material. Now the title of this blog post is starting to make sense. Here's how the connection works...

If you gather a few of your old emails, you can easily shape them into a well-written real estate article for online distribution. You can find plenty of websites who welcome this kind of material, and you can get links to your own website when you publish the articles. Do this a few times a month from here on out, and you'll see your Google rankings start to climb steadily. I've used this technique plenty of times, and always with solid results. So I know you can do well with it.

It takes time and patience, and your real estate articles have to be written well (that's the key). But it will yield results in the long run. And search engine rankings are all about the long run.

Where to Submit Your Articles

I'm going to take this one step further and give you a list of places where you can publish real estate articles online. Most of these websites have guidelines of some kind, so be sure to read through them.

• www.realestateproarticles.com
• www.ezinearticles.com
• www.escapeartist.com/OREQ/article_submission.php
• www.thecreativeinvestor.com
• www.homebuyinginstitute.com/submit.php (my own website)
• www.realestatepropertyarticles.com
• Use Google to find more

With a little bit of homework, you can find dozens of additional websites. Maybe even hundreds. Use the Google query I've provided above and then look for quality websites that accept articles. And remember the equation for success:

• Old emails = material for real estate articles.
• Articles = publishing opportunities.
• Publishing = link popularity.
• Link popularity = better rankings in Google, Yahoo, etc.

So there you go. That's how you can use your old emails to improve your Google rankings and web traffic. Good luck!

9 Reasons to Avoid Real Estate SEO Firms Like the Plague

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Want some "insider" advice from a former search engine optimization provider? Here it is. You should avoid real estate SEO firms like the swine flu. Here are nine good reasons for doing that.

For several years, I offered search engine optimization (SEO) services to real estate agents and folks in other industries. These days I just manage the Home Buying Institute, because it's more fulfilling than the tedium of real estate SEO work. But you can rest assured that everything I'm about to tell you comes from years of first-hand knowledge.

Several of my former clients have learned to handle their own search engine optimization, without the need to hire a real estate SEO firm for help. Some have learned the ins and outs of online networking, blogging, and other aspects of Internet marketing. One guy [hi Edward] has turned into a blogging machine, and he gets a lot of leads through his SEO and blogging efforts. And let me tell you something -- they are all better off for taking things into their own hands. Here's why...

Why You Should Avoid Real Estate SEO Companies

1. Many so-called SEO experts are actually web developers who simply read a few articles on the subject of search engine optimization. They learned how to toss buzzwords around, such as "link popularity," and they now claim to be gurus in the field of SEO. In truth, many of them only know enough to be dangerous.
2. I'm not petty enough to drop names, but I could easily create a list of 15 real estate SEO firms who have gotten their clients banned from Google and other search engines. I know about this firsthand, because many of their former clients came to me for help.
3. Search engine optimization is not rocket science. Most of it revolves around two things -- (1) writing website content and (2) networking in order to attract links. These are things you should be doing for yourself anyway, for general business purposes. So why outsource them to a real estate SEO firm that's just going to get in the way?
4. I've just stated that writing content for your website and/or blog is a big part of search engine optimization. The trouble is, most SEO people are terrible writers. They merely stuff sentences and paragraphs full of keywords in the desperate quest for good rankings. This kind of content usually comes off as if a six-year-old wrote it.
   
5. Reason #4 is how you end up with sentences like this: "Our Charlotte real estate services are designed to solve all of your Charlotte real estate needs in a professional manner while ensuring your ultimate Charlotte real estate success." Yes, that's from an actual website. I changed the city so as not to embarrass the publisher. Even if somebody did find the site through a search engine, how do you think they would react to this kind of drivel? It doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
   
6. Improving a website's search engine ranking is simple yet time-consuming. It requires patience and persistence. But most real estate SEO firms take on too many clients too quickly -- and those clients demand results. As a result, the SEO firm will cut corners, scale back on the work performed, and use black-hat techniques that end up getting their clients banned from search engines (see #2 above).
7. There's a good chance the SEO company you hire will end up damaging your reputation and pissing off a lot of people. Many of these companies use blog spamming to get links to their clients' websites. Any blogger will tell you that comment spam is a huge annoyance. The SEO firm will use your web address with this spam technique, which means you could start getting angry emails from other webmasters.
8. Search engine optimization is not a tangible product. So it's easy to get ripped off if you don't know how to measure the results. I once worked for a marketing firm that laughed about the "free money" their clients sent them each month -- for services that weren't fully rendered. Needless to say, I didn't work there long. I have heard story after story about real estate agents who were swindled by such companies. It goes something like this: "I had to pay for a year of services in advance, but my search engine rankings were about the same at the end of that year." Get in line with the other victims.
   
9. You can handle SEO for yourself -- and do it better -- just by downloading my e-book on the subject. Or you can pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to a real estate SEO firm who's probably going to do more harm than good. Your choice.

Social Media Marketing for Real Estate Agents

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

What is social media marketing, and how can it help you grow your real estate business? Those are the questions I'd like to focus on with this blog post. By the time you're done reading this quick primer, you'll be ready to plunge into the world of social media marketing.

Social Media Defined

A social media website is one that allows visitors to contribute content in some way, and to interact with other visitors. YouTube is a good example of a social media website, because it meets both parts of this definition. Visitors can add videos to YouTube, and they can also interact with other members by leaving comments and other notes.

Here are some websites that meet the definition of social media in some way:

Video Sharing Websites
A lot of real estate agents have learned the benefits of posting educational videos online. It's a great way to enhance your website with additional media, and it can also increase traffic to your site. Here are some websites where you can publish such videos:

• YouTube.com
• TubeMogul.com
• Revver.com
• Howcast.com
  

Networking Websites
Online networking is a great way to grow your real estate business. Forget about MySpace -- that's networking for teens. Here are some business-oriented websites worth checking out:

• LinkedIn.com
• Rhyze.com
• Biznik.com
• Xing.com
  

Social News Websites
If you have company news that fits into one of the categories featured on these websites, you may want to use them to spread the word. A word of caution though -- if it's not newsworthy, don't bother submitting it to these sites.

• Digg.com
• Reddit.com
• Mixx.com
• Propeller.com
  

Tips for Using Social Websites

Many agents who use social media as part of their real estate marketing strategies go about it all wrong. They blunder their way into it, as if they're crashing a dinner party or some other social gathering. When it comes to social media marketing, you need to learn before you leap.

As with any other community, you must learn the "customs" before you plunge into a social media website. For starters, I recommend doing some research to see how other real estate agents are using these sites -- not to copy their ideas or follow the herd, but just to get the lay of the land. This will help you generate ideas on how best to use social media in your own marketing program.

I would also warn you against a common trap for first-time social media marketers, and that's getting stuck in a time-wasting cycle of minutia. I've met more than one real estate agent who complained about sitting at the computer all day, without getting anything out of it.

If you adopt a certain strategy for social media marketing, and it doesn't produce some kind of benefit -- ditch it and move on to something else. Give it an honest effort, but don't be afraid to walk away from it. For example, there's no point updating your Twitter page ten times a day if it doesn't contribute to your business in some way.

Real Estate Marketing Applications

With so many different social media sites, you might feel a bit overwhelmed. And trust me ... I've only scratched the surface with the list provided above. So where do you start? Which websites are suitable for real estate marketing purposes? Well, like I said earlier, you'll have to do some research to get started. Once you figure out how these sites work, you'll know which ones might be worth using.

YouTube is a good place for agents to get their feet wet with social media. Here are some tips for using YouTube for real estate marketing purposes:

• YouTube is a great way to add video content to your real estate website. For one thing, you can actually host the videos on YouTube's domain, which prevents you from using up your own website storage space.
• By adding a keyword-rich description and title to your YouTube videos, there's a good chance they will pop up in relevant Google searches. Google sometimes intersperses videos within their regular search results, in addition to their video search. So it's a great way to increase your online exposure, when done right.
• There are many ways to use videos for real estate marketing purposes. For example, you might create a video update on the state of the real estate market in your city or town. Such as: "San Diego Real Estate Update 2009." You could publish such a video through the sites listed earlier, and it would give you some extra exposure and website traffic. You could even embed the video into your own website or blog, just by copying / pasting the code provided by YouTube.
• If you participate in other social networking sites, such as LinkedIn.com, you could promote your video there as well. Anyone who lives in your area would be interested in such a real estate update.
• Why not create a video section of your website? It will really make the site come alive, and it lets people get to know much better than plain-old text content.
  
• Remember, you only get out of it what you put into it. Don't publish any videos online until you've done a few practice runs with the production process. I look back at my early videos and cringe. I did not know what I was doing. :-) You'll get better as you go along, so you should make some practice videos before going live across the Internet.
  

I hope you've enjoyed this guide to social media as a real estate marketing tool. At the very least, I hope it gives you some usable ideas to implement. Good luck.