One of the truly fun things about being a dawg and writing here is when readers communicate with you. I received an email yesterday from Mike Kennedy a REALTOR (whom I had never met) selling homes in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. (beautiful website BTW-my compliments on a job well done there). He tipped me off to an article in the NY Times about real estate blogging. Thanks Mike, for the the kind words, the heads up, and pleased to make your acquaintance. It is an article worth reading! I promised you a post on the subject and here ’tis!
I was especially drawn to this paragraph of the NYTimes piece:
The first thing that caught my eye were the words “pages and pages”…and the fact that good writing about everything from diners to energy drilling was what helped this buyer decide on his REALTOR. But the other part that grabbed me was the first sentence. Yeah, the one about how the guy FOUND the blog in the first place.
This REALTOR’S website and his blog ranks #2 on Google currently for all sorts of terms. Terms like “catskills real estate”, “sullivan county real estate”, “catskills new york real estate”, etc. That’s key because it was how his blog was found in the first place.
I have said before that a search engine friendly blog (along with a site) may well be the ultimate marketing weapon in the hands of a REALTOR that can write. It is a lethal combination of traffic and stickiness. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I enter this article into evidence as proof of that concept. (grin)
We are going to have some good clean fun in Orlando, talking about how to help you get your blog/site to be search engine friendly and rank and get the traffic that it deserves. Seriously. No more or less than that. Nothing that I would not be proud to teach if the folks from Google were standing in the room.
You do not need to try and trick Google (in fact, long term that almost NEVER pays off!). You do not need to be bombastic. You do not need to be confrontational.
You also do not need sacrilicious marketing. (Google that.) It may attract attention, but it does not sell homes IMO.
What you DO need to be is authentic and professional. You do need to be yourself. You also need to understand the principles that search engines work on and be willing to work a little harder to uphold them…and yeah…there are a few things to help you be more efficient along the way. That’s what I will spend some time on in Orlando. Nothing outrageous. Nothing “over the top”. Just time worn and tested principles for success on the search engines.
Titillating? Nope. Smoke and mirrors? Nope. Trickery? Nope. Effective? You betcha.
They may find you in Google, but they will only use your services if you connect with them as this REALTOR did. With QUALITY. It is a great example of how to do things RIGHT.
In my opinion: Good really does work. See you Friday!
Jill Wente says:
All good and valid points, Eric. Catchy headlines may initially grab a reader but its not what will keep them on your blog reading page after page.
Continual good quality content/ingredients with a couple spoonfuls of key words thrown in wtih a dash of on page links and a pinch of off page links and you have receipe for a tasty blog that Google will enjoy and reward with good rankings.
November 1, 2008 — 6:33 am
David Knudsen says:
First time to this site. Glad to find it. Mike Kennedy gave me a heads up he emailed you about the NY Times article and you were posting about it. I’m the Realtor your talk about in your post (and in the Times article, along with Mike and 3 other RE bloggers.) I actually don’t spend much time on SEO (search engine optimization), plugging my site or blog with keywords, or farming for links. I should, because I’d probably move up from the #2 position on some of those key Google search terms to #1. I just write.
I think there are a couple of other ingredients in the recipe of success in a RE blog. Some of my posts are pure info, but a lot are laced with opinion, sometimes controversial. And that gives readers something to bounce off of. One of the things that other Realtors who visit my blog often comment about is how many comments I get from readers. In 2 1/2 years of doing this, there have been over 1,500 comments posted, and some posts have generated upwards of 40 comments. Some people may say, “Hey, that’s no big deal in a big market with a lot of people surfing real estate sites.” But I work in a rural county with a population of 60,000. That’s smaller than many suburbs. The key is posting content that people actually want to read, and have their own opinions about.
I was at a party this evening where there were a number of other Realtors. There was a lot of buzz about the article. (Hey, up here its a BIG deal to get into the Times.) One guest turned to his partner, a Realtor, and said, “See, I’ve told you, you need to get a blog.” I thought to myself, “No, not really. Not unless you have something to say.” I would agree that every Realtor needs a website, but not every Realtor should undertake a blog.
November 1, 2008 — 9:10 pm
Carolyn Gjerde-Tu says:
Hope the conference goes well. I’m sure everyone who attends Eric’s session will be very glad they did. I know that I took away a lot of important ideas during Eric’s session at the REW conference.
November 1, 2008 — 11:23 pm
Eric Blackwell says:
@Jill- Tasty recipe!
@Carolyn- Thanks. It was good meeting you as well.
@David- Pleased to meet you. A couple of thoughts on your points. 1) How you write and getting comments as a sign of doing things correctly. I AGREE TOTALLY with that. Many “bloggers” stuff POSTS with keywords (to the point where they lose readers) think that that helps. It actually hurts in many respects. The real question is: Is it something that will build a relationship? (The links will follow from the relationship.) (Didn’t the NY Times link to you? Didn’t I?-grin)
IMO, you have actually gone about this the RIGHT way SEO wise…i.e. NOT with SEO tunnel vision. Are there some things you could mix in that would ACCELERATE your progress? Yep.
That’s what I do. Teach people how to blog profitably and in a search engine friendly way that give the search engines what they want and gives you better rankings as a result. I coach them to use techniques in what they write and stuff they put on their blog and how they market it that will use the natural link building advantage that blogs have to connect with others and thus propel them.
So (in that sense)I am NOT (grin) your typical, let’s stuff keywords and do a bunch of “link farming” sort of an SEO guy. I also agree with you that not everyone should blog…
While anyone CAN blog and anyone can learn how and do it. It takes a bit of writing talent and savvy to do it profitably. (many do not have the patience and time build the talents needed for that IMO) You’ve been at it 2.5 years, right?
BTW- I looked at all of the blogs in the article and yours spoke more to me, so that’s why I chose it to write about. (no offense to the others)
While I could show you a couple/few of ideas to improve your SEO, the bottomline is that if I am looking for relevant information about buying a home the Catskills, it is your blog/site that I would hope to see at the top.
Pleased to meet you!
Best;
Eric
November 2, 2008 — 5:45 am
David Knudsen Sullivan County Real Estate says:
Hi, Eric,
I know I need to use my keyword phrases more, but sometimes it seems so, well, forced. Like “Yesterday when I was at the grocery store, I was talking with a few friends about Sullivan County New York real estate …” or “Last evening, I was in the bathtub with soft jazz on in the background, and was thinking about lakefront houses in the Catskills.”
Yes, I did notice I didn’t get an outbound link from you. But I did get one from the Times, and an uncloaked contextual link from the Times is pretty platinum.
I wish I was going to Orlando this year. I’d love to come to your presentation and have a chance to meet you. Maybe next year. Money’s tighter this year, and I have to keep feeding the Google Adwords gorilla.
November 2, 2008 — 7:51 am
Eric Blackwell says:
David;
First off, there’s a link to you now. Injustice corrected (GRIN). Thought I’d done that. I actually WANT people to check out some of your posts!
Secondly. NO, please don’t start “stuffing” keywords into your blog post titles! It really won’t help you the way that your blog and website are organized. And #2, it won’t add to your reader’s experience. Seriously. I was actually holding you up as an example of doing it RIGHT by NOT doing that.
There are places where having correct keywords in place to let google know what your site is about is IMPORTANT. But in MOST places (99.9% of the time), stuffing KW’s into post titles like “As a Catskill NY REALTOR, my take on the SULLIVAN County Homes Commission meeting about the New York Real Estate Market.” does you no good IMO.
November 2, 2008 — 9:33 am
Arlington homes for sale says:
“I have said before that a search engine friendly blog (along with a site) may well be the ultimate marketing weapon in the hands of a REALTOR that can write.”
That’s for sure….
November 2, 2008 — 8:17 pm
J Boyer Chatham NJ says:
Eric, very well said.
David, very well done site, and your blog posts are also well done. Your blog reads well, I do wonder if any of the competitive REALTORS in your area have caught on yet and started to compete with you in the search engines for placement.
Keep up the fine work both of you.
November 3, 2008 — 11:16 am
David Sullivan County NY Real Estate says:
J, thanks for the nice comments. Most of the Realtors here are very aware of my web presence, and kind of wonder ‘how does he do it?’ But only one really works at bumping me on Google terms. She’s been working really hard for a couple of years now, and has succeeded in beating me on one or two of the ten or so I optimize for. I’m not sure if its true, but it seems like Google may give credit for ‘longevity’, along with good content and links.
November 3, 2008 — 12:19 pm
Carolyn Gjerde-Tu says:
David, congrats on the link from the times that is big stuff. While you naturally keep in mind major keywords, like the others have said you do not need to force them where they don’t belong. #1 rule all the experts say is write/design for the benefit of the user. Writing about neighborhoods, events, etc. should also bring you long-tail traffic, all of the smaller terms that in reality bring in more traffic combined than the major search terms.
November 3, 2008 — 12:51 pm
K2 Group says:
Excellent points, Eric. It doesn’t matter if you are #1 in the search results for real estate – if the customer comes to your site, and runs away screaming. You have to have some quality information for the customer to keep them there, and get the traffic you are getting to actually convert over to customers that want to do business with you.
November 4, 2008 — 8:41 am
NikNik says:
Thank you for the delightful mention Mr. Blackwell.
It’s true, Sacrilicious Marketing has nothing to do with selling homes or real estate. We are a mainstream marketing resource with tips for implementing outrageous or offbeat tactics. I would hope that real estate professionals can decipher for themselves what makes an appropriate real estate marketing plan.
November 5, 2008 — 10:59 am
Eric Blackwell says:
Please. (grin) Mr. Blackwell would be my dad…or a really tacky clothes guy who does the worst dressed list (no relation).
I would not have mentioned it, Nicole, but it was pointed out to me by a real estate agent who said “not going there” to get links…I then went and looked…I agreed with them. No need to go there at all. I was not trying to be disagreeable.
I simply do not see a place in business (save perhaps Hollywood?? and even then, I can point you to quite a few successful folks who have not travelled that road) for that type of marketing. I am no prude. But by the same token, I think a professional image (online and otherwise) is the way to go. And a less than professional image is not.
Again, not meant to be a slight towards yourself or Mary…I just disagree. Simple as that. I do hope to meet you guys at some point and say “hi”. Are you going to NAR? BHBU?
Best
Eric
November 5, 2008 — 11:31 am