I have been really enjoying Stephanie’s latest two posts. One’s here. The other here. I also cannot help but notice that a lot of people are getting into updating their blogs and changing how they are presenting themselves to the world. I could not be more thrilled.
We are doing many of the same things in our Louisville blogging group. (Think of it as our own little scenius.) Making wholesale overhauls of our blogs (in my estimation) is part of all of our 2009 marketing efforts. I just want to share some of the things we are finding as we downshift and shove our collective right feet into the carburetor for 2009.
When we plan a blog, we begin with the traffic source in mind. (huh?) In other words we start with a clear idea of whether the blog will attract people via SEO, Paid Search (PPC), Word of Mouth, HomeGain, Social Media or what. All of these are LEGITIMATE sources of traffic. ALL of them can be highly profitable. All can connect you to clients if they are prepared properly. And each will have their own likely entry point into your blog.
Does it make a difference how you lay out a blog which traffic source you are going to use? In my opinion, yes.
At Unchained in Orlando, Kelley Koehler gave a great example of setting up specific landing pages for Paid Search. One of the great benefits of PPC and services like Home Gain’s BuyerLink program is that you can choose which page to send the traffic you are BUYING to. (Meaning that if you create landing pages appropriately, you will increase conversion…).
SEO will mostly send folks to your home page and to the posts of your blog. Why because that is where most people will link to you. Also with word of mouth. BUT, posts also get a lot of rankings attention in search. By thinking these things out and designing your blog correctly you can drastically improve your blogging results. You can send the right folks to the right page. You can also have a call to action ready for them on post pages as well as the index page. (Note: By having a more static index page you can have more control of how search engines SEE your blog.)
No keyword “stuffing”. No silver bullet. Just good planning, knowing that’s where you are gonna get the traffic from, where they will arrive, and what you are gonna invite them to do when they get there.
If your primary source of traffic is going to be local advertising and or word of mouth, the ONLY entry point to your site will likely be the index page. (I mean, when you tell someone to visit your blog or put your blog on your business card…it’s going to be myrealestateblog.com and not a post or a category url, right? (grin)
Can you prepare a word press blog for ALL of these things at once? Yes, IMO you can. Using the exclude pages plugin you have almost complete control in WordPress as you can add pages WITHOUT having them in the navigation bar. This is EXTREMELY helpful in building PPC (and other bought traffic, like HG ) without disturbing the structure of the blog for SEO purposes by forcing everything onto the main navigation. With a few changes to most themes, you can do the same with categories.
If you are in the process of an “extreme blog makeover”, here’s to you! Here’s wishing you a great 2009!
Jon Karlen says:
Great guidance,Eric. Revamping and updating is one of the things on my plate for 2009 – it can just be a little scary to go messing around with your site (I’ve always been a big fan of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality). But, its overdue, and time for some tweaks here and there. So, I’ve begun the process of trying to freshen things up in a few places to give it a new look and feel to see how that goes.
January 11, 2009 — 10:12 pm
Teri Lussier says:
>Using the exclude pages plugin you have almost complete control in WordPress as you can add pages WITHOUT having them in the navigation bar… without disturbing the structure of the blog for SEO purposes by forcing everything onto the main navigation. With a few changes to most themes, you can do the same with categories.
I’m not following Eric. Can you give an example, using RE terms, of what type of page/category I would set up and hide from the navigation bar?
January 12, 2009 — 6:29 am
Eric Blackwell says:
Happy to- but first, we are not “hiding” it from buyers, but rather, not FORCING it to be in the top nav bar if we don’t want it to. One can always include it in other navigation (sidebar, etc.)
Here’s a basic example of when NOT to clutter up your main page:
Using PPC, the idea is to create lots of landing pages that are specific to whatever terms you are paying for…and test them for conversion.
In other words, a page specific to Dayton Condos, another with a message targeting first time buyers and etc. The idea is to test them (early and often–sometimes with a several of different types of text and structures). Good, cost effective PPC often involves lots of testing.
Another hypothetical.
You may find that traffic from one source (Yahoo PPC, for example) responds to one message better than another source (HomeGain)(who may respond differently to another message).
The bottom line:
When you are spending several thousand dollars a month on Paid Search (and you know who you are…) it behooves you to know where the money’s going…
These are all times where you really don’t want all of that testing mess cluttering up your main page.
January 12, 2009 — 8:17 am
Cheryl Johnson says:
And here’s where I come back to coding drop down menus, which has become a wee bit of a challenge…
Let’s say the agent has a parent page titled “BUY”, and that “BUY” page is in the main navigation bar.
Then there are sub pages under “BUY”, maybe “Writing the purchase contract” and “Selecting an inspector” and “Negotiating repairs”, and while those pages would clutter up the main nav bar, having access to them in a drop down menu on under “BUY” in the main nav bar would be handy.
(And yes, any of those sub pages might be appropriate landing pages for a traffic generating campaign.)
January 12, 2009 — 8:55 am
Cedar Rapids Real Estate says:
Great post Eric, and also great advice. I’m also going to be looking at adding video to my blog and become more of a neighborhood expert in my area.
January 12, 2009 — 1:16 pm