Many real estate professionals and firms use blogging as a way to capture prospects online through localized real estate content. But how can you get more eyes on your posts?
AllBusiness, a business marketing and financing resource, recently highlighted several essentials to successful blog posts, including:
- Use an attention-getting headline: Give readers enough information to entice them to want to hear more. “Sometimes adding emotional words to the headline will give it the added magnetism required,” AllBusiness notes. “In other cases, the information you’re offering will, on its own, be enough of a draw. … Spice up your headline with a word or two that will grab readers and make it stand out. People are moved to act by their emotions.”
- Have a great lead-in: The first sentence or paragraph should compel visitors to want to keep reading. As such, don’t take forever to get to the point. Let readers know the information that you plan to present.
- Tie in some graphics: Graphics in your blog posts to illustrate your points and break up the text can be more visually pleasing to visitors. “Google measures the time spend on your pages, so your graphics, typography, and color scheme should work together to encourage visitors to stick around,” AllBusiness notes. When you promote your content on your social media channels, be sure to include a graphic too.
- Include a call to action: Nearly every blog post you write should have some type of action you want from the reader. This isn’t always to contact you to “sell or buy today.” You may invite visitors to make a comment and share their thoughts on a real estate topic to foster engagement. Or, you may invite them to read an item on your website for more information. You might invite them to share their email address to receive more exclusive content.
- Share relevant internal links: Include links to other articles on your site in everything you write. “Would a real estate salesperson just show one room of a house to a prospect?” AllBusiness writes. “Of course not, and remember, one of your main goals is to get people to stick around your website.” Internal links have been thought to be good for improving your search engine optimization too by increasing the number of pages per visit and the time visitors spend on your site.
- Add a meta description: The meta description is the information that Google displays in the search results. Google will default to the first sentence or two from your post. But this may not always be the best one to grab for search results. For WordPress users, plugins such as Yoast can let you add a meta description. It may be worth consulting a techie to learn how to add a meta description to your posts.
Source: “The 8 Essentials of a Successful Blog Post,” AllBusiness (2018)
