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Writing Great Content for Your Real Estate Website
Filed Under (Marketing and SEO) by Lou Lynch on 05-01-2010
Tagged Under : content, keywords, real estate website, seo, writing
When building a real estate website, it is easy to get carried away with the way it looks rather than the information that it provides. While it is important to have an attractive website it is more important to have good content that is well written and to the point. The information your website provides is not only important to your real estate customers, it is instrumental in getting your website ranked in the search engines.
Those real estate agents that understand the importance of content will sometimes go overboard writing page after page of keyword stuffed content. While at one time effective, keyword stuffing no longer works (and hasn’t for quite some time). The best way to write website copy is to write on topic but be conversational and appealing to your real estate customers. If you have researched your topic and are prepared, the keywords will flow into the writing in a way that sounds natural and not forced. If after the writing is complete you find that that are areas of the writing that can be changed to support your keywords than go back and make the edit as long as it doesn’t disrupt the flow.
Here are a couple things to remember when writing:
- Bad grammar is bad! I am the worst when it comes to this. A lot of times, I get so lost in my ideas and concepts that I am trying to convey that the focus on grammar just flies out the window. If you are like me, you should probably hire a professional copywriter to do your editing.
- Going off on a tangent. I am also famous for spending too much time writing (what I believe to be) supporting content that I completely go off topic. It is vitally important to get your point across quickly and add supporting content only when absolutely necessary. If the content doesn’t relate directly to the customer’s needs, they’re gone! Simple as that.
- Write in chunks using brief paragraphs. The page content should be scannable and be able to be read quickly. Numbered lists and bulleted items work well to get information across fast as to not lose your reader.
- Direct the reader with a strong call to action. Just like with many e-commerce websites each page should act as a funnel directing your user towards the listings. This is important because the listings are where the user is converted to a lead via the registration process
All in all try to have fun. Writing website content can be daunting and time consuming. Hiring a writer can be one way to go but is expensive and almost as time consuming given the amount of direction needed to get the writer to use the correct tone, voice and subject matter. You’ll find that after you get going it isn’t that bad.
Excellent guidelines for relevant, readable, and consise content, Lou! I am as guilty as (you say) you are for grammatical and off-topic transgression, however it is actually easier to write the way you advise people to in your article if you really think about it for a minute. In other words it’s harder to make things tie together neatly when you go off topic. Learning to write more like we talk to each other seems to be the order of the day!
I get annoyed when I look at real estate sites with absolutely no content and all they have is flash. I like to search for them in the SERP’s but they never show up. Google likes content, but so does the consumer, if you don’t take advantage of the importance of creating some great content for your sites, you will miss out on some great conversations.
Great post with lots of great information. I hate when I go to real estate websites and there is nothing there! Come on you are supposed to be helping people!
Bad grammar IS bad!
As a guy who is about to spend a week reworking the copy on his conversion funnel, I’m compelled to offer up a couple of the tips I hope to keep in mind.
Phil’s Tip #1: Write for the decision maker, i.e. don’t use a bunch of technical jargon or concepts without including their explanations. Pictures and short analogies help.
In real estate, I’m sure there are people who have to interact with your profession that have no clue what some of your acronyms and industy terms mean. Welcome them to your site with gentle language and then once you’re a few pages deep, open up to the nitty gritty stuff.
Phil’s Tip #2: Good user testing is good!
Peace and happy new year,
Phil
There are so many sites out there on real estate that just for SEO and technology will write just anything and in general is not that helpful. Especially if you need to do it yourself and is hard to find good content online.
Excellent reminders – I’m ok with 1 and 3 but am frequently guilty of tangents and calls to action are not my strong suit. They’re hard to do well – for me at least. I often think there should be courses for all this – and believe me, I’d be paying attention in the Calls to Action class!
.-= Liz Bolton@Cambridge Real Estate´s last blog ..Belmont MA Home Sales In 2009 and 2008 =-.
The more detailed information you can give your potential buyer the better. People want to find all the information they can before thinking about purchasing a home. For most people this is the biggest single purchase of their lives, so it is important to make them feel comfortable with what your selling.
Content is always king… But one more thing every one should know that how to place the content in real estate websites….. for better conversion……
Very good blog post. I think while some niches can get away with normal content or run of the mill Internet writing, the competitive niches force you to write at a level that makes you stick out a little bit more. Good writing can be for readers and for SEO, in fact it makes sense that Google would prefer this! Enjoyed the thought provoking post. Keep it up!
.-= Ben@Negative Calorie Foods´s last blog ..So Are Negative Calorie Foods Really a Diet? =-.
I couldn’t agree more. While it is important to include a few key words in your content, going overboard is annoying and not useful. You need to give your readers a reason to keep coming back and if all you do is stuff keywords …who is going to want to read more?
.-= Mark Martin´s last blog ..Houston Real Estate Sales Dip; Home Prices Increase =-.
Lou,
Those “4 Tips” you mention are right on the money, my friend. Many people think spelling and grammar is less important these days but nothing could be further from the truth. Good grammar doesn’t make you look good, but bad grammar makes you look REALLY bad.
And of course, way too many agents miss that vital little nugget about actually telling their visitors what they want done. This is crucial.
Great guidelines Lou. I’ve always felt that good grammer and spelling were very important.
I agree with Jolenta that its good to write like you speak, unless of course you have bad grammer and swear alot. This makes the blog more interesting and lets your personality shine on thru! Ok….now I have to proof this comment really well before I hit ‘submit’.
I agree with #3 and #4. Keeping it simple and direct to the point, will send a clear message to people about your business. Great ideas, love your post!