City pages content

[Discover Davis Homes]

So I'm working on a new website (LEC2) that will be regional in focus. I'm keeping my current site so there will be a decent amount of overlap between the areas in my current website and new one. Looking for ideas on how to structure the city pages. My current city pages are fairly sparse on content. They have a brief description of the area and on the main city page some static market statistics.

What type of information would be helpful to someone searching a regional site? What is likely to draw in that portion of users who want something more than just the listings? Once I decide the format, I will make the pages consistent for all areas. What other real estate sites do a good job with this?

[coastal]

Do some keyword research to see what people are already looking for in these cities and then optimize for those terms.

You don't have to provide a ton of information and features if you rank well for a term.

They are there to search for homes. If you want to go above and beyond provide them will real time stats, mortgage calculators, weather widgets, blog and news syndication, wiki info integration etc... but all of these features distract users from searching for homes. Just my opinion... I have sites that have lots of info and sites with nothing but a home search. They seem to get similar traffic even though I spent a good deal more time and money coming up with the feature rich sites.

Again my own opinion but I would put the time and money into getting the site ranked well first and then when it makes you some money spend some of it on additional features.

[Bhamhomes]

There's no question that any and all types of property searches are the main reason end users come to our sites to begin with. Just look at your G analytics or what ever kind of stats you use and by far that will be the most clicked on pages.

So I would first build out each individual regional type of searches and then build content around it to do well on searches. Make good use of your Title tags, Meta descriptions, H1 tags and page content. After you build out the regions...go back and start adding relevant content to add a better experience for the end users. Anytime you add content to that huge data base out there called the Internet your benefiting your site.

[jessiesc]

As already said above, display listings.

In addition, demographics for the areas, redirect area blog posts to the individual pages, news widgets for the areas, market summaries.

Oh so many things...

[DenaDavis]

I like the way Drew does it on the Hartanov team site. http://www.hartanovteam.com/

Also If you do your keyword research. You will find out where the low lying fruit is . Then you can optimize for that low lying fruit.

See when I did mine-- I didnt have any keyword research. So My page was optimized for the term "austin real Estate" Well-- if I had keyword research -- I would have known that there is a better chance of me getting struck by lightning than ranking for that keyword. And i would have been optimized for another similar but different keyword.

So do the research and build your content around that . I agree with Jerry-- regional first then get granular.

[johnnyMB]

i've basically been building community site that have a little real estate info

[Gerry]

I agree with Jerry (except when it comes to spelling our name).
Create the homes search functionality to accommodate the fact that people want that - then put as much relevant regional info on each page as you can come up with. As long as it's well-organized and doesn't detract from the search (just put it beneath the listings/search), you can't lose.

You should check out mine/Morgan's NanaimoInformation dot com site for some ideas. I especially recommend a neighbourhoods section (see real estate > neighbourhoods on our site), because it doesn't have to be very robust, and you can fill it out with maps.

The other advice would be to stick with what you know, because you're likely to be able to write long and well about that. That's why our Nanaimo portal is so heavy on the outdoor info (even though the revenue it brings in is minimal). I'm no realtor (and Morgan wouldn't write for the site even if I let him), so our realty section is crap (and I wrote it years ago).

[Discover Davis Homes]

Thanks Gerry, I really need to start working on the city pages.

Wonder how you might be able to monitze your NanaimoInformation site more - at least enough to pay for a trip to Italy.

[Gerry]

Morgan was my flatmate in Italy (we met in college and went to Florence as part of our liberal arts program) - I have a better chance of convincing him to pay for my ticket as a work-related bonus, than I do of monetizing that site anytime soon. The local businesses haven't caught on yet about the whole "advertising on the 'net" thing. Or, we just aren't soliciting any local businesses for advertising because we're both too busy. I think it's the second one, actually.

Anyway, not to hijack your thread.

Another way to get awesome locally relevant traffic is if you can find the time/charisma to get a community forum working on the domain.