One of the biggest problems we run into here at REW in terms of our copy writing and SEO services, is getting clients to understand that in order to make their pages the best they can be, we do hope that they can send us "some" info about the neighborhoods they service.
Often times in consulting my SEO customers tell me - "yeah I haven't gotten back to the writers yet, I don't know what to write", or "I suck as a writer" etc - I am trying to figure out how to explain to them that it doesn't matter!
We are not looking for them to write the pages themselves, or optimize them, that is our job - I am just trying help them understand that with a little local information (Even in bullet form) that is from a professional Realtors perspective we can make their pages so much better.
I received an email from Gerry on the writing team, that I thought was pretty good - I would love some feedback on how I can better communicate this seemingly simple task to our customers (Which many of you are actually
) Help us help you make your website the best it can be. Here is the email from Gerry.
Quote:
One of the writing team's perennial difficulties in creating content for the real estate sites is getting input from the clients. Even though it would make their content about a hundred times better, many of the clients are unwilling or seemingly unable to provide us with even a short list of notes.
We primarily encounter this when we're writing about their areas-of-service. Sure, we can search in Wikipedia, or find the City or Chamber site, but the information there is very difficult to recycle for a real estate site, especially when the recyclers (we) have never been there.
If we could impress upon the clients that their input saves time and produces a better product, we would create better sites for them.
I think one problem is that many of them are intimidated. They feel they need to send us detailed market analyses, poignant observations, and other MEATY stuff. But really, it would be immensely helpful for them to just take five minutes for each area, and write something like this:
Sharewood
-in south nanaimo, just up the hill from downtown, between downtown and the university
-size: about 10X10 blocks
-in terms of crime, it's only decent - parts of it are pretty seedy, while other parts are totally safe
-predominantly single family homes built between from between about 1930 and 1985, with big yards
-there is a mall with a supermarket, thrift department store, gas station, convenience store, video stores, and some restaurants
Glenning Bay area
-a ten minute drive north of downtown, just north of the Vancouver ferry terminal-a nice part of town ranging from blue collar to ritzy
-lots of waterfront property, and homes up on the hillside with beautiful ocean views
-mostly single-family residences built between 1970 and the present - some of them are really modern, while others are 1980's box specials
-some new developments going in
-a few seaside parks, including the local favourite, Pipers Lagoon
That took me five minutes to write both of them, and there's nothing very involved in terms of real estate information. Readers just want to know what a place is like. Detailed market info might be helpful for them, but it's not essential, in terms of what's needed on these pages for them to be of interest to readers and search engines.
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Your thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated
11-06-2007, 02:33 PM
Helping clients help us help them
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