I'm forming a group with a couple other agents in the office and we all have blogs/websites. What would be more beneficial, to combine our efforts into one main blog site or to keep our separate sites?

Seems like if we all post to one site, the SEO benefits would be greater than three sites individually.

Any thoughts on this?

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Greg Long
Keller Williams Realty Professionals
Portland, Oregon
Portland Real Estate Search
Portland Real Estate

I am just guessing here but I will through my thought out here. If 3 or 4 of you blogged consitantly on individual blogs, and wrote good content about slightly different areas but all real estate, and you each put all the others in your blog role, that would be the best situation, for SEO that is.

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James Boyer
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
Morristown, NJ 07960
973-647-0253
Serving the Real Estate markets of Morristown, Morris Township, Madison NJ Real Estate, Chatham NJ , Summit, Short Hills, Millburn, Maplewood, South Orange, & West Orange Referals happily given and accepted. For information on home sales in New Jersey please contact. Morristown NJ Real Estate Madison NJ Real Estate Chatham NJ Real Estate

don't do this with Active Rain though. Wordpress or blogspot or ...

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James Boyer
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
Morristown, NJ 07960
973-647-0253
Serving the Real Estate markets of Morristown, Morris Township, Madison NJ Real Estate, Chatham NJ , Summit, Short Hills, Millburn, Maplewood, South Orange, & West Orange Referals happily given and accepted. For information on home sales in New Jersey please contact. Morristown NJ Real Estate Madison NJ Real Estate Chatham NJ Real Estate

Hey Greg...

Much of the answer to this question IMO hinges on your market (s). The decision to combine or not needs to be based on your customer. Are you combining to one site to simply get to the top for Portland Real Estate type terms?

Are there multiple niches you (either individually or collectively) could go after?

I don't look at this as an SEO decision (from those terms most times it is easier to rank for a highly competitive term by working on one site...). I think what your marketing goals are (including WHO you want to reach...) should dictate much about how you proceed.

Are all of your current blogs / sites saying much the same things? or are they each tailored to a specific audience...

Best

Eric

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Eric Blackwell
Technologist, SEO Specialist and Consultant

Louisville Real Estate My Home Real Estate Site

Search Engine Marketing, Coaching & Custom WP Blogs Learn how to get the MOST out of your already awesome REW site.

Real Estate Industry Watch - Real Estate Industry News Blog Get up to date info on the Real Estate Industry

Some examples to consider: REW blogs, AR Blogs, Bloodhound Blog...competing against...YOUR blog.

I'm not saying you are a bad blogger, I'm just trying to illustrate a point. One site with many contributors is always going to beat a site with only one contributor every time. You can't beat all that content in one spot.

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Lydia Taylor, Realtor & Broker

Augusta GA Real Estate | North Augusta SC Real Estate | Augusta GA Home Search

I think that Ryan Ward would disagree with you Lydia. Take a look at his blog and then ask yourself why he posts all the time to it rather than posting to REW.

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James Boyer
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
Morristown, NJ 07960
973-647-0253
Serving the Real Estate markets of Morristown, Morris Township, Madison NJ Real Estate, Chatham NJ , Summit, Short Hills, Millburn, Maplewood, South Orange, & West Orange Referals happily given and accepted. For information on home sales in New Jersey please contact. Morristown NJ Real Estate Madison NJ Real Estate Chatham NJ Real Estate

I do the same as Ryan. What's your point?

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Lydia Taylor, Realtor & Broker

Augusta GA Real Estate | North Augusta SC Real Estate | Augusta GA Home Search

I could be mistaken but I believe Ryan's blog is a PR5 blog now and does better than things he posts on REW blog. by what I understand Ryan to have said about it.

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James Boyer
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
Morristown, NJ 07960
973-647-0253
Serving the Real Estate markets of Morristown, Morris Township, Madison NJ Real Estate, Chatham NJ , Summit, Short Hills, Millburn, Maplewood, South Orange, & West Orange Referals happily given and accepted. For information on home sales in New Jersey please contact. Morristown NJ Real Estate Madison NJ Real Estate Chatham NJ Real Estate

I follow you now James. Our misunderstanding was that i was looking at it from a traffic point of view, and you seem to be looking at it from a 'user' point of view.

Yes, I'm sure Ryan's local blog brings him better traffic (and ultimately leads) than his REW blog. That would be my experience as well. That is why I post much more often on my own blog than REW.

Now look at it from a traffic point of view. If traffic (and leads) were still your goal, and Morgan offered the 'keys' to you for the REW domain, would you take it? Of course! With so many bloggers creating content, the longtail traffic for REW must be massive. You could never hope to compete with that blogging on your own.

The bigger the site, the more the content, the more hooks you have in the water to attract visitors. It's raw numbers.

Greg has an opportunity to collaborate with other content generators to build a locally targeted site. What I would suggest is that they pool their efforts, rather than split the content (and hence the traffic) across multiple websites. Each agent will help generate traffic for the others. It's a great idea.

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Lydia Taylor, Realtor & Broker

Augusta GA Real Estate | North Augusta SC Real Estate | Augusta GA Home Search

From what I know of the blogging world, if you keep the blogs separated, but have the ability to link between all of the blogs between eachother, it would be more beneficial for you. This is much like Morristown had mentioned!

The only benefit I can see with regard to combining blogs is that you won't be overwhelmed with providing fresh content since the responsibility can be shared by all of you.

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Andy Scherer
Senior Loan Specialist
Mortgage Trainer