A Real Estate Blog Example
Write Better Real Estate Blogs!
Hey there! Do you want to learn some stuff about blogging? This article shows you what an example format of a well-structured real estate blog would look like, as referenced in my recent thread "Let's talk about real estate blogging".
As you will see from the rest of this post, I've written it in the very same format I prescribed in the forums so that you can see what it should look like if you put time into thinking through and properly planning your Realtor® blog layout. Fun right? Let's get into the subheadings!
Focus Your Blogging On E-E-A-T
In the forum post, I talk about making sure you're writing with Google's E-E-A-T in mind. The idea is that you want to demonstrate that you are the most authoritative and trustworthy person when it comes to the subject. Take Gary Ashton, from Nashville for instance. He's probably the most well-known Realtor® in all of Tennessee. He has a campaign that says "don't sell without the intel" which has the goal of building himself up as the trusted source of information for all things Nashville.
When you focus on E-E-A-T you need to cover the following critical elements (all of which are important to both users and Google)
- Expertise
- Experience
- Authority
- Trust
If you are truly focused on E-E-A-T and you try to keep in mind what kind of information you might share that would position you as all of these things in your target consumers' eyes. You will win! (And make sure it's unique!)
Real Estate Blogs Are The Support In Your SEO Pillars
One of the main reasons you're blogging for real estate in the first place is so that you can rank better... isn't that right? That's what we refer to as search engine optimization or (real estate SEO). And one of the most important (and advanced) concepts you can learn when it comes to content is how to create content pillars.
At Real Estate Webmasters we build our SEO pillars both manually and dynamically. It's a very important element of our technical SEO strategy and something you should pay a lot of attention to. The types of pillar pages that are used / needed are:
- Main pillar page (think of this as your most competitive page of topic x)
- Subpages (linking back with strong anchor text to pillar page)
- Listing pages (we can dynamically link these back to pillar and sub pages)
- Real Estate Blogs: That's what this post is about right?
When you are creating your real estate blog, you should be thinking about how this blog relates to your most competitive keyword, and your topic should be "related" (not exactly the same) as your pillar page keyword target. For example, if my main keyword target was "Real Estate PPC" and I need a blog to support it, I might go for the sub-keyword" "What is PPC For Real Estate" and then ensure that the page links back to my main page. This gives it a chance to rank for its own keywords but also builds more authority for my most important and competitive phrase.
Use subheadings correctly
What are subheadings? Well, you may read about H1's for SEO (primary heading) and then there are things like H2's, H3's etc. Choosing when to use each heading is actually quite a straightforward exercise.
How to think about subheadings:
- H1 - this only shows up once (it's the primary or main theme of the post)
- H2 - these are the most obvious "sub-topics" in an article
- H3 (H4 etc) are rarely used and typically reserved for very deep/robust research-type articles (not so much in a typical blog post.
Subheadings (like most things in blogging) should not be a search for perfection. Nor should you be trying to figure out the "exact right mix" of how many to use, what words to use etc. Just write them so that they give a logical organization to your document and you will be fine. The real estate blog post in the forums has more details on this.
When (and how) to use photos in your real estate blog
I could probably write a book on photo selection, optimization, placement, heck even the psychology of photos. But ain't nobody got time for that! So let's keep it simple and in the context of this blog post example. For my blogs, I like to choose a consistent format that uses no more than one photo per section. You don't have to have a photo for each section, but honestly, if you plan it out right, it also shouldn't be an issue to find good photos.
There are a few technical pointers I'd like to share with you when implementing photos into your Realtor® blog:
- Keep your filenames lowercase
- Use hyphens-dashes for spacing
- Make sure the name of the photo reflects what is actually being shown
- Use WebP Format for speed and optimization
- Use 100% unique images wherever you can (don't give me this BS that you can't take a photo, you have a phone)
- Keep your photos the same width in your blog (this is a pro tip, it makes it so much easier to get through the process)
That's about it for photos in your blog. As I mentioned above, don't strive for perfection, but moreso for consistency, uniqueness and originality. Let your photographs tell the story of you (and why you should be trusted).
Don't forget to end with FAQs
Google Loves FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions. You will see them come up so many times at the top of the search results. And for good reason! Google is all about providing the best answers to your specific questions. So be sure to include them!
And so for my final lesson in this blog post, I am going to break from the very thing I was teaching above (a consistent format), and instead of giving you another photo, caption, and intro to a bulleted list... I'm going to talk about FAQs and their benefits THROUGH.... you guessed it! The use of FAQ's! Check them out!
What are FAQ's and why do they matter for my real estate blog?
FAQs are Frequently asked questions. They are a great way to ensure you cover off any last items in your blog post that didn't quite make the article for whatever reason.
How do FAQs help my Realtor® blog rank in Google?
Well first of all, Google LOVES FAQs (they even have a special section in the search right at the top for the very best FAQs. But FAQs can also help you rank because you end up adding more variation of content, keywords and phrases (organically) which helps Google discover your article for more search phrases.
What is Schema Mark Up and how does it help my FAQs
Scheme a markup is a special kind of code you can use inline in your HTML or via JSON in the head tag (REW's preferred method) in order to help Google identify and understand when your content is constructed in an FAQ format.
REW Clearly Knows their stuff when it comes to SEO. How can I hire you?
Well thanks Mr complimentary question. You're right! Real Estate Webmasters do know our stuff when it comes to SEO and blogging. And we'd love for you to hire us (if we're a fit of course). We're not cheap. But we're wicked smart. And we get shit done. If you want to find us there is a skill-testing task though. Find a contact form somewhere on our site. Fill it out. If you can do that. You pass! See you online :)