7 Things You’re Probably Doing Wrong On Your Real Estate Blog

Your real estate blog can effectively accomplish several goals at once:

• It can educate consumers about the local community (things to do, places to eat, etc.).
• It can educate consumers about the current real estate market (stats and trends).
• It can inform prospective buyers about homes for sale in the area.

Think of it as a marketing resource that helps you engage in conversations about real estate with potential home buyers (that’s the lead generation part). The more conversations about real estate that you have as a result of new visitors to your site, the closer you get to making a sale.

But too many blogs fall short. Site visitors come and go too fast. They don’t stick around long enough.

Your blog isn’t generating any leads.

But why? Here’s…

7 Things You’re Probably Doing Wrong On Your Real Estate Blog

1. Your blog is too hard to read. 

Nothing hurts your readership more than dry, unreadable content. Focus on breaking up those long blocks of text by:

• Using headlines and sub-headlines,
• Photos,
• Bullet and numbered lists

The easier you make it to scan and consume content, the more likely it is that site visitors will stick around to consume your content and engage with you.

2. You don’t post regularly. 

You go to the local grocery store only to find that they’re out of your favorite cereal. You go back again and they’re still out. But they’re also out of your favorite beverage. Come to think of it, they’re consistently out of the items in your grocery list because they don’t stock often enough.

So what do you do? You change stores of course.

The same thing happens with your content and the people who are visiting your site to read what you have to say/share about the local community/market. If you don’t update your content consistently enough (think of it as stocking your store), people are going to find something else to read. Something that’s more consistent. More reliable.

The lesson: Write often. Write daily, if possible.

3. Your posts are too long. 

People have a short attention span. When you’re posts are too long, they’re difficult to read and consume (see #1 – it’s hard to read long blocks of dry text). When you write, focus on delivering one main point per post.

4. Your posts are too short. 

If you have a breaking story to share about what’s going on in the market, don’t just quote the reporter on the story. Provide your perspective as well. In other words, why is this important. How does it affect me as a local homeowner? Go beyond the story.

That’s what people want to read. That’s what they want to know.

Don’t write your posts just to be done with them. Answer the “What” and “Why” of your post. In other words, “what’s the story” and “why does it matter?”

5. Your site is difficult to navigate. 

Again, think about why people come to your website to begin with:

• Search for homes.
• See how the market is doing.
• Find out what they’re home is worth.
• Learn about the local community.

When I visit your site however, I’m not exactly sure how to get from Point A to Point B. There are too many tabs on your navigation. Too much clutter on your sidebar. It takes more than 3 clicks just to get to your home search page that then requires me to register.

The more difficult it is to find information on your site, the less likely site visitors are to subscribe and return. So do a site audit and ask yourself, how can I make this easier?

6. Your site is all about you (and less about the consumer).

Ever visit a real estate website that’s riddled with nothing but the “Now’s A Good Time To Buy” post? How helpful is that to the consumer, really?

There’s nothing wrong with writing that promotional post to engage/connect with potential home buyers. But when all you’re writing is self-promotional, people can see through that. They’ll find your content less and less helpful.

Think about how you can be helpful to your prospective client (Buyers, Sellers) and write content that specifically helps answer the types of questions that are on their mind.

7. It’s difficult to get a hold of you.

I’ve written about this before. Basically, if a potential customer wants to get a hold of you, you should make it ridiculously simple to get a hold of you. That means name, email and phone number on every page of your website. On the header, on the footer. On your “Contact” and “About” page.

Everywhere.

The more difficult you make it to get a hold of you, the less likely people are to contact you at all. Period.

Over to you…

What else can you do to keep people coming back to your site to search, read and engage in conversations about real estate with you?