Property blog
BLOGGING GUIDE
For the purposes of connecting with your customers, increasing consumer trust and brand awareness, and also in order to increase your search ranking on Google and other search engines, having a property blog is important to explain about your services and industry to your customers.
How SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) works in terms of property blogging
(or any kind of blogging, for that matter!)
Google takes a variety of factors and data into account when determining how to rank your website; having fresh, good quality content that is updated regularly is one of the most important elements of this.
Some people might be sceptical about writing a property blog, however it can have many benefits for your agency, including:
- connecting with your customers
- making your agency brand visible
- sharing your knowledge
- improving your writing skills
- enabling you to update clients on what you’re working on
- networking with others in the industry
All of this will help you to earn money!
If your stuck on ideas of what to write about in your blog take a look at this – 10 blog topics for your letting agency.
Some tips on writing property blogs
- Keep it relevant and short: Ensure you’re writing about what your customers want to know. Note that reading on a screen isn’t as enjoyable as reading on paper, so avoid really long pieces. 1,000 words is a good length to aim for; short pieces of 300 words or so would be perfectly acceptable (and achievable!)
- Use bullet points: Bulleted lists are a good way to display the main points of your post.
- Keep paragraphs short: due to having to scroll a lot when reading on a screen, paragraphs tend to be shorter so a whole thought can fit in a browser window.
- Highlight important points: Online readers tend to skim through pieces, so use bold type for key points so that your readers can easily find the important parts.
Linking
Linking to other sites is also a feature of blogging. Blogs take advantage of the ability to link to other work, either to offer up references for example, if writing about letting agency news, there might be a relevant article on Letting Agent Today so you could embed the link either in anchor text such as ‘relevant article‘ or ‘for a relevant article, click here‘.
Alternatively, you can post the full URL (what what see in your task bar – for this post it should be https://rentview.co/blog/property-blog-guide) but this is sometimes a bit overwhelming on the eye, to use the example above that would look like this:
see this relevant article; http://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Rightmove-and-Zoopla-gear-up-for-November-deadline-on-agents-fees
So a little overwhelming, definitely, plus it’s generally considered a little outdated to post full URLs although it can be useful if send plain-text emails for example.
Here’s a quick video guide to hyperlinking in wordpress, the principle is basically the same for all hyperlinking and icon stays the same across platforms and Microsoft Word etc.
You can have internal links , which are links to previous blog posts and external links, which are links to an outside web page. Links can also be used to continue conversations started elsewhere, such as a link to a post on another blog which you are writing a response to.
Creating content
There are many blogs on the Internet, but only a small number of them are truly active. Luckily within the property industry this means you’ll have a better shot at doing well and getting your blogs read and shared – which will be beneficial for your business ultimately. There is a great payoff for a little work. Some blogs don’t survive because people are ‘too busy’ to keep them going, they run out of things to say, or even worse, they feel like they are talking into a void.
Tips to help you maintain your property blog :
- Quality content writing – Most importantly you have to write quality content. Who will read your site if you’re writing poorly, or if it’s boring? No one! No one will publish your guest posts, and no one give you backlinks. You’ll be unmotivated to write, because it will feel as though no one is reading what you write, and because you won’t be happy with the quality of the work. This is a recipe for frustration. Remember, you have the knowledge simply from working in the industry, so develop your voice.
- Get your blog out there – Let people know you have a blog. Put the URL on your business cards, add it to your email signatures, put it in your profile on social networking sites, include it when you post to forums, and so on.
- Schedule for posting- When you begin writing your property blog, commit to posting regularly, be it once a week, or once every two weeks, and make some time in your schedule to do that. When you start out it’s okay to have a low posting rate — if you find you have enough time to post more, it will be a pleasant surprise for your readers (as opposed to the disappointment of readers used to seeing you post every day when you start posting every two weeks).
- Brainstorm post ideas – Sit down with a notebook and write out 100 (or whatever you can — but set the bar high) topics you could write about. Even better, create 100 titles of forthcoming posts. You can even go another step and write quick outlines of how the post might look. When you are stuck for something to write about, pull out your notebook and write one from your list.
- Stay ahead of schedule – Build up a backlog of three or more posts by writing posts before they’re due to go out. This can be difficult if you’re stuck for time, however it will give you a cushion in case you find yourself stuck for a topic down the road, and you can also use the post scheduling feature included in WordPress.com other blogging platforms such as Blogger to set up posts for the future if you are going to take a break. In wordpress you simply select ‘schedule’ when you’re going to publish a post.
- Link to other blogs – When other bloggers see you’ve linked to them, they’ll check you out — and may link back to return the favour. If they link to you, say thanks, courtesy goes a long way.
- Network – Comment on other people’s blogs and be active within the blogging community in your niché. People will see your comments and clock the link to find out more about you. Plus, you’ll make friends in your area of interest.
- Write a guest post: Check your favourite property-related blogs and check if there is any information about contributing — if you can’t find anything, email the blogger and ask if you can write a guest post for them. This is where networking is important and commenting on blogs matters.
Remember blogging helps people to put a human face on your company and this is important, as trust is a key factor in whether or not someone will hire you to let or manage their property. You or your company will be researched on the Web, and if the searchers don’t find your site, they’ll find what others have said about you — or nothing at all. It’s much better to have autonomy and take control of your online footprint, and a property blog is an easy and cheap way to get started.
So what’s stopping you?
Let us know how you are managing and if you have questions, ask away!