In this post we outline the 3 core building blocks to real estate marketing online
Forums, Google Plus Communities and Facebook Groups
All of these communities are a great way to build initial traffic to your real estate website.
If you join other real estate groups, you should go there to learn because you most likely won’t be getting any leads from them. Any traffic you do get will have high bounce rate and it’s other agents just checking out your website for fun.
The best groups for real estate agents to join are groups based off whatever your hobby is.
This is great because you’ll most likely be the only real estate agent in the group. The problem is, many of people in these communities might not be looking for a real estate agent.
The key to using communities/groups/forums correctly is looking at it how you would look at joining a club in real life.
If you joined the local yacht club (because you’re a very successful real estate agent ) then you wouldn’t be self promoting non stop. You would be socializing talking about yachts and people would learn that you’re a real estate agent and want to work with you in the future because they like you.
You want to do the same thing when joining these type of places. Become a contributor and get people to like you. If you use this method it should be for the long term win and the only advertising you should do is in your signature.
What type of traffic can you expect?
Google plus communities – 100hits/day if you’re in more then one and contributing good content.
Facebook groups – 100hits/day
Forums – 100hits+/day depending how long you stay and contribute. Initially these start low and could be 1 hit a day but, as you stay with the forum and people get to know you and your signature link shows up in more and more conversations, traffic will build and build slowly.
Guest Posting
This is one of the best methods for so many reasons.
*/ Disclaimer – Matt Cutts (Head of search operations at Google) recently came out and said:
Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company. – Matt Cutts
What does this mean to you exactly ?
It’s not the end of Guest blogging.
He’s really just trying to get rid of spammy guest blogging and in another video he goes on to say that high quality guests posts are still wanted. Google is just mad people are taking advantage of nice things they gave us access to like guest posting and people taking advantage of it.
What you need to know about guest blogging for your real estate website
- Before guest blogging anywhere you need to make sure your website is professional first.
Bloggers are more scared then ever to let people guest post on their website because of people taking advantage of it.
- Research the blog and make sure it’s quality
If the blog is ranking low itself, Google is going to see it as a low quality guest post and will penalize both of you for it. To do basic quick research to see if the blog is quality download the MOZ toolbar on your browser and read this guide on what to look for in a website.
- Content must be original and GOOD
Don’t try any article spinners or anything shady. Take time and figure out what THEIR (the bloggers) audience might like reading about and write a post on that. Take your time and make sure it’s quality, if it looks like spam they’ll probably just ignore you permanently.
What can you expect from this?
- Traffic
There is no ‘estimation’ I can give you about how much traffic you will actually get from each post because every blog is tremendously different. What I can say is that a good guest post from a great ranking blog can easily get you 100hits/day.
- Backlinks
One of the side benefits of guest blogging is backlinks. As you may know backlinks are the number one ranking factor in Googles algorithm. If you want your want your website to rank higher, point the backlinks at your website. If you want your posts to rank higher, point the backlinks at your specific blog posts.
/* Side note – Pointing backlinks at your website will help your blog posts rank higher but, not as much as if they were pointed at the individual posts that you want to rank higher for certain keywords.
- Authority
One of the best ways to get people to see you as an authority figure is when other high ranking people vouch for you. When you start guest blogging for some individuals who have already achieved that status, they’re basically vouching for you (even Google says that).
SEO
SEO… One of the buzz words of the last 10 years, everybody wants it and not many people know how to get it…. And it’s free if you can figure it out.
Paid advertising, for 100 targeted hits you could easily be paying over $2 per click which would be $200.
A great SEO plan will get you that for free.
What’s the secret to great SEO?
Having a researched plan.
We outline a great strategy to start with your SEO here:
Every blog post you do should be targeted at keywords you know before hand when you’re starting off.
Don’t start with the keywords getting the most traffic because everyone is trying to get those.
Start with keywords getting low traffic that’s obtainable and grow from there.
What about everything else? A quick overview
Facebook fan pages – Use these to build your cult over time. When you’re starting off they’re not going to be driving any traffic to your website.
Twitter – Great for a few hits here and there, better for brand building.
Pinterest – Has been used by many agents as a great driver of traffic. My suggestion is, if you enjoy it, do it.
Paid advertising – The best way to get traffic and leads if you have the capital to make the investment.