Blogging Tips and Inspiration For Real Estate Websites – Part 2

Original Content With Good Volume and Structure

We emphasized in part 1 of this blog and SEO tips series that Google prioritises human-friendly content. Lazily copy-pasting from your real estate board’s newsletter or an article by a local news website is considered plagiarized content. You need to write your own content, and write it well.

Yes, Size Matters! How Many Words Per Post?

A short sentence stuffed with keywords, or a few photos of a listing won’t be useful and engaging to a human, and it won’t get points from Google either. It needs to contain a good amount of information relevant to real estate and your niche areas. Google does not have an official guideline on content length, but here are what reputable SEO sources say:

• Yoast SEO recommends 300 as the bare minimum to be credited by Google™.
• Hubspot and Ahrefs suggests over 2,000 words for best impact on SEO.
• Neil Patel shows posts under 1,000 do perform well if it’s written and formatted correctly.

Avoid Keyword Stuffing – Google Penalizes It!

Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of forcibly repeating a target search phrase. Shoving “Vancouver Real Estate” repeatedly all over your headings and body text will not get you ahead in the ranking game. In fact, Google might even demote your website if it detects an attempt to coerce their algorithm into ranking your website higher.

The Right Blog Post Length For The Perfect Balance

Consumers’ attention spans are shorter these days, so don’t make each post too long for the sake of ranking. The blog posts we write as a core part of our SEO services range from 350 to 750 words and have shown great results. If your topic demands lots of words, the next tip on headings can help it be digestible.

Segmenting The Content With Headings Of All Levels

Organizing the content by headings makes it easier to scan the key points, and keeps paragraphs shorter and easier to read. Keywords in headings have higher relevance to the Google algorithm (as long as you don’t keyword stuff them).

6 levels of Headings and How To Layer Heading Tags Properly

Webpage headings have 6 levels, ranging from H1 to H6 tags. Use various heading levels to show the hierarchy of major concepts (H2/H3) to minor sections (H4/H5/H6). H1 tags are reserved for the post title, to be shown once per page and not to be placed in the blog post content.

Example Of A Blog Post With Hierarchical Headings Used Properly

The heading structure in this North Shore Real Estate Market Update for November 2024 article is as follows:

1. North Vancouver Intro (H2)
   1. Price Analysis (H4)
      1. House/Detached (H6)
      2. Condo/Apartment (H6)
   2. New Listings and Sales (H4)
2. West Vancouver Intro (H2)
   1. Price Analysis (H4)
      1. House/Detached (H6)
      2. Condo/Apartment (H6)
   2. New Listings and Sales (H4)
3. Demand and Inventory Summary (H2)

Can you spot the heading hierarchies in this very article?

We put careful attention into the heading structure of this article, obviously. Can you see how easy it is to skim the key points if you’re not ready to delve into all the paragraphs?

Media Matters – Embed Photos/Graphics, and Youtube Videos

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth a thousand photos. Listing or project photos, a Canva generated infographic of the market stats is captivating to both humans and Google bots. Make sure you put a human-friendly description in the alt attribute.

Youtube Videos Help Significantly with Ranking and Traffic

Google cross-references your webpage content and any embedded Youtube videos, including the video description. Youtube is the second largest search engine in the world after Google (and is owned by Google™). The added traffic potential is massive if you leverage this tool.

Our Client Website with Dozens of Videos Shows on 1st Page for “Langley Realtor” Search

Tips on the Youtube Video Description and Channel Setup

The video description helps Google™ understand the relation between your webpage content and the embedded video. Your youtube video description should also link back to your website as well as the listing or blog post related to it. Upload videos to your own Youtube channel rather than borrowing it from your videographer’s.

Saving Time Writing, Level Up Your Blog Posts

ChatGPT Can Help Save Time, If You Use it Properly

ChatGPT is a great tool to help you write faster, and AI generated content will not negatively impact your ranking if the content is deemed useful and well-written. You need to enter the right prompts with clear requests to get useful content from this widely-used AI module.

ChatGPT Tips for Generating Blog Content On Real Estate Market Updates

• Give it enough data and context. If you want a market update post for a region, enter the current months’ sales figures/prices, with the last month’s and the same month of the previous year.
• Be clear on the results you want. Clarify which numbers are important, and what comparisons (sales ratios, sale prices) are most meaningful. Clarify what tone to interpret the results in.
• Request to break down the article into multiple parts, with headings and subheadings to show clear hierarchy by city and by property types/data. Ask for bullet points where suitable.
• Submit a summary in your own words. Even if it’s a rough format or point form, make sure it’s from a human perspective. Example: “Lower interest rates are prob why houses (higher prices) sold more even tho economy is meh” Then, ask ChatGPT to reformat it to a more elegant closing statement while referencing to the stats above. Ask for a source to link to as citation.
• Never publish what ChatGPT gives without reviewing! LLM (Large Language Modules) can provide inaccurate content, especially with novel numbers/stats entered by humans. Sweep the content, correct errors, clean up the sentences. Replace complex words with simpler ones to make it feel more human.
• Add your own personal goodbye statement such as:
  “Until next month! Stay warm, Vancouver – Your Friendly Realtor® Ken Stef”

Another benefit of using chat GPT to draft your blog content is that you can expect proper grammar and punctuation. If you use Google Docs it also comes with a comprehensive punctuation checker built-in so that your human cleanups are also checked for errors.

Other Blog Formatting Tips For Better Ranking and Readability

Internal and External Links With Descriptive Anchor Text

Linking to relevant pages within your website (internal) and from 3rd party websites (external) are critical to better ranking on Google™. Links are what makes the world wide web go around.

Here’s why and how links matter for Google crawling and ranking:

1. Links are a crucial way for Google to discover new webpages. Pages with more links in and out of it are generally considered more important by the algorithm (unless you are keyword stuffing).
2. Linking to relevant content helps Google assess your page’s relevance in the context of the target pages and surrounding content. For example, A West Vancouver Real Estate Market Update linking to current listings for sale West Vancouver is deemed helpful by the algorithm.
3. Citing reputable 3rd party websites as the source of information written in your blog post shows Google that you care about the accuracy and credibility of your content. If you suggest that lower interest rates are increasing sales, you should link to a news article that backs that claim.
4. When linking to external pages, set it to “Open in a new tab/window”. For internal links, use your judgement; is it ok for people to leave this blog post entirely for the destination, or should the original post remain on the user’s screen?

What Is A Link Anchor Text, And How To Write Them Well

The text on the link (clickable portion) is called the anchor text. Instead of linking with click here as the anchor text, try and describe the destination’s content. This brings to the Google algorithm more focus to the keywords. It also shows humans what to expect if they click it.

Generating Dynamic MLS® Listing Search Links on Brixwork Websites

Our MLS® IDX enabled websites allow you to generate an infinite range of MLS® search results (keyword optimised to the city and search parameters) you can link to and share on social media. Here’s how:

Bullet Points To List Features/Points/Facts

For a list of features or sets of figures, consider bullet points. Improved readability is good for both human readers and Google. It also increases the odds your page appears in Featured Snippets on Google search results.

Part 3 (the last) Of This Series Covers Meta Data and Organization

What’s under the hood, so to speak, matters a lot to maximize the impact of each blog post. The finishing touches in part 3 can Google discover more of your precious content.

More Useful SEO Tips and Tricks For Realtors®

1. Part 1 Of Blogging Tips and Inspiration (prequel to this article)
2. Part 3 Of Blogging Tips and Inspiration (sequel to this article)
3. DIY SEO for Realtors – Part 1: The Foundations
4. DIY SEO for Realtors – Part 2: Optimise Every Listing

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