Dev Element

Quick Guide To Killer Content For Your Real Estate Blog

Creating new posts for your real estate blog may seem overwhelming at first as many of us are not born journalists. To keep your blog fresh and relevant to the search engines, you should add content to your site a minimum of three times per week. Overcome your writer's block by writing about what you know-real estate! Having a real estate blog that doesn't display real estate related content is not going to do as well as one that does. Here are some simple strategies to help you create quality content for your visitors and the search engines.

Tips to create quality posts for your real estate blog:

Use your site's keywords in the titles for your content.

Get creative and try to create catchy, memorable post titles to create interest and keep visitors on your site as long as possible.

Use your site's keywords 3 to 5 times within each post

Link to other sites on the web in your posts-cite the sources of your content and/or refer to articles on a similar subject that can be found on the web

Link to your own posts within new posts-if you have posts on similar subjects, link them to each other

Format your posts so that they read well. Use spacing between paragraphs to create digestible chunks of information

If you just don't know where to start or are running out of new ideas for posts, here are 30 days worth of blog post ideas to get you going:

About Me-Introduce yourself to the world by creating a biography for your blog. Include your experience level, education, accomplishments, affiliations, and interests. Tell visitors why they should choose you to buy or sell their home. This will sell you to potential clients so keep it professional!
How to Sell Your Home in a Buyer's Market-HOT topic!
How to Convince a Seller to Accept Your Offer
Why You Should Hire a Real Estate Professional to Sell Your Home
What to Look for When Purchasing a Foreclosure or Short Sale-HOT topic!
Staging Your Home for a Speedy Sale
Why You Should Buy A Home Now in (enter your farm area here)
How to Price Your Home for a Quick Sale-HOT topic!
What is a Conventional Mortgage?
What To Avoid When Remodeling Your Home
What is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage?
Why You Need A Real Estate Professional To Buy A Home
How To Use A CMA: For Sellers
How To Use A CMA: For Buyers
The Closing Process: For Sellers
The Closing Process: For Buyers
What is a FHA-insured mortgage?
What You Should Know About (enter your farm area here)-go to www.bestplaces.net for statistics and information on your farm area
Why You Should Be Buying Instead of Renting
New Homes vs. Existing Homes-Which One Is Right For You?
5 Things You Can Do Now To Increase Your Home's Resale Value
Why Now Is The Best Time To Buy Real Estate in (enter your farm area here)
How Rising Foreclosure Rates Affect Your Home's Value-HOT topic!
How To Choose The Right Home For You
Negotiating with a Seller in a Buyer's Market-HOT topic!
Do You Qualify For A VA Mortgage?
How To Properly Prepare To Purchase A Home
How To Know How Much Home You Can Afford
How To Use Technology To Find Your New Home Now
How To Invest in (enter your farm area here) Real Estate

Remember, you have a real estate blog so you all of your content should be real estate related. Some other sources for additional post ideas are www.realtytimes.com, www.msnbc.com, and www.cnn.com. Now stop reading and start writing your way to the top of the search engines!

GabberGob is Live!

Our new social network www.gabbergob.com has been pushed out into the world! GabberGob is powerful revenue generating social network that pays users to blog. While still in Beta mode the site has attracted over 600 registered users.

What makes Gabbergob so special? Each member's site has all the power of a Dev Element blog while allowing them to generate revenue with ad widgets(every1/10 ads is the sites owner) and network with other site members.

And it's all FREE!

But for those looking for a more popwer to their web presence we are introducing GabberGob platinum which allows users customizable skins, more exposure on the network and 9/10 ad split. All this on a hosted domain within the network, not just a redirect for maximum SEO value.

Go to www.gabbergob.com now and see it for yourself. We plan on using this site as a working model for our social networks along with www.therealestateexpertnetwork.com.

What does a Social Network mean for a business?

• You can have a fully customized, secure, branded social site under your complete control.

• You can test and tweak and promote anything you want, anyway you want.

• You will have a built-in, targeted marketplace already exposed to your branding, providing valuable feedback through numerous social interactions including blog post comments, polls and forums.

• Your community members will have their own channels within the social network to promote and address questions, creativity, and function.

• Your network can cross countries and continents organically, generating the most relevant topics and content moment by moment, populating the search engines with your products and services in the most viral platform available, a social network.

Research shows that 70 percent of internet users click on natural listings, versus 30 percent on paid listings. Organic links are perceived as unbiased, therefore more credible than paid links.

Dev Element presents Turn Key Social Networks and Dynamic Content Solutions

Turn-Key Solutions

At Dev Element, our goal is to provide superior quality products that not only get results, but are also easy to implement and use. We understand that many businesses lack the time and/or resources to create and maintain a successful web presence. Dev Element provides turn-key solutions that simplify the development process, giving any business the opportunity to have a profitable web presence, with a limited time investment. When you purchase a Dev Element product, we take care of all the details so you dont have to. We will help you to find the perfect domain name, purchase it for you, and configure its name server settings so your domain name is ready when you are. Our team of highly skilled and experienced web designers specializes in working with you to produce the look and feel that you desire. We are also able to provide you with keyword-rich, industry specific content that will keep the search engines and your sites visitors coming back for more. Through online seminars, also known as webinars, we show our clients how to use the features and tools of our platform to create quality content for their sites. There is also a comprehensive "How-To" guide available along with a help Wiki to give you all of the information necessary to successfully maintain your site on your own.

SEO 101: Choosing Your Keywords

First, let's talk briefly about what SEO is exactly.

From Wikipedia:

"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of searches, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for."

I couldn't have said it any better myself!

These days, SEO is required for a website or blog to have any success in the search engines, even if it is only a minimal effort. There are a number of ways to properly SEO your site and we will get into all of those methods in future posts. For now, we will start at the beginning with choosing your keywords. As mentioned in the above definition, the goal of SEO is to get your site to rank in the search engines for targeted keywords. Keywords are the terms that people use in the search engines to find information on the web. The idea when choosing keywords is to select terms that people are already using to find information related to your product or service. By ranking well in the search engines for particular keywords related to your business, it allows people to find your product or service when they want it, therefore giving you an opportunity to gain a lead or even better, a sale. Now that you know the value of keywords, let's move on to how you go about selecting the best keywords for your site.

The first step is to do some brainstorming. Think to yourself, "If I was looking for information about my product or service, what terms would I use in my search to find what I need?" Virtually everyone reading this will be involved in the real estate market in some capacity. If you are a real estate agent or broker, chances are you are trying to attract buyers and sellers in your local area. Put yourself in your target audience's shoes-what keyword terms would you use to find out about real estate in your local area? For example: I live in Palm Beach County, Florida. If I was in the market for a home, I would probably search for terms like "Palm Beach Real Estate", "Homes in Palm Beach County", "Real Estate in Palm Beach", etc. Write down as many keyword terms as you can that you think your target audience would use in their search.

Resource: Having trouble coming up with keyword ideas? Use the Google Keyword Tool to generate ideas for keywords. Enter any terms you have come up with into the noted area and let Google give you some good ideas. This tool will also show you how often your terms are searched for and how competitive the market is for each keyword.

The next step is to do some homework. Your goal is to determine the 10 best keywords for your site. Why 10? 10 keywords cast a large enough net to get you as much traffic and business as possible. Choose too many keywords and you dilute their effect-choose too few and you may be selling yourself short. When you are researching your keywords, you want to find out which of the terms in your list are the most highly searched. Use the following FREE tools to choose the best terms:

Google Keyword Tool-As mentioned above, this tool will show you how often terms are searched for and how fierce the competition is for each keyword.

SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool-This tool will give you the stats not only for the keyword you entered but will also give you related keywords with their stats as well

Keyword Discovery-A good source of keyword stats

Wordtracker-Another great free tool for keyword data

Compare the data you retrieve from these various keyword tools. Try to choose keywords that are popular but keep in mind that the more competitive the term, the harder it will be to rank for it. Once you have chosen your keywords, it is time to implement them on your site. They need to be located in the HTML code on your site in the meta data-contact your webmaster if necessary for clarification. For Dev Element clients, you can change your keywords yourself so email me at njames@develementllc.com for instructions if needed.

In my next post, we will explore some of the many ways that you can optimize your site for the keywords you have chosen. You can also attend my webinar next Tuesday on writing for your blog which will cover how to correctly use your keywords within your posts. See the Information area here on the Real Estate Expert Network for a complete webinar schedule.

Visit The Real Estate Expert Network often for more great blogging and SEO tips!