Why Real Estate Blogs are not as effective as you think

Question

So many investors are told to get more exposure, write a Real Estate Blog.  At one time, these were effective but why are they not as effective as in the pass. If you go to Google and type "Real Estate Blog" you get a return of "About 262,000,000 results (0.35 seconds)". So if you understand how Google works, unless your page end up on page 1

or 2, no one will find your page. How can you get to page 1 or 2, you have to use popular

keyword and people have to click your link to reflect that you have a popular webpage. This

creates a higher page rank. So based on the amount of blogs out there, it would take you a

long time before you'll get to page 1 or 2. You can also pay to get on page 1 or 2 but it cost.

Can your blog be popular on Biggerpockets? Yes because Biggerpockets is a popular website.

The Biggerpockets blog is #2 on page 1 called "Top 35 Real Estate Blogs".

So if you're going to spend time writing a Real Estate blog the best place, should be to write it on

Biggerpockets.

Sean Brooks · Answer

@Scott

I totally agree, I'm not saying don't blog but where you blog. An independent blog has a less chance of being discovered verses writing the blog on Biggerpockets or any popular site.

Bill Gulley · Answer

I would hope that you would already have knowledge before you start blogging, not gain it while you're putting information out.

That body of knowledge can be frightful sometimes Joel :)

I've seen blogs by frustrated poets and authors, just a means to express themselves and that's all well and good to let the creative juices flow, but when it comes to things like advising others in money matters or their health issues or buy a home, you'd think people would have enough sense not to advise if they really didn't know the subject....not always the case I know. :)

Sean Brooks · Answer

@Joel that's exactly what I'm saying. Independent blogs are difficult for people to find the information. Google their selves purge a lot of information because it's too much.

BiggerPockets has a well established pressence and we all can piggy back off of the work already done to climb the search engine.

Account Closed · Answer

I think a couple of you missed the point that @Sean  Brooks was trying to make.  The content of the blog was brought up, as well as the side benefits of doing it.  The content and benefits only matter (for exposure purposes) if someone can actually find it in the first place.

Also, if you use blogging as a creative outlet to share your experiences, the mere clicking of the keys is a reward in itself.  However, the thread is about blogging for the purpose of getting exposure, and I think Sean is dead on with his assessment.

Joel Owens · Answer

I can tell you Bigger Pockets is the biggest SEO draw out there I have seen. For me it works amazing.

I have over 7,000 posts in the forums and investors that are doing a search for a keyword shows up in Google for page one.

They are not even BP members but they read an indexed post I responded to that showed up in page one of their keyword search. They can read my body of knowledge and feel comfortable connecting with me. When you have what you do out there people can vet you at their own comfort level and when ready connect with you.

Scott Trench · Answer

@Sean  Brooks

I think you are completely right about blogging not being the greatest tool for SEO.  Effective SEO takes a long time and dedicated effort.  You will get very frustrated with your results if your end goal is to create SEO through blogging alone.

However, there are a number of side benefits to blogging:

1) Visitors to your site that you produce in your ordinary course of business will have a chance to view content that educates them about products and services related to your business and gives them a chance to get to know your company.

2) You will develop knowledge and expertise in the area that you are writing about.  For example, you may study your local market, develop some insights, and spend 20 minutes to format and present those thoughts in a nice little blog post.  This has the dual advantage of educating your audience about something in a related area. I find that this helps you organize your own thoughts.

3) You will be forced to think about what your customers want to read.  Simply taking the time, a few times per week, to think up great targeted content and present it clearly to your audience will be a huge help in understanding the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

In conclusion - I see great value in blogging for many businesses.  In a lot of ways, it can be MORE effective than you think, even though it may not really move you up the chain in Google's Search Engine.

Rachel H. · Answer

It is a very generic and poorly advised statement. I do not think blogging is for everyone - it depends on the person and exactly why (and who) they are targeting.

For me personally, I started blogging for myself to share my experiences with others. Sure, there are the forums but blogging allows for a creative outlet especially for those who enjoy writing which we never had before on a global scale.

Like any endeavor, there's a mix of experience and knowledge out there as well as the good and the bad. It is what it is. The important thing is we now have choices.

Bill Gulley · Answer

Well,   I understand the volume, the speed, the rankings and BP's position, but why are blogs not as effective as they use to be?

Are people more aware that anyone with little expertise can claim whatever they have the audacity to claim, write poor information and post it?

I can read blog posts by news reporters on some aspect of RE and can tell they don't have a clue, at least they are just telling a story but with a style to influence others.....usually for public consumption.

Same with RE investors, mentors, coaches as they get into more technical aspects, the blogs are skewed with opinion presented as factual. The good ones are on the light side, they don't dive into areas details but provide an overview of some topic.

Is that being recognized more? Are people reading things on the internet with a grain of salt? As I recall, it use to be that anything written in the newspaper was gospel. If they put it out in print it had to be true......yes, that thinking went on since the printing press was invented until about the 1970's when more of the public began to question what they read.

Then, as to marketing, are blogs not as effective as marketing tools? Can someone rather newish to RE target their services by blogging? What are the most effective ways for a newbie to get started?

I get the speed, rankings and paying for exposure as part of the effectiveness of a blog, I'd think the content is a much bigger factor. :)

Sean Brooks · Answer

@Dawn Brenengen I can see that but even when you search that in Google it returns "About 30,800 results (0.52 seconds)". Now the chances of your blog getting seen is extremely difficult. I worked

for a company selling SEO services to get people information ranked higher and it was an

entire team dedicated to creating the content to get the pages higher on the

search engines.  A lot of links pointing to the website has a little to do with the ranking.

Search for "real estate investing" it returns "About 37,200,000 results

(0.35 seconds)". That's a lot of information. Biggerpockets appears on the first page and is the 5th website

on the list. No matter what you  use for the title the page, it will be difficult because of Google's

popularity and the way the search engines work is, any word within what you're searching

has been used at a high rate. Example: I searched for a name of a town with what's happening

"what's happening in tallahassee" returned "About 6,760,000 results".

@Louis Leone exactly it's better to piggy back off an established site like BiggerPockets.

Dawn Brenengen · Answer

@Sean  Brooks I agree with your point that you should blog on other higher ranking sites like BP. However, I think most people are not searching "real estate blog."  They are searching "food truck rodeo, Raleigh". The idea is to talk about local happenings in your town (or whatever) so that your website ranks higher in long tail searches.

Why Real Estate Blogs are not as effective as you think

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