Types of Real Estate Blog Ideas
Generally speaking, it’s smart to take a two-pronged approach to your blog content strategy. The very best real estate blog ideas focus either on lead generation or broad engagement.
We provide excellent model articles for each kind of real estate blog topic. We break down what makes each piece of content exceptional. Once you know how to match the quality of each article, we explain how to surpass it.
Lead Generation Posts
Lead generation posts are self-explanatory. They get prospects knocking on your digital door. However, these kinds of real estate blog ideas often focus on quite niche topics (or long-tail keywords in SEO speak) and may not generate lots of traffic and user interaction.
By user interaction, I mean things like clicks, comments, shares, newsletter sign-ups, and most importantly, backlinks. Also sometimes called votes, backlinks are when other websites link to your website. The more authoritative the website, the more valuable the backlink. In the SEO world, we often call this SEO juice.
If you want to fast track the backlinking process, I recommend Rhino Rank as the highest quality provider (Affiliate link, but it’s very legit).
Broad Engagement Posts
On the other hand, engagement posts fill the role of generating interaction. They signal to Google that your website is authoritative, helpful, and appreciated. Of course, the Google algorithm doesn’t track or care how much of your traffic converts to commissions. It measures the value of your site according to the metrics listed above, as well as a thousand others.
The more interaction on your website, the more valuable it becomes in Google’s eyes. In turn, that boosts your lead generation articles even higher, resulting in more leads.
Best Blog Ideas for Real Estate Lead Generation
1. Neighborhood Guides
There was a time when simple neighborhood pages generated leads. Now the game has changed. Neighborhood guides need to include lots of helpful content.
Paige Martin produces probably the best Neighborhood pages and perhaps the real estate blog content in the world.
Her articles are perfect examples of evergreen content that provide choice information, drive insane traffic, and generate a wealth of leads. Each article dominates the search results, usually ranking #1 for the focus keyword and every related keyword.
Here’s an example from her Tanglewood, Houston Neighborhood Guide.
What's Great About This Article
Every HP neighborhood guide is so developed that they also function as eBooks. In fact, she creates downloadable PDF versions of each article, a clever repurposing of the content that gets clicks and email signups.
Her content is so comprehensive, she even has to use a different format for the Table of Contents to make it more scannable.
Paige’s neighborhood guides are typically 3000-5000 words, divided into these sections:
- Neighborhood Overview/Highlights
- Multiple Maps
- Downloadable PDF Guide
- IDX Listings with Large, Beautiful Photos
- Contact Form with Her Headshot & Awards
- Things Buyers Should Know
- Detailed Location Breakdown
- Social Proof (Recent Awards & Reviews)
- Nearby Neighborhoods
- Property and Scenic Photos
- Detailed School Breakdowns
- 10-Year Real Estate Trends (Including Charts & Graphs)
- Property Sale Trends (Single-Family, Condos & Townhouses)
- Neighborhood History
- Things to Do (Dining, Nightlife, Parks, Shopping, Groceries)
- Related HP Article Cards (Example Below)
Can you create an equally impressive article without a team of graphic designers, coders, and writers? It’s doubtful.
But with WordPress and Elementor, you can produce a close approximation of this article that can still dominate the search results. Contact forms, related article bars, downloadable PDF bars, slideshow-style review bars, and many other features are available on Elementor.
The formatting, stylization, and graphic design of HP articles is pretty flawless. But those elements have little to do with SEO, apart from encouraging readers to stay on page and easy navigation.
The clean design also demonstrates professionalism, which can help with generating leads, especially for luxury real estate. But far less aesthetic websites produce a flood of leads.
For now, take the sections above as a model for your neighborhood guides. Try not to skimp even if you have zero competition. Ideally you create an article that will be the most comprehensive resource for the next 5 years.
Think of it this way–you want to create content so good that your competitors hesitate to create similar content. Include lots of external links, for example to the websites for local condos and schools. Fortunately, you should be able to easily compile all of the recommended information.
This is one area where Houston Properties outshines the competition. Maps, local scenery photos, listing photos, realtor and client headshots, related articles with featured images, graphs, and tables elevate this article significantly.
Large blocks of text bore and overwhelm readers, while a variety of visual elements provide value and encourage readers to keep reading. Plus they have SEO benefits, which we cover in the On-Page SEO section in the step-by-step blog writing guide below.
Aim to include as many of the same kinds of visual elements as possible.
Obviously Paige has LOTS of social proof to leverage. However, you do not need to be an award-winning realtor to optimize a comprehensive neighborhood resource into a lead generation machine. But if you have it, flaunt it!
Practically every realtor should be able to collect convincing customer reviews, ideally including at least a few with portraits. Like Paige, you should intersperse these throughout the article. Provide a block or three of useful content followed by social proof. Then repeat.
Another super clever tactic is a slideshow of customer reviews. This encourages visitors to click and interact with the article, which is increasingly paramount to SEO.
Beyond client reviews, you can express your USP and core values at the bottom of the article. It may be wise to create a block of content similar to HP’s “Our Commitment” section and provide client reviews proving each point.
It’s also highly effective to include your face as much as possible. In this article, Paige has 4 professional, smiling headshots. It’s the next best thing to a video.
Personally, if I was a direct competitor to Houston Properties, I would create a 10-15 minute neighborhood tour video and place it near the top of the article. Then I would create a 2-5 minute personal introduction video and place it at the bottom.
How to Outperform This Article
I talk extensively about the INSANE power of neighborhood video tours. For now, suffice it to say that even low-budget videos elevate an article from an encyclopedic resource to a window into real life.
Video does a better job of convincing people to contact you than any other website feature. The introduction video on my homepage has generated over a million dollars in sales.
Houston Properties creates near flawless content. The one chink in their armor is a lack of video marketing. Apart from spending tens of thousands on backlinks, it’s the only way you could outperform such a powerhouse article if Houston was your market.
IDX Map Listings are another great resource that Houston Properties lacks. Here’s an example from Cabo Real Estate Services.
The above IDX Map is a feature available exclusively to my clients. It’s one of the many ways we can elevate a real estate website to a whole new level. To find out more about how we can create a powerhouse website for you that generates leads year after year, give me a ring!
A client of mine specializes in golf course homes. The neighborhood pages include lots of detailed information about the local golf courses for each neighborhood, including tee times, rates, and info on the course layout.
Their website traffic increased 3000% from these pages, and they are generating so many leads that we’ve lost count.
Take this as a great case study for your efforts. Select unique aspects of a neighborhood, and provide as much info as you can. Is there a local school? Mention the sports and academics, sure, but also the parking, outstanding teachers, and every little detail you can find.
In this case, the article is even more specialized. It covers information about a specific golf course, Sugarloaf Country Club. From this page alone, the Farkas Real Estate Group gets around 650 monthly visitors. It even outranks the official country club website!