🏡 The Real Estate Marketing Update - Edition 08

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Welcome back.

Coming off of Google’s latest “helpful content” update, we’re drilling into this news and a specific tip and tool you can use to stay ahead of things.

If you missed our previous editions (we have released seven so far), you can check them out here.

Or, if you’re caught up, let’s jump right in.

Scroll down for one actionable tip, one handy tool, and one essential news story that will impact your lead generation efforts.

Not All of Your Content Needs to Send Traffic to Your Website

You would have never caught us giving this recommendation even just three years ago, but website traffic has seen some significant changes since then.

More specifically, how much website traffic Google sends from its Search results now has dropped way off.

In a December 2023 study, Ahrefs found that 96.55% of all pages in our index get zero traffic from Google, and 1.94% get between one and ten monthly visits.

So, all of that time you’re spending or money you’re paying to create and optimize content for Google could very well mean little to no traffic in the end.

This brings us to this edition’s tip…

Create content that provides value to your readers, in whichever format they’re consuming it in the most.

The Best Example: A Zero-Click Email Strategy

If you’ve been building and nurturing your email list, which we can’t recommend enough, then you have a captive audience that could offset your need to be chasing Google rankings.

How you use that list is what makes the difference though.

If you’re just sending to it sporadically or only when you want something from your contacts, then you’re wasting its potential.

However, if you’re sending messages on a regular basis, each one packed with valuable info, then its probably converting better than any other source of traffic you get.

One specific way to do this is to send messages that don’t rely on a recipient clicking out to another website to get value from the email.

In other words, pack all of the most helpful parts of your message into your email so that your contacts don’t have to leave your email or visit some other website.

This is called a zero-click email strategy and it can be applied to blog articles, social media posts, and even advertisements.

When you realize that the job of your content is to be the most helpful thing possible and not to earn an organic ranking it may never get, then your whole content creation effort improves.

For Realtors, creating zero-click content can help in building brand visibility, enhancing audience engagement, and even generating leads directly from social media platforms, search engines, or other digital mediums.

Here are specific examples of zero-click content Realtors could create:

1. Social Media Posts That Offer Complete Insights

Infographics: Detailed infographics shared on platforms like Instagram or Pinterest that highlight steps in the home buying or selling process, local market trends, or home maintenance tips. Ensure the infographic is informative enough that users don't need to visit a website to get value from it.

Short Videos: Create and share short, informative videos on platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts. Topics could include home staging tips, quick market updates, or highlights from your latest listings, providing all the necessary details within the video itself.

2. Google My Business Posts

Utilize the post feature on your Google My Business listing to share market insights, open house details, or new listing announcements directly on Google's search results page. This allows users to see your updates without having to click through to your website.

3. Interactive Content on Social Media

Polls and Surveys: Use Instagram Stories or Twitter polls to engage your audience with questions about their real estate preferences, predictions for the local market, or what they look for in a dream home. These don't require a click-through but can significantly boost engagement and give you valuable insights into your audience's preferences.

Live Q&A Sessions: Host live sessions on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, where you answer real estate questions in real-time. Promote your session in advance to gather questions and build an audience.

4. X Threads

Create comprehensive tweet threads that cover topics in-depth, such as "5 Things Every First-Time Homebuyer Should Know." Each tweet in the thread provides value, reducing the need for users to leave Twitter to get the information they're seeking.

5. LinkedIn Articles

Publish full-length articles on LinkedIn that delve into topics relevant to your target audience, like market analysis, investment tips, or guides on choosing the right neighborhood. LinkedIn's platform allows for extensive content that can engage users without necessitating a visit to your website.

6. Pinterest Pins

Detailed pins that offer complete guides or checklists, such as "Ultimate Moving Checklist" or "Essentials for Home Staging," which users can view and understand without needing to click through to a blog post.

Incorporating zero-click content into your digital marketing strategy can help you capture the attention of your target audience more effectively. By providing value upfront, you not only build trust with potential clients but also establish yourself as an authority in your local real estate market. This strategy can lead to higher engagement rates, increased brand visibility, and ultimately, more conversions, as your audience grows to rely on you for their real estate needs.

Reply to this email if you’re unsure that your content can be considered as “zero-click” content.

This powerful (and free) tool provides access to a largely unfiltered sample of actual search requests made to Google. It’s anonymized (no one is personally identified), categorized (determining the topic for a search query) and aggregated (grouped together). This allows Google Trends to display interest in a particular topic from around the globe or down to city-level geography.

Whether you’re doing keyword research, competitive analysis, market feasibility, or trying to get ahead of a news cycle for newsjacking, Google Trends is a tool we can’t recommend enough.

Even if you don’t use it right away, at least subscribe to their email list to start getting Google Trends delivered to your inbox. One trend spotted in an email could be your next lead generation opportunity.

Do you use Google Trends? Reply to this message to let us know how. We may even feature you in an upcoming edition.

Stop Creating Unoriginal, Low-Quality Content. And, Not Just Because Google Says So.

Google has announced critical changes they’re making to improve the quality of the Search results that they return to their users.

“This update involves refining some of our core ranking systems to help us better understand if webpages are unhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people.”

As competing AI tools from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta continue making big leaps into alternative search experiences, Google has seemingly realized the importance of cleaning up their results to keep users and market share.

This particular update refines their ranking systems to prioritize helpful, original content, while the spam policies aim to combat manipulative tactics that negatively impact search results.

What does this mean for you?

As a consumer, this update means less garbage in Google’s search results that waste your time, mislead you, or distract you from your original query. This could mean that more large brands will dominate search results, but if the results are more relevant and helpful, then this should be a welcomed change.

As a real estate professional, this update acts as your reminder to focus on creating original, helpful content if you’re serious about capturing new business from the millions of organic searches happening everyday. Your website will not rank, or continue to rank, if your website is nothing but shallow, regurgitated info that was created for SEO.

Here are some things you can start doing today to stay ahead of this change to earn more organic traffic and generate more leads from organic search:

1. Clean Out Useless Content: Remove useless pages or posts on your website that are not providing tangible value to your audience. Make sure to permanently redirect these URLs to better pages to prevent 404 errors.

2. Improve Existing Content: Identify pages and posts that get some consistent traffic, but that maybe aren’t converting or ranking as well as they could be. Add and update copy, include new visuals and other content formats like audio transcriptions, to make the content as helpful as possible.

3. Create More Helpful Content: Don’t add new content to your website unless it provides genuine value to your readers. This value could be in the form of helpful statistics that are not just regurgitated from somewhere else, authentic opinions and unique takes on trending topics in your community, and detailed tips or walkthroughs that help buyers and sellers make better decisions.

We realize that “helpful” is a subjective term and is, ironically, not helpful when trying to determine exactly what Google is looking for.

However, we recommend looking at it this way…

If the content is getting comments, replies, shares, and especially links back to it from other people/websites, then you’re on the right track. Although those metrics don’t always mean more conversions, they’re certainly good signals that your content is better than what other websites are putting out.

And if you’re still unsure as to what “helpful” content looks like for your website, then reply to this email and we’ll be happy to give you some individually tailored examples.

Thanks for reading.

See you next week.

The Real Estate Marketing Update Team @ imFORZA