The last post I wrote was about Active Rain blogs and how the tags and other posting information is used on outside blogs.  A related issue, is the issue of writing blog posts that are SEO optimized.

Here are 4 things to keep in mind when you write your next real estate blog post.

1.  Use a Consistent Set of Effective Keyword Phrases – You don’t want to end up with your blog being optimized for a large number of keyword phrases.  Do the keyword research to choose the most effective keyword phrases and stick with them.

For example, if you want to be found in the search engines for the search term Atlanta Homes for Sale, don’t create a new post that is optimized for the phrase New Home Community Breaks Ground.   If the new home development is in Atlanta, then optimize the post for your Atlanta search term.

2.  Focus Categories and Tags on Navigation, with an SEO Twist - Individual blog platforms can treat categories and tags differently.  The Active Rain post described how outside blogs use categories and tags.

If you use WordPress, you’ll find that categories are best used for navigation at a global level.  If you look at the menu right under the header image on this blog, for example, you’ll see tabs that correspond to the key categories on the blog.  There’s a complete list at the bottom of each page, but the menu entries represent the main navigation.

And the categories were defined with SEO in mind.  For example, rather than creating a category called Blogs, the category is named Real Estate Blogs.  That’s because categories have two purposes.

The first purpose for categories is for navigation.  If a visitor to your blog wants to see all your posts on a particular subject, they can use the categories to find those posts quickly. 

The second purpose is for search engines and SEO.  The categories also act as part of the internal linking structure of the blog.  So, when a search engine follows the menu tab for Real Estate Blogs, it will see the depth of information the blog has on that keyword phrase.

I use Tags for navigation within Categories.  For example, I wrote a few posts about Customer  Retention.   If you follow that link, you’ll find those posts.  They were placed in the Real Estate Marketing Tips category, and I used the tag Customer Retention for all the posts.  That way, I can quickly direct visitors to related posts within a category.

3.  Write SEO-Optimized Post Titles and Content – In many blog structures, a post’s title is used in critical SEO areas.  The post title is often made part of the post’s unique URL/link to identify the page, and it is also used in the post’s Title tag.

Therefore, in many if not most cases, having a strong, keyword rich title and content is at the top of the list of the things that will make a post attractive to search engines. 

4.  Create Links to Your Posts – If you have a main website, you have the perfect opportunity to create links from that website to your real estate blog and back the other way. 

For example, if you have a page on your website that is optimized for Atlanta Homes for Sale, you can easily add a link from that page to your Atlanta Homes for Sale category on your blog.

If you have a blog category called Atlanta Homes for Sale, you can easily add a link from some or all of those posts to the optimized page on your website or your MLS Search, and so forth.

Do you have any tips for managing SEO on a real estate blog?  If you have questions about Real Estate Blogs or any other topic, feel free to drop by our Facebook page and post your question on the Wall!