Mary's Blog

Everybody and their brother has a blogroll. So, it must be OK, right? Wrong. Blogrolls are nothing more than glorified link farms and that is exactly what Google sees them as. There are documented cases of Google penalizing sites for both having a blogroll and getting blogrolled on other sites, so steer clear of this pop blog phenomenon.  Want to find out why blogrolls suck and how your real estate blog can do to link to your trusted sources without blogrolling them?  Read on.

Shout out to SEOmoz’ explanation of the affect blogrolling has on getting sandboxed: Google Sandbox and the blogroll. Below is my favorite excerpt on the subject:

“Build Natural Links & Avoid Getting Blogrolled - One of the most common elements suspected for sandboxing completely "natural" sites is their addition to blogrolls. These links are sitewides on URLs that frequently have many thousands of pages in Google's index and it appears on the surface that they can cause the link problems that lead to sandboxing. The best way to avoid this is to watch your logs for referring URLs and request to be removed from any blogrolls that are sent to you. With some luck, the sympathetic blogger will understand and remove you. It seems ridiculous to have to go to these extents to avoid sandboxing, but in the commercial reality of the web, it may, in fact, help you in both the short and long run.”

What is a blogroll?

According to Wikipedia, a Blogroll is a collection of links to other weblogs. When present, blogrolls are often found on the front page sidebar of most weblogs.

Blogrolls have recently come under scrutiny by the SEO community and with good reason. And personally, I think they are dead weight for any blog and yet, it seems that every blog and their brother has one.  

Read also: Moving beyond the blogroll

5 reasons blogrolls suck

1. They are nothing but glorified link farms which as we all know, search engines hate.

Once you start making lists of links and placing it on your blog, you run the risk of being categorized as a link farm. If you absolutely must place a link farm, I mean, blogroll on your site, put it on an inner page and never, ever in the side bar of each and every blog page. Also, if you have a new site, wait at least 3 months until you are firmly out of the Sandbox before starting a blogroll. Don’t give Google the ammo it needs to dampen your search results any further.

Read also: The Google sandbox Explained

2. Blogrolls can bloat a page past the critical link mass that Google determines to be 120 links. 

Once your home page bloats past 120 links Google will stop crawling new internal links and drop some of your pages of from it’s index. That is a documented behavior of Google. Now, 120 links in a blogroll sounds excessive, but let’s say you have a bunch of buttons and links in articles on your home page (around 50-75 is common for a blog). You need to subtract all those links from the critical mass of 120 to figure out how large your blogroll can grow to before you get dropped. Do you really want to keep track of all the links on your home page to make sure your blogroll doesn’t inadvertently cause the entire thing to get dropped? Probably not.

Read also:  Too many outbound links will get you dropped from Google

3. While they do provide backlinks to other sites, they do not drive quality traffic.

Very few readers actually look at or care about your blogroll. The only people who care are the ones on it or the ones that want to be on it because they think it will provide them with a much needed backlink. 

Fact is, if a blogroll is on each page of your site, it gives the blogrolled site a staggering amount of links from a single source which Google considers suspicious. 

Also, because blogrolls only use the site name as the anchor text in the link, those links are actually weighted less heavily than a single quality link within an article that has valuable anchor text.

Read also: Using links to generate traffic and retain visitors

4. Who are you really placing on your blogroll?

From what I see of blogrolls in real estate – they are just popularity contests… long lists of people that you know that also have blogs or people who have requested that their blog be added to your roll. In theory, blogrolls are meant to have only a select number of high quality resource links. 

If you have a blogroll, prune it. Look at the links, only include blogs that have real quality content your readers will be interested in and make sure the blogs you are linking to have at least a PR3 or above. Nix anything with a PR 0-2. If you want to be super discriminating, nix anything with less than a PR5. 

Do not be a blogroll whore rolling any real estate blog with a pulse. You do that and you will get branded with the search engine equivalent of a scarlet letter.

Read also: Ultimate guide to building backlinks

5. They are a pain in the butt to keep updated

This was my primary reason for not using a blogroll on RSS Pieces site. The stress of keeping the thing up to date and the uncomfortable experience of having to tell someone you won’t blogroll their site when they ask just made a blogroll unappealing to me.   When I find sites I like, I mention them in articles. It helps me share my link love and increases the likelihood of my readers clicking through to the site which is what is most valuable… traffic. 

How to share your link love of another site without using a blogroll

Instead of blogrolling your trusted sources or associates link to those sites naturally in articles that directly relate to the topics on their sites. This way you provide quality backlinks to your resources and ensure more click throughs to those sites.

Recommendation to those of you with blogrolls

If you have a blogroll, nix it. 

If you are dead set on keeping it, confine it to one single page on your blog and only display a select few of the blogrolled sites on your homepage (no more than 10).  

If you are a new site and want a blogroll, wait 3 months before adding it to avoid further Sandboxing.

THANK YOU FOR THE GENEROUS RESPONSE TO MY RETURN, BUT I FEEL THE NEED TO LEAVE AGAIN DUE TO A RECENT POST THAT CALLED MY CREDIBILITY ON THE MATTER INTO QUESTION.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND PLEASE VISIT ME ON RSS PIECES.

Wouldn't it be nice if you had a sure fire formula for writing killer real estate blog posts that drive huge targeted traffic and search engine interest? I know I would. So, over the past few months, I have been experimenting with my copy writing style and linking formulas to see what gets the best results. I looked at what it takes to interest both people and search engines and came up with a very simple formula that will guarantee readership and search engine placement for your real estate blog. Sounds pretty far-fetched, right? Not really. Now, I'm no copy writing or SEO virtuoso. I simply combined the trusted copy writing formulas newspaper and magazine writers have been using for decades with the key components outlined in Google's own Page Rank algorithm to come up with a combination that has worked for RSS Pieces. Want to learn how you can use this success formula to build traction for your real estate blog, read on.

Anatomy of a killer real estate blog post that drives huge traffic:

1. Write a keyword rich title that expresses benefits
2. Open your real estate blog post with a keyword rich and benefit expressing sentence.
3. Use your keyword or phrase at least 4 times in your post.
4. Link to at least 3 other websites that will offer readers more information on the given topic.
5. Link to at least 3 other posts on your own blog that will give more insight on the topic.
6. Engage readers with a controversial or "how to" article penned in a conversational tone
7. Format the post with heading tags, bolded text, numbered lists and/or bullet points
8. Close with a call to action asking readers to subscribe to your blog, contact you, fill out your lead generation tool or search for a home
9. Select 100% content relevant keywords for your meta data tag

For more copy writing tips, visit CopyBlogger

1. Write a keyword rich title that expresses benefits

What a search engine wants: According to the GoogScore algorithm worked out by Randfish, keywords in the title of your post are essential. That means that if your post is about buying condos in Cape Coral, you need to use the terms "Buying," "Condos" and "Cape Coral" in your title.

What people want: People like to be able to easily scan a title and figure out what the article is about. So, instead of coming up with a clever metaphor and play on words, go for the obvious title. Try to include a specific benefit in the title as well. Readers like to know what's in it for them when they read an article. They want to know that the article will in some way make their life easier, faster, better, richer... So, let them know exactly what the benefit of reading the article is. The more specific the title is the more readership it will get.

For example: How to buy condos in Cape Coral for $50,000 under market value

Read also: How to write catchy titles that drive traffic

Google's Page Rank Formula

Read also:Google's algorithm cracked

SEOmoz' GoogScore algorithm explanation

Formula: Include at least 2 keywords in your title and 1 benefit

2. Open your real estate blog post with a benefit and keyword rich first sentence

What a search engine wants: Search engines place greater value on the words closest to the top of the page, so you will need to include your primary keywords in the very first sentence.

What people want: The purpose of the first sentence in your article is to make the reader need to read the second sentence. So, coming up with a killer first sentence is key. You need to engage readers with your first sentence by either asking a leading question that expresses the benefits of reading the article or summarizing the key points of your post.

For example:

Wouldn't you just love to buy a luxury condo in Cape Coral and save more than $50,000?

Learn a Realtors secrets for buying luxury condos in Cape Coral under market value

Read also: Killing me softly with your blog

Formula: Include at least 2 keywords in your title and 1 benefit

3. Engage readers and search engines with emotionally engaging, keyword rich content that contains at least 3 internal and 3 external links

What a search engine wants: All search engines really care about in your posts are keywords and links. So, pepper each post with the keywords you want it to be searchable by and link out to other resource sites that would provide further information on the topic you are writing about. You also want to link to other posts on your own site that might add further value to the topic and keep visitors on your site longer.

Read also: Using links to retain visitors and build traffic

What people want: People want to be emotionally engaged by your post. That means that your post has to either answer an urgent need a readers life or generate strong feelings on a particular issue. So, creating controversy or penning a great tutorial post are the best ways to enagage a reader.

Read also: How to create controversy on your real estate blog

Formula: 3 links to reference websites and 3 links to other articles on your own site

4. Format your real estate blog post so that it is easy to scan and uses heading tags and textual formatting to denote which content is most important

What a search engine wants: Search engines use formatting tags like Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, bolded and italicized fonts to determine which words and phrases they should place greater value on when indexing your blog. So, use heading and formatting tags liberally when writing your posts.

What people want: People like to be able to scan over large bodies of text quickly to find what they are looking for. Make the copy easy to read by breaking it up with numbered lists or bullet points. Use a bolder font for topic headings and always include lots of white space. The easier your posts are to read, the more reads they will get. Visitors feel overwhelmed when they are faced with text that seems to go on and on forever, so use formatting techniques to break up the text into easily digestible chunks.

Read also: How to write a killer tutorial post

5. Close your real estate blog post with a call to action and direct readers to your lead generation tool

What people want: People like to be told what to do on the web. It creates comfort and a sense of purpose. So, at the end of each post, guide readers to your lead generation tool, RSS subscription page or back to your website where they can contact you or search for a home. Simply create a 3-5 sentence call to action for each of your target readers. Generally, those will be buyers, sellers and investors. The place a link to your applicable lead generation tool. You'll be amazed how this will improve lead generation on your site.

For example:

Buyers: Ready to start your dream home search? Contact me and I can guide you on finding the perfect home in Cape Coral to suit your lifestyle and needs.

Sellers: Ready to sell your home? Get started by finding our what your home is worth by clicking here.

Investors: Like what you've read here? Well, subscribe and get all the latest news from this blog delivered direct to you RSS reader or email.

Read also: How to write a real estate blog post that generates leads

Read also: How to increase blog subscribers in 7 easy steps

6. Select 100% search engine relevant keywords for your meta data

What search engines want: Search engines don't care about what you want to be searched by, they care about how relevant your content is to the keywords in your meta tag. So, don't guess at what search engines are going to like, use a keyword generator that looks at the content and selects keywords to 100% relevancy. To ensure that the terms you want to be searched for are included in the results, pepper your post with those key terms.

Tool: RSS Pieces Keyword Extraction Tool

To use this tool, select "term extraction" and either enter the url with your content on it or click the body text option and paste your content into the input box, enter 2-3 terms that give the general theme of the content like "real estate" and "buying homes" then click "go."

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you about your real estate blog is that it doesn’t always have to focus on real estate. Sounds crazy right? Not really. Your website is about all the necessary details of your real estate business, your blog, on the other hand, is about you. It’s about sharing yourself on a personal level so readers become comfortable with you as a service provider. So, with that in mind, I thought I’d share some very unique and out of the box ways you can incite reader participation and grow a loyal local audience. Each Sunday, I’ll share a new idea with you.

Get Pet Owners Involved on Your Blog

If you think Fido is loyal, Fido's owner is even more loyal.  So, go target pet owners with special interest content on your blog to grow a loyal base of  readers with a common interest.  People love their pets and most people with pets are home owners or would prefer to have a home with a yard so their beloved Fluffy can run free. See where I am going with this? Tug on people’s heart strings by talking about pets and asking for participation. First share a heartwarming story about your own pet then ask people to share their own stories about their pets in the comments. Also be sure to make the post a resource so it will become search engine bait by including lists of local Veterinarians, Groomers, Dog Bakeries, Dog Parks, Dog Beaches, Shelters and Pet Stores. 

Example: My Heartwarming Pet Story

About 5 months ago, John and I went on a business trip up North and left our dogs, 2 champion bloodline, Razor’s Edge, Blue Pit Bull Terriers (Winston Churchill and Samson’s Hair Brush) and a Catahoula Leopard Dog (Penny, a formerly abused shelter dog) in the care of John’s brother, Mike. About three days into our trip, Mike arrived at our home to feed them and found our lanai and kennel area broken into and only the two pedigree Pits missing. Long story short, one of our lawn service’s employees stole our dogs. Mike reported them missing and filed a police report as the total value of the dogs constituted Grand Larceny. When we got back form our trip, we went to every Vet, shelter, groomer, pet store, etc within 20 miles looking for our dogs. 

UPDATE: The former lawn care guy claimed he sold the dogs to two different people whom he did not have any contact information for. Needless to say, this lawn care dude spent more than a couple nights in the clink. 

Every week, we faithfully checked in with the Gulf Coast Humane Society to see if either of our dogs showed up there. Sadly, they did not. Time passed and Christmas crept up on us. So, we left for Christmas to go back up North to visit family and attend Inman.    Shortly after we returned, John woke up one morning and said he had a strong feeling that we needed to check the humane society. So, he took off to Fort Myers and lo and behold he found Winston in the adoption area and as he was walking out to the front desk with the lost pet form and missing dog flyers he spots Samson about to be adopted by another couple. Both dogs had been found while we were away! How amazing is that? I can’t say enough about the Gulf Coast Humane Society they gave our dogs a bunch of shots, tested them for heartworm, micro chipped them and most of all, loved them when we weren’t around.

Both our boys are home now. Samson is fine, but Winston, the bigger of the two, is a little worse for wear. It seems someone may have abused him as he is a little timid now and he contracted heartworm during his big adventure. We keep Winny inside with us while his heartworm is being treated and Samson stays with Penny on the lanai just playing, basking in the sun and occasionally jumping in the pool to cool off. Winston loves to look out the sliding glass doors and is desperate to join his brother and penny outside again. Our plan for them  is to send them to “dog boot camp” so they can be a little more protective of themselves and us. Once Winny has a clean bill of health, they both go off to Florida K-9 Services for intensive training.

Lost your pet in Lee County, Florida?

Fear not, check out Lee Lost Pets and you can reconnect with your baby.

Dog Friendly Places in Fort Myers

Dog Bakery in Cape Coral

Resources for your pampered pet:

Pampered Puppy

Modern Tails

Silver Spoon Pet Boutique