Understanding the Long Tail of SEO

What is Long Tail SEO?

According to Wikipedia: “The long tail in keyword research is basically an expansion of a core, generic, high volume keyword phrase to include numerous combinations and permutations of the keywords and their associated or relevant phrases. These phrases individually are unlikely to account for a great deal of searches, but when taken as a whole, can provide significant traffic.”

Basically, the long tail is all the random search terms – outside of your set keywords that will drive traffic to your site. Maybe each random long tail search term only drives ONE hit, but the total of ALL long tail keywords combined can be more powerful than the total of all targeted keywords.

For example:

“Greenhaven Neighborhood” is a main target keyword for my neighborhood niche blog. However, I can also get hits from searches for long tail keyword searches like “homes for sale near Vista Ridge high school“.

If you want to see exactly how important the long tail keyword is, please take a moment to read:

The Long Tail of SEO by Ed Kohler

In this easy-to read post, you will see how important it is to have plenty of high quality, relevant content … that will generate the long tail keywords … and eventually lead to MORE traffic to your sire.

Posted By: Mariana Wagner – Colorado Springs Real Estate Agent – Keller Williams Realty

How to Make Your Blog More Like YOU and Less Like Your Website (Finding Your Blogging Voice)

Your blog is an extension of you and the services you offer and we all know that people prefer to do business with PEOPLE, not businesses. Your job as a real estate blogger is to make your blog more like YOU and less like your website. And the way to do this is by finding your blogging voice.

However, if you are not a professional writer (which most of us aren’t) you probably have a difficult time finding your “voice” … a difficult time making WHO YOU ARE seep through your words and into the minds of your readers … your potential future clients.

As one fellow blogger puts it, “The blogs that I get the most value from are those that have original content and I can get to understand the blogger as a person.”

Here is a selection of posts – some excellent reading material – regarding how to make your blog more human … more like YOU:

• HUMANIZING your blog for intimacy – RSS Pieces: “You need to create a soap opera in your blog posts where you disclose personal things about yourself in small doses.”
• 5 Minute How To: Find Your Blogging Voice – FreshBlogger: “It’s your personal style, that unique feel that comes from your personality coming through your words.”
• How to Blog with Voice and Create Community and Readership – ProBlogger: “Anybody can copy and paste. I’m pretty sure they’ve even trained monkeys to do it. If your blogging style consists of “Michael Arrington wrote about X today” and link to his story, theoretically you’re in the same skill category as the primate. Last time I checked, monkeys are still flinging poo at zoo attendees. You don’t want to be compared with that, do you?”
• Whose voice is it anyway? – Ines Hegedus-Garcia (Miamism): “We are all different, we all have different personalities.  Our blog should reflect that.  It is your choice to be controversial, it is your choice to be sweet and expose personal sides of you.”
• Your Blogging Voice… Where is it? (Realty Blogging Review #2) – Mariana Wagner (me) (Colorado Springs Real Estate Connection): “Yay! I’m Human! I’m not just another airbrushed face in a polyester suit plastered on a bus stop bench! A blog tells the world, “I (Realtor) have a life, and it is quite interesting actually. I also know a lot about some very important stuff, and Guess What? I love to share all of this, right here, on a regular basis. So, (reader) keep coming back - There will always be something new for you to learn!”

Some people will find their voice in a matter of weeks, and some of you will write for months before your voice becomes apparent to both YOU and your readers. Just be patient and KEEP WRITING!

My only warning to you is to be wary of humor and sarcasm in your blogging. I happen to have an extremely dry and sarcastic sense of humor and I have learned (the hard way) that humor is the most misunderstood type of writing in the blogosphere. And the last thing you want to do is unintentionally offend your readers. I am not telling you to not use humor. In fact, I believe that you SHOULD use humor … just be careful.

The more you write, the quicker you will find your blogging voice, so don’t give up!

Posted By: Mariana Wagner - Wagner iTeam at Keller Williams Clients Choice Realty
Colorado Springs Real Estate Agent and RE Trainer

Your Blog CAN Be On the First Page of Google

My real estate blog, Colorado Springs Real Estate Connection, was designed and is maintained by RSSPieces.com. I love them.

Their site is, by far, one of the BEST resources for real estate bloggers on the ‘net. For example, here is one of their most recent posts that I am sure you will find extremely valuable:

How to put your real estate blog on the first page of Google guaranteed

While you are there, make sure you check out all their other informative posts …

Posted By: Mariana Wagner – Wagner iTeam at Keller Williams Realty
Colorado Springs Real Estate Agent and KW Trainer

Teresa Boardman Talks About Real Estate Blogging

Teresa Boardman is a Keller Williams real estate agent in St. Paul MN, and one of the most successful real estate bloggers in the whole universe. (Yes. Universe.) She writes an awesome blog: St. Paul Real Estate Blog, and writes for a for several other blogs as well. (Like me, she is a contributor to the professional agent-agent real estate blog of AgentGenius.com, as well.)
Anyway, sometimes it is nice to get a non-written look at master bloggers, like Teresa … So, today is your lucky day…

Here is a recent interview with Teresa Boardman on Inman TV:

Blogging Success With Teresa Boardman

How to Manage Multiple Blogs

If you have more than one blog, you may find it “challenging” to juggle each one.

For example, I have multiple blogs.

Colorado Springs Real Estate Connection - This is my “official” website.

Greenhaven Real Estate - This is one of my FARM blogs, where I talk about real estate

Living in Greenhaven - This is another FARM blog where I talk about the community

Stetson Hills Real Estate - Yet another FARM blog… This is an example of the blog that you can attach to your KW website.

My KW Blog - This is this blog – a place to share blogging and such with you

Springs Realty Scoop (Active Rain) - This is a hodge-podge of blog posts that I share with the Active Rain and Localism Communities.

Auxiliary blogs that I write for:

Agent Genius - Agent to Agent commentaries

Air Force PCS - A blog dedicated specifically to the Air Force relocation from city to city

Now that I have officially plugged each of my blogs, I want to share a great article I just read:

How to Manage Multiple Blogs by Performancing.com.

This is a great read when you branch out and try to tackle more than one blog. It really is not as daunting of a task as it may seem.

Good Luck!

Posted By: Mariana Wagner – Wagner iTeam – Keller Williams Clients’ Choice Realty
Colorado Springs Real Estate Agent – Blog Coach and Real Estate Business Trainer