{"id":6849,"date":"2009-02-12T10:02:27","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T17:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=6849"},"modified":"2009-02-12T10:02:27","modified_gmt":"2009-02-12T17:02:27","slug":"de-commodotize-your-listing-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6849\/de-commodotize-your-listing-content\/","title":{"rendered":"De-Commodotize Your Listing Content"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is in response to Greg’s post<\/a> about Jim Flanagan’s question, “What does today\u2019s real estate consumer want in (on) a real estate brokerage\u2019s website?”\u00a0 “Listings” was the predictable, correct answer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that Real Estate Web site users are primarily interested in listings. That’s why everyone has them, and that makes listings a commodity.\u00a0 That begs the question: When everyone offers the content that your target audience is looking for, how do you set your site apart?<\/p>\n

Blogging is one answer, but at the outset most consumers are not looking for you or your expertise, they are looking for listings, so at the end of the day, listing content is still the most powerful thing you have control over when it comes to attracting users to your site.<\/p>\n

Before I spent most of my time on Real Estate (I heard you get to make your own hours and its easy money, plus I am a real \u201cpeople person\u201d), I managed eCommerce sites for a living.<\/p>\n

If there is one golden rule of successful B2C eCommerce, it is this: Content is currency.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Consumers are used to the wealth of content that Amazon puts around a copy of Home Buying for Dummies<\/em>. They are not impressed by cheap, 50-word “descriptions” full of Real Estate jargon and one or two grainy pictures from the IDX feed that feature cat boxes, dishes in the sink, and amateur porn lighting.<\/p>\n

Google is not impressed when the content you offer on your own site is identical to the content that is offered on sites it considers more authoritative than yours.<\/p>\n

The answer is to add value to your currency. Start by minting rich content and then stop giving it away and you will get more visits from both Google and humans. It’s a three-step process:<\/p>\n

Step 1: <\/strong>Develop rich content for your listings, or for listings that you get permission to modify on your site. At a minimum, that means a few hundred words of grammatically correct English, lots of decent photos, and the right meta data in the right places.<\/p>\n

(There have been many posts on BHB about how to write decent listing Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is in response to Greg’s post about Jim Flanagan’s question, “What does today\u2019s real estate consumer want in (on) a real estate brokerage\u2019s website?”\u00a0 “Listings” was the predictable, correct answer. It\u2019s no secret that Real Estate Web site users are primarily interested in listings. That’s why everyone has them, and that makes listings a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1199,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1199\/realtybots-will-make-sellers-happy\/","url_meta":{"origin":6849,"position":0},"title":"Realty.bots will make sellers happy","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in today's Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Realty.bots will make sellers happy We talked last week about the move by Realogy Inc. to supply millions of real estate listings from its national brokerage chains to upstart Realty.bots Google Base and Trulia.com. This puts the Realty.bots on the map.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":333,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/333\/ask-the-broker-why-would-an-mlsidx-system-forbid-commingling-with-listings-from-other-sources\/","url_meta":{"origin":6849,"position":1},"title":"Ask the Broker: Why would an MLS\/IDX system forbid commingling with listings from other sources . . . ?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Giving my prominent proboscis a good hard tweak, a certain pseudonymous Scarlet Pimpernelesque semi-retired real estate weblogger asks: \"Are you trying to say that the MLS' are not fascist dictatorships???\" The question refers to a weblog entry I posted last night chastising Trulia Blog for hyperbole in its complaints about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask the Broker"","block_context":{"text":"Ask the Broker","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/ask-the-broker\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1257,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1257\/greg-peeing-on-the-tree-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":6849,"position":2},"title":"Planet Zillow.com: Burgeoning Realty.bot grows, potentially, to become a self-sustaining residential real estate eco-system","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the news. We'll circle back for details and implications. Zillow.com, the national Realty.bot growing out of the popular automated home valuation service, is releasing a new version of its popular web-based real estate portal tonight. Dubbed Zillow 5, the new functionality comes in three broad categories:Any user of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1139,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1139\/passive-marketing-can-swing-sale\/","url_meta":{"origin":6849,"position":3},"title":"Passive marketing can swing sale","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I was too busy doing this last week to talk about it. This is me from Friday's Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Passive marketing can swing sale How much time and effort should you expend to sell your house? The answer is simple: whatever it takes. Last week, we talked about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":232,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/232\/if-the-cute-little-baby-wants-to-chew-up-your-copyrights-who-are-you-to-complain\/","url_meta":{"origin":6849,"position":4},"title":"If the cute little baby wants to chew up your copyrights, who are you to complain?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Marlow Harris at 360Digest has an incisive post about the incipient conflict between copyright-holding brokers and national dot.com real estate listing aggregators:But what does the agent do who has signed a TOS Agreement with their broker indicating that the Broker owns the listings and the broker does not want their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2801,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2801\/zillowcom-makes-its-first-mls-wide-feed-agreement-and-in-the-process-disintermediates-its-first-idx-cartel\/","url_meta":{"origin":6849,"position":5},"title":"Zillow.com makes its first MLS-wide feed agreement and, in the process, disintermediates its first IDX cartel","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the PR, which the vendor cheerleaders will have reported:*Leading real estate Web site Zillow.com and MLS Property Information Network today announced a partnership to feed listings from the New England area MLS to Zillow.com on a daily basis. This partnership initiates the first participation at the MLS level in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6849"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6892,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions\/6892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}