In this post, I will take you through how SEO and your Content Goldmine will transform you from the best-kept secret in your area into the go-to property expert.
When I wrote my book, Automated Property Leads Forever, I deliberately avoided SEO as the book’s main theme. The main reason is that without well-researched, expertly produced, highly valuable content, SEO will not help you. Since I don’t talk too much about SEO in my book, I thought I would do it here.
SEO and content are two sides of the same coin. They are the yin and yang of content marketing. Or, if you prefer, a perfect marriage of search intent and expert answers.
If you are already creating amazing content and aren’t leveraging SEO tactics, tips, and tricks, you are missing out on a potentially massive boost in organic traffic to your website.
However, without expert content, SEO is almost useless today. While an effective SEO strategy considers On-Page, Off-Page, and Technical aspects, none of these will work independently of expertly crafted content for the search engines to rank.
If you’re unfamiliar with SEO, on-page refers to the elements that make your content easy for the search engines to understand, such as headings, alt text on images, meta descriptions and alt markup. Off-page SEO refers to backlinks, citations, branded mentions, and social media. The technical part of SEO is the speed of your website, crawlability, indexing, mobile optimisation, security and the like. Together with how excellent your content is, SEO will determine where you show up in the search engines ranking pages (SERPs).
I’ve Tried SEO Before: It Didn’t Work
There is absolutely no doubt that when SEO is applied to well-written, well-researched, expert content, it works. Millions of businesses use content marketing and SEO strategies regularly to boost their brand and promote their products effectively.
Usually, SEO doesn’t work for one of two reasons.
The SEO Agencies
One of the things that many SEO agencies avoid when reaching out to businesses is the need for high-quality content. While some agencies do offer content creation as a service, it is not something I would recommend. If you ever see a cold email from an SEO that says something like “We’ll rank your website #1 on Google,” and there is no reference to content, just mark it as SPAM and delete it.
Websites DO NOT RANK.
Web pages do.
A blog post is considered a web page, usually with a high level of value. The value is all down to the author of the content. If this is not part of the marketing strategy for any cold outreach, I’d recommend giving them a wide berth.
While a website can gain what is known as ranking juice, or website authority that will increase the chances of a new piece of content ranking well, it is built up as a result of the considerable effort that has been put into the website content and many pages (posts) ranking for many keywords.
Giving It a Go
So many people, companies, and entrepreneurs “Give SEO a Go” that it gets a bad name because most fail to understand the fundamentals.
For a start, SEO and Content Marketing is a long-term endeavour. It is not something you can spend a few weekends having a go at and then concluding it doesn’t work. Dipping your toe in to test the waters or having a little splash is not an option here.
The minimum time I suggest you commit to is 12 months if you want to see significant results. This does not mean it will be a year before you see any results from your efforts, but one thing you need to understand is that it takes time to get momentum.
Here are a few factors you’ll need to consider:
- The search engines need to trust you as an expert
- You need to create consistently over time to build trust
- You need to build an audience on at least one social platform
- Your ability to say the right things to the right people won’t happen on day one
- The amount of time you commit to content creation will likely be lower until you get results
The last point is of significance. If you’re not all in on your content creation, and “other things” keep coming up and “stopping” you from getting as much done as you need, you’ll just stay stuck at zero for much longer. And in case you didn’t notice, I said other things, not “more important” things.
Serious Businesses Market Seriously
Marketing is the most critical aspect of the success of your business.
No marketing means no leads.
No leads mean no prospects.
Yes, you’ve guessed it: no prospects mean no sales.
If you’re serious about marketing your business, then you should be serious about creating expert content for your business. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune, but it is a requirement.
None of this is going to happen in a few weeks. 3 or 4 months will realistically see you getting some results. Building an audience, posting 2 or 3 times a week on your blog, getting your message right to engage your audience, and increasing your website’s visitors will all happen; you just have to pace yourself and be patient.
To give you an idea, this post represents around a day and a half of work. Now, it is longer than most posts at seven thousand plus words, and I could have shortened the writing time by doing it in one or two sittings. Since the post is long, the editing took longer, and I added more images to break up the text. Now, it is my hope that the insights you get from this post make the time I’ve spent worth the effort. But that’s the point in many respects. I’ve taken the time to order my thoughts and communicate the power and benefits of an SEO-boosted content goldmine in the hope that you will do the same for your audience.
The Eighth Wonder of the World
Content marketing compounds over time. The more expert content and content upgrades (lead magnets) that you create, the more chances people looking for answers you’ve provided will find your content.
It reminds me of Albert’s quote. While he was talking about financial gain, the same principle applies to getting traffic on your website. The more content you have, the more visitors you get.
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.
He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.
Albert Einstein
Eventually, people in your area won’t be able to ask any questions online related to your service without your content showing up in the search results. You will be everywhere. Nobody will be able to avoid your advice. You will become not only unavoidable, but unforgettable.
If you’re thinking about creating a bit of content and giving SEO a go, I suggest you give up now and put your effort into something that will work for you. Going door-to-door or attending lots of networking meetings might be more your speed. Sorry, but keeping it real here. Not Sorry. 🤷♂️
If, however, you decide to commit to spending time every week on highly valuable, well-researched, easy-to-consume content creation, and you’re going to give it a minimum of 12 months, then I look forward to seeing your marketing machine in action. It will deliver hot qualified leads on autopilot to your business once you get going.
Why SEO Will Work For You
Regardless of what you find when you start researching your competitors online, your content goldmine will absolutely, without any doubt, position you as a go-to local property expert.
How can I be so certain?
SEO has powerful ties to locality. If 100 pieces of content on established websites about the same topic (keyword) are all well-researched, well-written, and provide a contextual match to the questions being asked, the website in the same area as the person searching will be pushed much higher in the search results.
Google knows that by showing searchers results from companies that they might already know due to locality, they increase the chance that they will click on the link.
Creating a content goldmine is your first step if you are serious about being your area’s best-known, most-trusted property expert. Once you add SEO to your content goldmine, you will understand what people mean by being the go-to property expert.
Why SEO and High-Quality Content are the Dynamic Duo You Didn’t Know You Needed!
The UK property market is incredibly competitive and highly localised. Buyers and renters are looking for specific information about neighbourhoods, property types, and local amenities. They want mortgage and insurance brokers, moving companies, cleaners, and a host of other property-related services. Traditional marketing strategies like billboard ads or printed brochures aren’t nimble enough to cater to such detailed, targeted inquiries.
But guess what? Your content goldmine can. An SEO-optimised content strategy will allow your perfect prospects to find you when they decide they are ready.
Content as the unsung hero in lead generation for property professionals
If you want to be your area’s best-known, most trusted agent, it won’t happen by accident. You need to be intentional in making yourself available to your prospects.
Expertly created content is the easiest and most cost-effective way of promoting you, your services, and your brand.
Nothing else comes even close.
Providing expert levels of content with what appears at first glance to be no expectation of a return is what will build trust and rapport with your perfect prospects.
SEO: the silent engine that drives your content to the forefront
When you have a good content plan and know how to create expert content, what you do for your prospects is deliver value that aligns with the problems they need solving or answer the question that was troubling them.
This means that you have matched the intent of their search with your expertise. This increases the likelihood that they will spend more time consuming your content and taking action when finished. Usually, this will mean giving their name and email for even more value.
What does all this mean for SEO?
It means that the search engines will love your content. The whole purpose of SEO is to give people exactly what they want when they want it. Nothing is more important to Google than matching the intent of a search with a relevant answer.
This is why creating expert content is so vital for your business. It will be the primary driver of organic leads for your services because you will be positioned as an expert by Google and other search engines.
Content: The Goldmine You’re Sitting On
If you have already created a lot of content but haven’t “cracked the code” for getting to the top of the search engines, this might be the bit you’re looking for.
Your content goldmine needs to align with the expectations of your perfect prospects. If you write “something” just to “show up,” as most people do, you’ll unlikely deliver any real value.
This is why learning the fundamentals of creating a content goldmine is essential.
The easiest way to deliver value is to start by answering questions you know people need to solve.
This is where I start in my book, Automated Property Leads Forever, after we check that your website is ready to host your content goldmine.
The 10 questions that you get asked the most is where your content goldmine starts.
Understanding content as a rich resource for lead generation
Once you’ve listed your 10 most asked questions, you can create the first of your expert piece of content.
Naturally, there is more to it than just writing a few hundred words and posting willy-nilly.
You need to research your competitors, plan out the content thoroughly, utilise the layout guide, ensure your headlines are catchy, ensure your images catch people’s attention and, ideally, have a lead magnet ready to deliver even more value.
For your content goldmine to deliver leads, there’s clearly much to consider. Fortunately, you’re here, and I’ll cover everything you need to know in time.
Different forms of content—blogs, ebooks, videos—and how they serve the property space
While I focus mainly on getting you started with the expert content you will blog to be the foundation of your Goldmine, it is far from the only content you need.
Short-form ebooks, PDFs, checklists, and cheat sheets are all types of content you’ll need to think about to make your content goldmine as valuable as possible.
And let’s not forget videos.
The easiest way to communicate your expertise, experience, and passion for helping your perfect prospects is to show up in videos. If you’re uncomfortable being on camera, get over it, seriously.
Video’s Are Easy
You need to make videos. It’s not optional.
If you can meet a prospect face to face, you can talk to a camera.
Yes, I get that you might feel self-conscious, be fearful of messing up, worry about stumbling over your words, or not coming across as a professional. Err! So what if you mess up or get a few things wrong?
First off, I’m not suggesting you create your content live.
Next, until you start practising, you’ll NEVER get better.
Third, if you don’t record yourself, how will you ever find out what you need to fix?
Let me tell you a little secret. When I first started making videos, a 30-minute video would take me a couple of hours to edit. I made lots of mistakes. I was embarrassed by the number of “errs” and “you know’s” that I would say.
Guess what? I don’t do nearly so many of them now. In fact, if I do a practice run or two before I record so that I know what I’m going to say, I can get some videos in a single take. Even if I do the occasional “Err”, “Umm”, or “You know”, so what? It’s how I speak.
You’ve got to start somewhere, and nobody ever has to see your worst takes. Just delete them and go again.
Your videos will make a big difference to your content goldmine when combined with everything else you create. You cannot afford not to have video in your arsenal.
Why quality content is your ticket to a reputation that precedes you
Don’t create expert content if you want to be the best-kept secret in your area.
If you want to be the best-known agent, you can either spend 20 to 30 years building your reputation and encouraging your clients to recommend you until you are genuinely the best-known, or you can create a content goldmine and shortcut that process by about 90%.
Think about it.
Does word of mouth recommendations show up on Google?
No.
Does expert content continually added to over the years show up on Google?
Damn right it does.
Even if you went the trial-and-error route, it will still be quicker than building a word-of-mouth reputation.
By starting your content goldmine the right way with expert content explicitly created to deliver value and help your perfect prospects, there is almost no chance you can fail to become a recognised property expert in your area.
The Anatomy of Successful Content
It’s worth noting that long-form content is often better than its short-form counterpart. There are exceptions, but the longer form is the way to go whenever you can get into an in-depth explanation or conversation on a subject. Sometimes, it may seem like short-form is better, but for SEO and ranking on the search engines, longer-form content wins in most cases.
In this section, we’ll discuss how you approach creating longer-form content.
The elements that make up compelling, shareable, and action-driving content
It all starts with the headline. Not every headline has to be dazzlingly brilliant, especially when you want to show up for a specific reason. For example, a few of my recent headlines (H1 tags in SEO terminology) are ‘What is a Content Goldmine?’, ‘How Do I Build a Content Goldmine?’ and ‘ Types of Content that Make Up a Content Goldmine’.
Once you have a relevant headline, you must break up your content into subheadings. These are your H2 and H3 headings. If your content gets too long at the Heading 3 level, use H4 and H5 if necessary. Just don’t use them for the sake of it.
After you’ve written your introduction and assured your readers that they are in the right place and will get precisely what they are looking for, you can start your journey to solving their problems.
Depending on how in-depth the content is, you’ll want to add several images throughout your post and use other ways to break up your text.
This might include:
- Bold and Italic text
- Coloured text
- Highlighted text
- 👈Bullet points
- Numbered Lists
- Good to
- change up the
- style from other lists
- “Quoted Text”
- Underlines
- Strikethroughs
- Emojis 👍(in context)😉
- Videos (short, but could be entertaining)
- Ample white space
Whatever you use, it needs to be there for a reason.
These tools to break up large blocks of text are essential because the easier your content is on the eye, the more likely your perfect prospects will read it through to the end.
Is all this necessary?
If you’re familiar with my content, you’ll know I love a good stat, and yes, a few more statistics are on the way. SEMrush, one of the search engine marketing tool creators I recommend you check out, create an excellent annual report called The State of Content Marketing that shows what is working in the content world regarding SEO.
Rather than just copying and pasting their findings here, I recommend downloading a copy of the full report from here.
If you get the 2023 report and aren’t reading this sometime in 2024, pages 31-33 are inspiring if you want to see what is working for other companies using content in their business.
Page 71 will hopefully give you some insight into why people use content in their business in the first place. When you combine the top 4 reasons people give, it’s a powerful combination for any business.
Pages 82-83 should indicate why I help you start your content goldmine by answering the most asked questions.
Pages 86-95 are why I talk about planning your content and breaking it up with lists, images and other eye-pleasing breaks. It makes a BIG difference.
If you have read, Automated Property Leads Forever, and wondered why there was so much about the structure of your content, not just planning the content itself, but how it looks, then this report should clear up any doubts you might have about the necessity of expertly creating content.
Take Some Time
If I may, I would suggest that you read through the entire SEMrush report and spend a little time imagining how the results of a successful content goldmine would impact your business.
There is absolutely no doubt that if you create a content goldmine for your business, you will become the go-to expert for your area. If you’re not already trusted by the search engines as an expert provider of solutions via your content, this will take a little time, but you will get there.
Be persistent.
Be consistent.
You will see results. Never doubt that it will happen.
The Symbiotic Relationship: SEO and Your Content Goldmine
The creation of better and better content has, in many ways, been forced by Google’s algorithm. As I mentioned earlier, Google wants to match the intent of a search with the best possible answer.
This means that when you create an in-depth, expert piece of content and provide an option for your visitors to demonstrate that they found your content valuable by providing a content upgrade (lead magnet), you increase the likelihood that Google will send more visitors your way.
Why SEO alone is not enough and why content alone won’t cut it.
In years gone by, applying SEO to low-value content meant it would still show up. As Google’s AI has improved at analysing content, understanding its value, and the intended outcomes, it has forced creators to up their game.
Since Google has become such a powerful market force, so many people want to get their content on page #1, so the levels of each new piece of content are better than most of what came before it.
Therefore, if your content is not valuable, meaningful, engaging and able to meet the audience’s needs, it will not rank no matter how much SEO you apply.
The magic that happens when SEO meets high-quality content.
If, on the other hand, you can create high-quality content that engages your audience and you add a little SEO magic into the mix, suddenly, you’ll be attracting your perfect prospects and steadily climb to the highly sought-after first page of Google’s SERPs.
Keywords: The Gems in Your Goldmine
While keywords are essential to SEO, they are more for shorter content than long form.
Let me explain that more clearly since keywords are required for both.
For short and long-form content, you’ll use your keyword in the title, the first 100 words of your content, and your meta description.
In short-form content, the easiest way to let the search engine algorithm know what you intend to rank for is by using the keyword repeatedly. In a 500-word document, you might use your keyword a dozen or more times, indicating what you’re talking about. This is a simplistic view of keywords and SEO, but you get the idea.
For long-form content, you do not need to use the keywords throughout your post consciously.
When you write longer content, it will be broken up into various sections and sub-sections. You’ll discuss the different aspects of your answer in detail while providing multiple levels of context, examples, and stories.
Google’s AI analyses your content and is very good at understanding what it is about and why it is good, bad, or indifferent. It will likely be sorting out various keywords, contexts, and uses you haven’t even considered.
This level of understanding means you don’t need to help the algorithm figure out your intent by using your main keyword repeatedly throughout your post.
What Keywords Are and Why They Are Crucial in Your Property Content
The best type of keyword is what’s known as long-tail. This is often a descriptive keyword of 3 to 5 words, though sometimes it can be longer.
This is why questions make such good keywords. If you can phrase a question precisely as your perfect prospect will ask it, then the intent will match, and the value of the answer is likely to be better.
When you write longer posts, to avoid repetition and boring your audience, you’ll naturally use many of the different categories of keywords.
- Short-tail keywords
- Mid-tail keywords
- Long-tail keywords
- Focus keywords
- Secondary keywords
- Semantic keywords
- Market-specific keywords
- Generic keywords
Since Google’s algorithm will be indexing, cataloguing, and categorising your content, you don’t need to worry about it understanding who it is for and why.
Keyword Competition
Another thing you’ll learn about keywords once you delve into the wonderful world of SEO: some keywords will be much harder to rank for than others.
This is another reason why targeting longer keywords will be to your advantage. The longer the keyword, the more specific the target audience and the lower the likely competition.
Whilst this isn’t always true, the very high volume, and therefore, most popular keywords, tend to be the short tail, mid-tail and market-specific.
This will become clear when you start using keyword research tools to help you position your content more effectively.
How to identify high-performing keywords that resonate with your target audience.
Understanding your clients will be vital to understanding what resonates with them. Once you have an excellent client avatar, using a keyword research tool will help you narrow down the list of keywords you can target.
The benefits of using a keyword research tool are that you can start seeing things like the search volume, related searches, and even the price of keyword advertising.
High-Volume Traffic Keywords
Why might the price of advertising matter if you’re trying to get traffic to your content organically?
Well, if somebody is willing to pay $5, $10, $20 or more for a click, that’s a click, not a lead or a sale, then they are doing so because that keyword is very valuable to them and the deals they can make of the back of a click far outweighs the cost. This will also mean it will be an incredibly competitive keyword to rank organically.
While it does not mean you cannot create content based on these keywords, you are unlikely to end up on page #1 of Google for them. Create the content knowing it will be valuable for your prospects and clients, and they will find it through your related content, social media and mailing lists.
If you end up ranking for one of the highly competitive keywords one day, it will be because you’re recognised as an industry leader, and your SEO is more powerful than your competitors. Just don’t expect it to happen overnight. 😉
Quality Over Quantity: Why Both Matter in SEO
It goes without saying, even though I may have mentioned this several times already, that your content needs to be high quality and valuable to your prospects. This also means you’ll research competitors’ content and their keywords and ensure your content performs better.
While it takes time to create excellent long-form content, not every piece needs to be an in-depth review.
Long-form vs. short-form content: striking the perfect balance.
When you perform your competitor research, you’ll find that Google sometimes prefers a short answer. Again, this will align with the intent of the search and provide the most likely “best answer” for their users.
If you find that Google has listed the top 10 answers to a particular question with 300 to 500-word solutions, creating a 4,000-word response to the same query is unlikely to jump to the top of the rankings.
On the other hand, if there is a mix of 300, 1000, 3000 or more words in an article, I would always recommend you favour long-form. As you might recall from SEMrush’s State of Content Marketing report, long-form content is more likely to rank higher, be shared, and be commented on.
The role of backlinks: Why quality references boost your SEO rankings.
Now let’s explore another area of SEO, backlinks. It’s worth noting that not all backlinks are measured equally.
When you get a backlink from another website, it can be seen as positive or negative depending on a few factors.
If your lovely new backlink is from an authoritative or trusted website, it will likely boost your SEO score and, by extension, your rankings on Google. If, however, there is some terrible mistake and the link is from a part of the website that bears no relation to your content, Google will likely disregard the link eventually. Context is just as crucial for backlinks as answers are for search results.
Now, should your backlink be from a website that is known to link to irrelevant content, or worse, is tagged as a spammy website, no matter the number of links, you’ll get no ranking benefit from them. In fact, if your content gets too many spammy backlinks very quickly, your website could be downrated. If the trend persists, then you could be de-ranked entirely from Google.
This often happens as a result of buying backlinks from untrustworthy sources.
In case you’re in doubt, buying backlinks is 100% against Google’s terms of use policy and is not something you should consider.
Google do not like anything that affects the integrity of their searches. They outline all the forms of spam they will penalise in their guidelines. For the backlink details, scroll down to Link Spam; it’s not too far down.
What backlinks should you concentrate on?
I would recommend you start with local businesses as a source of backlinks. Like localised content, Google determines ranking by the prominence of a company in its locality. You can find out more about how to achieve that here.
If you work with local businesses and essentially share clients, writing about them and linking to a relevant piece of content on their website will raise their prominence by increasing their digital footprint. Do this for several preferred local traders, and you’ll demonstrate your commitment to providing your clients with the best level of service. With luck, your local “partners” will feel inclined to do the same for you; therefore, you all gain.
The fact that you’re dedicated to creating high-quality content means that it will be shared more than the regular excuse for content that most people put out.
You will get backlinks to your content organically over time; this is the best way to build your backlink profile. But there is nothing wrong with building relationships with people who own high-authority websites and asking for a link exchange between relevant content.
If you’ve been around your industry for a long time and have a good reputation, there is nothing wrong with leveraging that. Remember that it will be much better when you have something of equal value to give in exchange. If you’ve just started your content goldmine, give it time to mature before you start calling in any favours.
Tying the Knot: Making Your Marriage with SEO Last
I may have mentioned this once or twice, but if you want to be a trusted content source for Google, your biggest asset will be showing up consistently.
Much like social media, Google likes its creators to show up regularly. If you’re starting out and only have a few posts up before your schedule gets erratic, delayed or missed, gaining their trust will take much longer.
If, on the other hand, you’ve been posting 2 or 3 times a week for a year, guess what? Not so much of an impact.
Google likes creators with long-term SEO strategies that will impact their local area.
Since you can’t just tell them you’re serious and dedicated to providing value, you have to show them. The only way you can do that is to keep producing excellent content, and do it regularly.
Keep your content fresh and updated to maintain a high-ranking position.
If you’re just starting your content marketing journey, this bit won’t affect you. If you have existing content created over a long period, you need to ensure that it is still accurate and up to date.
Updating your content regularly is as important as creating expert content in the first place. You must begin scheduling content reviews once you build a decent content catalogue.
The last thing you want is to have outdated content on your website. If you know the content will expire when you’re writing, you can, of course, mitigate this with dates and timelines. However, having accurate and up-to-date information in your content will always be better in the long run.
Local SEO: The Cherry on Top for UK Property Professionals
I’ve already touched on SEO being an advantage for local businesses, but it is so important that I felt it was worth expanding on a little.
Why local SEO is crucial for capturing your local market.
When you create content about regions, estates, or other notable local landmarks, you give Google something to catch onto.
Should your prospects include any such locally recognisable terms in their search, should your content be relevant, it jumps way up the list of results.
If your content doesn’t quite make it to the top of the search page on Google, there’s an excellent chance the searcher will spot the local reference and click out of curiosity.
When you create a content goldmine and talk about your successes, people you’ve helped, and reasons why they wanted to be near [insert local point of interest], you will be much more relatable to people searching in your area.
Tips for optimising Google My Business and other local search elements.
One of the main reasons that you want to demonstrate that you are “of this place” is to get that instant connection with your perfect prospects. That recognition will help you get clicks you might otherwise lose out on.
Another way to help with this is to ensure that all of your business citations are up to date and optimised for your locality.
This means ensuring the following are claimed and updated:
- Google My Business
- Bing Business
- Yahoo Business
- Yelp
- Yellow Pages
- Cylex UK
There will, of course, be many others, but this will be your starting point.
When you update your listings, you want to ensure that the NAP is consistent across all directories.
This is your Name, Address, and Phone number. Also, add your website, in fact, any other business-related details using the same format wherever possible.
This means that
+44 (0) 234 567 890 | 01234 567890
https://www.yourwebsite.com | yourwebsite.com
Your Company Ltd | Your Company
are not seen as the same online.
You want to minimise the possibility that Google, or any other search engine, sees your business differently on different directories. This will lessen the impact of your business citations.
Consistency is critical when presenting your business around the web. If you submit many variations of your business details, they may not all be attributed to you or your business. This will reduce the size of your business’s digital footprint and will impact your SEO presence.
Measuring Success: Are You Winning at the SEO-Content Game?
As a business person, you understand that tracking your numbers is crucial to success.
Fortunately, the numbers regarding content marketing are pretty easy to track, assuming you’ve set up your tracking system.
I would recommend Google Analytics and the Facebook Pixel as your first stop.
Key performance indicators to track.
The first and most obvious number to track is the visitors to your website.
Your website visitor sources will be broken down into
- Organic (from the search engines)
- Social (from the various social platforms)
- Email (From any links you’ve sent from emails or newsletters)
- Direct ( typing your website address into their browser or clicking on a bookmark)
- Referral (from other websites)
- Paid (From any paid advertising)
Once you know where your traffic comes from, you’ll want to look at how well it performs.
This means looking at:
- Bounce Rate (The number of people who only look at one page)
- Time on Page (This is very important for SEO)
- Conversion Rate (How many get your lead magnet)
Of course, all of these are important for SEO, but time on page, in particular, can significantly impact your rankings.
Do you remember me mentioning that you should always create longer-form content when it’s relevant? This is one of the big reasons why. If you can get a lot of visitors to your website and they all spend a lot of time-consuming your content, this will signal to Google’s algorithm that it is sending people to the right place.
If you can also get people to download your leads magnets or read other posts on your website, then Google will know your content is delivering and will want to send more people. A lot more.
Tools for monitoring your SEO and content metrics.
I know Google is coming up a lot in the post, but they are where everyone wants to be. To get started, Google Analytics is all you need. This is a free tool that provides detailed insights into your website traffic. If you’ve never seen it before, it can look quite intimidating at first glance, but once you start looking at the data, it will all make sense.
I’ve also mentioned SEMrush when I pointed you to their annual marketing report. Their paid tool offers a wide range of SEO and content marketing features with a tiered pricing structure. There will be a learning curve if you want to try this for yourself. Still, the Semrush Academy has dozens of digital courses to learn about content marketing
and SEO best practices. Sign up for free and start learning the skills you’ll need to ensure your content is found by all of your perfect prospects.
Ahrefs is another paid tool popular for SEO and content marketing and will give you results from several sources, whereas SEMrush focuses primarily on Google’s data. Naturally, being a SEMrush competitor, they also have an academy for you to learn the basics.
Choose What’s Best For You
Depending on your needs, one of these tools is likely suitable for your business, but it is worth looking at a few comparison posts before making any decisions. There are also other tools available that might suit your business. You won’t know until you look around.
You’ll need one of these tools or a freelancer/agency with access to one or all of them because the data they collect from their many thousands of clients gives them insights into ranking for SEO that you will never be able to access without them. That is an advantage any serious content creator cannot afford to be without.
Your Happily Ever After with SEO and a Content Goldmine
I hope I have done enough to convince you that creating a content goldmine is right for your business. Once you start seeing results from your content, I know it will change how you think about promoting your business.
Let me try and set your imagination alight with a few more possibilities.
Follow Up
When you can converse with a prospect, what do you currently do?
Make a few notes. Add a time to follow up. Maybe send an email with a couple of bits of info you promised.
What if you could follow up with an email that lists several posts that recap everything you discussed, then a list of other topics they might want to consider for their specific situation, and maybe a couple of attachments that you quickly customised for their needs?
Isn’t that the next level of service you’d like to receive?
I know I would.
But the truth is, without a content goldmine, it’s not an option for most property experts.
When it becomes an option for you, and you start doing that, do you think your word-of-mouth recommendations might jump a few notches?
Brand Awareness
How much of your advertising budget is spent solely on brand awareness campaigns?
I imagine that if you’re not part of a sizeable chain of agents or part of a franchise, you’re unlikely to have a marketing budget assigned to your brand.
When you build your content goldmine and apply SEO, you are not just building a lead generation tool; it is also a brand marketing machine that will do its thing without any extra effort.
By creating engaging and helpful content for your website, you will have much more to discuss on any other platform you use. This will put you head and shoulders above your local competition.
Standing out from the crowd is one of the hardest things for property professionals to do. If you’re one of the 220,000 estate agents in the UK, it’s even more challenging.
Once you have a content goldmine behind you, standing out is your default position.
Happy Ever After
I know of no other lead generation method that will continue to work if you stop.
- Stop sending emails – no more leads
- Stop posting on social media – no more leads
- Stop paying for ads – no more leads
- Stop asking your clients for referrals – okay, that one doesn’t really back up my supposition
If you’ve spent years creating expert levels of valuable content and automated your lead generation, much of it will be evergreen. If you stopped all content creation and SEO activities one day, it would take years for your content to stop generating new leads.
It will keep showing up when people ask questions you have an answer to.
It will keep your brand at the top of people’s minds with the automated follow-up (Assuming you haven’t stopped paying a few quid a month for the service 😉).
SEO and content are the dream team for lead generation
To be seen as an expert, you need to publish.
To generate leads on autopilot, you need to publish.
To stand out from the crowd, you need to publish.
Your content goldmine is the key to your success. It’s not a get-rich-quick, push-button, shiny object you can do once and forget about. But it will change your business and your life. That makes it worth the effort.
About the Author (That’s me 😊)
I won’t be adding a section like this, well, in probably any other post. But I wanted to add a little something extra about why I work with smaller property professionals who work in a specific area for now since it’s related to SEO and the backstory of how I got here.
My journey to teaching people about creating content for their businesses started a few years ago when I worked with local property developers and investors. The idea was born, and one of my early mentors said, “You can just make stuff up as you go along, and people will pay high ticket prices for that.”. I gave that a go, but it didn’t last long.
I wasn’t very comfortable with that, so I took it to the next level, and my next mentor had a system for building out courses. It’s an excellent course on making excellent courses, still going strong today, and it took me months to develop the outline for my new coaching programme. I could have built a course, but my focus was the coaching since I believe it will evolve, and then I can turn it into a better system and, ultimately, an even better course.
Next, I worked with many people but found that I wasn’t targeting my clients well enough. So many gave up because they weren’t prepared for the work they needed to put in and the time it would take to get results
consistently. This made selling the course more difficult in my mind (yes, it was my mindset only, but I hate people not getting their desired outcomes), so I looked for another way to push my programme forward.
The Book – Again? 😉
This was when I decided to turn my coaching programme into a book. If £6.95 for a book is too much of an investment, my prospects would never be a good fit for my coaching programme anyway since it’s way more expensive. Also, it covers one of my personal hurdles of not being well known.
Don’t know what a content goldmine is?
Don’t know who I am or what I teach?
Get the book; everything is in there. Don’t like it, then don’t use it. And you haven’t had to spend a fortune on a coaching programme.
If you like it and need accountability and help with certain implementation aspects, I’m here for you and ready to help.
The Coaching Programme
The main criterion for my coaching programme is that your business only covers a 10-20 mile area. If yours is smaller, that works too. Currently, I will not work with companies covering areas like the east of England, the Home Counties, The Midlands and the like.
The main reason is that when you’re starting out with no content and want to build up a content goldmine that generates leads on autopilot, it is much easier to achieve when you utilise the power and advantages of local SEO.
When you’re localised, you’ll rank for local keywords.
You can build relationships with other local businesses.
You can demonstrate to Google that you’re of a particular place and can help people in that locality. Your efforts with citations, content, social media, and local networking are much more focused and will yield more significant and better results quicker than a business covering a much larger area.
It’s All About YOU
I want to get hundreds of property experts up and running with lead-generating content goldmines that will change the face of the UK property industry.
With your help, we can change the UK stereotypes of property professionals from not very good at communicating, not very good at valuing property, sneaky at hiding fees, not very good at marketing properties, and ignoring the seller’s best interests.
This comes as a result of many experts trading with a scarcity mindset. They don’t get enough leads to only work with people they can truly help at the highest level, and so do whatever they can to convert every lead into a sale no matter what.
Let’s change this to UK Property Professionals are:
- Proactive and effective communicators
- Honest about a home’s actual value with advice on how to improve it
- Open and honest about fees and provide value-for-money services
- Create a marketing plan and put effort into ensuring a property is well-represented
- Is fully transparent about the selling process and will help clients get the best experience
The more content goldmines out there, the better it will be for the industry. While this list of improvements is mainly what an estate agent might focus on, whatever part of the property sector you serve, you will have your own stereotypes to overcome.
The point is this, if you have to create a content goldmine just to be on an equal footing with your competitors and peers, there will be no room for average in the industry. If you have to write down precisely what you offer, why, and how you will deliver it, there will be no room for scammers, charlatans, or chancers looking to make a quick buck.
So, if you think that sounds like the Win/Win/Win that it does to me, grab your copy of my book and get started on your content goldmine today.
Automated Property Leads Forever
My coaching programme, Property Leads Accelerator™, is all laid out in my new book.
A Possibly Unnecessary Disclaimer
I cover many topics and discuss why a content goldmine is guaranteed to work for any localised property business. It is only prudent to point out that a content goldmine requires a serious investment of time. If you do not create expert content, it cannot work for you. If you are not consistent, you will not gain the trust of Google or any other platform.
There is also a cost to implementing SEO. Again, you can use your time, but it may be prudent to pay for expert help. The better the expert, the higher the cost and the quicker the results.
I urge you to do your due diligence and ensure that anyone you hire can deliver what they say.
Many variables will determine your success; here are a few to consider:
- Where are you starting from
- How long you have been trading
- How many clients have you had
- How good you are at creating content
- Are you a good communicator
- How good you are at storytelling
- How well do you understand your clients
Everything on this list can be learned and improved. The more you do it, the better you will get at it. If you start from scratch at every level, then 12 weeks will not be a realistic timeframe for you to get results.
While nobody, including me, can say precisely how long it will take to get results, your level of experience, expertise, creativity and diligence will all go towards decreasing the time from where you are to a successful outcome.
I wish you all the best on your journey to being your area’s best-known, most trusted property expert.
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