In this lesson on real estate SEO I wanted to talk about 3 levels of content you can create in order to cover more keywords and also develop a more robust content base around a specific topic.
The concept is quite simple:
Main page > Sub Page(s) > Blog(s)
However, the execution requires a bit of planning and really thinking about how to organize your content so that it is not only good for SEO but also makes sense for the consumer.
Here is how I generally start:
Main page:
Topic: Area Real Estate
Filename: area-real-estate
Meta description: Uses all “real estate” terms, and stays away from mixing other terms. (you don’t want to cannibalize other pages)
Main Heading H1: Area Real Estate
Second Heading H2: Area (state) Real Estate (or some other good keyword that has “real estate” in it.
Listings: All listings (or at least all residential) sorted by newest first (not highest first) with the heading “area real estate listings”
Above the listings combined with my h2, I’m going to have 100% unique content (at least a paragraph, maybe 2) and again I’m not going to “mix” keyword targets, but rather focus on the topic of “real estate”
Example: (I’m sitting in Lake Cowichan right now)
H2: Lake Cowichan BC Real Estate
Paragraph: The town of Lake Cowichan BC is known for its beautiful waterfront real estate. It’s also known for its amazing public beaches, hiking trails, and extremely warm water. Waterfront real estate in Lake Cowichan can range from $900k to $5M, it just depends on what kind of property you are looking for.
Notice I didn’t try to sprinkle other high-value keywords in there that aren’t real estate? (For example, I did not put in “lake Cowichan homes for sale” or “lake Cowichan condos”
There is a reason for this - I’m going to cover those in the next layer of pages.
Before I get to the next layer, the final bit (you can always do more content) but at least try to add another H2 (again using “real estate” as the basis) after the listings and then implement an FAQ at the bottom. (or you can swap the 2nd set of content and FAQ, up to you).
H2 Lake Cowichan British Columbia FAQ’s (see how I used no state or province in my H1, the acronym BC in my first H2 and now the full words “British Columbia” in my next H2? That’s how you sprinkle variation on a keyword theme into your pages.
Ok - so now you have the main theme page:
What do you do next? Create well-organized subpages.
These sub-pages should be grouped around keyword themes, but also again make sense.
My favorite way to do this is to use property types (and subtypes):
So for Lake Cowichan if my “main” is
Lake Cowichan Real Estate
then my sub-pages are
- Lake Cowichan Homes
- Lake Cowichan Land
- Lake Cowichan Waterfront
In each example, I use the same page format as above. But again I don’t want to cannibalize my main page (or other sub-pages) so on my “homes” page, I am going to try to avoid saying the word “real estate” altogether.
My headers are
H1: Lake Cowichan Homes
H2: Lake Cowichan BC Homes
H2: Lake Cowichan British Columbia FAQ
Etc.
Does that make sense?
Now finally, let’s talk about the third layer. Blogs
This is how your target random keywords that might not have enough traffic to justify a main or sub page (or perhaps just don’t fit into the logical order of your sub pages) and of course going for long tail relevant phrases
Examples of this might be
- phrases related to building on lake Cowichan kW = “can I build on the water in lake Cowichan”
- phrases related to water rights kw = “who owns the beach on lake Cowichan”
If you know the area, you’ll know what kinds of topics you should be covering (it’s like expanding on your FAQs)
Of course, use your keyword research tools as well to make sure that you are capturing relevant keywords that you may not know of. And check your analytics as well.
Finally (for the blogs) don’t let them get buried.
Once you have them written, be sure you review your main and sub-pages, and if there is an opportunity to “link them” in your content (ie linking your blog from the main pages) it will help Google stay connected to the blogs.
The opposite is true too! When you write your blogs, look for opportunities to link back to your sub and main pages.
They should all be linked together in a nice subweb of pages all related to your main theme which is (in this case) Lake Cowichan.
Did you like this article on content layering for topical SEO? Do you want me to write more content on SEO for Realtors? Leave me a 5-star Google review and let me know