Have you heard that you should be commenting on all kinds of blogs so that your own website gets pushed up in ranking? Have you heard that you can hijack viral topics on Facebook so that they drive engagement (likes, comments, shares) on your own Facebook page?
Have you heard that you should research your keywords and make sure they are a specific percentage in each of your blog posts? Have you heard that if you want to be seen on Facebook you need to just be focusing on sharing viral cat videos?
Have you heard that chasing any one of these ideas is futility at it’s finest?
When you chase SEO (search engine optimization) or Facebook reach, you’ll fail. You’ve got to stop chasing the algorithm. What do I mean? I mean that real estate agents (and agents, you are not alone; it’s not just the real estate industry) focus on chasing the algorithm by focusing on “reach” and “engagement.”
We spend inordinate amounts of time, focusing on trying to get people to respond to the posts we put on our Facebook business page.
It’s impossible to chase the algorithm. In fact, when you chase it, Facebook can and will penalize you. Here’s what I mean:
There is no “perfect post.” There just isn’t. Just because a post works for someone, somewhere and gets likes, comments or shares doesn’t mean it works to bring in leads. A post that works today, won’t work tomorrow.
Seriously, reach and engagement don’t equal leads, nor do they equal relationships or top-of-mind awareness. Many vendors out there like to tout that they get you “guaranteed reach” or “guaranteed viral” posts, and frankly, these are absolutely meaningless for you.
What guaranteed really means
The “guaranteed reach” is simply running ads — period. That’s it. And with that “guaranteed reach” there is zero guarantee of results. No guarantee of you funneling that “reach” into your database.
Spend your money driving your ideal customers into your database, not pushing out posts to get a “guaranteed reach.”
With “guaranteed viral” posts you are potentially, heck, you are probably, killing your ability to have a highly valuable lead funneling Facebook business page.
Why? Because you are not making a logical connection with your tribe (your page likes) and because you are attracting untargeted, uninterested page likes! When you hold contests for page likes or push out “viral” posts, they go out to people who are completely disconnected from you.
If you want a strong, consistent, stable flow of leads into your database — you don’t want to focus on “reach” or “engagement” — ever.
When you keep chasing SEO, you’ll go crazy. Google’s algorithm changes 500-600 times a year. Did you catch that? 500 times a year!
Are you seriously going to spend your time chasing the changing algorithms?
In the 20-plus years that I’ve been on the web, it’s been interesting to watch the things that people chase to get higher rankings be the same things that bring their sites down.
I find it funny that agents say they don’t have time to blog, yet they are out there spending time trying to find “the hack” that will get their site ranked higher.
Don’t jump on the shiny object bandwagon of focusing on the latest “search engine ranking hack” or the latest “Facebook reach hack.”
Why? Because the hacks are constantly changing and what works as a temporary hack today quickly becomes the very hack that kills your website tomorrow.
And quite frankly, there is no hack that will work to make a significant, lasting difference in your business. Hacks, by their very definition, are short-term solutions that you can implement for a short-term immediate result.
What should you do instead?
Focus on having conversations that are valuable, educational and informative, with your avatar (your ideal client).
Hacks do not replace consistency. You must consistently be valuable. You must consistently be relevant. You must consistently be building relationships with your avatar.
That’s your hack — consistency
Stop chasing keywords. Stop chasing links. Stop chasing perceived authority. Instead, be an expert. Be an authority. Provide value. Answer questions. Solve problems. It’s really that simple.
Focus on value because that’s what Google is searching for and exactly why it keeps changing the algorithm — because people keep trying to hack it. Google wants high-value, relevant, content-focused websites to win — not people hacking the algorithms to get a higher ranking.
When you focus solely on providing content that draws out the problem and provides the solution for your avatar, it changes everything for you. You’ll be impervious to algorithm changes. Google will reward you.
This is the same for your Facebook business page. If you know your avatar and keep posting (frequently) content that is valuable and relevant to your readers, your page will be a beautifully functioning conduit right into your database.
Christina Ethridge is the founder of LeadsAndLeverage.com, helping real estate agents capture, convert and close Facebook leads.
