Recently we’ve witnessed ChatGPT going viral – and rightfully so. They are at the forefront of automating content creation from marketing copy to essays to jokes. Tools like this can finally give us words we can never seem to find when we’re struggling to write. Now, what do I tell it to write… Shit. 

Do I ask it to write emails for me? Maybe follow up with prospects? Or market reports!? Yeah, market reports will do it. It will create a bunch of emails that I can hammer away at my contacts with. Wait! I didn’t like the sound of that last idea. How about blog posts? Yeah, blog posts about interest rates – where they are now and how that measures up historically. Ugh, these ideas start to sound as derivative as the content created by A.I. itself! 

So let’s get to the title of this blog. Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence is an amazing tool but tools don’t build things unless someone wields them. The key to making the most out of A.I.’s abilities is to be direct and specific about what you want it to write. By coming up with a general topic, A.I. can take it to the next level and fill in the gaps, provide inspiration, or supplement something you’ve already written. A.I. gives those who might struggle with writing the opportunity to create unique content that’s engaging. 

Specifically in the real estate industry, one of the hardest – but most important – things to write about is your location. Sometimes trying to come up with fresh ideas to write about your community becomes a monotonous slog of description after description of your community, only to accumulate a bunch of generic information that anyone could get through Wikipedia

Enter Artificial Intelligence.

Now, A.I. can write a thorough and unique description of your community (from schools to events to neighborhoods). This type of content, commonly called hyper-local content, is essential in the real estate industry.  

Hyper-local content continues to be the prevailing strategy for domain authority and first-page rankings on search engines. Almost everyone will tell you that highly relevant, and unique content is one of the most valuable tactics you can use to increase your real estate website’s domain authority. Increasing your domain authority increases its visibility. And, visibility online is precious. 

Now, how should you incorporate the hyperlocal content you (or A.I. creates)? It’s simple really. Create an internal linking structure that ties the listings in the areas you serve, linked to community pages describing the area, and finally linked to blog posts (more on them later) that drill down on specifics about your community. Together, this creates a rich vision of a life worth living in your community. To take it to the next level, link each community to other surrounding communities using the same basic building blocks. 

When you’re finished, you created what the industry calls a topic cluster. Google loves topic clusters and social media loves blog posts about your area. The more engaging and relevant your content is, the more likely you are to show up higher on search engine results pages. That’s a solid strategy for finding QUALITY leads.

But we’re not finished just yet!

Next, you need to create pages that contain both descriptions and active listings. At Union Street Media, we call these recommended search pages (or rec search pages for short). These pages are vital to the optimization of your real estate website and, of course, these rec search pages have the properties connecting the visitor to their home.

Finally, the blog post. As mentioned previously, blogs that are linked to listings and community pages are great for creating the oh-so-important topic cluster. But let’s dive a little deeper. Every day agents and offices come to Union Street Media asking for consistent blogging. Often, they purchased products from all types of companies promising consistent blogging, but those blogs turn out to be mostly recycled articles about the business of selling or buying a home. These posts – necessary in moderation – frequently lack originality. You may even be thinking “Hey at least I’m posting!” 

How about writing a blog post that deepens someone’s understanding of the activities that make life in your area special? Start pushing that out. And, as long as that blog links back to the community page which links to your rec search page, you’ve provided a customer journey that puts your location front and center with you as the storyteller. If prospective clients like the story, chances are they will like the storyteller and continue to look at the posts and information you provide as an oasis in a sea of sameness. 

Over the next few posts, I will dive into each facet of what makes hyperlocal content such a key piece to your real estate digital marketing strategy. It’s a strategy that the best in the business use to create organic results that free them of the co-dependence on Zillow and the like that are essentially selling you back your clients. I hope you’ll join me as we endeavor to provide real content that will position you as the source of info for your market!