IREFD Traffic Stats and 5 Tips for successful Real Estate Blogging

They say, 'Well begun is half done', so lets start with some Fudge. 

Now that the F word is out of the way, let me take you through this blog's fact file, internet traffic stats et al and also share some time tested tips to help you succeed as a real estate blogger on the world wide web.

Why you could use some of this information?

After being around for almost four years now, IREFD (Indian Real Estate for Dummies), with over 320 blog posts just crossed 400,000 pageviews.

Today's similarweb screenshot below will tell you that almost 90% of this blog's internet traffic comes from search engines;

IREFD: Internet Traffic Sources - Similarweb

Google search results are extremely dynamic when it comes to the first few results but for search query 'top real estate blogs India', IREFD generally ranks at the top across devices and cities in India.

Today's Google search screenshot trails below;

Google Search Query - Top real estate blogs India - April 28th, 2015

IREFD's Alexa Global Traffic Rank today is 324,872 and it is the 24,819th most visited website in India.

What follows is a transparent and straight reproduction of our own traffic stats. IREFD is hosted on blogger but irrespective of the platform, these traffic stats should give you a fair idea of how well your real estate blog is doing.

IREFD's monthly traffic stats and what it means for your own blog

IREFD Monthly Pageviews - April 2015

The number of pageviews at IREFD have varied over the last 4 years. There have been months with over 20,000 pageviews and then some with just about 9,000. On an average, we get 12,000 to 14,000 monthly pageviews.

Also learnt over the years that;

Blogs with under 15,000 monthly pageviews - Small Blogs (IREFD would currently fall under this category)
Blogs with between 15,000 to 30,000 monthly pageviews - Medium Sized Blogs
Blogs with over 30,000 monthly pageviews - Large/ Serious/ Big Daddy Blogs

Bot traffic has exceeded human traffic on the internet as you read this.

IREFD April 2015 - Pageview Sources - Blogger Dashboard 

The IREFD traffic source list looks like this today. Apart from Google and Stumbleupon, Google+ and Twitter (t.co) drive significant social media traffic to this blog. Facebook scores low despite having seen 5 new stories on the IREFD Facebook page.

As more people share and like your content on social media (without actually reading the story anyway), the number of pageviews from Google searches go up. If you are being talked about even in the smallest circles, Google has a strange way of ranking you higher and sending a little more traffic to your blog for short periods of time.

The IREFD traffic sources list has taken a lot of time to get here. I remember days with 20 pageviews and the most irrelevant of traffic sources. But when you're starting out as a real estate blog, anything and everything feels great. So keep at it. That is the key.

IREFD April 2015 - Pageviews by Posts - Blogger Dashboard

Some posts become flagships like the list shows above, driving boat loads of search traffic each month to this blog. These top 10 traffic pulling posts on IREFD all appear on page 1 of Google search results in their respective categories.

Keywords, meta descriptions, algorithms, analytic tools and the kitchen sink should mean nothing to you.

At IREFD, we have none of that jargon working under the hood. If some people profit from reading your blog, rest assured that with time, Google and other search engines will give you your due recognition.

Other traffic stat screenshots that you may find relevant;

Google Search Queries - Impressions and Clicks - IREFD - April 2015 - Webmaster Tools

IREFD - April 2015 - Monthly Pageviews by Countries - Blogger Dashboard

IREFD - April 2015 - Monthly Pageviews by Operating Systems

An important insight there, showing that the iPad included, more than 21% of traffic to IREFD today comes from mobile devices. (Is your website or blog mobile friendly? Check now...)

IREFD - April 28th, 2015, Day Stats - Blogger Dashboard

5 Tips to help your own real estate blog reach the top

#1. Be original. Believe in yourself. Forget about pretty language, stunning graphs and images. Write about experiences that helped you or your clients. Pen down personal thoughts on real estate issues. Talk about demand and supply problems faced by the community you operate in. Help people build the right real estate.

#2. Respect is better than attention. Choosing a trending topic, writing about what everyone else is writing about and doing bizarre off topic posts to get attention may increase your pageviews momentarily but in the long run, your real estate blog will not be taken seriously. That irrelevant buzz is the sound of your real estate blog dying. Don't strive for pageviews. Strive for respect.

#3. Write about real issues that need discussion in the real estate industry. Talk about quality of construction, guides to buy and sell better, client experiences, fun real estate facts and above all, failures. If you can tell the world how you failed, you are doing it a great service. That alone should get your blog a fan following.

#4. Take social media with a pinch of salt initially. Sharing great content on social media once is far better than carpet bombing twitter, linkedin, facebook and google+ with links to bad stories. Focus on creating an interesting blog first. Get about a 100 good posts in there. Then maybe, social media could work for you.

#5. Have patience. Don't stare at the mirror after your first day at the gym. Success takes time to come. Read more. Write less. Place facts and not opinions in front of your readers. A great real estate blog should take about 7 years to make, at a focused and steady pace.

Cheers!

About the author

Rahul Mishra is a real estate professional who started his life as a salesman, selling homes in the city of Kolkata in 2001. He worked pan India in real estate organisations like MMG Realty, Bengal Shrachi, The Phoenix Mills and The Space Group before helping co found Pillars with a single objective - To make real estate easy!

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