For the last couple years, blogging has been the answer of choice for most people. You can create blog content that is relevant to specific neighborhoods, specific businesses, events, etc. You’re accomplishing a couple things by blogging. You’re going to be doing the research needed to write a good solid blog post, which means you might actually learn a thing or two AND you’re creating content online for people to search in the future, find your website, browse your IDX listings, and potentially become a client. Blogging is a great way to TELL people that you’re familiar with the fun and interesting things that go on in the neighborhoods, but back to the question of how to SHOW them…

With HomeQuest, you CAN show that you’re the true neighborhood expert!

One of the functions of the HomeQuest Wordpress IDX platform allows you to geocode (which is fancy talk for “place on the map”) your blog posts which then display on the map as special icons. As an example, in the image above, you can see the various blog posts that have been geocoded to show up in the neighborhood right alongside the current listings. By displaying your content this way, you’re visually showing potential clients that you’re actually out in the community alongside them, doing fun things, trying new restaurants, keeping track of the market stats, or whatever it is that you choose to blog about. Oh and don’t worry, the content is still showing up as a normal Wordpress blog post as well.

So now, when someone is searching for homes in this neighborhood on your website, there should be no question that you are the TRUE neighborhood expert.

Click for a quick video of how to geocode your blog posts using the Homequest Wordpress platform.

Here’s one such example:

Jesse Knight’s PDXClassicHomes.com – This site, which is geared towards the classic homes of Portland and the neighborhoods they’re in, is a relatively new site but quickly gaining traction in the search engines around the specific search terms Jesse is targeting. Part of the strategy Jesse has been focusing on is building a high quality landing page for the various styles of classic homes.  Each of these pages contain related images, and information on each style of classic house that is found in Portland.  A great resource for someone looking to purchase a classic home!

Now Jesse is beginning to build out the various neighborhood landing pages that include links back to the classic home styles.  Plus, he’s using HomeQuest to display the listings from each specific neighborhood directly into these pages.  So he’s building dynamic content around the indexable listings.  Search engines love this!

By using static content “pages” as conversion points, and dynamic content “posts” as the supporting content, Jesse is able to create a site that is beautiful, fun to read, and very search engine friendly. That’s the winning combination we’re after with every custom Wordpress Real Estate website we design.

For more examples of other custom Wordpress websites designed by HomeQuest, visit our examples page.

IDX-Plugin-Shortcodes from HQ on Vimeo.

Why have custom icons?  As an agent, you find yourself selling a neighborhood to a family just as much as you have to sell the house.  To sell a neighborhood, just blog about it and your map posts will do the talking for you to any website visitor.

How do I get started?:

To use the special mapping icons, you must have specially named Categories added to your system.  Any post included in one of these categories will display with a special icon.

Adding the Categories (Do this step once)

Note: You must add these Categories, they do not exist by default.  Make sure to keep the exact name or the special icon will not display.

Special Category Names:

• Listing
• Miscellaneous blog post (anything that the system does not recognize)
• Coffee shop
• Shopping
• Happy hour
• Restaurants
• Schools
• Events
• Parks

Categorizing a post (Do this everytime you want a post to show on your map):

Add a post (from Write > Post) like a normal blog post.  (Note: Make sure to geocode the post, only geocoded posts appear on your map.)

When you categorize the post, make sure to use one of the pre-defined special categories listed above.

Example:

“Blog Posts” Map: The Blog Posts map shows the map of your metro area with all of your geocoded blog posts.  Note that this map does not show listings, and does not show blog posts without a location.  In order for a blog post to display on this map, it must be geocoded.  Click here to see how to geocode your posts.

“Search Listings” Map: This map contains BOTH the listings from the MLS, as well as any blog post that you have geocoded.  This is the map that your clients will spend the most time on, and this map is the only location listings will appear.  If you feel that having your geocoded blog posts appear both on the Search Listings map, and the Blog Posts map is redundant or confusing, you may hide the blog posts map.  Click here to see how to hide a page on your site.

“Recent Posts” page: This page does not contain a map, and will display your blog posts in reverse chronological order just like a any other standard blog on the internet.  This page displays all of your blog posts, including the posts that have not been geolocated.  This is useful if you would like to just show off your blog content without a  map interface.

Posts are entries in a blog, and are generally updated frequently.  Use posts when you would like to add a new entry to your blog, show off the “Featured Listing” for this week, or add something to your website that is newsworthy but is going to be changed, updated, or replaced soon.  Posts can also be geocoded.

Pages are static on your website and are generally for placing information prominently that might not change often.  A page will also appear in your navigation header by default, but can be hidden.  Pages could include information like “About Me”, “About my company”, or “References and Recommendations”.

An example: I have 100 visitors to eugenehomefinder.net and 10 of them are interested in subscribing to my blog updates, so those 10 people click my link to eugenehomefinder.net/rss and subscribe to the feed using their preferred RSS reader.  Each time a subscriber checks their daily news through their RSS reader, they will see each new blog post that I created since they last looked, as well as any other new items from other feeds that they subscribe to.  Click here for more information on RSS.

To add an RSS link to your site, simply add “/rss” (without quotes) to the end of your web address.  www.yourwebsite.com/rss

My example: eugenehomefinder.net/rss

It is important to note that most of your visitors will not know what RSS is or how to use it, so you may not have many subscribers.  For the visitors that do know and use RSS, make sure your blog is updated frequently with relevant, useful information that your readers and clients will want to see to maintain your subscribers interest.

Steps: After you have written your blog post, scroll down to the “Location” box

Remember to click “Save” when you are finished.

Thats it! your post will now be “Geocoded” and appear on your neighborhood map. We are also working on giving you the ability to place other geocoded content like pictures, tweets, youtube videos and more. Stay tuned!

We will be putting some great examples of this in the site over the next few weeks