Establishing Digital Expertise, Authority, and Trust (EAT)

Before the evolution of real estate websites, smartphone apps, and multimedia messaging services, agents and brokers were the keepers and gatekeepers of listing data. Today, Realtors use real estate websites to share this information, generate leads, and communicate other useful information about their local communities and the home buying and selling processes.

But how do you beat the competition when it comes to a Google search? It turns out, the experience you offer your clients can be easily transferred to your digital marketing strategy. As cliché as it may sound, remember the acronym EAT any time you add new information or make updates to your website or social media messaging.

EAT stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust and strategy built out over time.

Expertise

Expertise is evaluated at the content-level. Google SEO rewards subject matter experts who write authentic, original content in their subject matter areas. You know the ins and outs of the real estate industry. Write about what you know.

Authority

Authority is reputation based. When people leave online reviews on sites like Google Business, G2, Capterra, you grow your authority. Authority can also be given in the form of inbound links from news stories and other high-authority sites within the same (or complementary) industry.

Trust

As in real life, trust is about legitimacy, transparency, and accuracy. Trusted sites are ones that strive to have up-to-date and accurate content, use SSL (secure) certificates, and provide contact information and disclosures when using affiliate links and cookies used for tracking user behavior.

SEO

The next step in the EAT strategy is to monitor your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts to monitor who is coming to your site, how long they are staying for, what they are reading, and how they are accessing the information (desktop, tablet, smartphone). You can review demographics such as age, gender, and location to better adjust your content and know what might be important to them. Match your content with the selling season and write ahead of time (so the information is there when the searching begins).

And, of course, we recommend using a CRM to manage leads, keep-in-touch and stay organized to the needs and preferences of your customer base.

To view the original article, visit the IXACT Contact blog.