3 YouTube Tactics That Backfire on Your Blog

Video content and blog content are a killer combination. That's because buyers and sellers do a lot of the same searches on YouTube that they do on Google. So, if you're already making YouTube videos, it makes perfect sense to be blogging, too. And vice versa.

But that's not a license to take all of your tactics for one platform and reuse them on the other. This is especially true if you're a video-first real estate agent.

Here are three tactics that can be great for YouTube, but don't work on your blog.

Mistake 1: Re-using your YouTube script word-for-word

You can definitely use your YouTube video scripts as the basis of blog posts, but I wouldn't do so without first making some SEO-friendly edits and tweaks. Think of the differences this way:

Video script: more conversational, more personality/energy

Blog post copy: more structured with with more concern for keywords, bullet points, H2s and H3s, etc.

Both should be written with your buyer/seller in mind, but the approach is slightly different. You should tweak your video scripts to account for the difference between watching videos and reading articles.

Mistake 2: Using the same headline/title

Some headlines will work in both places, like this: Memphis vs. Nashville: Which is more expensive? That's a good video title AND blog post headline.

But some of your videos might have a more clickbait-y title, like this: Don't do THIS if you're in a bidding war!

That title might help you get more clicks on your YouTube video, but it's a terrible headline for a blog post.

Mistake 3: Using the same visuals

On YouTube, your thumbnail image drives click-thru rate, which is a big part of the YouTube algorithm. So you see a lot of exaggerated, over-the-top thumbnails with a look of shock or some other hook to try to get the user to click.

I wouldn't use that as the hero image in my blog post...or anywhere else in my blog post, for that matter. If the buyer/seller is on your blog post, they already clicked––you don't need to be over-the-top to encourage the click.

Your takeaways

There's a lot of overlap in how buyers and sellers search on YouTube and Google. So a lot of the topics that make great YouTube videos will make great blog posts, too -- and vice versa.

But don't make the mistake, no matter how easy it is, to just copy what you do on YouTube and reuse it on your blog. Think about your audience and think about the algorithms. Reading is different from watching. Readers are different from viewers. Put in just a little more work to optimize for both audiences, and you'll have a better chance of earning attention and leads from both platforms.

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