Don’t be a copycat8 Sep 2022

Don’t be a copycat

Owning my own estate and letting agency for many years made me so proud.  I always wanted to be the best, I strove hard to be unique, I offered my expert knowledge freely, and was always writing blog articles, filming videos and filling up my social media pages with helpful posts and top tips.

However, once – and it only ever happened once – I saw a blog article written by another estate agent down on the coast of England (miles away from my patch) and I copied it.  Boy oh boy, that was the worst mistake I ever made!  The agent in question called me out on it publicly and I had to admit what I had done, sincerely apologize and amend the article to give him full credit for the words I had used.

But, in my view, the worst part was worrying about what my customers thought of me.  Did they now think that everything I wrote or told them was someone else’s ideas, thoughts, skills or knowledge?  I wouldn’t have blamed them, and who wants to be known as a Copycat?

So one of the main reasons I have a problem with estate agents passing off duplicated content as their own is that they are literally fooling their customers. Although I write content for estate agents and letting agents, everything I produce is 100% unique to the individual client.  I carry out the research for them, I use their stories and experiences and I write with their brand and audience in mind.  I consider myself to be “part of the team” and I deliver truly unique content each and every time.  This also applies to my social media brand managers, who never duplicate anything across social media platforms for different agencies, not ever.

Let us take a look at one week in the life of many different estate agents, I really wonder how this looks from the customer’s perspective. >>>

I am genuinely bamboozled as to why anyone would do this so if you are reading this article and you are one of these agents who is happy to be a copycat then please let me know why?  Surely you have better jokes, better advice and more relevant property updates to pass on to your clients?

This, however, is not the only reason why I dislike this practice, and the other reason is far more detrimental to your estate or letting agency brand. Take a look at these standard social algorithm rules:

Social Media Platforms

• Duplicate Instagram Content
  Instagram is a social media platform where you should avoid publishing duplicate content. Reposts must be clearly indicated, and for the security of your account, please do not reuse the same text for all of your Instagram posts.
• Content Duplication on Facebook
  If you simultaneously post the same content to multiple Facebook accounts, Facebook may view these posts as spam or bot activity, and your account may be punished.
• Content Duplication on LinkedIn
  LinkedIn has strict policies regarding duplicate content, and posting the same content to multiple LinkedIn accounts may result in the temporary or permanent suspension of your account.
• Twitter Content Duplication
  As stated by Twitter’s Development Team, scheduling duplicate content for publication is a rule violation. Therefore, sharing duplicate content on Twitter may result in a suspension, and we strongly advise you to avoid doing so.

Google Algorithm

Google tries hard to index and show website pages with unique and distinct information.  This filtering system means that if Google comes across duplicated content it will need to make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the websites involved.  As a result, the ranking of the website may suffer or the site might be removed entirely from the Google index, in which case it will no longer appear in SERPs (search engine results pages).

You can read about the current Google Core Update (2022) here:

E-A-T for estate agency blog content SEO

So, if you are currently partaking in this practice, and you are quite happy that someone could easily find the same post, the same joke, the same top tips or property market update on numerous other agency social media pages or websites – just understand that you are actually harming your brand.  If you would like content written for your blog or would like us to become an extension of your estate agency marketing team then check out our content writing here and our social packages here.

Jane Gardner

I work all over the UK with various business owners, dedicating my creative and expert property knowledge from 35 years in the industry. I am a Level 4 ARLA Propertymark examiner, I sit on the board of Agents Giving Charity and I love everything property related! I can be contacted on 01923 627777 or by email to jane@social-angels.co.uk