Every broker has a repertoire of questions that come up constantly. How long will it take? Will the lender want to see my accounts? What if the valuation comes in lower than expected? You answer them on the phone dozens of times per week, and that makes for a constant supply of potential blog posts. The problem is in turning phone answers into engaging, SEO-friendly posts that retain their accuracy over time.
Why FAQs Make Better Blog Topics Than Guesswork
The questions that your clients ask carry two advantages over potential topics you dream up on your own. First, they contain useful information about what prospects worry about at various stages of the process. Second, you already have language that ordinary people use to express their concerns. Articles created from research have a tendency to slip into the jargon that makes sense to brokers, but less so to busy business owners.
Another major plus is that you eliminate the research phase from producing the post. You already know the basics of the answer, which makes for a quicker, more focused article. Once you have a series of answered questions, you can begin planning posts around them. If you have a year’s worth of answered questions, you have a year’s worth of content lined up.
Collect the Questions Properly
Scratch that idea of mining your memory for the most frequently asked questions. Memory is biased, which means you are likely to remember the dramatic questions over the mundane ones that still make good blog posts. Instead, spend two weeks compiling a list of questions from any available source. Use a shared spreadsheet to capture the questions, and always strive to use the language that the client used verbatim. Gather questions from written sources as well, like the enquiry form, email correspondence and written notes from colleagues handling initial meetings.
Aim for at least 40-60 questions before winnowing the list down to manageable sizes. Ask colleagues and admin staff for their three most frequent questions as well, as they will often hear questions from prospective clients that never get passed on to you. Your enquiry history is a rich source of inspiration, but the Google People Also Ask feature can help you identify variations of the same question that may surface in search results. This is especially useful if you suspect that the manner of phrasing used by your clients is too narrow for how other people ask the same problem.
Decide Which Questions Are Worth Developing Into Posts
Not every question needs the 1,200-word treatment. Some are better suited for bullet points on a relevant service page. Some are too specific to a single client’s needs to be of value to anyone else. A simple test can help you sort the two: ask yourself if an unrelated stranger would search for the question, and if you could answer it honestly without needing to know anything about the person’s needs.
If the first rule is too vague, consider that questions that specify a particular lender or type of property can be worth developing into a full post. A question about timeframes, required documents, valuations, charges or post-approval processes will often be worth developing into a full post.
Some questions are better grouped together on a single page. If you have several short questions or answers about the same topic, consider compiling them on one page and avoiding separate posts that will only compete against each other in search engine results.
Check What Other Sites Are Saying
Google the question and read the top five results. Pay particular attention to what they say and, more importantly, what they fail to say. If they do not mention a timeframe or a specific point, you may have a chance to fill a niche. Use standard SEO tools to check if the search volume is worth your time, and what difficulty level you are dealing with.
Google Search Console will tell you if you are already ranking for the question, and Google Keyword Planner provides a useful, if outdated, view of the popularity of a given search term. More serious SEO tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs (typically £100 per month as of the time of writing) offer more detail, although most small businesses would not dedicate that kind of budget to one task. It is worth spending the time to learn the tools, however, as an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses can prevent you from wasting time on keywords that national comparison sites dominate.
Turn the Phone Answer Into Something Suitable for the Web
The written answer to a question differs significantly from what you say on the phone. You must assume that an online reader will not have the same contextual knowledge that you bring to a phone call, so open your response with an answer to the question. Put the detail lower down the page, or even in separate pages, if needed.
The context usually takes the form of the explanation that you would offer during a phone call. If a client asks how long things will take, your standard response talks about the property, organisation and lender affecting the outcome. This should be repeated verbatim if possible, with variations applied if necessary. Use realistic numbers where you can, and always qualify general statements with an awareness of differing circumstances. Avoid committing to a specific length in writing, as the fastest way to render an article useless is to promise something that you cannot deliver.
Next, put a scenario at the beginning or middle of the post that puts the advice in context. A director buying the freehold of their premises and a landlord refinancing their rental property both ask similar questions from very different perspectives. A fictionalised account of the former can put the details in a more familiar perspective without mentioning the latter.
Link Posts to Each Other as You Publish
A post that answers a single question is fine, but a group of posts that form an answering network is better. If you write about documents, make sure to link to your post about timeframes, and vice versa. The more posts you write that discuss the same issue from different angles, the more value you deliver to the reader and the more content you produce for your blog. That is the philosophy behind Crecso’s own guide to commercial mortgage broker blogging .
A similar approach is to use existing content from related areas to point readers to the article. If someone reads about valuation reports and has no knowledge of the role of a mortgage broker, a simple link to What Is a Mortgage Broker will take them to a relevant entry without bloat. The same advice applies to a client asking about residential mortgages: if you are a commercial mortgage broker, you should redirect them to a separate [First-time buyer mortgage advice] page.
Handle Questions That Sound Like Statements Carefully
Some questions are really just arguments masquerading as queries. “Why won’t lenders consider a business under two years old?” assumes that a universal policy prevents new businesses from obtaining finance, whereas the truth is that it depends on the lender, borrower and property. Answering a question like this one requires a post that dispels the myth while acknowledging the truth behind it.
Myths make excellent posts, as long as you avoid getting sucked into the self-righteous lecturing tone that accompanies them. A post about mortgage myths should state the case, examine its basis and explain the outcome without judging the reader for believing it. The same approach should be taken when a question implies one set of outcomes while the reality is more nuanced. If you are in any doubt about the accuracy of a statement, speak to a lender or more experienced colleague before publishing the post.
Keep Each Question on the Right Page
After you have produced a dozen or so posts, you should begin to see the issues that cause questions to overlap. Always keep the most relevant post updated, and use brief mentions in other posts to direct readers to it. Brokers that operate in both commercial and residential spheres have a First-time buyer mortgage advice page, and questions relevant to residential buyers should appear there rather than in a commercial mortgage post where they will confuse people.
A similar consideration applies to the regulatory requirements around financial promotion. If you are authorised as an intermediate, you will need to allow plenty of time for your blog posts to be cleared for publication. Avoid making specific claims about rates, approvals and eligibility as much as possible.
Review What the Posts Are Actually Achieving
After about three months, you should log back into Google Search Console and look at the performance of your posts. Chances are, you will find new questions that you had not previously considered, which can be added to your list. Google Analytics 4 will show you whether the posts are driving traffic to the enquiry form, and a comment on your enquiry form asking how they found you provides a useful cross-check.
Your first task is always going to be simple: open a spreadsheet, document the last ten questions that clients have asked you and identify which you answered most confidently. That response is the easiest candidate for a post, and it can be turned into a blog entry with a few additional notes about a scenario.
