We talk to a lot of home builders about their internet marketing strategy and one of the most important topics is always search engine optimization.  SEO is often looked at as  the ‘ex-wife’ of the website because SEO has shown that it can be annoying, elusive, contradictory, expensive, and painful all at the same time.  Many times clients will come to Builder Designs with a bad experience with an SEO firm and are hesitant to invest money into a new strategy.  The question invariably revolves around the monthly expense and what you get in return – which is a fair question.  The real question should be, ‘show me the results of your clients’.  I’m a firm believer that you let your work do your talking for you and in this area,  effective SEO is best explained by a google search.  We all get the emails guaranteeing first page results.  I probably get five emails a day pitching me on the virtues of off shore seo link building firms.  What cracks me up is how many SEO companies promise first page results without even researching what the search terms are and in what market.  There is a big difference in ‘new homes memphis’ than ‘new homes Timbuktoo’.

Want examples of Builder Designs SEO in action?  Take a break from reading this and do a google search for ‘new homes memphis’  (look for Grant Homes) or ‘new homes nashville’ (look for Goodall Homes and The Jones Company) or ‘custom home builders dallas fort worth’ (look for Sandlin Homes).  I could fill this page with examples of our client’s SEO – but you get the idea.

My good buddy Jim Adams from the New Homes Directory has probably forgotten more about SEO techniques than many of the so called experts out there, and he has proven that to be effective with your SEO ‘content is king’.  You’ve probably heard that phrase before, but if you haven’t you need to remember it.  Tattoo it to your ankle if you need to, because we are entering into new and fast paced world where Google is changing algorithms on a monthly basis – but the one constant is good content is king.  Take that one step further and find a company who will write about you on their site, assuming it’s within the builder vertical, and you’ll be on your way to SEO nirvana.  In closing, keep in mind that all SEO/SEM is not the same.  Before you commit to any SEO program, you need to have evidence that the company has expertise in the builder vertical.

The biggest trend for builders this year is going to be tablet and mobile apps that will attract the most tech savvy homebuyers. Developing an app for builders really depends on what type of builder they are and showcasing the homes, plans and communities they build.  Using this app as a point of sale for sales reps not only makes them look smart, it will keep track of their every prospect and will help maximize every new home sales lead. There are endless possibilities for mobile apps and how they can be used.

Having a website that is designed to be responsive to every device that can surf the web is also important. Your old 2005 website may still look great, but will it still look good on an iPad or Android smart phone? Go a step further and have a mobile website designed that is specific for getting homebuyers to what they’re looking for: plans, available homes and always a quick way to contact someone.

The International Builders Show is coming up in less than a month. Check out the latest and greatest in technology for builders at the 1^st annual Builder Tech party! We will have a demo of our new iPad app and our highest performing mobile sites.

Hunter Homes – Alabama

Hunter builds new homes in northern Alabama that offers a wide variety of choices for the buyer and puts the homebuyer in the driver’s seat when it comes to purchasing their new home.

 Norfolk Homes – Michigan, Tennessee, Alabama

Norfolk Homes is a growing builder that has divisions in 3 states and offers unique home building and home buying promotions for their home buyers.

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council

This is one of Builder Designs non-home builder websites that is really nice. The site is built around the Maui Nui Marine Council and how they are preserving and helping save Hawaii’s most precious resources as well as getting the word out.

The reason for Google’s new Panda algorithm is because they are responding to an increasing demand to provide the most useful results. Services such as Facebook and Twitter, whose users expect instant updating, play a big part. This new algorithm helps these search results populate with the freshest news.

This new rollout of Panda has changed dramatically how sites are ranked. Older, low quality sites have virtually disappeared and nicer high quality designed sites have seen their rankings improve. Now the question persists, how do you make sure that your site’s design is seen as high quality?

We’ve talked on these subjects extensively in past blog articles, now may be a time to really gauge your site’s design and functionality or you may be left in the dust for good. Here are some tips on optimizing your site.

Engage Your Audience. A big part of the reason of the for this new algorithm is that Google’s bots are thinking more like humans in terms of site metrics. The more your site engages its users, and the quality of user experience, the better. You may see these types of metrics in your monthly Google analytics reports. The amount of time users spend on your site, the pages per visit and response times are a few to mention.

Mind your P’s and Q’s. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that good grammar is important? Well, she was right and your web copy may be suffering from bad spelling and poor grammar. Google does evaluate the quality of content on web pages. The ability to spell correctly will actually rank you higher than sites that do not spell as well.

Stay Fresh. We’ve said this before and have stressed the importance of creating good web content and copy. This means having original content that sets you apart and defines your purpose. Having a good blog on your site is always a great idea by keeping updated, fresh content that help Google index your site more frequently.

Pack Light. You may want to take a look at how your site is coded and see if it complies with the current web standards. Years ago, designers and programmers used code that was incredibly lengthy and heavy where only 1 or 2 lines of code would do it now. Using good quality code that is more lightweight will improve your rankings.

Using these few tips to evaluate your current site, or when building a new site, will keep you ranking higher and help ensure that your site is up to or above the standard.

Creating Convincing Copy

Be personable. No one wants to feel pressured when they visit a website. Keep your copy personal and relaxed throughout the site. Simply putting your photo on the About page won’t be enough to convey your company’s personality. Don’t write in 3^rd person or like you’re reciting from Wikipedia. Reach your audience by speaking directly to them and find a way to connect by sharing or relating personal experiences. Be convincing by telling them what you can do for them.

Enrich your Writing. Using keywords in your copy is necessary if you want to draw a crowd and the right web visitors to your site. SEO enriched copy is key. Keywords are not hard to use, just ask yourself what words would you use to find your site? Use them throughout every page but do not overuse them or you will sound spammy or too forceful.

Use Different Text Lengths. Web users want information fast and usually will scan a page quickly. Your copy should include short bursts of text or headlines that stand out to the reader and will make them stop and read or go back and read the smaller text if its what they’re looking for.

Avoid Writing Offending Copy

Don’t be an Ego-maniac. Self centered web copy that is full of ‘we’s’ good practice for marketing and selling your products. Web users don’t really care about the company, they only care about what you can do for them. Your company values and commitments may be important, just relate it to the customer.

Don’t be a Blabbermouth. Long, drawn out web copy is just daunting & boring and it makes people want to leave. Keep it short and simple using key words and messages that get to the point. The website will be able to communicate much easier and quicker to visitors.

Don’t Scream. It may seem that writing copy that is full of hype, written in bold, all-caps will get the attention of your visitors. Not true. Visitors want helpful and informative content that isn’t all in their faces.  You want to express a message that gives reasons why they should be interested and back up your claim.

Combining  good website design with good web copy on your website will prove to be a very powerful tool and result in happy customers ready to do business with you.

Often called Interface design, Human-Computer Interaction is where all the elements of computer science, behavioral science and design come together. They influence the user through emotion the way two people would interact. What’s interesting is that when done right, the personality of the product will override the computer’s inanimate coldness.

It is extremely important to know your audience and what makes people interested in your product. If you’re trying to sell homes, the website must be “trustworthy” and convey an openness as if they were stepping into one of your model show homes. Its true that many people with the idea of buying a new home will look online first, and your website must be invite them in, and offer them all the information that they are seeking instantly, or these “browsers” will go elsewhere.

Get involved in the design process with the web designers and make sure that they understand what really drives your customers and how your brand is important so they can bring it to life. Many times over, the designers will know how the architecture or “ bare bones” of the site should be orchestrated, to enhance a user’s experience and get them to information quickly.

Only when you are comfortable and knowledgeable of your brand’s influence on your customers, will you be able to create a powerful website full of personality that will meet people face-to-face and overall, win their trust. Its is very important to great customer service and an online sales person that will continue to embody the same brand persona and guide them to the next step of purchasing a home or product. Most importantly, if you don’t respond to them in a timely fashion, you could lose that person and bond you created online. Remember to follow up!

The 3 key technologies that exists within a normal website are HTML, CSS and JavaScript. jQuery has been the leader in the JavaScript department and makes it easier and faster to build web pages with Javascript.

For years, Javascript has been used by designers as a way to respond to user interaction and has become the favorite over Flash according to appendTo, LLC, a company dedicated to jQuery and jQuery support. Their research confirms that more and more web developers are using jQuery and Javascript over Flash at a staggering rate. Recent data that they analyzed shows that 48% of the world’s top 17,000 websites are using jQuery, compared to 47% using Flash. This is big news.

The reasons are simple. jQuery is much easier to use, learn and is an open source product. Its compatibility is also a major factor of its popularity. Mostly all web browsers support jQuery, even iPhones and iPads that do not support Flash and probably will not ever.

jQuery is also very light weight, meaning using 1 line of jQuery code to do the same thing as 10 lines of regular Javascript code. It loads extremely fast in comparison with complex Flash files that are larger and take up more space.  jQuery allows developers to have nearly the exact same functionality of Flash when creating animations and computations with much less effort.

This means that tomorrow’s web designers will be embracing the jQuery code and that in turn, web users will be happier with a fast and interactive site websites.

Arbor Homes – Portland, OR

Napolitano Homes – Suffolk, VA

Mason Martin Homes – Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Diamante Homes – San Antonio, TX

CraftMaster Homes – Chesterfield, VA

Provenance – Shreveport, LA

Companies whose websites do not have mobile sites are not only difficult to load and navigate, but very time consuming for a consumer to find out any information, often leading them to search for a site with a mobile page.

Having a mobile site allows clients to access your site anywhere at anytime. Mobile websites allow rapid website load time, immediate access to phone numbers, directions, hours, contact information, and easy to navigate pages.

Adding a mobile website to your company site will have a major impact on your web traffic bringing you leads and increased visibility.