SEO – How Homebuilders can rank better on Google

We all want our companies to be at the top of search engine rankings, but how? You can attract customers online by optimizing their website and content for search engines. 

Well-developed homebuilder SEO pages will help you stand out from the competition, while well thought out keywords are crucial for ranking high in Google searches.

The following list provides three key areas that you can explore to make sure your residential construction business has a higher chance of connecting with your target market while they’re searching for a business like yours. 

It can generally be separated into on-page and off-page SEO. On-page is related to everything you’re doing on your website, and off-page stands for any activities that are related to boosting your site but don’t require changes on your website.

Let’s start with the on-page SEO activities.

Homebuilder content and user experience

The goal of your website should be to provide your potential customers with all of the information they’re looking for in a way that makes it easy for them to find and understand that information. 

Ideally, they spend a lot of time on your site, the experience builds trust and leads them to convert as well, or they decide to come back at a later point in time.

The most popular areas of homebuilder sites are:

• Floor plan & home plan pages
• Community pages
• Sales office pages
• Featured product pages
• Blog pages

Floor plans

Visitors look at these pages to decide if the homes align with their expectations and try to paint a picture of what these homes look like in real life, and what living in them might be like.

The key elements every floor plan page should have are:

• A lot of high quality images
• Detailed specifications 
• Full list of features
• Virtual walkthroughs
• Frequently asked questions
• Videos about the home, designer or architect

From a technical perspective these pages should be fast and optimized for mobile devices, as most people are going to visit them from cell phones or tablets.

Community Pages

Community pages should have detailed information about the community as well as high quality images that help your potential customer imagine what it would be like to live in that community. 

This includes some key facts, simplified maps, information about parks, local attractions, restaurants, schools, grocery stores, etc.

Sales Office Pages

Sales office pages should include contact information, hours, a detailed description of how to get to the sales office and a simplified map. Unless there’s a separate about page, this could be also a good place to introduce the local team that is managing the office, along with their contact information.

Featured Product Pages

Featured product pages are a great way to share more information about the building process of the homes, the materials, vendors, timelines etc. in the form of text, images, videos, infographics, etc. 

While documenting the construction process and providing more detailed information that is less related to what it’s like to live in these homes and more about how they’re being built, it’s also a good way to build trust with potential buyers and helps with the sales process. Presenting additional relevant information also makes these pages more likely to show up in search results.

Blog Pages

Blog content is important to keep a website fresh and relevant for new and returning visitors, and to create a variety of content pieces that educate and speak to the different needs of a variety of buyer personas. Additionally, each piece of content will be able to attract new visitors from Google search results when their search intent matches with the content in a blog post.

Content creation and distribution should follow a predefined strategy that includes researching keywords, topics, traffic potential, etc. There are SEO tools like SEMrush, or Ahrefs that can help you find out what topics your potential customers are the most interested in, how to create that kind of content and the best ways to distribute it. 

Search Engine Result Page (SERP) Features

Google doesn’t just show websites as suggestions in list format. Search engine result pages that are displayed to show Google’s search results contain other elements to make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. 

In addition to exploring Local SEO more, a couple of key considerations are to learn more about optimizing the Google Business Profile for your company, and for the sales office locations of your projects (including getting great reviews), as well as FAQ schema. 

FAQ schema is a list of most frequently asked questions and answers that are added to your website’s code so that Google can generate a section for its search engine result pages.

These are some of the many on-page SEO criteria that can help you. The next section covers two important aspects of promoting a homebuilder website that are taking place ‘outside’ of your site.

Incoming Links and Reviews

Linkbuilding is one of the most important SEO activities, but it can also be one of the most challenging ones. Getting links that redirect visitors from other websites to your pages is an indicator for Google of how relevant your site is. 

A common way for homebuilders to get backlinks are from their network of business partners like vendors, contractors, suppliers, and realtors, as well as social media, online portals/directories, and online publications.

While business partners are more or less a limited option, the social media and other websites and portals that keep publishing new content regularly can provide great opportunities for the promotion of your projects and other content collaboration that results in links to your site.

Positive homebuilder reviews on other sites or on Google help you with your online reputation and build social proof that can have a big impact on buyer decisions. They also have an impact on your rankings and should be something that your team actively tries to receive from your customers. Let us know if you need help with building a system that generates positive reviews or check out our page with more information for homebuilders.