Marketing & SEO For Homebuilders
Case Study: New Construction Homebuilder
How a Homebuilder Went From #15 to #10 on the Annual Builder 100 List in 4 Years.
2016
Closing $4163 | Revenue: $838M
2020
Closing $10189 | Revenue: $2368M
In this case study we share how a US-based homebuilder was able to leverage search engine optimization and strategic Local SEO to improve their online performance. These improvements drove new sales resulting in an increase of yearly revenue from $838M to $2,368M in four years, and a rise in position from #15 to #10 on the Builder 100 list.
All of the statistical and revenue information is publicly available online. We share links to sources whenever stats or facts are used. Examples of keyword and ranking reports have been included to help demonstrate certain points, but with sensitive information blurred out. (This was accomplished as members of the Phoenix Online Media team.)
The intention of this case study is twofold:
- To share insight, strategies, and actionable steps that will help you improve your homebuilder's performance online, and subsequently increase sales and your bottom line.
- To demonstrate our expertise in Homebuilder Marketing, and ability to implement strategic and integrative digital marketing campaigns that produce results. Ultimately, we would love to earn the chance to work with you.
(Request a 3-month digital marketing plan and meeting to see what we could do for your homebuilder business.)
LGI Homes on the Builder 100 list
LGI Homes is a Texas-based home builder that specializes in building affordable new construction home communities that are located just outside populated cities for first time buyers that average in the mid 200s. Below is a screenshot from their 2021 Builder 100 profile showing their progression from 2009 through 2020.
(Source: www.builderonline.com/firms/lgi-homes)
Pro-Tips!
These are Pro-Tips! Throughout this article we share Pro-Tips with actionable steps that can help any homebuilder improve their online presence.
Homebuilder Case Study & Steps to Success
Where to Begin
"Ask yourself if what you're doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow."
This sounds obvious, but we always recommend starting from the beginning. By this we mean defining your Main Objective and KPIs (key performance indicators).
An example of a Main Objective would be to:
- increase yearly revenue,
- or go from #X to #X on the Builder 100 list
(Hint: It’s NOT to get more website traffic! That’s a KPI not a Main Objective.)
Examples of some KPIs are:
- Website traffic
- Keyword rankings
- Website lead form submissions
- Website call-to-action conversion rates
- Google My Business actions
It’s common for businesses these days to confuse their KPIs with their primary business goals. As an example, your business goal should not be to improve your search engine optimization. That’s important, but that’s a KPI!
The business goal (Main Objective) could be to increase your yearly revenue, or you can take it a step further and say your business goal is to increase your yearly revenue by getting more qualified new home buyer leads from online.
That’s a great high level goal with a clear objective.
In the example of LGI Homes, their main objective, like most homebuilders (or any business for that matter) was to increase yearly revenue. One of the main KPIs we began focusing on was increasing new home tours. LGI has a great customer service process and sales team so it became apparent that increasing new home tours —-> increased sales —-> which increased yearly revenue.
"The distinction between a goal and and a KPI is important. KPIs represent paths to the final destination, but they are not the destination itself."
The 5 Main Categories of This Homebuilder Case Study
Each of the following categories are essential to improving a homebuilder’s or any business’s online performance. You can read through, or click or tap any one to learn more about that category specifically.
Keyword, Competitor, & Industry Research
"The quickest path to success for a business today is to make data-driven decisions that follow a purpose-driven plan."
Ok, your Main Objective has been defined, now let’s get some data.
A great place to start is identifying common searched phrases and terms that your customers are typing into Google’s search bar. In this case, our target customer is potential homebuyers, so what are homebuyers searching online to fine new houses for sale? Are more people searching for, “new houses for sale”, or “new homes for sale”, AND does this matter?
(Hint: the answer is “homes“, and yes, this matters).
Some Examples of Keyword Statistics For Homebuilders
There are both free and paid tools to accomplish this. For the purpose of this case study, and to ensure you are able to obtain your own reports, we are using examples from the free tools and including links as well. (Click or tap a report to see full size. Screenshots taken June 2021.)
(This keyword report was generated from Google Ads which you can set up a free account here: https://ads.google.com/)
(These keyword reports were generated from Ubersuggest which you can use for free, or set up an account here: Ubersuggest)
Pro-Tip!
Use Google Trends. Google Trends is a free data exploring tool by Google that allows you to see search history and "trends" for a particular topic or search term. We have added some Google trends reports below for the keywords, "new construction homes near me", and "new homes for sale near me".
(Notice the rise in people searching for "new construction homes near me" and closing the gap on "new homes for sale near me"? We have a hypothesis on this trend but it would be interesting to research this further!)
Google Trends Live Reports For Homebuilders
The following are reports from Google Trends examining “new construction homes near me” and “homes for sale near me”. Studying search history is a great way to anticipate the future based on past or present trends.
5 Year Trend of Google Searches Comparing "New Construction Homes Near Me" and "New Homes For Sale Near Me"
Live Interactive Map (Hover over time period for more details)
These next reports show interest by state. As a homebuilder, studying these maps might serve you well if you were deciding whether or not to build in a certain state. Of course you want to combine this with other sources of information, but as an example, Georgia has more searches for “new construction homes near me” than any other state in the US and might be worth looking into more.
"New Construction Homes For Sale Near Me"
Interest by state (Darker shade indicates more interest)
"New Homes For Sale Near Me"
Interest by state (Darker shade indicates more interest)
Optimizing the Website for BOTH the Homebuyer & Search Engines
Your homebuilder company's website is expecially important these days.
Many business owners fail to realize this because it’s not common knowlege, but your company’s website influences many search engine optimization factors affecting how high your business shows up in search. Google and other search engines (and even social media platforms) refer to your website as one if its primary sources of information to understand who you are, what you offer, and who you serve.
In summary, when your website is properly optimized, you can meet both your customers’ needs AND Google’s standards, which will in turn allow your homebuilder business to be easily found online, and be the obvious choice for poential homebuyers looking to buy a new house.
The 3 Main Categories of SEO These Days Are:
We will get into “Off-page SEO” more later, but at this stage your two main priorities are technical and On-page.
Technical is what the user doesn’t see, but is the part that makes your website work and a large determining factor to how Google reads and ranks your business.
Content is what the user does see, and is also a high influencing factor or how Google “sees” and ranks your business. Content is also expecially important for communicating your value to potential customers and converting leads.
Some Technical Aspects Important to Consider:
- Are there any SEO errors that are prohibiting search engines from properly indexing pages or understanding the content?
- Are there keyword researched site titles, page titles, meta descriptions, Heading tags, keyword density, semantic keywords, inner links, outer links, and other SEO elements?
- How is the user experience? Are there poorly designed elements, slow loading pages, confusing navigation, or unappealing call-to-actions?
- How is the mobile experience (experience on cell phones)? Are there any mobile issues like pages not presenting on cell phones properly or elements too close together?
- Does your website have an XML sitemap?
- Are there any broken links?
- Is your website “HTTPS” vs “HTTP”?
Pro-Tip
There are numerous tools to check your website's SEO and performance for free. ***We are not affiliated with any of these, nor recommend one over another, but have tested them and believe these are the best free tools:
SEO Site Checkup: https://seositecheckup.com/
SEO analyzer: https://neilpatel.com/seo-analyzer/
Sitechecker: https://sitechecker.pro/
(If you are looking for a more detailed report of your homebuilder website's technical health and where to start, click here to request a free WEBSITE TECHNICAL HEALTH report.)
Some Content & On-Page Aspects Important to Consider:
- What is the primary purpose of your website and is it delivering? What can be changed to improve this?
- Who is your target audience (homebuyers) and are you providing them value?
- Looking at each of your pages individually, what is the purpose of that specific page, and is it set up to achieve that?
- What type of content should be on that page (e.g., written, images, infographics, videos…) to best achieve its goal, and is that content on it now?
- How often does the content need to be updated? Is it evergreen?
- Are there authoritative outbound links and strategic inner linking to and from it?
- Do your pages have call-to-actions that line up with each page’s intention?
- Is your content providing value whether they purchase from you or not?
Pro-Tip
In our experience with homebuilders and real estate marketing, we have found that some of the most important information new homebuyers are looking for, and that Google likes to "see", is:
- Other popular cities or suburbs near by
- Economy
- Nearby businesses and shopping
- Nearby employers and job opportunities
- Nearby Schools
- Any public transportation (bus, trolleys, trains...)
- That particular city's sports teams
- Golf courses
- Tourism
- Popular sites and attractions
- and demographics
Questions?
Content Strategy: Regional Pages (City), Community Pages, & Floor Plans
Regional Pages
Regional City Pages: The regional page is the top level city page that the new construction neighborhood is in. This page welcomes in new interested home buyers with information about that particular city and a map with links to the new construction communities available in those areas. In some cases, LGI would have five or more new construction neighborhoods in one city
These pages were great “Entrance” pages, and consistantly brought in new visitors from Google searching for, “new homes for sale in [city name]”
Regional Page Examples
Community Pages
Community & Neighborhood Pages: The Community Pages list the available neighborhoods and master planned communities with homes for sale in those specific neighborhoods.
Valuable information on these pages included: Parks and playgrounds within that community, activity centers, if there was a community pool, any sports fields or courts, clubhouses, and any parks, sites or amenities close by.
From this page, the new home buyer could view pictures of the available new homes and click through to a specific floor plan.
Community Page Examples
Community Page Google Web Story
Pro-Tip
Create your own "Community Page" Web Story like the example above to share on your website and social media here:
Web Stories on Google
Floor Plan Pages
Floor Plan & Model Home Page: This page spotlights the new home model (floor plan), and includes importnat info to homebuyers like the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, how many levels, any appliances, any energy efficiency considerations, amenities, sites close by, and other relevant information about the home.
Floor Plan Page Examples
Local: Reaching Local Homebuyers in and Around the Communities Where Houses Are Being Built
Building GMB Pages for New Home Construction Neighborhoods
The best way to reach local customers is with a Google My Business Page. Also referred to as a GMB page, this is the Google maps listing that appears at the top of search results known as the Google Local 3-Pack.
(See screenshot example below)
The Anatomy of a Local Search Result Page for "new construction homes near me"
Homebuilder GMB Strategy
Depending on your new construction neighborhood process, what we have found works well is to make the first completed floor plan the sales office. The steps are as follows:
- Using the address of that first model, create a GMB listing.
- Send a Google postcard to that address to get verified.
- Build out the GMB listing with office hours, phone number, pictures of the model homes (interior and exterior), and a website link to preferably a location page on the website. Be sure to provide a unique description that includes, amenities, features and benefits, and local signals like schools close by, employment opportunities, and other popular sites or places.
Pro-Tip
Utilize the "Questions & Answers" section of your GMB to ask and answer strategic questions about that neighborhood, like, "Are these homes move-in-ready?", or "Are these homes energy efficient?"
Pro-Tip
Add floor plans or model homes as products. Most homebuilders are unaware you can do this, but we confirmed with Google that floor plans can serve as products.
New Homebuyer Leads From GMB Listings
Here are some real stats showing leads that a homebuilder was able to achieve in a 3-month period by creating GMB listings for their new construction neighborhoods.
- 3,433 Phone Calls
- 34,178 Click-For-Directions (For home tours)
- 25,200 Website Visits
- 62,811 Total Actions
(*All communities combined)
Data: Turning Data Into Action
"What gets measured, gets managed.."
Marketing has come a long way in recent years. We have access to so much information these days with tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console that we can make data-driven decisions based on facts and not guesses.
If you work with us, one of the first things we do is set up all of the analytics and reporting tools that will allow us and you to make informed decisions and measure the results.
We have many examples of how this has worked wonders with many clients, but using a homebuilder as an example, we were able to increase search visibility in all search engines by +23% by following the data. In this case it was addressing a few pages on the website that had an unusually high bounce rate. Without the analytic and reporting tools we would have never been aware of this.
Pro-Tip
When was the last time you looked up your business online and evaluated everything from the eyes of your customer?
Set aside 15 minutes to go through your website on your phone and take notes. Were you able to easily find what's most important? Was your experience memorable? Would you buy from you?
More people are viewing your website from their phones today than their computers, or even laptops. Want more sales? Start here. Provide them a positive experience that clearly communicates the value you offer, how that benefits them, and how to get a hold of you to learn more or start today.
Sales: Turning Homebuyers Into Advocates
Online reviews are a great way of turning happy homebuyers into advocates for your company. Did you know that 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation? Another very effective strategy are video testimonials like the example below. People expect the company to say good things about themselves, but hearing from a real customer will always hold more weight.
Ready to Start?
Right this second you're competing with other homebuilders whether you realize it or not.
As you are reading this and evaluating your current position and marketing, so are your competitors with their digital marketing agencies and teams.
Each month the web gets more congested with direct competition and directories. EATABLISHING your position NOW is the best possible way to FUTURE PROOF your homebuilder business. Lock in your spot before someone else does.
If you are ready to see what steps can be taken to increase your current sales, and "Future Proof" your Homebuilder business, click below!
