What’s the first step a prospective homeowner takes when they are ready to embark on the journey of building or finding their dream home? Typically, they head over to the internet to start their research. Because of this, a strong digital presence is crucial for a home builder’s SEO success.

Whether it’s seeking out a reputable builder, browsing through listings, or getting design inspiration, the internet is a primary resource for your potential customers. In a competitive industry, home builder digital marketing is more important than ever. 

In this blog, we’re diving into how home builder SEO can make all the difference in capturing the attention of prospective homeowners. Implement some of these key tactics tailored specifically to the home-building industry to stand out and get qualified leads!

Why is SEO important for Home Builders?

SEO for home builders is all about making sure your message and services are being delivered to the right audiences and showing them how you stand out from your competitors. The first step in funnelling leads for your business is optimizing your website for SEO.

In most cases, prospective customers don’t have a home builder in mind when they begin their search on the internet. If your website doesn’t show up on the search results page, you’re missing valuable opportunities to connect with these people.

7 Key Tactics to Rank as One of the Best Home Builder Websites

1) Understand User Search Intent

“Hire a home builder near me.” “New homes for sale in Edmonton”. “Reviews of home builders in Edmonton”. Before you begin the process of optimizing your website, the first step is to understand what your potential customers are searching for as they begin the home-hunting journey.

  • Once you understand the intent of the user’s different search queries, you can then tailor your content to meet the needs of your target audience. Not only will this improve your search engine ranking, but it will also drive more relevant traffic to your website. When you’re reaching your specified target audience, you’ll see more qualified leads and, ultimately, more people will start doing business with you.
  • When you feel confident that you know what your customers are looking for, you can then determine keywords that you want to rank for. You can identify the topics and questions that your prospective clients might have and build content around those queries. The key is to keep conversion intent in mind. Choose keywords that are highly specific and relevant, like location-based keywords, to maximize the impact. Revisit our blog, “Create an SEO-Friendly Content Strategy,” for a more thorough walkthrough on how to effectively select keywords.

Not sure where to start with your Keyword Research? Using a Home Builder SEO Agency like Bluetrain can give you the competitive edge.

2) Local SEO

Home builders serve local audiences, so local SEO is an important part of the optimization process.

  • To attract potential customers in your target area, make sure you have a Google Business Profile (GBP) set up with updated information. If you are a home builder with different communities or sales offices, build out a profile for each location.
  • Besides contact and location information, also make sure you showcase client reviews, social profiles, and images from past projects. The home building industry has a highly visual component, so take advantage of any images or videos that showcase your work.
  • Consider listing your business in online directories that highlight local businesses, like Yelp or Houzz, which is more of an industry-specific platform. Often, directories and review websites can rank higher in search results.

3) Technical SEO

Focusing on the technical health of your website not only improves the user experience but also makes it more visible in search engine results. Technical SEO is a key feature of Home Builder SEO Services. Here are some key areas that you should be addressing:

  • Site Architecture and Breadcrumb Navigation: Site Architecture is the structure and hierarchy of your website. In human terms, it’s how your website is organized. The goal with an architecture that is friendly for both crawlers and customers is a website that is logically organized so everyone can find the information they are looking for.
  • Site Speed: When your website is slow, you’re more likely to have a higher bounce rate. This will often lead to a decrease in your web traffic and visibility and a loss of potential leads.
  • Mobile-Friendly: In this day and age, this goes without saying. People are searching on the go, and if your website is not mobile-friendly, it won’t be able to compete.
  • Broken Pages/Links: Specifically in the home building/real estate industry, the content on your website is constantly changing. New houses are listed, existing houses are sold, and new communities are developed. Using redirection to a relevant page or updating pages with appropriate messaging is so important to avoid broken links, which can negatively impact SEO and frustrate website users.

4) On-Page SEO

Here, we focus on optimizing individual pages and components of the website to help them rank higher and earn more relevant search traffic.

  • Keyword Strategy: Now’s the time to use the keywords we identified in Step 1! If one of your target keywords is “home builders in Edmonton,”  create title tags and meta descriptions that include this phrase. The same thing applies to other content on your website. Having keywords in your headings (H1 and H2’s) often ranks higher.
  • Page Structure: Another aspect of SEO is readability. Using headings and subheadings to structure your web pages will help improve this. Say, for example, you have a page describing the process of building a home. Break it down into different categories like lot selection, architecture, design, permits, construction process, etc.
  • Internal Links: Linking to other pages on your site helps distribute link equity and build page relevance. It shows search engines that these other pages exist and helps them show up in search results. Pages showcasing specific communities could have direct links to the listings of homes in the community or nearby communities that may have similar options.
  • Image Optimization: In the home building industry, images serve as portfolios for your business. Showing up in image search results is a great way to improve visibility. Use descriptive file names and alt text that explain what the image represents. Rather than leaving the image title as “‘IMG_421”, update it to something like “modern-kitchen-in-bungalow”.

5) Off-Page SEO

If you’re looking to improve website authority, off-page SEO is essential. From suppliers to designers to realtors, a lot of collaboration takes place within the home development industry. Recognition from other reputable websites can help showcase your credibility.

  • Backlinks, which are links from other websites to yours, show search engines that your website is valuable and informative. This helps boost its ranking. When your website is more easily discoverable, it establishes you as an industry leader.
  • There are a few ways you can achieve this. Consider opportunities like industry directories, local business listings, participation in industry forums, guest posting, or reaching out to well-known influencers in the industry.

6) Quality Content

We’re sure you’ve heard it before, but we’re going to reiterate it: content is key when it comes to achieving SEO success. This is your chance to showcase your expertise and industry knowledge. Prove how you can provide solutions to the queries your potential customers have. 

Build out case studies showing recently completed projects. Share customer testimonials. Feature blogs that demonstrate your knowledge about industry trends. Offer guides and tips on home building and design. All these options increase the chances of search engines finding your website and sharing it with users.

7) Measure Success

After implementing SEO strategies, make sure you regularly check back in. Tracking the performance of your SEO efforts consistently will help you determine what strategies work and which ones might need adjusting. Use a platform like Google Analytics to monitor key metrics that will allow you to make adjustments to your SEO strategy to improve performance. Some of these key metrics that are significant are website traffic, click-through rates, conversion, and keyword rankings.

When you’re part of a competitive industry within a competitive digital landscape, SEO is necessary for standing out and generating leads. The strategies we shared above are just some of the ways you can begin to enhance your website’s SEO.

SEO is complex and an ongoing process. To be successful, you’ll need extensive knowledge, adaptable practices, and consistent analytics monitoring. 

Looking for a Home Builder Digital Marketing Agency to build out your SEO Strategy? Bluetrain has a team of experienced SEO specialists to help you develop a custom Home Builder Digital Strategy and implement these key tactics. Connect with us to learn more!