SEO marketing (i.e., search engine optimization) is a key to success. It’s what helps you rank highly on search engines like Google and Bing. According to BuilderOnline, 80% of people do some kind of online search before making a purchase. Even more surprising, 47% of consumers say that they read three to five pieces of content from a company before they talk to someone from that company.
In short, you need good content and a strong web presence to succeed.
But how do you even begin to do that? Here are five tips you can start implementing now to market your home-building company more successfully.
1. Create good content
Nothing within the remainder of this article matters if you aren’t creating good content at the outset. When we talk about good content, here’s what we mean, in order of importance.
- Readable, emotionally engaging, actionable content for human beings
Huge, HUGE gap in importance
- Search-engine-friendly copy for the robots, crawlers, and algorithms
The foundation of strong SEO marketing is having high-quality content that real people consume. The temptation in creating SEO-friendly content is to write content that rigidly follows certain SEO criteria. For example, a given piece of SEO software might tell you the following:
- The ideal blog article is 3,000 words long.
- You need to include specific words a minimal number of times (keyword stuffing).
While those things may be technically helpful, unless you can get the human being you’re marketing to, to care about the content, none of the technical guidelines matter.
Think about this this way: Would your average prospect ever sit down to read a 3,000-word article about anything? It’s unlikely. If you choose to rigidly follow such instructions, you’re more likely to waste time and effort for minimal returns.
The goal with SEO marketing is to not only get people to your site but also keep them there and keep them coming back. All the SEO guidelines in the world won’t matter unless you can get an actionable, emotional response from your consumers.
In short, create content for the human first and the robots second.
2. Design your content to be customer friendly
Your website must be easy for your prospects and clients to consume. This is especially true in terms of mobile friendliness.
More people are getting information from their phones and tablets. So, you must make sure that all the good content you make is mobile friendly. If prospects or clients have a bad mobile experience, they’re more likely to leave the site than move over to a desktop.
Your website’s mobile experience should be just as good as a desktop experience. If it’s not, you hurt your SEO marketing and miss out on opportunities. Don’t skimp on design or aesthetics—it’s a big part of what makes good content emotionally engaging and actionable.
3. Know your SEO audience
It’s a good idea to find the most popular search terms relevant to your company and then make good content around them. However, it’s just as important to focus on your core, local audience.
What’s popular nationwide may be less relevant to your local audience. That doesn’t mean you should ignore nationwide trends. It simply means that you need to deliver appropriate information to your local audiences.
Knowing whom you’re targeting and what they’re looking for is crucial to SEO marketing success. It helps you build your brand, bring in more leads, and—in the longer term—expand your footprint.
4. Play the long game with regular content and quality backlinks
SEO marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to consistently create good content to see the effects of SEO marketing. This is why most successful SEO marketers create blogs.
Writing a weekly or biweekly blog with strong, relevant content is a foundational way to grow your online footprint. Remember that nearly half of people will read three to five pieces of content before they consider you. A regularly scheduled blog can give your prospects exactly what they’re looking for.
Another way to play the long game is by placing quality backlinks. A backlink is when another website links to a page on your website. When high-quality websites do this, it has a domino effect for you.
- Backlinks can bring a new, wider audience to your site.
- They can boost your site’s reputation and make it more appealing to search engine algorithms.
- They can provide third-party validation of your brand.
Backlinks can be difficult to place, especially on high-quality websites. You may want to consider researching the kinds of websites you’d like to have your content on, then contacting the web master. Of course, there are agencies that can help you place backlinks as well.
5. Consider partnering with industry leaders for third-party validation
A more direct way to get third-party validation is by partnering with industry leaders. For example, many builders partner with 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty (2-10 HBW) by becoming Builder Members. This gives them third-party validation of their quality from the industry leader in structural warranties. It also allows them access to top-of-the-line marketing materials.
When you have third-party validation from industry leaders, it improves your online reputation. If you have good content on your site, you can backlink between one another.
Learn how you can protect your business and add valuable selling points to your new builds with a 2-10 HBW structural warranty.
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6 Marketing Tips for New-Home Builders
Why a Third-Party Structural Warranty Is a Smart Choice
How to Set Expectations for Buyers Using a Structural Warranty
