WHAT IS SEO FOR Home Builders?
Do you have a website for your home building business (or any construction company in general) that’s not showing up anywhere on Google?
If that’s a yes, you have an SEO problem, and you need that taken care of ASAP.
Common SEO Terms
Throughout this guide we’ll use a lot of SEO terms. Here’s a breakdown of most of them and what they mean for you.
- SEO – Or Search Engine Optimization. Mainly, this means creating website content specific to your industry so your pages show up higher on Google.
- Keyword – These are the words or phrases people type on Google to find your services. E.g. home builder near me, home building California, new home construction NY
- SERP – Or Search Engine Results Page, the results page you see after you search for something on Google.
- Google Business Profile – Your business page on Google where people can call you, read Google reviews, get directions, or visit your website.
- Crawl - This is when Google algorithms are "reading" through your website to understand what you do and what services you offer.
- Ranking – This represents the place your page shows up after someone searched for a keyword. Your page can show up first, second, third, forth, (and so on) in the SERP.
- Index – Not all pages or website appear on Google because they're not indexed. For Google to show your site, all pages need to be indexed, or 'registered' on Google.
- Local map pack – The 3 top results when you look for 'home building services near me' that display the location of the business, their website, phone number, and directions.
- Linking – This is when a button on your page leads to another page on your site (internal) or to another website (external).
- Backlink – Anytime another website has a link that leads to your website, that's called a backlink. These are an important ranking factor.
- Search volume – This represents the number of people that are looking for a particular keyword each month. E.g over 100 people search for 'SEO for home builders'.
- Citations – Every time your business name is mentioned anywhere on the internet, that's counted as a citation. These are an important ranking factor.
- Search Intent – A user searching for 'homes' might just want to look on Zillow to buy a home, whereas someone searching for 'home builder' will want a contractor to build the house for him.
SEO is a very broad domain, but these are the most important terms you should understand.
Throughout this guide, we’ll make sure you’ll understand every single term we use.
Why Do Home Builders Need SEO?
In a nutshell, there are more and more people who look online for services, and if your business is not on Google, you’re missing out!
Doing SEO will help you get in front of your competitors so everyone looking for ‘home builders’ on Google will see your business first, get on your website, and become a lead.
The ultimate goal is simple, to get your website to rank higher, capture as many prospects as possible, and get a consistent stream of leads into your pipeline.
SEO for Home Builders: Basic Concepts
Keyword Research For Home Builders
We have an article about choosing the best keywords to use so you can rank your website higher. We also have a simple tool that will allow you to do this research yourself, fairly easy. Check out our keyword research tool here, it’s free!
Another easy and intuitive tool for keyword research is the Google Keyword Planner.
Add in some words or phrases you think users are searching for (e.g. home building, home builders near me, home building California, build a home) and the tool will pull real-time data from Google.
You’ll see:
- Keyword (by relevance) – The words you added and some other keywords the tool found relevant to what you want.
- Avg, monthly searches – This is the average number of people searching for those keywords.
- Three month change – Shows how the average monthly searches changed from the previous 3 months. (E.g. -19% means today's searches are 19% lower than 3 months ago)
- YoY change – Or year over year changes, shows how the average monthly searches changed compared to last year. (E.g. +164% means the searches more than doubled, which means an increase in demand)
- Competition – This represents how difficult it is to show up as the #1 result for a particular keyword. Low means it's fairly easy, high means it's very hard.
For our clients, we use paid tools like Ahrefs or Semrush because these offer a more detailed overview of the keywords, allowing us find the best opportunities to capture most of the market.
Content Optimization For Home Builders
After we have the best keyword opportunities for home builders, we start optimizing the existing content or creating new content around that keyword.
Let’s take, for example, the keyword ‘home builders in Dallas, TX’.
- We'll start creating a new page with the title 'The Best Home Builder In Dallas, TX'.
- We'll sprinkle that keyword throughout the content.
- We'll also use variations of it, like 'home building' or 'Dallas home builder'.
- We'll use these keyword in most of the headlines on the page.
- And lastly, we'll write about relevant topics around home building, like materials, additions, remodeling, construction work, contractors, etc.
Link Building For Home Builders
Whenever we create a new page, we want it to have internal and external links.
This increases your website’s authority and relevance because Google sees we’re working closely with other companies that are relevant in the home building or construction industry.
We could link to Lowe’s, to the National Association of Home Builders, to the cities’ building department website, or to other companies like yours.
You can also create internal links by leading visitors to other pages on your website. For example, this is an internal link that takes you to our SEO services page.
Local SEO For Home Builders
I know what you’re thinking… there’s SEO and Local SEO!?
Well, it’s still SEO, but for local businesses, just like a local home building company.
‘Local’ is the most important aspect when doing SEO for home builders, mostly because you want your website to show up higher on Google in the area you serve.
Because obviously, you don’t plan to drive 10 hours everyday to visit a job-site that’s 2 states away.
Technical SEO For Home Builders
As the name suggests, technical SEO is… well, more technical.
It requires coding, schema, automations, responsiveness, and a lot more things to ensure your website performs as best as possible.
As much as I’d like to tell you everything about SEO, this particular aspect of it will take years to fully understand and optimize, and a much longer article.
For now, if you’re interested in seeing how your website’s technical SEO performs, send us a message and we’ll do a thorough analysis of your entire website’s SEO.
Start Doing SEO for Home Builders With These 3 Steps
#1. Check If Your Website Is On Google
This is also the most important thing you need to do after you get a website.
Make sure the site is indexed on Google and will show up when someone’s looking for it!
Here’s how you do this:
- First, open your Google Search Console* account and locate the feature for inspecting webpage URLs.
- Type in the address of your home building business's website.
- Hit the "Inspect" option to start the analysis. Most websites are indexed within a few days after they're published.
*Don’t have a Google Search Console? Ask whoever built your website about it. If they don’t have it, that’s a sign they cut corners. You can still install it, but with some help.
Another alternative to check if your site is on Google is this:
- Open Google and type “site:yourwebsite.com” replacing “yourwebsite.com” with your actual home building company’s website address.
- Press Enter.
- If your website appears in the search results, it means it’s visible on Google.
If your business’s website isn’t showing up Google, it’s likely because it is not indexed.
To solve this, you should add your website’s map to Google’s tool by following this guide: How to Add Your Site Map to Google.
If you’re unsure about how to do this, consider bringing in a professional SEO service.
#2. Start optimizing Your Site's Content
After we make sure your website is on Google, we can start increasing its visibility through optimizing the existing content of your website.
Website Content Tips
Make sure all the content on your website includes a keyword people might use to search for your services.
A smart approach is to use very specific keywords, which are usually longer but much easier to rank as the #1 result for them.
For example, instead of just “home building,” you might use “home building contractor in Omaha, NE” to attract local customers who are specifically looking for what you offer in their area.
Like this…
Optimize The Website Images Right
You can do SEO even with images. Here’s how:
- Instead of naming the photos on your website 'Photo1', choose a descriptive name, like 'home-building-omaha'
- Never upload JPEG and PNG images on your site, they take a ton of space. Use WEBP formats that compress the image size without damaging the quality.
- Also resize the images you use so they load faster. Avoid anything that's over 1200px in width or height.
- Always add an alt-text. Whenever the image can't load (because of internet issues) this descriptive text will be valuable for both Google and the users.
Use Great Titles And Meta Description
The title and the meta description (what you see below the blue title) have a considerable impact on how users interact with your website and how Google ranks it in the search results.
The title is especially important for SEO, while the description only adds context to what the user is clicking on.
#3. Create Content with SEO in Mind
As we mentioned earlier, after your keyword research, choose the words or phrases that make the most sense to your business and create content around them.
Here are some types of content you can create.
Service Pages
Service pages are a breakdown of the main services you perform.
As a home builder, some services would be Home Design, Home Building, Home Addition Building, etc.
On service pages, all the content should revolve around the main keyword for that particular service. Include frequently asked questions, material options, images, benefits of a custom home, pricing, and anything else you think it’s valuable for users.
City Pages
This is a great SEO strategy that brought many of our clients a ton of success.
A city page is like a service page, but with a focus on a particular city that you serve.
This is a great strategy because you’re creating highly localized content for a powerful keyword, and the intent of that search is very powerful.
A city page will sound like ‘home building in Pasadena, CA’, ‘home builder in Annapolis, MD’, or ‘home design and build in Fort Worth, TX’.
Business Comparison Pages
These pages are trickier to navigate, but you’d be capitalizing on all users that are looking for ‘the best home builders in Malibu, CA’ or any other city.
This is literally a list of the best home builders in that city, with you at the top.
I’m saying it’s more difficult to navigate because naturally, you want the users on that page to view you as the #1 option, and not your competitors.
Collateral Services Pages
Collateral pages are insanely powerful for SEO. These are additional services you perform as part of your main service.
Let’s take an example.
You’re a home builder contractor, so you probably work with a lot of subcontractors for HVAC, electrical, plumbing, even landscaping. These are collateral services.
For a kitchen remodeler, a collateral service would be ‘backsplash installation’, ‘kitchen cabinet refinish’, or ‘countertop replacement’.
Tracking SEO For Home Builders Progress
Google Analytics
This free tool is a go-to for marketers to check how their website is doing. It helps you see how many people visit your site, how many pages they look at, how many are new visitors, how often people buy something or contact you, and how many leave quickly.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a paid tool that helps you understand how well your keywords are doing. It lets you see where your website stands in the search results for specific keywords you target.
Hootsuite
If you’re curious whether or not your SEO is working, here’s an article that will help.
Expert Help for Your Home Building Business SEO
This is just the beginning of the guide. SEO is a very broad domain that’s constantly changing, so there’s always something new to learn.
Naturally, as a business owner who also wants to spend time with family or relax once in a while, learning SEO by yourself is like wearing all the hats.
Here at Contracting Empire, we’re here to guide home building businesses through their SEO journey, helping you reach your goals, whether it’s topping search engine rankings or boosting your online presence to attract the right customers. Our SEO solutions are tailored to fit your needs for the best outcomes.
Interested in a partnership that’ll let you work more on the business instead of in the field?