If you're a home builder, then you know how important it is to have a website that generates traffic. After all, your site is often the first - and sometimes only - chance potential clients have to learn about your company and the homes that you build. Increasing your site traffic should be a major focus of your online marketing. So how can you make sure that your website is getting the traffic it needs?
Five (And A Half) Methods To Drive Traffic To Your Website
There are many different ways to increase your website's traffic, but some methods are more effective than others. Here are five of the most effective methods to drive traffic to your company website. If you need assistance with any of these methods, ask about our traffic and lead generation services for builders.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of optimizing your website so that it appears higher in the organic search results when someone searches for a keyword related to your products or services in the search engines. When users see your listing and visit your site, it registers as organic traffic.
Getting More Traffic From Search Engines
There are two categories of optimization: onsite SEO and offsite SEO. You need to focus attention on both to increase your organic traffic from search queries.
Onsite Optimization
Onsite optimization is all the work you do on your website to optimize it and make it more search-friendly. This includes optimizing your meta data like titles and meta descriptions for keywords that your ideal customer is searching for.
Optimizing your images and other elements on your page help Google and other search engines determine what your page is about where you show up in the search result. You also want to make sure your site is easy to navigate and that your content is high quality, informative and valuable to provide a better user experience for your website visitors. Don't forget to do your keyword research!
Offsite Optimization
Offsite optimization includes SEO activities like creating backlinks to your site from high-quality websites, social media engagement, and article and blog submissions.
Both onsite and offsite SEO is important for increasing your organic results in the search engines. This helps you drive traffic back to your site and increase your organic traffic.
SEO Strategy
It's also important to note that SEO is a long-term strategy. It can take months or even years to see results from your SEO and increase your organic traffic for the keywords you want to rank for. But if you're patient and consistent with your SEO strategy, it will be worth it in the end as organic traffic is some of the best quality traffic you can get.
SEO Resources
SEO is a complex topic. There are many resources available on the web that can help you learn more about SEO strategy, keyword research, and how to optimize your website and drive organic traffic. We recommend starting with Moz's Beginner's Guide to SEO.
2. Paid Advertising (PPC Ads)
There are many different kinds of paid ads. When users click on your ads, they will register as either paid search or paid social traffic, not organic traffic. Here are a few of our favourites.
Paid Search Ads
Paid search ads are an effective way to get your website in front of people who are already searching for what you offer. With paid search ads, you can target specific keywords and phrases, and your ad will appear in the search engines when someone searches for that keyword.
Don't just send paid search ads to your home page or another page of your website. Instead, drive traffic to a specific landing page that's been designed for the campaign and that has a strong call to action. Make sure to use the same keywords on your landing page that you targeted in your ad for the best results. You want to do everything you can to convert your paid search traffic into leads that you can market to.
Paid search ads are a great way to increase traffic to your website, and they can be very effective if done correctly. You can see results almost immediately after your ad goes live. And if you're targeting the right keywords, you can get high-quality traffic that converts.
PPC Resources
If you're interested in learning more about PPC ads, there are many resources available on the web that can help. We recommend starting with Wordstream's PPC University. Wordstream also has a free keyword research tool that allows you to discover and export keywords and performance data to optimize your PPC ads.
Social Media Ads
Social media ads give you the advantage of targeting specific users based on their interests, demographics, and behaviours so they can be really effective for getting exposure to your ideal customer. The targeting capabilities of social platforms like Facebook also allow you to reach new audiences and promote your company.
Social ads are great for promoting blog content, landing pages, lead magnets (premium content downloads), and other offers. You can also use social ads to build brand awareness or grow your social following.
One thing we love about social ads is they're relatively inexpensive compared to paid search ads. The prices can vary depending on the network but if done correctly, they can be very effective.
Facebook Lead Ads
Facebook also offers Lead Ads, a tool that allows you to generate leads directly from their platform. They work extremely well because users don't have to leave the platform in order to get your offer. We highly recommend you give them a try.
Social Media Resources
To learn more about social ads, we recommend checking out HubSpot's social media marketing certification. They have a great course that covers everything from the basics of social ads to more advanced topics.
Retargeting Ads
Retargeting ads are a great way to reach people who have already visited your site. This type of advertising is very effective because it allows you to target people who have already shown an interest in what you offer as they visit other sites around the web.
You can use retargeting ads to promote your product, quick possession homes, or even your premium content downloads. Did they view your landing page but didn't convert? Run a retargeting ad to this audience and increase your chances they'll convert on their next visit.
There are many different platforms that offer retargeting ads. We like using Google's display network. They have a large network of sites that they can show your ads on. These are the banner ads you see on various sites around the web.
Other Platforms For Retargeting
Other platforms that offer retargeting ads include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There are lots of options for serving ads to your previous web visitors.
Retargeting Resources
To learn more about retargeting, we recommend checking out AdRoll's Ultimate Guide to Retargeting. They cover everything from the basics of retargeting to more advanced topics.
3. Social Media
Many home builders today are using social to get more traffic. Social media is a great way to promote your business to the right audience. It's also a great way to build brand awareness and create relationships with potential customers.
There are many different social networks available, and each one has its own strengths, weaknesses and users. It's important to choose the right platform or platforms for your company. For example, if you want to sell to young families, Facebook and Instagram might be a good choice. If you want to sell to working professionals or executives, LinkedIn might be a better choice.
Publishing To Social
It's also important to publish high-quality content that is valuable and informative to your target audience. If you're not sure what kind of content to post, take a look at your competitors' or other successful home builders' social profiles and see what type of content they're publishing. Pay close attention to the kinds of content their followers engage with.
It's also smart to look at the social profiles of companies that are related to yours, but that aren't direct competitors. You can gain some insight and knowledge by looking outside your industry.
Once you have a good understanding of the platform or platforms you want to use and the type of content you want to post, you can start implementing a social marketing strategy.
Seeing Success With Social
The most important thing with social is to be active and engage your community. Don't just post promotional content; mix it up with interesting blog articles, news, photos, infographics, videos, and anything else you find on the web that your audience might find value in.
And don't forget to include social sharing buttons on your website so that users can share your content with their followers on Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms they are familiar with.
4. Referral Traffic
One great way to increase website traffic is to generate referral traffic from other websites. Any time you have a link posted on a website that is not your own, when someone clicks on it and comes to your site it is classified as referral traffic.
An easy way to get referral traffic is to have a link to your website published on the website of any developers whose communities you build in. Most developers will offer to link to your site from theirs, but if they don't it never hurts to ask. A developer wants you to sell more homes so that you'll buy more lots from them. So it's a win-win for them to promote you and your website.
Another way to get referral traffic is to guest blog on other websites. This involves writing an article for another website in your industry and including a link back to your website. This is a great way to get exposure for your company and increase web traffic. But it's important to make sure that you're only guest blogging on high-quality websites that are relevant to your industry.
If you guest blog on a website that is not relevant or of poor quality, it will reflect poorly on your business and could hurt your website's SEO.
Another way to get referral traffic is to publish high-quality articles on your own website that your ideal customer will find informative and of value. When you write blog posts that are interesting and helpful, other websites are more likely to link to them. This will help you generate referral traffic from those websites and may also help increase your search engine rankings.
If you're not sure what kind of content to write, take a look at your competitors' or other successful home builders' blog posts and see what type of content they're writing. Once you have a good understanding of the type of content that is popular in your industry, you can start writing blog posts that will be valuable to your ideal customer.
5. Google My Business (GMB)
Google My Business is a free online tool that allows businesses to create a business listing on Google.com and Google Maps. When someone searches for your business on Google, your business listing will show up in the search results, along with a map of your location and directions.
You can also use GMB to add photos, videos, and other information about your business. This is a great way to improve your visibility on Google and attract new customers.
To get started, go to Google My Business and create a business listing for your home building business and your showhomes. Include as much information as possible, such as your business name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation, etc.
Once you've created your listing, be sure to keep it up-to-date with new photos, videos, and information about your business. This will help ensure that your listing is always accurate and up-to-date, which will improve your overall SEO and visibility on Google.
5.5. Offline Sources
Most home builders get the majority of their site traffic from online sources. But what about offline sources? Offline sources are any source of website traffic that does not come from a search engine, social network, online ad or another website.
There are many ways to generate online traffic from offline sources. One way is to partner with other businesses in your area. For example, you could partner with a real estate agent and refer customers to each other. Or you could partner with a local company that services the homes of the types of customers you want to sell to.
Another way to generate offline traffic is to advertise in local publications like newspapers or magazines. We don't feel this is a great use of marketing budget and unless you have money to burn, there are far better places to allocate your marketing dollars.
Measuring Traffic From Offline Sources
If you do decide to put budget into offline ads, make sure you use a unique domain name that forwards to a landing page on your website and use a trackable phone number. You want to be able to measure the traffic to your website and phone inquiries your ad generated to see if the ad was effective. And always remember to double check your trackable phone number and unique domain before your ad goes to print. It's easy to update online assets - not so much with offline ads!
Increasing Traffic To Your Site Is Essential To Growing Sales
Generating more traffic to your home builder website can be a challenge, but it's essential for growing your sales. In this article, we've provided five (and a half - offline stinks!) ways to drive traffic to your website. If you put some effort into increasing your traffic, you'll soon see the benefits with increased sales. If you need some assistance with growing your traffic, contact us to find out more about our traffic and lead generation services. We have a lot of success in helping home builders grow their sales.
Originally published April 28, 2022
