As a professional home builder, you are aware of how tough the market has become, and it’s not going to get any better with the current pandemic that’s currently blanketing the nation and the world.
With thousands of dollars on offer, you must use every strategy available to accurately target highly qualified prospects and attract more leads to your business.
But how can you do that in the current economic climate?
Content
You should increase your exposure through your digital marketing channels.
More people are heading to the internet to research new businesses than ever before. Print media has lost its edge, and streaming services are eroding the advertising potential of free-to-air television.
The way to reach your clients in today’s market is to take your business online, and it all starts with your website.
When you decide to redirect a portion of your marketing budget to developing your website, your business will begin to trend upward.
Many home builders already have an established web presence. However, most sites have been neglected and are now outdated. They are not taking advantage of the latest advances in web technologies that help to make a site beautiful and functional.
With the home building market in a steady decline, now is the time to make your company stand out from the crowd with a fresh new website, designed and developed with the latest technology and trends in mind.
Website Design for Builders – The Process in A Nutshell
Effective web design must start from the ground up, so your online presence has a strong foundation from which to grow.
Images and content you would like to be included in the design are collected, created, edited and approved. We then go about designing an attractive, fast, and functional website your customers will find a pleasure to use.
Once the website goes live, the technical parts which happen behind the scenes go full steam ahead, such as search engine optimization (SEO), installing analytics, submitting the site to the search engines, to name just a few.Â
What to Include in a Website Design for Builders?
Every site design needs to reflect the industry that it represents and for home builders, there are a lot of things your visitors will want to know about your company.
After all, they will be handing over tens of thousands of dollars, and a well-designed online presence can go a long way towards convincing them they have made the right call.
A home builder’s website is hopefully the start of a long and close collaboration between the visitor and your company. For this reason, the design needs to project your expertise and your commitment to high-quality work, as well as make you appear friendly and approachable.
A home builders website design should be an eye-catching portfolio that doesn’t just explain what you do, it should also show how well you do it.
There are a lot of pieces to excellent website design. They are all critical and serve one common purpose:
To get your visitors to take action!
It’s a vital component of a home builder’s website design that most neglect. If you get it right, your phone will never stop ringing, and you will always have plenty of new homes to build.
How to Create a Winning Home Builder’s Website Design
Important components of a website will include the following at a minimum:
- An attractive header
- Prominent calls to action
- Important pages such as Services, About Us, Contact, etc.
The best way to tell you about great website design features is to show you.
Pandanus Construction’s website uses every trick in the book to wow the visitor and inspire them into acting. It’s a classic example of selling the dream, rather than the product, and does it exceptionally well.
A Big Beautiful Header
Upon first entering the site, the visitor is greeted with a big, bold, beautiful header that also presents a full-page showcase of their previous work. The images are all professional and use different housing styles to indicate that Pandanus are not one-trick ponies but can do it all.
Text on the header is minimal, and the logo takes second-place in favour of highlighting what Pandanus Constructions is all about, building dream homes.
As the visitor scrolls down the page, the design makes excellent use of whitespace to highlight their services with appropriate images displaying their devotion to quality.
Towards the bottom of the page, the visitor gets to meet the owners. The images used are not soulless stock images or stuffy professional portraits. Instead, they display the owners as real people who are friendly and approachable.
Calls to Action
Every section on the page has a call-to-action that is hard to miss, and every subsequent page also includes a prominent call-to-action. The whole design is leading visitors towards getting in touch in an unobtrusive, yet unmistakable way.
More Home Builder Website Design Concepts
The site also includes other sections that should be considered vital for a home builder’s website design.
Gallery – Every image in the gallery shows the finished product using professional photography and high-quality photos displaying the full range of the company’s expertise. Clicking on any image accesses a slideshow of larger, more detailed images. It’s impossible not to be impressed by the quality of work on display.
Services – A service page goes into more detail about their experience and expertise, with images to display their various talents.
About Us – A lot of home builders neglect the about us page or pay minimal attention to it. However, in certain industries, the about us page is often the most visited page. In a lot of cases, it’s the first page many will visit after landing on your home page. Clients and home builders will be working in close collaboration for many months, so most visitors will be eager to learn more about the people behind the company, and this is the page where you can show yourself as friendly and approachable.
Awards Page – If your company has won any awards or has specialized certifications, you can let your visitors know about them here.
Contact Page – The contact page should include all the ways a visitor can get in touch to make it as convenient as possible. The Pandanus Construction site does this well, and even includes a Google map for precise directions the visitor can quickly transfer to their phone.
Getting Your Website Found
It doesn’t matter how beautifully designed a website is, if it doesn’t get visitors, then it’s not earning you money.
Before the site reconstruction in the example above, Pandanus Construction were nowhere to be found in the search results. After the revamp they are now on the first page for their chosen search terms.
How much would a first page result benefit your home builder’s business?
Good website design targets the right audience using well-researched keywords. They are fast and functional because that’s what Google (and your visitors want), and they also work well on whatever device they are being viewed on, including desktop, smartphone, or mobile device.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the technical process behind a website to improve a site’s ranking in the search engines. SEO incorporates a variety of techniques, including keyword-rich content (the phrases people type into the search engines), backlinking, and building an active social media presence.Â
DIGITALON are leading website design experts in Australia and have many years of experience building fantastic websites for home builders and helping them get found in the search engines. Their sites are as beautiful and elegant as they are technically proficient and use all the latest digital marketing techniques that are sure to bring you more leads at an affordable price.
