Homebuilders.com

Why have an interactive web site? It’s not just flash and noise (and definitely not noisy Flash). There are interactive features out there that, when integrated, are a huge help to your potential homebuyer. Which means they like you and your site better; the start of both a beautiful relationship and solid sales. What kind of interactive features can you incorporate into you web design for excellent user experiences?

Sharing. You want to be as easy as possible for an interested home buyer to email you, repin an exterior photo, tweet a sale, and like a blog post. Having share buttons and email links throughout the site makes that communication a breeze (and so also, far more likely to happen). People don’t want to bother going through several steps to share something or hunt down an email address. Having that quick email also means that they immediately feel connected to and listened by you. Just make sure you get back in touch quickly too!

Video. Videos and interactive home tours make it possible for the home buyer to interact with you and your homes before they ever step out the door. And that’s huge. That not only helps the home buyer filter down her search, but it also means she comes to you already knowing what she’s looking for and that you offer it. Videos are becoming more and more common, so this is both joining early and avoiding being left behind an important trend.

Interactive floor plans. These allow the homebuilder to really see what you’re capable of. Interactive plans allow them to add on additions, subtract rooms, see how a study changes the flow of the first floor. They’re an excellent sales tool and provide a wealth of information to the buyer. This is a very cutting edge addition and so potentially costly, but definitely worth the consideration.

Calculators. As your homebuyer is considering their options and pondering location and design, they’re also going to have a lot of financial questions. Having a convenient mortgage calculator right on the site makes it easy for them to review their choices and make informed decisions. There are plenty of free mortgage calculator plugins to use too, so you won’t have to get your own calculator and see if the addition is worth it.

A Custom Dashboard. This allows homebuilders to save favorites as they go through your site. Now they feel an immediate sense of belonging and ownership of their discoveries. Plus it makes it way easier for them to remember exactly what floor plan they liked or what available home they saw a few days ago. A favorites folder that they can save and add to begins that client-focused relationship between you.

In fact, all of these features are based on making the home builder interested and happy. What interactive feature of your web design do you find most important?

Those in home builder marketing, are you looking to increase your website leads? We all are. The question is how. It starts with your analytics. A critical component of any successful website initiative is  an ongoing analysis of your analytics. You may be finding that you are getting good traffic, but then not converting that traffic to leads.

A good rule of thumb is that for every 1,000 visits to your site, you should be converting twenty leads. If you aren’t getting that, think about creating funnels on your site. A funnel is nothing more than a process where you maneuver your prospective buyer to give you their email address in return for more information about your homes or communities. Sounds easy enough, but there really is a best practice to adhere to.

Two popular options for home builder information are the ‘download brochure’ and ‘print plan options’. In these examples, you have a prospective buyer who is looking at the plan details for one of your communities. They’re checking out the plan specifics, and you’ve given them just enough to get them interested. The next step is offering them more information. Maybe it’s additional elevations, maybe it’s plan options – interactive floor plans work great for this. You want to give them the information they’re looking for – you just need an email address for them so you can email them the printable brochure (or whatever collateral you have to offer). They fill in a quick, convenient form right there on the page. And while you’re emailing the information to the prospective buyer, you’re also emailing your online sales counselor. A follow up call is initiated, and the sales process begins.

The whole point of having a website is creating a place on the web for visitors and homebuyers to come and gather information about you or your company. Usability can be defined as how easily a user can complete a task, from their previous web browsing experience, or improving or creating a new way for them to interact. Here are some ways to evaluate your website for usability and ease of use.

Create Intuitive & Active Navigation. When someone visits your website, they instantly look for a way to get to your products, homes or “what you can do for them”. Its important to name your main navigation correctly. Creating dropdown menus for less important pages is very appealing and a nice JavaScript interactive navigation keeps the user’s attention.

Write Comfortable Copy. Writing for the web is constantly changing and it is becoming more focused on the user. Writing casually and keeping in mind that they are in the driver’s seat by making them feel like they are in a comfortable environment. Always leave a way for them to contact you at their convenience. Read an earlier article about writing great web copy for your website.

Ensure Readability. When your copy is in place, check to see that the height between lines is nice and readable. Headers should be tightened up closer to the intro paragraph without a huge gap between. Grouping items closer shows association and entices the reader to read more. Have others take a look and give feedback on how easy it is to read your copy.

Make clickable links larger. Adding more space around links adds to ease of usability, especially since so many users are browsing from their mobile phones. It can be frustrating when trying to click a tiny link with your smart phone’s touch screen.

Be Responsive to Users. Not only do you want people to browse your site, but you want leads too! Once users have the information and tools they need to spark enough interest to contact you, make sure that you get back to them immediately. Remember that your competitors are just one click away so the quicker you respond, the more likely you’ve converted a web user to a lead and on to an owner of one of your homes or products.

_{Have you been thinking about a website redesign? Ever since Google has released its new Panda algorithm, many website owners have been so their web design is more SEO friendly but all too often, websites are being designed before they decide to get involved with SEO. This is a bad idea since web design lends itself to SEO and they both work together and influence each other. To have SEO play nicely with your design, consider these things first.}

_{Examine Your Site. Before you begin redesigning your site, have an SEO expert take a look at your current site and determine what problematic issues there are, then you can plan accordingly as you design your new site. They will pay close attention to the navigation and scanning through all of the pages within the site using most of the top search engines.}

_{Wireframes. When you are in the planning stages of the website, getting your SEO expert involved can really help steer you in the right direction and help you avoid some bad decisions when it comes to design. This planning stage usually involves putting together the bare bones of the site or wireframe.}

_{Keywords. It is important to know what people are searching for to find the kinds of homes you build. Do some research into your target audience and traffic that uses certain words and phrases when using a search engine. See which searches end up getting the most relevant information and use it to your advantage. If you are using an good SEO person, they should doing this for you and asking you many questions about your business and the competition you’ve got to beat.  Use these keywords when designing the website and make sure that the designer is using text, not graphics for all of your buttons, navigation etc.}

_{Content. While your site is being designed, you should be thinking of writing more relevant, keyword-enriched copy for your pages that is original. Do not copy another website’s information or that could sink your SEO. See a past article on writing good web copy.}

_{These are just a few of the things that you should be doing before and when designing for SEO on your website. Optimizing your website is a very tedious and time consuming and ongoing process to get the best results. For more information on SEO, read Jim Adams articles here on Homebuilders.com.}

Just a few months ago, Google released a new update to their search engine algorithm, called Panda, that has had very wide-reaching affects, including about 35% of all searches online and the rankings of 12% of those search results.

The reason for Google’s new Panda algorithm is because they are responding to an increasing demand to provide the most useful results. Services such as Facebook and Twitter, whose users expect instant updating, play a big part. This new algorithm helps these search results populate with the freshest news.

This new rollout of Panda has changed dramatically how sites are ranked. Older, low quality sites have virtually disappeared and nicer high quality designed sites have seen their rankings improve. Now the question persists, how do you make sure that your site’s design is seen as high quality?

We’ve talked on these subjects extensively in past blog articles, now may be a time to really gauge your site’s design and functionality or you may be left in the dust for good. Here are some tips on optimizing your site.

Engage Your Audience. A big part of the reason of the for this new algorithm is that Google’s bots are thinking more like humans in terms of site metrics. The more your site engages its users, and the quality of user experience, the better. You may see these types of metrics in your monthly Google analytics reports. The amount of time users spend on your site, the pages per visit and response times are a few to mention.

Mind your P’s and Q’s. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that good grammar is important? Well, she was right and your web copy may be suffering from bad spelling and poor grammar. Google does evaluate the quality of content on web pages. The ability to spell correctly will actually rank you higher than sites that do not spell as well.

Stay Fresh. We’ve said this before and have stressed the importance of creating good web content and copy. This means having original content that sets you apart and defines your purpose. Having a good blog on your site is always a great idea by keeping updated, fresh content that help Google index your site more frequently.

Pack Light. You may want to take a look at how your site is coded and see if it complies with the current web standards. Years ago, designers and programmers used code that was incredibly lengthy and heavy where only 1 or 2 lines of code would do it now. Using good quality code that is more lightweight will improve your rankings.

Using these few tips to evaluate your current site, or when building a new site, will keep you ranking higher and help ensure that your site is up to or above the standard.

As web designers, we spend countless hours on focusing what the client’s objectives are, brand appearance, the customer’s needs, as well as all the page layouts, navigation and functionality of the website. Given all the wonderful design tools, its really the content of all of the pages that is the key to success. The website is only as good as its content. Its what conveys the message, boosts online presence and traffic. Here are some tips to writing and preparing the best web copy for your website and what you should avoid.

Creating Convincing Copy

1. Be personable. No one wants to feel pressured when they visit a website. Keep your copy personal and relaxed throughout the site. Simply putting your photo on the About page won’t be enough to convey your company’s personality. Don’t write in 3^rd person or like you’re reciting from Wikipedia. Reach your audience by speaking directly to them and find a way to connect by sharing or relating personal experiences. Be convincing by telling them what you can do for them.
2. Enrich your Writing. Using keywords in your copy is necessary if you want to draw a crowd and the right web visitors to your site. SEO enriched copy is key. Keywords are not hard to use, just ask yourself what words would you use to find your site? Use them throughout every page but do not overuse them or you will sound spammy or too forceful.
3. Use Different Text Lengths. Web users want information fast and usually will scan a page quickly. Your copy should include short bursts of text or headlines that stand out to the reader and will make them stop and read or go back and read the smaller text if its what they’re looking for.

Avoid Writing Offending Copy

1. Don’t be an Ego-maniac. Self centered web copy that is full of ‘we’s’ good practice for marketing and selling your products. Web users don’t really care about the company, they only care about what you can do for them. Your company values and commitments may be important, just relate it to the customer.
2. Don’t be a Blabbermouth. Long, drawn out web copy is just daunting & boring and it makes people want to leave. Keep it short and simple using key words and messages that get to the point. The website will be able to communicate much easier and quicker to visitors.
3. Don’t Scream. It may seem that writing copy that is full of hype, written in bold, all-caps will get the attention of your visitors. Not true. Visitors want helpful and informative content that isn’t all in their faces.  You want to express a message that gives reasons why they should be interested and back up your claim.

Combining  good website design with good web copy on your website will prove to be a very powerful tool and result in happy customers ready to do business with you.

When beginning to design a new website for consumers, or when evaluating your existing site, it is important that it has a unique quality and emotion that influences the user and reflects your brand. Giving a website a personality greatly influences decision-making on part of the user and can be a very powerful tool.

Often called Interface design, Human-Computer Interaction is where all the elements of computer science, behavioral science and design come together. They influence the user through emotion the way two people would interact. What’s interesting is that when done right, the personality of the product will override the computer’s inanimate coldness.

It is extremely important to know your audience and what makes people interested in your product. If you’re trying to sell homes, the website must be “trustworthy” and convey an openness as if they were stepping into one of your model show homes. Its true that many people with the idea of buying a new home will look online first, and your website must be invite them in, and offer them all the information that they are seeking instantly, or these “browsers” will go elsewhere.

Get involved in the design process with the web designers and make sure that they understand what really drives your customers and how your brand is important so they can bring it to life. Many times over, the designers will know how the architecture or “ bare bones” of the site should be orchestrated, to enhance a user’s experience and get them to information quickly.

Only when you are comfortable and knowledgeable of your brand’s influence on your customers, will you be able to create a powerful website full of personality that will meet people face-to-face and overall, win their trust. Its is very important to great customer service and an online sales person that will continue to embody the same brand persona and guide them to the next step of purchasing a home or product. Most importantly, if you don’t respond to them in a timely fashion, you could lose that person and bond you created online. Remember to follow up!

Here’s another sign that the times are changing and technology is only getting better, especially when it comes to building a website. Its astonishing to see how far we’ve come just in the last ten years.

The 3 key technologies that exists within a normal website are HTML, CSS and JavaScript. jQuery has been the leader in the JavaScript department and makes it easier and faster to build web pages with Javascript.

For years, Javascript has been used by designers as a way to respond to user interaction and has become the favorite over Flash according to appendTo, LLC, a company dedicated to jQuery and jQuery support. Their research confirms that more and more web developers are using jQuery and Javascript over Flash at a staggering rate. Recent data that they analyzed shows that 48% of the world’s top 17,000 websites are using jQuery, compared to 47% using Flash. This is big news.

The reasons are simple. jQuery is much easier to use, learn and is an open source product. Its compatibility is also a major factor of its popularity. Mostly all web browsers support jQuery, even iPhones and iPads that do not support Flash and probably will not ever.

jQuery is also very light weight, meaning using 1 line of jQuery code to do the same thing as 10 lines of regular Javascript code. It loads extremely fast in comparison with complex Flash files that are larger and take up more space.  jQuery allows developers to have nearly the exact same functionality of Flash when creating animations and computations with much less effort.

This means that tomorrow’s web designers will be embracing the jQuery code and that in turn, web users will be happier with a fast and interactive site websites.

If you have heard the latest buzz in the mobile networking industry lately, you know that mobile sites are the way of the future for web pages. It is predicted by the year 2013, more consumers will access information and search on their mobile devices than on their computers. This being said, adding a mobile site to your companies website will be crucial in order for consumers to access your company quickly and easily on their mobile devices.

Companies whose websites do not have mobile sites are not only difficult to load and navigate, but very time consuming for a consumer to find out any information, often leading them to search for a site with a mobile page.

Having a mobile site allows clients to access your site anywhere at anytime. Mobile websites allow rapid website load time, immediate access to phone numbers, directions, hours, contact information, and easy to navigate pages.

Adding a mobile website to your company site will have a major impact on your web traffic bringing you leads and increased visibility.

When creating a home builder website, there are several important elements that can give you an edge over other home builder websites.  The truth is, having a professional home builder website is crucial to bringing in clients considering 80% of homebuyers search online for homes.

The first thing you want on your website are the houses and floor plans available. In order to save potential clients time, allow them access to view home plans online. A typical home builder should offer several home and floor plans so clients can see if the homes fit what they are looking for before heading out to view the homes.

Giving potential clients the ability to print plans and brochures is also another added bonus that can give your site a leg up on the competition. This can give clients a reference as they tour model homes.

A second factor to take into account is that while some people are visual and will like as many pictures as you can give them, others might prefer more written information about the homes. Having an adequate amount of information for the client will suit those who want more than a picture.

Next, it is important to make sure that your site is easy to navigate. There is nothing more frustrating to any consumer than a site that is not easily followed. Also, have all the answers to questions they might have available on the site. For example: homes, home plans, locations, financing information, company history ext.   Along with navigation on the site, is navigation to where the homes are located. Adding an interactive map on your site allows one to click on a location and view homes in a desired area. This shows the client that the home builder wants to make the search for homes and developments easier.

Allowing the client to search by different factors they are looking for is also a way to make the search easier and more beneficial to you for potential clients. For example, allowing them to search by factors such as location, neighborhood, price range, number of rooms, amenities, ect. can help draw clients to your homes.

Have interest list forms or additional information request forms available allows for the client to take the next step in the conversation of buying a home from you, and also allows them to qualify for special offers and discounts by doing so.

Lastly, consider adding a mobile site to your website. It is predicted that by the year 2013, more people with search and browse on their cell phones than on their laptops. Having a mobile site ensures that consumers can easily access your site via their mobile device.