Home Builder Websites for Build Expo by Terry Zelen Part 1

Here Terry Zelen presents the importance of home builder and developer websites for the Build Expo in Tampa, Florida. During his presentation, he mentions information overload, functionality and reliability.

Information overload is when you have too much information on your home builder or developer website which unfortunately limits the need to meet your prospects in person. Be careful of this fine line by giving your audience enough information to schedule a tour.

Functionality for websites means are they built to last and meet your expectations. Your website needs to be mobile compliant, have https for security, and avoid the use of templates because things break overtime.

Reliability for websites refers to how long your website stays online. A bad hosting company can breach your website security, while on the other hand, a good hosting company prevents all hacking. Choose a high quality hosting company for a highly reliable website.

More about Terry:

Terry is a member of the Tampa Bay Builders Association, Urban Land Institute, Leadership Tampa Bay, Economic Club of Tampa and Florida SMC. He has free online resources for you to learn more about digital marketing for home builders and developers, here they are: www.the-punch-list.com, a Real Estate Marketing Strategy Group on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12308... and www.TheSEOCamelion.com.

#DigitalMarketing #Webinar #HomeBuilders #Developers #TBBA #TerryZelen #TampaBayBuildersAssociation #SEO #PPC #Retargeting #Google #WebsiteDevelopment #Marketing #Marketingsolved #HomeBuilderMarketing #RealEstateMarketing

Transcript:

There is a fine line in our opinion between, between having enough information and having too much. We have seen him where you've given them so much information that they really don't feel the need to actually come in and see it.

And that's a mistake so it's a fine line we want to make sure that we give them enough to entice them, but not so much that they feel like I've seen everything I'm going to see on this house, and perhaps this isn't a fit for me or. It looks just like the other builder that's in the neighborhood. I'm not so sure.

This one's a little bit better price maybe that's what I want. But really, there's very few people are going to purchase a home online. So the goal is to drive your traffic to the website and the drive the website drives the traffic into your models and actually your communities your homes, so that they see them in person. So the story here is information overload.

We actually worked with a client they had done so much that we picked up the website from a previous developer that had worked on it. They had every Bell and whistle you could have on the website they had 3d tours they had interactive floor plans they had videos of everything.

And we did a small focus group and we found that some of the people who had come, who would address it or make calls or fill out email forms, but never came in, said well I really didn't feel like I had a need. But that's a loss because you can't sell a home on the website. if they walk through your home they see the true details in the crown molding, the cabinetry you use before finishes.

That's really the difference in your home and another home builder that may be in the neighborhood that doesn't be so same condition. So, number four is functionality, or your home is built built to last and are they built on the proper platform. And do they also meet the expectations of quality that you're consuming.

Today, Google really mandated this a few years ago but mobile compliance so your website has to work as well on a desktop as it does on a mobile device on a smartphone. That's critical, we talked about speed a little bit earlier. And that's really important that the site is as fast as it can be for the mobile devices.

And then also, when I was talking about templates earlier, there's some other issues with templates and one is security. And the security is an issue because the templates may have flaws in them from a coding standpoint, which might cause issues with a hacker being able to get in. If they're not a really great quality coding template.

There's a lot of templates out there. There's some that are extremely popular so if you choose a template that's extremely popular because your developers use that they may say, you know what this is great, I'm gonna use this template and maybe 100 other builders across the country are using that same template, or even more.

So you want your, your site to view as unique as your homepage. So try and avoid if you can using templates. And the other thing about security is when you're doing your website. If you look up in the URL HTTP or HTTPS.