Tell me you’re a home builder without telling me you’re a home builder. I’ll tell you I’m a home builder marketer without telling you: “What is the landing page we’re going to use and is the OSC call button trackable?
This schtick was all the rage a couple months ago on Tik Tok and has now filtered down to find itself on multiple pages of newsletters in my inbox. One of my all time favorite content marketers, Anne Handley, wrote a whole piece on how the exercise is a great way to improve your writing skills by forcing you to be more descriptive. Give it a try.
There were a couple of themes in this week’s news. One, which we have covered a ton, is data privacy and the future of digital marketing. None of the articles this week were anything more than opinion pieces, and were split pretty evenly on the impact the loss of tracking capabilities will have. I’ve opted not to share them and instead focus on the other two topics: SEO & housing.
NO WHAMMIES! NO WHAMMIES! STOP!
Do you remember that game show, Press Your Luck? The housing market is starting to feel a lot like that. There’s insane interest in new homes, especially for first time buyers. But then there’s this lumber shortage problem, the land shortage that many builders face and rising mortgage rates making selling homes as quickly as people would like to buy them, a little more difficult. Recently, NAHB worked with lawmakers to ask Biden to intervene on the lumber issue and help increase production. And with the announcement of Marcia Fudge as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, there’s hope that she’ll help intervene as well.
Press Your Luck’s catchphrase, “No Whammies!”, seems extremely apt at this moment. The housing market took a long time to get to this place and no one wants to see it stop. It appears avoidable but in the meantime it feels like everyone’s left holding their breath and hoping for no whammies.
{GOOGLES NEW HOMES IN MARYLAND}
We encounter lots of questions about SEO. It’s an always changing landscape that is crucial to the success of your website and therefore your business. This week I came across two articles that are helpful with regard to website content and the role it plays in your search rankings. Between the two articles, I thought it provided a solid base level of understanding about how to think about SEO as a whole.
The first one focuses on the tone of the copy on your website. It’s a super basic concept that seems so simple that it can’t be true. The way I write this weekly post matches the way I talk on Homefiniti & Beyond, and it is in line with the overall brand personality of ONeil, yet is also still my own voice. Consistent tone is important to SEO copywriting. Not coincidentally, it’s also important to your brand as a whole. Identify your brand personality and then write from that voice. Often, for home builders, this includes a heavy dose of authority and knowledge. You’re the expert at the service and that should show across your website. Combine that with the other aspects of your brand and your SEO should improve.
The second and related aspect to SEO copy is choosing the right words to use when linking to other places on your website or to outside sources. The long and short of that is to use words that provide context to the reader so they understand what they should expect to find when they click on the link. Easy peasy, no overthinking there! The default link copy is often click here, but in all honesty, should be used with caution. Click here doesn’t totally explain what’s on the other side of that click.
Both of these tips are ones that are easily executed when you’re writing copy for your website and apply not just to blogs, but also to that paragraph of content you include on the location, plan, and spec detail pages and all areas where there is copy on your site. Use the copy exercise in my introductory paragraph to engage the creative thinking part of your brain and take a stab at writing some SEO friendly content. Then go out and enjoy the fact that we spring forward tomorrow🌷⏰!
