Dax Shepard’s intro to his podcast is in my head as I start writing this today… Hello hello hello and welcome welcome welcome welcome to The ONeil Edit. I guess that’s my brain’s way of trying to psyche me up for writing this morning. I’m in a bit of a funk and finding exciting marketing and housing news this week was hard. Don’t you hate it when things you love and usually find easy prove to be difficult? Just like my kids. Love them to death but OH MY GOD getting out of the house on time each morning is PAINFUL!
Ok so anyway onto the good stuff of marketing this week. I’ve got SEO and GA4 on the brain, and wouldn’t you know it, those topics made it into the articles I found interesting this week. There are some other goodies too, like a housing futurecast, rationalizing higher mortgage prices as a good thing, and a little explainer on Duck Duck Go that search engine that is creeping into home builder’s source data.
🕵️♀️ SEO
The thing about SEO is that it encompasses such a vast array of skills and requires such depth of knowledge that even when you know an awful lot about it, chances are you’re just scratching the surface. Truthfully, I find it incredibly intimidating. Needless to say that because of all of that, I try to soak up as much information on the subject as possible to confront my fears and help our builders climb the mountain that is SEO. All that said, I found this article to be a balm to my SEO struggles because it validates the parts of SEO that I feel like I really do know and get – SEO can’t exist in a vacuum. If you put all your eggs in the SEO basket you’ll fail. With nothing else to support it, no amount of time, love, and SEO attention will single handedly support a home builder’s website success. You have to nurture the SEO with a supporting cast of marketing.
➡️ A rising tide lifts all boats.⬅️
📈 GA4
A couple of issues ago I shared that GA3 will sunset in July 2023. This is way faster than most people anticipated and it means that we all have to get on the GA4 train like right now if we want to preserve some historical data. If you haven’t taken a peak at GA4, let me tell you that it is WAY different than GA3 in it’s look and feel, not to mention that data that it will share with you. There’s a lot to learn so here’s a handy dandy intro to GA4. Good news though, there’s a very useful search box at the top to help you find the information that you’re looking for.
I’ll also use the opportunity to promote our April 29th (1pm Eastern) episode of Homefiniti & Beyond because the topic is none other than GA4 and Dennis will be joining me to share all his knowledge.
🏡 HOUSING FORECAST
Business Insider rounded up 5 hot takes on the housing market. 4 of the 5 predict a downturn in the housing market. Essentially, they feel that rising interest rates and the massive increase in the cost of homes will drive down demand and bring about the downturn. It’s worth noting that the one article that is bullish on the market centered on the thoughts of a man who owns a mortgage company so there’s that.
Speaking of mortgages, Money has this article about why higher rates are a good thing for the market. And it supports a downturn theory because one of the arguments is that higher rates will drive down interest in home buying which could then slow down home price growth. The flip side to this is that it could create more housing supply that would be able to better meet the demand. In order for this to happen though, rates have to get up into the 7%-8% range for a sustained period of time.
🦆 DUCK DUCK GO
Slowly but surely, we’ve started to notice this search engine popping up in source reports for home builders. It’s big claim to fame is that it is supposed to protect a user’s privacy and as such it doesn’t’ sell ads. It’s like the anti-Google.
In certain circles people believe that Google is anti-conservative and therefore does not surface results for ultra conservative websites. This is false. However, it is a rallying point and those who believe it tout Duck Duck Go as the solution. Between this and many people’s newfound concerns for internet privacy, the search engine is the second most popular mobile search engine these days.
It’s small but mighty and while it’s not as advanced at Google, that privacy part sure is attractive. Have you given it a try?
Good news everybody, the act of writing this has removed my funk and I’m ready to conquer my Friday! 👩💻 Hope you have a good one too 👋
