In the ever-changing world of search engine optimization (SEO), it’s important to stay on top of the latest algorithm updates and search trends if you want to keep your website climbing to the top of organic rankings. As the new year approaches, take a look at where search engine trends are heading, so you can be sure that you’re ahead of the game!

Optimize for Voice Search

With devices like Alexa and virtual assistants like Siri, voice search now plays a big role in SEO strategy. When optimizing for voice search, it’s important to think about how people speak when searching for information, and target those semantic keywords appropriately. 

Blogs provide the perfect opportunity to create content with these types of keywords. Content focused on relevant, commonly asked questions, like “how to decorate a new home” or “when do you close on a new construction home” lets you target users who utilize virtual assistants when searching for information.

Voice search is also commonly used for things like checking the hours of your sales office or asking for directions to your model home. For this reason, it’s important to ensure NAP consistency (Name-Address-Place) across directory websites, including your Google My Business listing, which should always be kept up to date.

Compete for Featured Snippets

If Google can provide a user with the information they’re looking for, without ever having to leave the search results page, they’ll do it. Enter, featured snippets.

Featured snippets are information panels, found at the top of Google search results, that can take the form of short paragraphs, how-to’s, or bulleted lists. While featured snippet results aren’t found with every search query, it’s important to optimize your content to best contend for these coveted spots.

How can you compete for featured snippet results? Simple. Quality content and structured data. Make sure the content you write is engaging, and targets high-volume keywords in the title and header tags throughout. Structured data markups (like Schema) help search engines understand the format of your content, and determine its relevance for related search queries.

Focus on Your Website’s User Experience (UX)

Once a user gets to your website, can they find what they’re looking for quickly and easily? Is your website’s loading speed causing a high bounce rate? These are just a few of the questions you need to consider when checking in on your website’s user experience.

The better your website performs technically, the easier it is for users to access across devices and bandwidths. In 2020, the gold standard was ensuring that your pages load within 3 seconds of entering the URL. With 60% of search traffic coming from mobile devices, and with Google’s Mobile-First Indexing, page speed is a huge ranking factor for SEO.

For homebuilders, it’s important to consider what users are searching for when considering a new home. Having pages on your website that are tailored to what users want and need will drastically improve user engagement, which is a strong signal to search engines that your content is relevant to related search queries.

Content is Still King

Strong blog content gives you a leg up on your competitors. According to an SEO report from SEMrush, longer reads get 3 times more traffic and 4 times more shares — but this doesn’t mean you should fill your blogs with fluff. Your long-from content should position you as a reliable resource by providing helpful, timely information that engages potential buyers and builds trust while utilizing high search volume keywords. Make sure to check out our previous blog about effective ways to optimize your blog content for SEO.

Like your content, blog titles that target keywords like “Best Places to Live in Des Moines” or “The Cost of Building a Home in Raleigh, NC” help to establish you as a guide for your area, and are great for engaging top-of-the-funnel potential buyers.

Your Home Builder SEO Strategy

While 2021 doesn’t seem to be throwing too many curveballs in regards to changing SEO strategies, highly valued keywords are only going to become more competitive to rank for. With that in mind, it’s important to focus on a few key things to ensure your website doesn’t drop off the map for organic search:

• Optimize for voice search by targeting longer, conversational keywords
• Utilize structured data to compete for featured snippets
• Optimize your website’s technical performance and user experience
• Focus on informative, long-form content that keeps users engaged

Feeling overwhelmed with SEO and your website’s visibility in search results? Don’t fret! Our home builder SEO service can help! Head into 2021 knowing you have an expert team behind you.