In this newsletter edition:
- Gauging the numbers.
- Demystifying Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a.k.a. showing up on Google good.
Gauging the numbers (US)
- Existing home inventory in July 2024 was 1,330,000, up from 1,110,000 in July 2023. (source: NAR)
- In the first quarter of 2024, about 42,000 townhouses, or single-family attached homes, started construction. That’s 45% more than in the first quarter of 2023. (source: NAHB)
- The median days on the market in July 2024 was 50 compared to 44 in July 2023. (source: FRED)
- HomeGauge’s August 2024 Gauge is 412% longer than our August 2023 Newsletter.
I’ll tell you what… things are looking up
Like we reported last month, the numbers show the market is tilting slightly in favor of buyers, which is more good news for home inspectors! Now more than ever, it’s important to make sure you’re easy to find online.
Did you know that 97% of homebuyers (yes, 97%) use the Internet when doing homebuying-related searches? (source: NAR) Jeez, you better not miss out…
NOTICE: People are Googling home inspectors right now this very minute — can they find you? Can you find you on Google? Is your SEO rocking or tanking?
ALSO NOTICE: This is a heck of a read, but it’s totally worth it. We’re spilling all the beans, and if you make it to the very end, we’ve got a little somethin’ for you. Promise!
Demystifying Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a.k.a. showing up on Google good
Search engines — especially the behemoth/monopoly that is Google — rank websites based on search terms and the best results show up at the top. So the question is, how do I make my website the best result that shows up when users search? It’s really not rocket surgery — if you have the time and interest, you can learn and do it all yourself. If you don’t have the time or interest, hire someone who does. Here are some things that make a difference:
Content makes a difference
Google’s published advice for ranking well on its search engine is simple: create a quality website with quality content. If you take away just one point from this email, let it be this — it’s the most important thing. Your friendly neighborhood website should inform, build trust, and encourage visitors to choose you.
Tell people who and where you are (a friendly picture to match up with your name never hurts), what special skills you bring to the table, and why they should hire you. Share a bit about yourself, like why you became an inspector, interesting experiences you’ve had inspecting, or what drives you to be an inspector. Finding ways to connect with your community helps your new visitors feel confident hiring you — as you are otherwise a complete stranger to them.
Use real photos where they make sense, showing you at work or maybe wearing boot covers during an inspection so they can see that you take extra care when working. How about a video introduction front and center of your home page to help you connect with your visitors? Use your creativity! Bring in testimonials and any other 3rd party recommendations. Let your site show people why they can trust you.
You’ve likely heard this all before and are sick of hearing it (trust us, we’re tired of hearing ourselves say it, too). But bear with us for a moment. Picture yourself as a homebuyer visiting your website for the first time, completely clueless about you, your business, or home inspections. Would you hire your own company based on what you see? Be honest with yourself and even ask your friends the same question.
Google, just like your visitors, checks your content to see if it is worthy of a high ranking. So make sure it is! One small bonus note: Google may penalize web pages for poorly written content (poor grammar, misspelled words, etc.), so have someone go over your content or use tools to check your text. Better yet, hire a professional writer.
Content marketing makes a difference
Writing useful articles on topics related to your business is a proven SEO strategy. We’re talking mostly about blogging here, but it doesn’t always have to be a blog, you can publish to your regular website pages and even external sites. The goal is to attract search traffic from homebuyers and real estate agents who are searching for information on Google.
You are an expert in your field and can probably talk about a lot of things. In fact, we know you can — we’ve met many inspectors in person over the past 20-some-odd years! From HVAC systems to roofing to home maintenance, there’s a lot you can write about. Just be sure to target homebuyers and real estate agents with your content, not other home inspectors.
Articles like these on your website or on external sites will widen your net on Google. People searching for things related to your business may come across your site through these articles in online searches. It’s a way to get people to your site and put your business on their minds. Also, when people find your content through Google, Google uses that as a signal that your site is popular and gives it a boost.
While creating this kind of content takes time and effort, it pays off in dividends. Depending on your situation and/or interest in writing, this is something you can do yourself in 10 kinda-easy steps. If writing isn’t your thing, hire someone to do it for you while you focus on inspections.
Calls to action make a difference
So, what’s going to push someone over the edge to choose you instead of a competitor offering the exact same service? What do you think it would take? Free infrared scans or 360 imaging with your reports? A sweet discount for booking online? How about exclusive specials for particular groups or for employees of big companies in your area?
Special offerings encourage people to use your service, and also potentially make your site busier, with more pageviews, scrolls, and clicks, sending another signal to Google that your site is a good resource.
Contact info makes a difference
Make sure your contact information is easy to find. It might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many websites miss the mark. If you’re a real nerd like us, include your contact details in your site’s schema/structured data as well. Wait, what is that? It’s some code in your site that helps the search engines.
If you use WordPress or another website builder, you can usually add schema through a plugin. This contact information and schema also help Google get your location right, key for those local search results you depend on as a service-based business. If you are interested in adding schema to your website, just hit us up for more information.
Webpage content layout makes a difference
Webpages are a mix of invisible and visible elements with meta titles/meta descriptions/alt tags (the stuff just there for search engines) and headings/paragraphs/images/links (the stuff you can see when looking at a site). All elements should match your page’s key topics to make sure Google takes notice.
On the visible side, each webpage should have one primary heading (the h1 tag) packed with your most important key phrases. This is your page’s main spotlight. Then, you can use subheadings (h2, h3, h4, etc.) and paragraphs to dive deeper into the main topic. Meta titles and meta descriptions are displayed in the search results and should reflect the page’s content.
Last but not least, don’t forget about images! They need their own alt and title tags, too. These tags are like mini SEO agents for your images, helping reinforce your page’s content by complimenting the theme and keywords.
Internal linking to your site’s pages is another easy yet powerful tactic. By linking to other pages on your site with relevant terms as anchor text, you give Google a roadmap to your site’s most important content.
There are plenty of tools out there to help audit your webpages and see that all these things (and more!) are set up correctly. One popular option is the Yoast plugin for WordPress — there’s even a free version available! The point is, Google cares about these details, and it’s relatively easy to get them right using freely available tools. Click that link up there and our Web team will work up a free site audit to get you started.
Mobile makes a difference
- 76% of homebuyers use a mobile or tablet device when doing homebuying-related searches. (source: NAR)
In our mobile-first world, Google looks at ranking websites from a mobile-first perspective, meaning your website absolutely has to shine when viewed on a mobile device. If it doesn’t, and we know from experience that many inspectors’ websites still don’t… (if you’re wondering if we’re talking about you, yes, yes we are), it’s time to revamp your website. If your website doesn’t work well on mobile, Google will not rank it well.
External links make a difference
You link, I link, we all link for Google! A big signal to Google, and what really made Google Google in the first place, is ranking websites by how many other sites link to them. What else is there to say? Get quality sites to link to your site. The more sites that link to yours, the better your chances of climbing in the search results.
This is where good content marketing (see above) pays off. When trusted sites link to one of your articles, it gives your Google rankings a nice boost. Great places to share your links are social media (share those blog posts/articles), your Google business page, industry sites and events, popular related businesses, and quality online forums. Higher traffic sites as well as .org’s and .gov’s seem to provide more Google Link Juice. Avoid link farms or linking services as they’re often shady and do more harm than good.
Technical details make a difference
Make sure to set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics on your site, both of which are free and incredibly useful. Google Search Console will tell you when there’s a technical issue on your site so you can fix it. It can also give insights on where to focus your SEO efforts.
You will want to add your sitemap to Google Search Console as well. The sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website, often created automatically by tools like Yoast. This will help Google find all the pages you want it to include in its index.
Google Analytics will tell you all sorts of things about the traffic to your website, probably more than you ever wanted to know. With a quick glance at your Google Analytics, you can see what’s working and what isn’t, so you can fine-tune your website strategies accordingly.
Wrapping things up makes a difference
Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. A good SEO campaign takes time and effort — there’s no shortcut to it. If someone contacts you and promises you’ll be at the top of page 1 within a few days for any amount of dollars… they lyin’.
We hope these ideas give you a solid starting point! There are always more details to work on and more content you can create to help improve your website’s SEO and position in the search results. In SEO, all the things add up over time, but getting the core basics lined up will make all the difference in your long-term success.
*At HomeGauge, we work closely with home inspectors every day to build great websites and boost their SEO.