Case Study: Home Builder Website Success

Center State Construction Case Study

Center State Construction is a custom home builder servicing Marion, Citrus, Lake, Levy and Sumter Counties in Central Florida.

The Situation

Debbie and Josh Klugger needed a new website. Their old one didn’t give value to their business like they wanted it to. Toward the end of 2019 they decided they wanted a web design that would get them real results. Here are the main reasons why they knew it would be a great investment for their business:

• They wanted a more professional and welcoming presentation for their business and customers. They felt their website was driving people away and noticed the pages wouldn’t load on a mobile phone.
• They wanted to use their website as a sales tool to present home plans and pictures of the homes they build to their customers. They felt that the site was too confusing and that the structure wasn’t right to get the results they wanted.
• They wanted a website that would make their business look the most professional in Central FL. Because they have nothing but 5 star ratings and have been around for 30+ years, they needed a website to match that.

Goals of the Project

After the sit down with Center State Construction, I knew that the number one goal was to create an easy to use and professional looking website. Debbie was fed up from not being able to show customers her homes and floor plans due to the glitchy website. That’s when I knew that I needed to make her website look more professional and user friendly.

I made it clear to her that by having a more professional website, it would help her with leads. This was her second concern. When she would get a possible lead, the customers had many questions and were a bit confused since her website was jumbled and wouldn’t load on a mobile phone. This needed to be fixed. Debbie also wanted a separate page to showcase the homes she had for sale.

After realizing that a fully functional and more inviting website needed to be built, I then focused on the design. I knew that Debbie and Josh wanted a design that stood out from the competition in Central FL and showed their customers how professional they really are.

The Design Process

The first step in the design process was the overall structure of the website. We wanted to make sure that none of Center State’s hard work was put to waste. We needed all of their homes to be seen without any glitches or confusing menus getting in the way. Making sure the customers could navigate through the site easily from the beginning was the first goal. To make the overall structure more user friendly, we separated the pages into a simple navigation bar and tested it from the perspective of the customers until we felt it was right.

On the home page I wanted to have the website answer a few questions for the customer and catch their attention right away. If answered correctly in the right order, these questions will get a customer closer and closer to picking up the phone and taking action:

• Is this the perfect solution to my problem?
• What makes Center State Construction more unique and exciting than other solutions?
• How can I be sure it’s going to work for me?
• What are people saying about it?

Because the old website felt uninviting and frigid, we wanted the customers to feel warm, welcome and trusting the second they landed on the website. Feeling a sense of trust when looking at a company’s website is important to customers, especially when they are thinking about paying for your service. This is why it is absolutely necessary for construction companies to show a head shot on their website.

As you scroll down the home page, it starts with a slideshow, a head shot of the president and a section that explains what makes Center State Construction stand out from the competition. Below that shows their services, awards they’ve won and a client testimonial for extra proof of their professionalism.

Throughout the website, I linked everything together so it was easy for the customer to navigate through the site. Since Debbie and Josh had many photos and floor plans they wanted to show, we agreed to make a home plans page and linked each floor plan to a gallery so the customers could view more images of the house. The same was done on the Now Available page so that potential buyers could easily view photos and floor plans of a house they may be interested in.

Results

Since the new website was built with SEO, the traffic quickly increased after its launch in July of 2019. It went from a dead website with no leads to a website with a giant increase in organic traffic (traffic that comes from people searching for local home builders on Google). Below you can see the before and after graph I captured which tracked the amount of organic traffic that came to the website after its launch.

Since the website was launched, traffic has went up and has continued to remain steady throughout the year as you can see in the chart below.

Here is what Debbie had to say:

“Nick has a keene way of listening and executing exactly what we were looking to convey in a web design. His commitment to perfection and timeliness was very impressive. I would encourage anyone looking to update or create a new website work with Nick.”

After getting their first home sold through the new website, Debbie and Josh were extremely happy with the results they were getting. To this day, Center State Construction continues to do excellent with their business and website.

Making their site user friendly and sales focused was the base of this web design project, which is what made it a success. What also helped with the project’s success was the fact that Center State Construction is a business that builds amazing homes and provides excellent customer service. They have nothing but 5 star ratings and have been very reputable home builders in Central FL for over 30 years. They just needed a way to exhibit the great company they really are, along with the excellent homes they build.

Wouldn’t you rather have a website that has a built in sales system? If so, contact me today for a free consultation and we’ll get on a phone call together to discuss how we can get you great results just like Center State Construction.