Marketing self build homes

Marketing self build homes isn’t a challenge that comes along very often, so when we were approached by Scandinavian Homes we jumped at the chance to work on such an interesting project.

Scandinavian Homes are a family-run business based in Yorkshire. Offering a wide range of luxury self-build homes and garden buildings, the four-person team help make their customers’ dreams of building their own sustainable homes a reality. As self-build specialists, Scandinavian Homes offer a full turnkey service, guiding the customer through the entire process (from their initial call, through to moving them into their new home), or can simply provide them with a kit to build themselves.

The Problem

Scandinavian Homes felt their website could drive greater results. Aesthetically outdated, their website was confusing to navigate, and crucially, didn’t have a search facility. Factors which can contribute to a lower enquiry level.

Their original website was unoptimised, costing them valuable organic traffic, requiring a new voice and an informed approach.

The Solution

After a detailed consultation with Scandinavian Homes, we began by producing a detailed audit of their existing website and content, documenting all our proposed changes and additions. This included detailing how we proposed their site’s architecture should be restructured, to create a logical user journey, and documenting where all-important conversion points would be placed across pages.

This content audit served as a blueprint as we began looking at the design of a new website, providing Scandinavian Homes with a number of design options to choose from before developing the rest of the site in-line with this aesthetic.

Simultaneously, our SEO team deployed extensive keyword research, compiling a report which matched a range of key terms to their appropriate website pages, complete with the terms’ estimated monthly search metrics. In consultation with Scandinavian Homes, we identified each page’s optimum key term, so we could begin crafting optimised copy, and begin transforming their site into a powerful lead generating tool.

Website Design & Development

Using our initial audit of their original website as a blueprint, we prepared a number of website design options for Scandinavian Homes, utilising crisp, white space for a cleaner, more modern user experience, and mirroring the simple yet refined characteristics associated with Scandinavian design.

With a design agreed upon, we developed pages in line with the content audit we compiled, arranging page elements in a logical way, and placing conversion points effectively, providing a short, logic path to conversion for the use.

Copywriting

Opting for a warmer, friendly voice to reflect the business, we began crafting entirely new website copy, optimised for each page’s key term.

With strong in-house copywriting skills, we were able to produce copy that helped to really sell the self-build dream to users, something missing from the original site. While inspiring the user, it was essential that the copy also informed them about this niche area of the homebuilding industry, and how Scandinavian Homes can help, answering the many likely questions their users have.

Armed with our content audit and key word research document, we produced well-optimised copy that considered each page’s placement in the site’s architecture, providing more technical details on product pages, and providing an educational background on the subject of self-build homes and the self-build process in top-level navigation pages, etc.

Search Engine Optimisation

Exploring the search landscape around Scandinavian Homes products extensively, we were able to identify key terms with considerable search volume, likely to be used by their potential users, that generated search results strongly aligned with the business and their offering.

This means we can keep bounce rates low, maintaining the traffic on site, and accelerate conversion rates, by ensuring content and SEO strategy are aligned.

With newly crafted, well-optimised copy, we were able to embark upon the page optimisation process, adding and optimising images, inserting internal and outbound links, and amending page descriptions, SEO titles and URL’s etc.

Key terms were then added Moz, our tool of choice for tracking SEO campaigns, so we can report on search rankings each month, and identify areas of the site that require attention to increase ranking positions, helping us accelerate conversions relevant to specific key terms.