If you're a home builder you know how much work it takes to get noticed, and you'd rather spend more time on the job site than in the office developing your website.
Let's take a look at five solutions that can help improve your web presence and find better ways to acquire potential customers.
One: Portfolio Home Plans
Our solution is designed specifically for home builders like you. We take the headache out of web design by providing you with a modern, full-width, mobile friendly and pre-built website. This allows you to be up and running quickly so that your potential customers can start finding you as soon as possible. From there you have the option to customize it to your style and needs.
Pricing:
Set Up Fee: $2555.00
Hosting: $397.80 per year
PHP has numerous benefits that offsets the initial cost:
- Includes our home plan library
- Make money when you sell plans even if you don't build the house
- Allows you to be in control of your own sales process
- Saves you the hassle of finding a trusted web developer
- Quick setup
- Search engine friendly
- Easy to update
Two: WordPress
WordPress is one of the most recognizable content management and website creation platforms on the internet today, and there are quite a few benefits to choosing WordPress when attempting to create an online presence.
The simplicity of WordPress is why it's one of the most popular online platforms today. You can easily create and update your website from nearly anywhere, and you don't need to know any HTML code in order to create and customize a professional looking site. It can also be done by anyone in your company from any computer.
WordPress is not without its disadvantages, however, and we've come across a few cons that should be pointed out.
Since WordPress is an open-source platform that can be accessed from any computer, it can be vulnerable to security breaches from internal and external sources. While WordPress itself is free, many trusted plug-ins can be costly and bring in added expenses, and considering that it's a free platform, WordPress has very limited support and no real customer service. If you run into technical problems, you may have trouble finding quick and easy solutions.
Three: Squarespace
Squarespace has numerous website design templates available for use, and you can incorporate your own images to help promote your brand. With Squarespace, you don't have to worry about separate hosting and security fees since those are built right into your subscription price.
Unlike WordPress, Squarespace does offer customer support, however, there is no phone support, only chat box and e-mail help 24/7.
The advantages of Squarespace do come with a price tag, so you're going to have to budget for their monthly subscription rates. Creating a web presence goes far beyond simply creating a webpage, and the lack of advanced marketing tools within the Squarespace platform might not help generate as much traffic as you'd like.
Finally, Squarespace's editing process has a learning curve and adding and changing content may require patience.
Four: Wix
Beyond WordPress and Squarespace, there are other web publishing platforms to choose from and one of those is called Wix. Like any web publishing platform, Wix has its positives and its negatives.
Wix has a large number of site templates available and has a drag and drop interface making it easy to create a site that promotes your brand. In fact, Wix also includes SEO management tools that can help increase traffic. It also has a large number of add-ons and features to help customize your site and interact with potential customers and social media directly from the platform.
We've seen the positives, what about the down side of Wix?
Upon inspection, it appears that you can't easily transfer content from one template to another within the Wix platform. This can create a time-consuming task should you wish to use different templates. With Wix's free plan, your customers will see a banner at the top of your page promoting Wix's platform. This could be the first thing they see when visiting your site unless you pay for a subscription.
The final downside we see is that you won't be able to take your site with you if you outgrow the Wix platform, so you may be forced to start from scratch if you leave.
Five: Website Builders from Hosting Companies
Website hosting companies, such as GoDaddy, are a little more expensive than other platforms, but they also come with advantages such as more intuitive website builders and access to traffic metrics. Let's take a close look at the pros and cons of using a builder from hosting sites.
Using a web hosting service may cost a little extra, but you'll also get more for your money. Like some of the other platforms, website hosting companies provide easy-to-use website builders with plenty of options that don't exist on free platforms. You may also be provided more marketing tools and marketing solutions to help increase web traffic.
There are downsides to using a web hosting service over some of the other platforms, and one of the biggest ones is cost. You may be getting extra design tools, marketing help and analytic software, but you'll end up spending a lot more if you want a simple site that shows what your home building business is all about.
Supercharge any of these solutions with
Portfolio Home Plans!
Portfolio Home Plans is an easy to setup online home plan storefront home builders can embed on their websites. This gives home builders and their customers easy access to a number of home plans that can help you begin the building process quickly.
This home plan reseller program gives builders complete control of the sales process and removes the need of sending clients to a third party for designs.
Builders have the opportunity to be a part of the sales process from day one giving them more control over designs and gaining a commission from each plan sold via their websites whether they end up building the home or not.
This storefront contains great shareable content that can help boost SEO rankings and bring more traffic to your site.
