Open your website and look at the first page. Does it say “custom homes, new construction, communities, remodels, we do it all” over a photo of a kitchen? Most builder websites do. It looks fine to you. It looks like nothing to Google, because one page is trying to answer four different questions.
Here is the fix. Start with the two searches that bring real buyers to a model home, and give each one a page of its own.
Search one: “new homes in [area]”
This is a family that wants a new house and does not want to build it from scratch. They type “new homes in Wesley Chapel” or “new construction homes Pasco County” and they want to see communities, prices and move-in dates. They are comparing you against the big national builders, who have a page for every community they sell in.
Your new homes page should list every community you are building in, with a price range, the plans available there, and what is ready now versus what is coming. Then a link to each community's own page. The community pages guide shows how to build those.
Search two: “custom home builder [city]”
This is a different person. They own a lot, or they are about to, or they have looked at every resale home in town and hated all of them. They type “custom home builder Tampa” or “build on your lot builder.” They are not comparing communities. They are comparing you, the person, against three other builders, and they are going to read every page you have.
Your custom home page should explain how it works, in order. The first meeting. Design. Permits. The build, stage by stage. How long it takes. How pricing works and roughly where it starts for a home like the ones you build. Then photos of real homes you finished, with the town. Then the names of the people they will deal with.
Why one page cannot do both
Google reads the words on a page and decides what question it answers. A page that is half “here are our communities” and half “here is how we build your dream” is the best answer to neither. The builder with a clean, separate page for each shows up for each. Most of your competitors have not done it, because they are busy building houses.
The words that belong on each page
- New homes page: new homes, new construction, community names, move-in ready, quick move-in, price from, floor plans, the county and town names.
- Custom home page: custom home builder, build on your lot, design build, process, timeline, cost per square foot, the towns and neighborhoods you have built in.
Put the main phrase in the page title, the first heading and the first sentence. That is not a trick. It is how you tell Google which question the page answers.
Where the button goes
On the new homes page, the button says “See what is available” and goes to the communities. On the custom page, the button says “Book a first meeting” and goes to a short form that asks whether they own a lot yet. The community buyer wants to browse. The custom buyer wants to talk to a person. Give each one the thing they came for, on the first screen, on a phone.
The long funnel
Nobody buys a house the day they search. A buyer looks for months. They search communities, then plans, then “cost to build,” then builder names. If your pages show up at each of those steps, you are on the short list before they ever visit a model home. If you only show up at the end, you are the builder they call last, if at all. The cost-to-build guide covers the middle of that funnel, where almost nobody competes.
How to tell if you have this problem
Search “new homes in” plus a town you build in, then “custom home builder” plus your city. If the same page of yours shows up for both, or neither shows up at all, you are sending two buyers to one page. Split them. It usually takes a weekend, and it is the fastest ranking win in this trade.
Want this done for you?
I run a home builder lead site in Tampa Bay myself, and splitting these two pages was the first thing I did there. If you want me to look at yours, the audit is free and I send it the same business day.