What does marketing for a home builder include?

Marketing for a home builder includes three kinds of work on the website: being found for searches that name the service and the city, proving the work with project pages, and making contact simple with one phone number and an email address that works. On 80 small builder websites that Licheo read on September 29, 2026, at least 12 had a homepage title or main heading that named no service or no city.

Does a small builder who works by referral need a website at all?

A small builder who works by referral has a measurable reason to keep a website. The National Association of REALTORS reports that 51 percent of buyers found the home they bought on the internet, and 5 percent found it through a home builder or the builder's agent. A website with the service, the city, finished projects and one phone number gives a referred client a place to confirm what a friend said.

What does the Get Found Check show a builder?

The Get Found Check shows a builder a letter grade from A to F, with a score out of 100, for the website address entered. It reads the homepage, the domain settings and the security certificate, and returns findings in six areas, three to five quick fixes, a comparison with up to four competitors and a separate grade for readiness for AI assistants, in under 60 seconds. It reads one page, so the grade is a place to start.

How much does Licheo charge a home builder?

Licheo charges a home builder one flat monthly fee, month to month, with no contract. The figure is shared on a call, so contact us for pricing. Before that call, a builder can run the free Get Found Check, which returns a letter grade from A to F and three to five quick fixes in under 60 seconds, and bring the result to the conversation.

Is marketing for a small developer different from marketing for a custom home builder?

Marketing for a small developer differs from marketing for a custom home builder in who has to find the company. A custom builder needs the client who owns a lot and wants a house. A developer who buys lots and builds duplexes to sixplexes needs lot owners, partners and buyers, so the site carries a page written for each of them. VanPlex, a Vancouver multiplex builder and developer site, ranks first on Google for "Multiplex vancouver map".

What were the most common faults on the 80 builder websites Licheo read?

The most common faults on the 80 builder websites were a footer showing a year before 2026 (14 sites), no blog or news section linked from the homepage or the menu (14 sites), and a homepage title or main heading naming no service or no city (12 sites). Licheo read the websites, 40 in Arizona and 40 in Florida, twice on September 29, 2026. One note was written per site, so every count is a minimum.

Why should an Arizona builder publish a page about the January 1, 2026 middle-housing deadline?

An Arizona builder should publish a page about the January 1, 2026 deadline because the law changed what owners are allowed to build. Arizona Revised Statutes section 9-462.13 required municipalities of 75,000 people or more to allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes on single-family lots within one mile of the central business district by that date. An owner inside that area has a new question, and a page that answers it for a named city serves that owner.

How long do changes to a builder's website take to show in Google?

Changes to a builder's website take from a few hours to several months to show in Google, according to Google's Starter Guide to search engine optimization, which also suggests waiting a few weeks before assessing whether the work had an effect. One record we hold: Rain City Properties went from page 10 to the number 1 organic result, the top unpaid one, for "sell multiplex land" in 30 days, verified in April 2026.

Marketing for home builders and small developers, from the first search to the first call

How a buyer or a lot owner finds a builder in 2026, what the builder's website has to do when that person arrives, and which job comes first.

See if customers can find you

Marketing for a home builder or a small developer is the work of being found when a buyer or a lot owner searches, proving the work on the website, and making contact simple. The National Association of REALTORS reports that 43 percent of buyers looked online for properties as their first step, and 1 percent contacted a builder first. The work therefore begins with the website: a clear title, a page for each service and city, and project pages.

How does a buyer find a builder today?

Let's begin with the buyer, because every marketing decision follows from what the buyer does first. The National Association of REALTORS surveys people who have bought a home, and its 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report covers buyers across the United States who bought between July 2023 and June 2024.

But why does this matter to a builder with a few projects a year? Read the first two rows together: for 43 buyers in every 100 the search began online, and for 1 in every 100 it began with a builder. A builder who wishes to be present at that first step has to appear in a search. The report adds that 42 percent of buyers of new homes wanted to avoid renovations and problems with plumbing or electricity, a wish that a builder's own pages can answer.

How home buyers searched: a national survey of people who bought between July 2023 and June 2024. Source: National Association of REALTORS, 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, accessed 29 September 2026.
Question	Answer	Share of buyers
First step in the search	Looked online for properties for sale	43 percent
First step in the search	Contacted a builder or visited builder models	1 percent
Information source used	Real estate agent	86 percent
Information source used	Search on a phone or tablet	69 percent
Information source used	Home builder	17 percent
Where the buyer found the home	Internet	51 percent
Where the buyer found the home	Real estate agent	29 percent
Where the buyer found the home	Home builder or the builder's agent	5 percent
How the home was bought	Directly from a builder or a builder's agent	5 percent

What does a builder's website have to do?

The website has three jobs. The first is to be found for the searches that matter: the service by its name (custom homes, casitas, duplexes) together with the city. Google's Starter Guide to search engine optimization (the work of helping a website appear in search results, shortened to SEO) says that a good page title is unique to the page, clear and concise, and accurately describes the contents of the page, and it suggests including the business name and its physical location.

The second job is to prove the work: finished projects with the city, the size, the year and photographs of the real building. Google's guidance on helpful content asks whether a page makes a reader want to trust it through clear sourcing, evidence of expertise, and background about the site that publishes it, such as an About page.

The third job is to make contact simple: one phone number that is the same on every page, an email address that works, and a short form. It must be said that this job fails too. On 7 of the 80 builder websites described below, the contact details disagreed between pages, or a contact link pointed to a wrong or non-working number or address.

What did we find on 80 small builder websites?

On September 29, 2026 we opened the websites of 80 small builders, 40 in Arizona and 40 in Florida: custom home builders, infill and rebuild builders, flood-elevated and coastal home builders, small multifamily builders, and builders of casitas and accessory dwelling units (shortened to ADU: a second small home on the same lot). We wrote one observation for each website, then opened every site a second time and kept only the observations that the second reading confirmed. Because each site received one note, every count in the table is a minimum. In total, 54 of the 80 websites had at least one fault confirmed.

Among the 14 footers showing an old year, four read 2025, four read 2024, and the oldest read 2018. Across all 80 sites, 54 showed an email address on the website's own domain and 12 showed a free mail address such as gmail.com. Our guide to the builder's website takes each fault in turn and gives the fix.

Faults confirmed on 80 small builder websites in Arizona and Florida, each read twice by Licheo on 29 September 2026. One note was written per website and kept only where the second reading confirmed it, so each count is a minimum.
Fault	Websites, out of 80
Footer shows a year before 2026	14
No blog or news section linked from the homepage or the menu	14
Homepage title or main heading names no service or no city	12
Contact details that disagree between pages, or a contact link that fails	7
Pages at leftover or duplicate addresses	6
No page for any city or area served, linked from the homepage	5
No description text for search results on the homepage	4
No phone number, or no street address	3
Five pages or fewer on the whole site	3
Homepage title and main heading aimed at a different service	1
Security certificate error	1

What searches does a change in zoning law create?

A new housing law gives owners a new question, and an owner with a question can type it into a search box. Under Arizona Revised Statutes section 9-462.13, every municipality of 75,000 people or more had to allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes (the statute calls them middle housing) on or before January 1, 2026, on all single-family lots within one mile of its central business district. For a city that missed the deadline, the statute says middle housing "shall be allowed on all lots in the municipality zoned for single-family residential use without any limitations."

The second example is the casita. Section 9-461.18 requires municipalities of more than 75,000 people to allow at least one attached and one detached ADU on any lot where a single-family home is allowed, with a deadline of January 1, 2025. A 2025 law, House Bill 2928, extended ADU rules to counties, with a deadline of January 1, 2026.

Florida leaves the choice to local government: its statute, section 163.31771, says a local government "may adopt an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units in any area zoned for single-family residential use". In both states the owner's question is the same: can I build this on my lot? The builder whose website answers it for a named city, with the law cited, has a page for that search. Our guide to ADU and middle-housing pages goes further.

How do Google and AI assistants choose which builder to show?

Google publishes its own answer. Its page on AI features says that the best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode, the two places where Google writes an answer and links to the websites that support it, and that there are no additional requirements to appear in them. To be shown as a supporting link, a page must already be stored in Google's records of the web (Google calls this being indexed) and be eligible to appear in Google Search with a short text preview. Google adds a caution: showing a page is never guaranteed, and its Starter Guide states that there are no secrets that will automatically rank a site first.

The pages that OpenAI and Perplexity publish about their reading programs explain how a website is read, and they give no rules for choosing one business over another. The AI-readiness part of our Get Found Check looks at seven things a builder controls: business details written in a form programs can read (Schema.org structured data); question-and-answer content; whether it is clear who the business is and what it does; cited sources and figures; content that answers specific questions directly; several linked pages on related topics; and whether the site lets in the reading programs that AI companies send. Our guide to AI assistants and builders explains each one.

What does Licheo do for a builder?

Licheo offers one service with three parts. We build the website: we rebuild or repair the site so that it is fast, modern and right on a phone. We make it rank, which means findable on Google and citable inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. We make it convert, which means each page tells a visitor what you do, why to trust you and what to do next, with a working way to send an enquiry built in.

The price is one flat monthly fee, month to month, with no contract. The figure is shared on a call, so contact us for pricing.

What do results look like on real builder and developer sites?

The first example is VanPlex, a Vancouver multiplex builder and developer site and one of the properties where Licheo's team tests its methods first. VanPlex holds the featured snippet (the boxed result in which Google shows the descriptive text first) and the top organic result, meaning the top unpaid one, on Google for "multiplex developer vancouver". It ranks first for "Multiplex vancouver map" and is cited in Google's AI Overview for "multiplex co-development". Bing Webmaster Tools, the Bing search engine's service for site owners, showed 311 AI citations and 13 average cited pages in one seven-day period. The screenshots are on our case studies page.

Rain City Properties (Vancouver real estate, multiplex land) went from page 10 to the number 1 organic result for "sell multiplex land" in 30 days, verified in April 2026. Two further rows come from Google Search Console, the Google service for monitoring how a website performs on Google Search, read on August 3, 2026 and covering monthly visits from Google through July 2026. A residential developer in Metro Vancouver went from 362 to 1,256 monthly visits from Google. A custom home builder in Metro Vancouver went from 120 to 184.

Which page should answer each search a buyer or lot owner types?

Each search deserves a page built to answer it, and the table pairs the two. The searches are examples written for illustration, with the word city standing where your own city goes. One rule holds for every row: the page title names the service and the place, and the page gives the answer in its first lines.

Example searches and the page on a builder's or developer's website that should answer each one. The searches are illustrations written by Licheo on 29 September 2026 and carry no search counts.
What the buyer or lot owner types	Page that should answer it	What the page contains
custom home builder in (city)	A page for that city or service area	The service, the city, projects finished there, one phone number
casita builder (city)	A service page for casitas and ADUs	What you build, the law cited, photographs of finished units
can I build a duplex on my lot in (city)	An article on that city's middle-housing rules	The statute or ordinance by number, its date, what you build for an owner
(the builder's name)	The homepage	A title with the business name, the main service and the city
(the builder's name) projects	Project pages, one for each finished building	City, size, year, real photographs
sell my lot to a developer in (city)	A page written for lot owners	Which lots you buy and how an owner begins the conversation
who builds casitas in (city), asked of an AI assistant	The casita page, with its questions and answers	Direct answers, cited sources, business details a program can read

Where should a builder start?

Start with a measurement. The free Get Found Check asks for a website address, reads the homepage, the domain settings and the security certificate, and in under 60 seconds returns a letter grade from A to F with a score out of 100. It gives findings in six areas (SEO basics, security, performance, analytics and tracking, content quality, infrastructure), three to five quick fixes, a comparison with up to four competitors, and a separate grade for readiness for AI assistants.

The Check reads one page, so the grade is a place to start. After it, take the faults in the order given in the website guide, and write the pages in the table above.

Each part of builder marketing, in its own guide

Each guide below takes one question from this page, such as the website, the city pages, the project pages or the AI assistants, and answers it in full.

The builder's website: Eleven faults we counted on small builder websites in Arizona and Florida, in the order to repair them, with what Google's documentation says about each one.
AI assistants and builders: What each company publishes about the way its assistant reads a builder's website, what remains unpublished, and the seven things a builder controls.
City and community pages: Every city writes its own building rules, so a page for each place where you build is worth having when it states that city's rules, your finished projects there and the permit office you deal with.
Project pages: One finished home, one page, with words beside the photos: where it stands, what the client asked for, what was difficult and who to call.
ADUs and middle housing: Arizona rewrote its rules for a second home on a lot and for buildings of two to four homes, Florida leaves the choice to each city and county, and a builder's website can answer the questions that follow.
For small developers: A developer who builds duplexes to sixplexes must be found by three groups of people, and each group types different words into Google and into AI assistants.
What to measure: A builder sells a few homes a year, so the numbers worth reading are the forms, the calls and the emails, with the search and the page that came before each one.

Questions people ask

How do home buyers start their search, according to the National Association of REALTORS?: Home buyers start their search online in 43 cases out of 100, according to the National Association of REALTORS. In its 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, 43 percent of buyers looked online for properties as their first step, and 1 percent contacted a builder or visited builder models first. The survey is national and covers people who bought a home between July 2023 and June 2024.
What does marketing for a home builder include?: Marketing for a home builder includes three kinds of work on the website: being found for searches that name the service and the city, proving the work with project pages, and making contact simple with one phone number and an email address that works. On 80 small builder websites that Licheo read on September 29, 2026, at least 12 had a homepage title or main heading that named no service or no city.
Does a small builder who works by referral need a website at all?: A small builder who works by referral has a measurable reason to keep a website. The National Association of REALTORS reports that 51 percent of buyers found the home they bought on the internet, and 5 percent found it through a home builder or the builder's agent. A website with the service, the city, finished projects and one phone number gives a referred client a place to confirm what a friend said.
How does Licheo work with a home builder?: Licheo works with a home builder through one service with three parts. We build the website, so that it is fast, modern and right on a phone. We make it rank, meaning findable on Google and citable inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. We make it convert, so that each page tells a visitor what you do, why to trust you and what to do next. The fee is flat and monthly, with no contract.
What does the Get Found Check show a builder?: The Get Found Check shows a builder a letter grade from A to F, with a score out of 100, for the website address entered. It reads the homepage, the domain settings and the security certificate, and returns findings in six areas, three to five quick fixes, a comparison with up to four competitors and a separate grade for readiness for AI assistants, in under 60 seconds. It reads one page, so the grade is a place to start.
How much does Licheo charge a home builder?: Licheo charges a home builder one flat monthly fee, month to month, with no contract. The figure is shared on a call, so contact us for pricing. Before that call, a builder can run the free Get Found Check, which returns a letter grade from A to F and three to five quick fixes in under 60 seconds, and bring the result to the conversation.
Is marketing for a small developer different from marketing for a custom home builder?: Marketing for a small developer differs from marketing for a custom home builder in who has to find the company. A custom builder needs the client who owns a lot and wants a house. A developer who buys lots and builds duplexes to sixplexes needs lot owners, partners and buyers, so the site carries a page written for each of them. VanPlex, a Vancouver multiplex builder and developer site, ranks first on Google for "Multiplex vancouver map".
What were the most common faults on the 80 builder websites Licheo read?: The most common faults on the 80 builder websites were a footer showing a year before 2026 (14 sites), no blog or news section linked from the homepage or the menu (14 sites), and a homepage title or main heading naming no service or no city (12 sites). Licheo read the websites, 40 in Arizona and 40 in Florida, twice on September 29, 2026. One note was written per site, so every count is a minimum.
Why should an Arizona builder publish a page about the January 1, 2026 middle-housing deadline?: An Arizona builder should publish a page about the January 1, 2026 deadline because the law changed what owners are allowed to build. Arizona Revised Statutes section 9-462.13 required municipalities of 75,000 people or more to allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes on single-family lots within one mile of the central business district by that date. An owner inside that area has a new question, and a page that answers it for a named city serves that owner.
How long do changes to a builder's website take to show in Google?: Changes to a builder's website take from a few hours to several months to show in Google, according to Google's Starter Guide to search engine optimization, which also suggests waiting a few weeks before assessing whether the work had an effect. One record we hold: Rain City Properties went from page 10 to the number 1 organic result, the top unpaid one, for "sell multiplex land" in 30 days, verified in April 2026.

Sources

2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, National Association of REALTORS Research Group. Accessed 29 September 2026.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide, Google Search Central. Updated 2025-12-10, accessed 29 September 2026.
AI features and your website, Google Search Central. Updated 2025-12-10, accessed 29 September 2026.
Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, Google Search Central. Updated 2025-12-10, accessed 29 September 2026.
Featured snippets and your website, Google Search Central. Updated 2025-12-10, accessed 29 September 2026.
Overview of OpenAI Crawlers, OpenAI. Accessed 29 September 2026.
Perplexity Crawlers, Perplexity. Accessed 29 September 2026.
A.R.S. 9-462.13: Zoning; development; middle housing; applicability; definitions, Arizona State Legislature. Accessed 29 September 2026.
A.R.S. 9-461.18: Accessory dwelling units, Arizona State Legislature. Accessed 29 September 2026.
Laws 2025, Chapter 217 (House Bill 2928), Arizona State Legislature. Approved May 23, 2025, accessed 29 September 2026.
Florida Statutes, section 163.31771: Accessory dwelling units, The Florida Legislature, Online Sunshine. The 2026 Florida Statutes, accessed 29 September 2026.
What 80 small builder websites get wrong in Arizona and Florida (Licheo's own records), Licheo. Websites read twice on 29 September 2026.

Get a grade for your builder website in under 60 seconds

The free Get Found Check reads your homepage and returns a letter grade from A to F, with three to five quick fixes. If you want the website, the search work and the AI-assistant work done for you, contact us for pricing.

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