Adam Audette, blogger for Search Engine Watch, just posted a great article about getting big SEO results. He covers a variety of topics but the big take aways I got for homebuilders is that 86% of all Google clicks, comes in the form of non-paid, organic listing clicks (Avinash Kaushik), while at the same time 85% of company budgets are spent on paid, sponsored listings (Forrester Research).

There is both a massive imbalance between where consumers are clicking and where builders are spending their money.

It would makes sense to me that if the vast majority of the clicks come in the form of natural listings, a greater percentage of a homebuilder's budget would be allocated to natural SEO.

I also interpret this as a gigantic opportunity for homebuilder to spend money on organic SEO and reap the benefits of a greater lift in conversions.

Another 2009 study by iPropsect shows that 95.3 of all Internet search users never make it off the first page.

Given that Google users have indicated they prefer organic listings over paid listings at the rate of 70 percent to 30 percent, it would seem to make the most sense for homebuilders to allocate a greater percentage of our budgets to natural SEO. 
 
To add more support to the importance of having an organic listing, recent research by Google and Enquiro shows that regardless of user preference, purchase intent elevates with a presence in both top organic and top sponsored listings, even for branded queries.

Homebuilders like Ryland and KB Home has understood the value of natural SEO for years - they're in most new home searches.  There is still a lot of opportunity for homebuilders to benefit from more traffic and greater conversions by investing more in natural or organic SEO.

Jim Adams - CEO