Home builder's community page usability fixes: +8.5% goal conversions
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsMiller and Smith, a home builder, reworked its community pages so layout information sat at the top, and goal conversions rose 8.5% while bounce rate improved 7.5%.
The marketing team made several usability changes at once based on heatmaps and session recordings, and the results were published as a Crazy Egg case study.
This was a before-and-after comparison against the previous year, not a split test.
- Goal conversions: +8.5% compared with a similar period the year before. The goal type was not shared.
- Bounce rate: improved by 7.5% over the same comparison.
- Several changes shipped together, so no single change can be credited with the lift.
- Measured year over year rather than in a split test, so season, market and traffic changes could also play a part.
The change
Hero photos give way to a layout thumbnail, with links and captions added.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Community pages opened with large photos, and the floor plans visitors wanted sat at the bottom. Some text that visitors tried to click had no link, and gallery images had no captions.
Variant
The top photos were removed, and a thumbnail of the community layout was added so visitors could find it fast. Links were added where people had been clicking, and gallery images got captions naming the community.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Recordings showed people scrolling past the photos to reach floor plans, so putting layout information first matched what visitors were looking for.
- Adding links where visitors already clicked removed dead ends and gave them a path to the next page.
- Captions told gallery browsers which community each photo belonged to, which made the gallery useful for comparing options.
Caveats: Bundled changes measured before and after against a similar period the previous year, not an A/B test. No traffic numbers, goal definition or test window were given, and it was published by Crazy Egg, a vendor.
Who ran it
Miller and Smith ran this test for a home builder and published the results (Crazy Egg case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Miller and Smith →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we move the community layout and floor plan information to the top of the page and link the text visitors try to click, then more visitors will reach an enquiry or tour goal because they find what they came for without scrolling or hitting dead ends.
- Primary metric
- Goal conversion rate (enquiry, tour booking or brochure request)
- Guardrails
- Bounce rate
- Time to first click on the floor plan or layout
- Enquiry quality
- Who should test it
- Home builders, property developers and other lead-gen businesses whose visitors compare listings. Check your own heatmaps first: if visitors already engage with your hero photos, removing them may not help.
Questions
Should a property listing page lead with photos or floor plans?
It depends on your visitors. Miller and Smith's recordings showed people skipping photos to reach floor plans, so they moved layout details up.
Check your own scroll and click data first.
Why add links where people click on plain text?
Clicks on unlinked text show visitors expect more detail there.
Adding a link turns a dead end into a path toward an enquiry.
Can I trust a year-over-year comparison?
Treat it as a signal, not proof. Market conditions, season and traffic mix can all shift between years, so a split test gives a cleaner answer.