# Home builder's community page usability fixes: +8.5% goal conversions

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Site-wide (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Layout, Images, Internal links
- Test run by: [Miller and Smith](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/miller-and-smith/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.crazyegg.com/case-study/miller-and-smith
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/miller-and-smith-community-page-usability/

Miller 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.

## Result

**+8.5% goal conversions**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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)
- Guardrail: Bounce rate
- Guardrail: Time to first click on the floor plan or layout
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: Miller and Smith ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/miller-and-smith-community-page-usability/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.