According to Google, nearly a third of mobile searches are related to location. In fact, location-related searches have been growing 50 percent faster than mobile searches overall in the past year.
Google searches (on Google.com and Maps) guide consumers to 1.5 billion destinations every year. For builders, Google Map searches are important for shoppers to not only map their route to visit the community but also to understand where the community is in relation to stores, restaurants, schools and nearby attractions. This is part of a larger trend of consumers using maps to explore something they are interested in, versus just for navigation.
Google Maps is constantly updating their functionality and recently released a few key additions that will make Map-based searching even more popular for shoppers. From Live View when in Street View Mode where you can see a live view of certain intersections, to Busy Areas At A Glance, to Maps Tailored To You, this newest update is full of useful features.
BDX has also been busy working on new solutions to help home builders harness the power of maps to sell more homes. First, what do you do if your communities aren’t built yet, or roads aren’t mapped? BDX has teamed up with Google to ensure that home shoppers can find your community on one of the most popular mapping solutions.
Here’s how it works… First, we submit your site plan to Google maps for you. Every street and model home is mapped for you, making navigating to all of your newly developed roads easy for home shoppers.
Want to take things even further and let shoppers explore your lots, and plans right from the map? Geospatial Interactive Site Plan (ISP) is where BDX overlays your community’s Interactive Site Plan onto Google Maps on your website. Shoppers can then use all of the functionality of Google Maps like street view and mapping. And just by scrolling over the site plan, home shoppers can see lot availability, plan details for available lots, and even hotspots of community amenities and lots. Even if the roads are not built, the streets will be accurately named so that home shoppers can get a feel for the community.
To see both of these solutions in action, check out our newest video below that explains it all.
Want to learn more and make sure you’re taking full advantage of Google Maps to market and sell your community? Get in touch with BDX at info@thebdx.com, we’d love to help.
