Who we work with · 05 of 07
Design-build firms have to win two searches at once.
A design-build firm competes in two markets that barely overlap in search. On one side, buyers looking for design who have not thought about who will build it. On the other, buyers looking for a builder who have not thought about who will design it. Ranking for one and not the other means half your proposition is invisible, and most design-build sites are built entirely for the second.
The single largest advantage in this segment is the comparison query itself. Design-build against the traditional bid model is searched constantly and answered mostly by people selling one side of it.
Platinum at $325 a month is normally right, because two keyword sets on one domain is more than 20 keywords and rarely as many as 100.
What your buyer searches, and when
Two entry points, one contract.
Design-build buyers arrive from either direction and converge on the same question, which is whether one firm doing both is better than two firms coordinating. The firm that answers that fairly tends to be the one that gets the work.
- Month 1 to 3 01
Entry from the design side
Looking for someone to draw it, with no thought yet given to who builds. Usually competing against architects here.
- home design services near me
- residential design consultation
- who draws house plans
- Month 1 to 3 02
Entry from the build side
Looking for a builder, with plans either sketched or not started. A completely different vocabulary for the same contract.
- custom builders in your area
- contractor for an addition
- who builds from my own plans
- Month 2 to 4 03
The comparison query
Design-build against the traditional design-bid-build route. The highest leverage content in the segment and the most one-sided answers online.
- design build vs design bid build
- is design build cheaper
- design build pros and cons
- Month 3 to 6 04
How the single contract works
One agreement, one point of accountability, and how pricing is arrived at when the designer and the builder are the same firm.
- design build contract structure
- guaranteed maximum price explained
- who is liable in design build
- Month 5 to 8 05
Is the design side any good
The specific doubt in this segment. Buyers worry a design-build firm designs adequately rather than well, and go looking for evidence.
- design build firm portfolio
- in house architect vs contracted
- firm name completed designs
Why one keyword set is never enough
Design intent and construction intent are different searches.
Firms that also operate as straight custom builders keep those pages separate again. A design-build proposition on a page written for somebody who already has drawings is a mismatch. See custom home builders.
What we build for design-build firms
Six pages that do the work.
The comparison page, written fairly
Design-build against design-bid-build, including where the traditional route is genuinely better. Buyers search this constantly and trust the firm that does not pretend the answer is always itself.
Design service pages
Feasibility, concept, schematic and what happens at each stage, written in design vocabulary rather than construction vocabulary.
Build service pages
Scope, scheduling, subcontractor management and delivery, written for the buyer who arrived looking for a builder.
Contract and pricing structure content
How a single agreement works, how the price is arrived at, and who carries which risk. This is the page that converts the cautious half of the segment.
Project pages showing both halves
Each completed project written up from concept through delivery, which is the only evidence that answers the doubt about design quality.
Area pages for where you work
The counties and submarkets you genuinely take work in, without implying offices, licenses or credentials you do not hold.
The arithmetic
Two additional projects covers it fifty times over.
Modeled scenario, not a client
A design-build firm delivering 15 projects a year at a $600,000 average
Illustrative scenario using published prices and a conservative lift. Not a client result, not a forecast and not a guarantee. Run your own figures in the calculator.
$325/mo
2 domains · 40 keywords · 30 guest posts · 30 Web 2.0s · 10,000 amplification links · 14 to 16 days turnaround
Forty keywords is what two keyword sets plus the comparison content actually needs. Twenty forces you to choose between design intent and construction intent, which defeats the proposition.
Build this program →Content is priced separately through LavishContent, from $26 a month for four 500 word posts to $480 for thirty 2,500 word posts. Design-build firms usually need eight 1,000 word posts a month at $80 to keep both keyword sets moving at once.
The searches with your own names in them are the ones you are most likely to win.
Questions
From design-build.
Do you target architectural search terms?
No. Architects are a separate vertical served elsewhere in the same network, and we do not target architectural terms from this site. What we do target is design intent as it applies to a design-build contract, which is a different query with a different buyer behind it.
Should we lead with design or with build?
Neither, in search. Lead with whichever the individual page is about and let the comparison content join them. Firms that pick one for the whole site lose the entire other entry point, and the comparison query, which is the highest leverage term in the segment, belongs to neither side on its own.
Buyers worry our design work is not as good as an architect. How does content help?
By showing the work rather than asserting the capability. Project pages written from concept through delivery, with the constraints that shaped the design named explicitly, answer the doubt in a way that a claim about in-house capability never does. It is the single most useful content investment in this segment.
Which tier does a design-build firm need?
Platinum at $325 in most cases, because 40 keywords is roughly what two keyword sets plus comparison content requires. Golden at $235 works if you operate in one small market and lead almost entirely from one side. Titanium becomes reasonable across several metros.
Is the comparison content risky if it admits the other route is sometimes better?
The opposite. A buyer researching design-build against design-bid-build has already read three pages claiming design-build always wins, and discounts all of them. Naming the cases where the traditional route is better is what makes the rest of the page credible, and it tends to be the page that produces the inquiry.
How long before both keyword sets move?
Usually not at the same rate. Comparison and process terms tend to move first because competition is thinner. Build side terms compete with established custom builders and take longer. We report both separately each month and will not promise a position or a date.
Our design work is subcontracted rather than in house. Does that change anything?
It changes what you should say, not whether the program works. A firm coordinating a design partner under a single contract still delivers the thing the buyer is searching for, which is one agreement and one point of accountability. Saying so plainly is better than implying an in-house studio that does not exist, because the question comes up in every serious conversation and being caught overstating it costs more than the arrangement ever would.
Is design-build firm marketing different from marketing a builder?
Yes, because you are selling one contract that covers two disciplines, and the buyer arrives from one side or the other. Design-build firm marketing has to answer the design searches and the construction searches separately, then join them with content about how the single contract works. A builder only has to win one of those.
See which half of your proposition is currently invisible.
Five questions, no call required. We check your design terms and your build terms separately, then send back where you rank on each and which one is carrying the site.
Month to month · No contracts · Setup fee waived · Dedicated account manager · No ranking guarantees