We recently launched a new website for Treplus Communities, a 55+ group of communities in Columbus. Treplus' focus is for those who want to downsize their living situation, but optimize their lifestyle.

Another unique aspect of these communities is they're luxury rentals, not condos to buy. This lets those individuals moving into their communities not have to sink the profits from the home sale into a new home. It allows them to have a stash of cash they can use for travel or family.

The home building industry is our specialty

As a Columbus Oh website design firm, we've done lots of work for home builders, which you can see here.

In addition to home builders, we've done work with companies who work in the home building industry, such as interior design, landscapers, and wood working companies. As a matter of fact, we've won numerous awards for our work in each of those specialties.

When Treplus was ready to start their website, they were on the verge of hiring a web design firm out of California that specializes in multi-family homes. But just in the nick of time, we met, and quickly became members of "The Mutual Admiration Society." And after a couple of meetings and presentations, we were selected do design and build the new Treplus website, which you can see here.

Or, you can click the image below to get to the live website.

Why hire a Columbus Ohio website design firm?

Even though we've seen a trend in websites boasting about being in the Midwest, and by association, having those "Midwestern values," the only reason to hire a Columbus Oh website design firm is because you love their work, and like the folks at the company.

If their expertise will make your company look better -- and more evolved -- than your competition, that's what you should be looking for.

Of course, the cost of a website is always a consideration, as is the web design firms' experience with SEO.

We believe websites are a lot like homes in the sense you get what you pay for. (Actually, we think that's pretty much true of everything in life.) So while our proposal must have been in line with other web design firms Treplus spoke with, we also think our SEO experience might have had something to do with it.

What to look for in SEO experience: part 1.

If a Columbus Oh website design firm can't show you how they've gotten either themselves, or their clients, to page one of a Google search, they probably don't have the experience you're looking for.

• We've managed to get ourselves on page one of Google for one of our main keywords: Columbus Oh website design, which is a very competitive keyword.
• We've managed to get GreenScapes Landscaping on page one of Google for their main keywords: "landscaping Columbus Ohio" "landscape design" and "landscape architect."
• We've got Mary Shipley Interior Design on page one for the keywords "Columbus interior design" and "Columbus interior designer."
• We've gotten Midwest Fresh Produce on page 1 for their search terms "Columbus food distributors," and  "Columbus produce distributors,"
• And we've helped get Rockford Homes on page 1 for the keyword "Columbus home builders."

Knowing what keywords people are searching is part 2 of the equation.

Let's use our website as an example.

We could easily show up on page one for a keyword phrase like "purple website design." That's because no one is searching for that term. And because no one searches for that phrase, no Columbus web design firm is using "purple website design" as one of their keywords. That means zero competition.

If a web design firm says they've gotten themselves, or a client on page 1 for a certain search term, ask the question: Are the search terms they ranks for ones people search for. They should be able to share with you the number of searches Google's AdWords/Keyword Tool shows for the actual number of monthly searches.

The key is being able to show up on page 1 for the keywords people are actually using. And that's much more difficult.

How do we know what keywords people are using to find exactly what it is your company is doing? Google tells us. Using Google's AdWords/Keyword Tool lets us conduct extensive searches for what people are searching for online. And knowing what keywords work for you, and how competitive they are, is one of the keys to getting your website on the right track to showing up well in Google.

What is Treplus' audience searching for? 

When we conduct keyword research, we put a report together with the top keywords we recommend are used for their blog posts. A page from that report is below.

In it, we show the keyword phrases, the number of monthly searches and the competition (how many other websites are using that same phrase). We only recommend keywords with Low or Medium competition, which makes them easier to rank well for in Google.

Since the website has just launched the week this blog was written, the Treplus website isn't ranking well in Google yet, but we see another blog in the future telling about the success off Treplus' SEO.

If you want to read one of our SEO success stories, check out this blog about Midwest Fresh Produce Distributor.