What are you doing to bring in new clients to your interior design business? If you’re solely relying on referrals and word of mouth, you may be missing out of exponential growth, as well as placing your company in a very risky position. SEO for interior designers brings a huge upside that traditional referral methods don’t – access to thousands of potential clients, ready to purchase your solution.
Think about it; nowadays, most people start with a Google search when they are looking for something they need. Be it a restaurant nearby, a local grocery store, and even a nearby interior designer who can solve their problem. Search results can vary based on local or international intent.
You never know who’s in town––a couple who just moved to your city may be seeking a designer to help them decorate their new apartment, or perhaps a local business may be wanting to re-visualize their space.
When it comes down to it, your website means nothing if it’s not being found on Google––no matter how many bells and whistles it may have.
Enhance your online presence through these key SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tips and techniques to rank higher on Google searches, and to improve your overall visibility.
1. Use keyword researching tools
Keywords are the backbone of SEO. How else would search engines know how relevant your website is without specific content matching the search query?
Even with a term as simple as ‘interior designer’, you need to niche yourself deeper to help you stand out from the crowd. These tools can help you do just that!
In the long run, it’s always worth it to conduct a bit of keyword research on your own.
You can use SEO tools such as SEMrush (our personal favorite) to measure keyword metrics––essentially determining how they perform better than others.
Some free SEO tools include the following:
2. Optimize titles and headings to be keyword-rich
There is no question, technical optimizations matter. The closer your keywords are to the beginning of the page, the closer you are to Google’s heart––meaning the title tag has the most substantial weight in search engine optimization. Since the H1 is the most important heading, it’s important to integrate your prime keywords within it.
You want these keywords to pop up when typed into a Google search, which plays into the meta descriptions. Properly optimizing your meta descriptions also helps determine whether or not people want to click your link. Remember, SEO for interior designers is all about being relevant and definitive!
3. Include relevant and specific keywords in your page text
Be sure that you are incorporating the basic information of your business on your main pages. Include your location, company name, contact information including address and phone number, design style, industries you serve, etc.
For example, if you’re a Los Angeles-based firm catered towards minimalist residential interior design, state it on your home page. You never know who might come across your link looking for exactly that!
These relevant bits of information will pick up on a Google search and differentiate you from the crowd, allowing seekers to find the designer they are looking for much easier.
4. Post fresh, high-quality content
Running a proper content marketing on your site is a great way to stay on Google’s radar. You can list your design services and extensive portfolio all you want, but posting regularly on your blog will help keep you relevant and boost your rankings.
You want to show Google that your site is active; running a blog is the perfect way to demonstrate that! Google will typically trust sites that post regularly and are routinely active.
Posting high-quality content is also a great way to gain backlinks––as people will typically link to your blogs over a service page.
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DISCOVER5. Update old content
It’s important to refresh your content so that it is relevant and up to date. If users notice that the last time your content was updated was in 2014, they will most likely seek other options. You want to be seen as a credible source, and regularly updating your content will boost your validity.
A great way to improve your existing content is by adding new information and keywords that can enrich your overall SEO results.
Depending on which specific keyword you are wanting to target, you can use a tool such as CognitiveSEO’s Content Tool to help you come up with relevant topics and keywords to integrate into your content, ultimately allowing you to rank higher.
6. Compress and optimize images
Large images can contribute to a slow loading time for your page which can, unfortunately, lead to a higher bounce rate and poor conversions––and Google’s job is to give users the best results in a search.
To avoid this dilemma, you should routinely compress your images through compression tools such as Smush for WordPress. Not to worry though, as compressing your images won’t decrease the quality on your page––it actually decreases the amount of space it occupies on your server. In short, two images can look exactly the same, with one being 1 MB and the other being only a fifth of a MB.
7. Use keyword-rich anchor text
Anchor text is the text portion of a clickable link. These blue, clickable words help link one page to another, connecting your content contextually and relevantly.
This is an important SEO strategy for interior designers, as it does matter to provide context through any link you want to reference in your content. By highlighting specific keywords, you can bring attention to relevant topics you’ve already discussed within your website.
And surprisingly or not, the search engines take into account the keywords used in this anchor text to give more weight.
8. Gain relevant backlinks
A backlink is essentially a link from another website that leads to yours. The more relevant backlinks on other pages that lead to yours, the higher you can rank on Google’s algorithm.
It’s not all about quantity, however. You want your website to be backlinked on reputable pages that are consistent with your field and community. Spammy backlinks from poor-quality sites will hurt your reputation on Google. Either way, you can achieve consistent and relevant backlinks through a guest-posting strategy.
For example, as an interior designer you may want your page to be backlinked on something like the page of a local chamber of commerce or design-focused page, listing your business as a part of your community. It wouldn’t make any sense for your page to be backlinked on a Dungeons and Dragons page (unless of course, it has something to do with your design style!).
9. Increase shareability on your website
Social media is valuable for funneling a relevant audience toward your page. People like to share things on their social media platforms; if you aren’t helping facilitate the process, they won’t spread the word.
Integrate Pinterest pin functions and share links for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. You may find that not all social media platforms are necessarily relevant to your website, so choose the ones most applicable to the type of content you are generating. Hint: Pinterest is a great place for designers.
10. Implement a custom-designed 404 page
Here’s a tip you may have not even considered: custom-designing your 404 error page with a call-to-action.
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VIEWWhy bother tailoring your 404 pages? Depending on your website’s size, users may come across a page that cannot be found. There’s a big chance that they will exit your website, contributing to a higher bounce rate.
While 404 pages are normal, too many broken links can negatively impact your ranking on Google. Screaming Frog is a great tool to help you locate broken links within your website, but until you find the time to fix your broken page, try redirecting the user back to a working page.
Check out these other tips on how to properly optimize your interior design website so that you can ensure that it is running smoothly.
Need help determining how to boost your interior design website for more traffic? We are always happy to help! Check out our results-driven SEO services today!