Are you a local interior or any design firm and not yet leveraging search engines to grow your business? You might be leaving a lot of business on the table. It is relatively easy to fix, and I have collected the basics of interior design SEO in this article, so you can get started right away!
We will cover
- what exactly is SEO and particularly local SEO
- why it matters for interior designers
- the best practices for SEO for design firms
- how to get started
- also, what else do you need to have in place on your website to maximize the return on investment?
Let’s go!
First, what is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing strategy and activity that helps you get traffic from search engines. Most people think instantly about Google, but there are other search engines too, such as:
- YouTube (Google-owned)
- Blog
- Yahoo
- and of course the more regional search engines such as Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia.
In this article, we cover local SEO for beginners so you can get started easily! SEO as a practice is ever-changing, just like marketing in general, but with the right foundations, you too can get started and advance from that!
Understanding Local SEO
As an interior design firm, you want to make sure that your business is visible to potential clients in your local area. One way to achieve that is to focus on local SEO. It’s not the only way though, but a very good one!
With local SEO, you can optimize your website and online presence to appear at the top of search engine results when people search for interior designers in your area.
SEO generally is a long-term play and is a perfect strategy in your overall marketing mix. While some other marketing strategies might give you faster results, optimizing for SEO brings you results for years to come.
In my experience, you always need to focus on long-term and short-term marketing activities simultaneously, which can be hard and costly.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO focuses on optimizing your website and online presence to rank higher in local search results. Local search results are the results that appear when someone searches for a product or service in a specific location, such as “interior designer in Portland, Oregon.”
To improve your local SEO, you need to focus on optimizing your website and online presence for local search terms. This includes optimizing your website for local keywords, claiming your Google Business (former Google My Business) listing, building local citations, and getting local backlinks.
Why is Local SEO Important for Interior Design Firms?
Local SEO is important for interior design firms because it helps you reach potential clients in your local area. When people search for interior designers in your area, you want your business to appear at the top of the search results. This will increase your visibility and drive more traffic to your website.
In addition, local SEO helps you build trust and credibility with potential clients.
When your business appears at the top of the search results, it shows that you are a reputable and trustworthy business. This helps you attract more clients and grow your business.
Plus: it’s easy! Getting ranked on local searches is a fairly easy and extremely cost-effective type of marketing!
Local SEO Best Practices for Interior Design Firms
Optimizing your website and online profiles to rank higher in search engine results for local queries. Here are some best practices for local SEO for interior design firms:
Optimize Your Website
Your website is the foundation of your online presence. Make sure it is optimized for search engines by using relevant keywords in your titles, headings, tags, and content.
Use a mobile-friendly design and ensure that your site speed is optimized for a better user experience (UX).
You can use tools like Google Pagespeed Insights to check your site speed and identify areas for improvement.
Easy Fix On Your Website
One thing that is critical for your local SEO is that you mention where you are based or what your service area is. And that is not just for search, it’s for humans who visit your site. You want to tell them out of the gate where your service is, even if it’s globally, online, or hyper-locally.
Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Listing
Claiming and optimizing your Google Business (GB) listing is crucial for local SEO. Make sure your business information is accurate and consistent across all online directories.
Use high-quality images and encourage your clients to leave positive reviews to improve your local presence and authority.
Easy Fix To Do Today
Head over to GB and claim your listing. Add images, your opening hours, and all other information needed. And ask for reviews!
Build Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are an important factor in search engine rankings. Normally, your focus would be on building quality links from reputable websites in your niche…
But – for a local business, it’s way more powerful to get backlinks from local websites, such as your local magazine! Start with that, and then build from the more reputable, national, or international websites.
You can do this by creating valuable content that others will want to link to, reaching out to other websites for guest posting opportunities, and submitting your website to local directories.
Easy Tasks To Get Started
List your business on local listing websites, such as a local magazine or any organization’s website. And, pitch local media to become a contributor!
Create Quality Content
Creating high-quality content is important for both search engine rankings and attracting potential clients.
Focus on creating content that is relevant and valuable to your target audience and location. This can include blog posts, articles, and case studies that showcase your expertise and solutions to common interior design problems. And, every once in a while, you might want to create posts about your local community.
Use sub-headings, bullet points, tables, short paragraphs, and hyperlinks to make your content easier to read and understand.
Easy Tasks
You could, for example, share what things to do during summer in your region, and link to local shops. And then email your local shops the article and ask them to promote it in their channels!
Utilize Social Media
Social media can help you reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your website. Again, people tend to think all online platforms are equal, but the platforms such as Houzz or Pinterest are more search engines than social media platforms. Use social media to share your content, engage with your followers, and showcase your portfolio.
Either way, these channels are for the distribution of your content. Use local references, add geolocation, and use relevant hashtags.
You could also create a local-focused social media brand that shares all things local, and every once in a while introduces your business! This ways, you are building a local community and as the community leader, you instantly become the #1 choice for interior design services!
Easy Way To Get Started
Use social media with local elements, such as geotags and relevant hashtags.
Optimize for Mobile
More and more people are using their mobile devices to search for local businesses. Make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices to provide a better user experience and improve your search engine rankings.
Easy Fix On Your Website
Open your website with a mobile and investigate what it looks like. If not good, well, ask your web design team to help you.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO involves optimizing your website for search engines by addressing technical issues such as site speed, URL structure, and 404 errors. Make sure your website is optimized for search engines by using tools like Google Search Console and Bing Webmasters to identify and fix technical issues.
By following these best practices, you can improve your local presence and attract more potential clients to your interior design firm.
If you want to advance your SEO game, consider working with a professional SEO expert or using tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to identify relevant keywords and track your progress over time.
What Do You Need to Have in Place To Generate ROI On Local SEO tactics?
One thing to keep in mind: You need to have a website that invites the visitors to the next logical step. It could be to become a lead or to become a client. In fact, you need both, since people who visit your site are at different stages of their buyer journey.
Remember to Generate Leads On Your Website!
If you don’t know how to do it, I have created a simple training that teaches you exactly how. See below!
If you need help designing your lead generation system, check out our course
Lead Generation For Interior Designers
In this course, we will
- learn what lead generation means and why it’s critical
- set up the necessary assets that your lead generation engine needs
- implement the tools your website needs to generate leads
- identify the different sources you can leverage to generate leads for your business
Interior Design SEO Will Help You Generate More Clients
One of the first steps in optimizing your local SEO is to ensure that your business information is consistent and accurate across all online platforms.
This includes your website, social media profiles, and online directories. Make sure your business name, address, phone number, and other key details are up-to-date and consistent across all platforms.
Inaccurate or inconsistent information can hurt your local SEO efforts and make it harder for potential customers to find you.
Another important aspect of local SEO is building your online authority and reputation. This can be achieved through strategies such as creating high-quality content on your website, building backlinks from other reputable websites, and engaging with your audience on social media.
By establishing yourself as a trusted authority in your industry, you can improve your search engine rankings and attract more local clients to your interior design firm.
