Does your Interior Design Firm rank on page #1 of Google?

During our research, we learned a lot about local interior design firms, who ranks well in search and why…What’s the point of knowledge if you don’t share it, right? Well, here you go. We hope this is helpful and please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any additional questions!

How do you stack up against the competition?

There are three data points we start with to help us understand why certain sites rank well in Google and why others don’t. These are certainly not the only reasons, but they are a starting point.

URL Rating (UR): On a scale from 0 – 100, this shows the strength of a page. Higher UR scores correlate with higher Google rankings.

Referring Domains (aka Backlinks): When one website links to your site, it is a positive signal. More is good, but quality counts.

Organic Keywords: The number of keywords a page ranks for in Google search is relative to the amount of content on the page. Content depth helps Google to understand if you are an authority in your industry.

We searched “interior designers birmingham al”, then took the Top 20 websites and averaged the metrics outlined above:

Average URL Rating: 5.6
Average Referring Domains: 36
Average Organic Keywords: 50

In fairness, you probably won’t be able to find this information on your own, but if you are interested, I’d be happy to share yours with you.

So What Now?

If you don’t rank on the first page of search results for your keywords, there are two approaches you can take. The sprint or the marathon. 

(If you want to save yourself some time, I’ll be happy to develop a custom marketing plan for you and explain all the details. Or if you are interested in learning more yourself, I’ve outlined everything you will need below.) 

The Immediate Fix

You can pay Google to show a text ad for your website whenever people search for your desired keywords.

In our experience, you can pay anywhere from $0.50 – $5.00 per click. So all you have to do is decide how many new visitors you want to come to your website each month and set a budget. (I’m oversimplifying, but it is a straightforward approach.)

Start with an average of $2.00 per click and say you want 100 clicks = $200. 

In the grand scheme of things, this can be a really effective standalone strategy. It can also cost you a lot of money if you aren’t careful.

The Long Term Plan

If you have decided that you want to be here for both a good time and a long time, then you want to plan on a more comprehensive marketing approach. I’ve outlined everything you need below.

Every design firm is at a different stage in their journey, and you are all in need of some level of marketing. Whether it’s the beginning of brand development or advanced client acquisition strategies. But, every interior design firm I’ve ever audited can improve in one if not all of the five following areas of marketing: Analytics, Website Design, Content, Social and Ad campaigns.

Analytics & ROI

You want to make sure you have the most up-to-date analytics and tracking set up on your website, along with a good understanding of your traffic and engagement statistics.

The basics:

– The number of people who are visiting your website per month

– How many visited multiple pages

– How many spent 2+ minutes on your website

– How many contacted you

Your numbers will serve as your baselines. You can compare to others, but that won’t change what your numbers are. From here, use them as a way of understanding ROI and implement a custom marketing strategy to increase them.

(Warning: If you have been using Google Analytics, everything is about to change. We all have to change to GA4, and it’s a completely different system with a different way of sharing data.)

An Interior Design Website

There are a lot of things that are going to be common from one website to another, but there are also some things that are unique to interior designers. Here are the important elements you should be paying attention to. What’s important

Your Style
Your website should reflect your style. You don’t have to go over the top, but subtle elements can go a long way in giving your site the right personality.

Your voice
Make sure the headlines are a direct reflection of what you say and how you say it. Not every word on every page needs to come from you (in fact it shouldn’t), but the overarching idea needs to sound like you.

A lot of Pictures
You are in a very visual industry, and pictures are obviously important.

Your business is personal, and you need to make your website personal too. That means a photo shoot. It’s my opinion that you should be updating photos as often as possible, but never longer than 18 months.

Show your work
Before and after pictures are a must. If you can’t get before, you have to do after. If you can’t show your work, then you will have a much harder time acquiring new customers.

Tip: Every time you take pictures of a finished project, try to get a couple pictures of you and your team.

How often should you be updating your site?
It’s a common question we hear often, and it can come down to personal preference. A lot of people like to think that once you have the site done, you don’t have to worry about it again. Others may be looking to redesign it as soon as the dust settles. With technology today, you should be taking a hard look at your site every year. At three years, you should be considering a comprehensive update, if not a full redesign. Once you get to five years, it’s likely going to be outdated.

Content & Interior Design SEO

If you want to rank organically in Google search results, you need content. Written at a minimum and video if you can get it done. (There are a lot of inexpensive ways to create awesome videos.)

Honestly, this is something that any business owner can do, it just takes time and commitment. Strategies and planning make it easier, but that shouldn’t stand in your way. When in doubt, just write.

If you are still stuck just Google search for something like “contemporary design” and scroll down to “People also ask” and answer one of those questions.

Do not copy their answers. Write it in your words, with your voice. We recommend anywhere from 400 – 1,200 words for each answer.

How often should you be posting?
A minimum of once per month. If you want to be more aggressive, you can shoot for once per week. But, if you really want to dominate, I recommend 10 – 20 posts per month. It sounds like a lot because it is. And you know what, most people won’t write that much.

Social Posts

First, take the style elements you incorporated into your website and add them to your social media. We recommend about ten variations to keep in Canva so you don’t have to make up a new design every time you want to post. Plus this keeps your design styles from straying. You might get sick of looking at the same design over and over, but remember it’s part of your branding.

Second, If you did the hard part of writing the content, the easier part is promoting it. Use social to stay in the conversation without making it all about you. If you are talking about questions people have, then your answers make the conversation more about them.

Finally, you need to have a posting schedule. There is a lot of research about when and where to post, and you can create some sort of convoluted schedule, but here’s the bottom line. Post a minimum of one time per week between 10 am and 2 pm. If you have the time and resources to do more, then do it.

Backlinks & Referring Domains

While writing and sharing a lot of content will naturally create backlinks, it helps to take matters into your own hands.

A lot of link building comes down to self promotion. So just by being out there, you can build links for yourself, along with name recognition. But in case that is not your thing, here are a few ideas you can execute yourself:
 – Register for relevant directories
 – Sponsor local community initiative
 – Run a contest with another business
 – Join local groups

Search & Social Ads

If you are ready to take the growth of your design firm to the next stage, this is where you start.

First, you want to focus on search ads in Google. I know you probably want to do social ads, but trust me on this one. There aren’t many marketing tactics more powerful than a targeted search ad campaign. It is the only place where the ads are demand generated. The client is literally telling you they want what you have… “interior designer in Birmingham”. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

Next, if your budget allows, you include social ads. I could probably write another 1,000 words on social ads alone, but not here. There are just a lot of options. For starters though, I would recommend Instagram. Just try to keep it simple.

Next Steps

If you made it this far, your head might be spinning at this point. It’s a lot to take in, but if you start with the first thing and slowly work your way to the next, it can all be done. With the exception of the website and the ads, you can probably do most of it on your own. At some point, every business owner has to weigh the value of their time vs the cost of a task, and you will probably come to the realization that your scope of genius is in interior design and not digital marketing. You can do anything, but it’s really hard to do everything.

Of course, you can also ask us for help (wink, wink).