As an interior designer, you must have a beautiful, informative, easy to navigate website that makes potential clients feel like they are chatting with you over coffee. But none of that matters if nobody ever finds it. That is where good SEO, aka search engine optimization, comes in. We bake good SEO into building each and every one of our websites, but SEO will never be a one-and-done checklist item. It’s an ongoing process that you need to understand for your site to rank on the first page of Google and stay there.
I know you want a magic bullet to ranking at the top of Google. We all do! But the truth is that it’s a continuous process with a lot of moving parts. No one action will do the trick, but lots of little actions working together can really help move the needle in the right direction. So let’s break it down.
What actually helps you get that coveted first page spot on Google?
External Links to your website
External links are any outside links that send people to your website. One easy outside link to your website should be the Google my business page. It includes easy to set up general information like your name, address, phone number, business description and images. If you work with local clients, this will help you show up in their searches on top of feeding your correct information directly to the Google gods.
Social media is a helpful external linking tool as well. Your social media channels are a no-brainer way to link to your own website. Whether it’s YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook — each will give you a little more authority in the eyes of Google, especially when in combination with other external links.
Any link from a non-spammy site to yours plays a role in bumping you higher in the Google algorithm. Legitimate sites in your industry tell Google that you’re the expert you say you are.
Internal links within your website
These links help visitors find more of your content and help Google see that you’re an expert. The deeper a visitor goes within your site, clicking from one page to another, spending more and more time, the more Google thinks you must have valuable content that is worth people’s time. Internal linking also makes it easier for Google bots to crawl your site from one page to the next.
For example, if you write a blog on “How to Use Antiques in Your Home Design” and have a previously written blog on something like “Where to Find Unique Antiques” you could link the previously written blog to the new blog. This will keep your visitor on your site longer and show Google that you have that they’re voluntarily asking for more.
A mobile responsive website
Google’s main goal is to put sites in front of users that provide them with a good user experience on the subject of their interest. Their algorithm punishes sites that aren’t mobile-friendly. It used to be a best practice to have a responsive website that adjusts seamlessly from desktop to tablet to phone, but these days it’s absolutely essential if you want to be found.
To see how your website performs on mobile, log onto your website via your mobile device and see how well you can read and navigate through your site. If images are distorted, links aren’t working, or text is difficult to read then Google won’t rank your page anywhere near the top. If you’re constantly having to zoom in, that’s a problem that needs to be addressed.
A site that’s Organized and Functional
Speaking of Google loving user-friendly websites, the best thing you can do for your website is to have an intuitive, well-organized user experience. Good user experience is good SEO. If your content is easy to navigate by real users, then it will also be easy for Google bots to find what they’re looking for, and they will reward you accordingly. You can do this with categories and tags that make your blog easier to navigate. Another important part of user experience is simple, easy-to-follow navigation and calls to action that lead visitors to the pages you need them to see.
On the technical side, some smaller tips to keeping your site well organized and functional are to pay attention to your URL structure and hosting. Your URLs should be easy to find. Make sure you have a consistent structure. For example, domain.com/subpage/category, so that all pages follow the same format. Another facet of having a good user experience is having a site that loads quickly with minimal downtime. Nobody wants to wait for images to load, including those Google bots. Hosting plays a big role in that and having a good host could give your SEO a boost.
Great copy that is keyword-friendly but not robotic
We’ve talked about copy before and how integral its role in your business is. The copy on your website needs to have the keywords for your industry throughout its entirety. But guess what? If you stuff your copy full of keywords, it’s going to sound like a robot, and that isn’t impressing anybody. You must ride the line of using keywords where applicable while keeping your copy warm and personable. Our copywriter, Deb Mitchell, has this down to a science for our clients.
While we’re talking about copy here…for the love…please put some on your homepage. Visitors will thank you for giving them a heads up as to what you’re all about instead of forcing them to click to find out anything at all, and Google will thank you with a higher ranking if you tell them right from the home page who you are and what you do.
Blog content allows you to use your keywords more often and show your expertise on a consistent basis, all of which Google likes. Blogs are easily shareable, and when you invite your visitors to share the post or pin the images they’re more likely to do just that. To learn more about how blogging can help you SEO, dive into more details here.
Use Your Images Well
A lot of SEO is focused on copywriting, but your images play a large part as well. Make sure your images are easily pinnable to Pinterest because just like blog posts, you want people to share those. More sharing = more external links = more validity. In addition, all images should have alt tags, which are a text description that shows up if an image doesn’t load. These are important for visually impaired visitors using screen readers, but they are also read by Google bots. Just like in your copy, use your keywords in your alt tags, but don’t just stuff them in where they don’t make sense. It’s one more small, hidden place to tell Google who should be finding your site.
Similarly, make sure the file names of all of your images are descriptive and use those keywords as well. Auto generated file names are a missed opportunity. And last but not least, make sure your images are sized correctly and don’t slow down your website. Google wants to promote the most user-friendly websites, so bloated images will hurt your ranking.
Let’s talk a little more about keywords
You’ll likely never rank for short, competitive keywords like “interior designer.†Focus on longtail keywords, which are longer phrases that are much more specific. In general, the easiest place to start is incorporating your location into what you think people are searching. You can go deeper by thinking about popular colors, fabrics, or products you use a lot. “Interior designer in Greensboro, NC†will be easier to rank for than “interior designer,†and it narrows the market a bit. You can even get really specific with things like “how do I use antiques in my modern living room?†Not as many people are searching for specific phrases like that, but it’s much easier to rank for them, and the people that are searching that term certainly want what you have to offer. A good place to start is checking Google Keyword Planner for what phrases are searched the most and creating a list for yourself.
If you stuff your copy with keywords, you’ll defeat the purpose of what you’re trying to do. First of all, Google is smarter than that and knows what you’re trying to do, which is bad news for you. Secondly, even if people find you, they’ll be turned off by your cold copy and won’t call you. And what’s the point of ranking high if it doesn’t produce leads?
Yoast is a great tool for WordPress sites to assess your readability as well as keyword usage while creating new content. It’s a good first step into customizing your content towards search engines.
Other places to use keywords in addition to your body copy:
Pages titles and title tags — These are the very first thing Google reads and they tell users and search engines what to expect. Google doesn’t like to be surprised (and neither do your visitors), so being clear and descriptive is helpful. These appear in search engine results, on your browser tabs, and in social posts, so make them good.
Blog post headlines — Don’t try so hard to be creative and spend more time making your headlines clear, informative and keyword-rich. You want your headlines to entice your visitors so that they continue to read.
URLs — Especially in blog posts, this is another opportunity to use keywords in your blog post headlines and structure your URLs so that all of those words are included.
Image alt text — Descriptions should be included for all images that are displayed. Google, screen readers and your website visitors can all read alt text on your images.
Meta descriptions – This little blurb shows up below the page title in Google search results. Google can automatically pull it from the first couple of lines of copy on the page or you can intentionally make it copy that will entice people to click to read more. Always best to be intentional, right??
Let’s Wrap It Up
I know I’ve thrown a lot of information at you and it can be a tad overwhelming. However, if you tackle each piece of this blog overtime you will see the results you’re after. SEO is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. When working with our team, we give you a solid foundation to build on, but it does need to be built.
Using these tips and tricks to systematically improve your site will help you see a difference in your Google ranking and your client experience so whether you hire it out or tackle it yourself, it is a worthy endeavor.
