good words are worth much and cost little - george herbert

What’s a keyword, and why are they important for an interior designers website?

In short, keywords are a bridge that connects qualified prospects to your website. Your mission? To help as many people as possible across that bridge and into your business using keyword based on page search engine optimization. It all starts with well written content and long tail keywords.

Keywords are words and phrases that people type into search engines when they’re looking for something online, and businesses looking to be found will go out of their way to use the same language on their websites in order to show up prominently in search results.

“Good words are worth much, and cost little.”

— George Hebert

A potential customer might search for “Interior Designers Boston.” On the search results page, just below the paid advertisers, he or she will see a list of web pages, with the most relevant - as deemed by Google - first. A recent search for the phrase above yielded 2,890,000 results, presented about 10 to a page. And since most people will never look past page 1 or maybe 2, merely having the right keywords isn’t enough; you’ve also got to beat out your competition in order to land on the first or second page.

Step 1: Interior Designers Need To Use The Correct Keywords

Pay attention to keyword search volume and competition.

Conduct keyword research to find out if you have a chance at ranking for a keyword phrase in search engines. This is often called the competition score. If competition is strong for the keyword you want to rank for, try researching a long-tail keyword phrase or an alternative keyword. Be certain to choose a keyword that is frequently searched for. Most keyword research tools will tell you how many people have used the term in search engines in the last month. Use as many variations of your keywords as possible. Make certain they are distributed throughout your web pages and blog articles and do not exceed 1.5% insertion rate. (9 words per 600 word blog article) A little upfront research will help you work smarter and save lots of time and money in the long run.

Need a keyword research tool to help getting started?

The Google AdWords Keyword Tool lets you type in your website or a competitor’s and see a list of keyword ideas as well as which are searched for most often in your area and globally, and how steep the competition is for each. Paying AdWords customers will see even more relevant information, and businesses can also make use of HitTail's Keyword SEO Tool software, which helps you analyze your keywords, increase your search rankings, decide which keywords are generating customers for you, and track the competition. Keyword.IO is another tool that provides excellent results.

Step 2: Who are your customers, and what words are they using to search for your services?

It’s always helpful to see the world through their eyes, and you can do that by developing buyer personas, or profiles of different types of customers. Hubspot has good advice and a free template for businesses looking for a little help getting started. It isn't enough to use keywords; they must be attracting the types of interior design clients you want to do business with.

Step 3: Shorter Isn’t Always Sweeter.

More general search terms, such as “interior design,” will have steep competition for rankings, and, frankly, they’re probably not going to be as helpful to you as something more specific, such as “Interior Designers Boston.” Even better: “Kitchen Interior Designers Boston” or “Luxury Kitchen Interior Designers Boston,” or why not use more than one? The idea is to come up with a list of search terms that are two words or more, and that accurately depict your particular business niche and attract fewer competitors for rankings purposes.

Step 4. I Know The Words I Want To Use, Now What?

You’ve created a list of keywords to help your business get found by the right people, so it’s time to create some website content to showcase them. Use one keyword phrase per website page title, and include it in the page URL, an H1 headline, H2 Subcategory headlines, embedded within the content, the image name, the alternative text (or alt tag) for the picture, and the page’s metadata. Blogs are a great way to incorporate keywords into your site’s content - just follow the same advice in showcasing one keyword phrase and its synonyms per post.

Step 5. Congratulations, You've Mastered Keywords!

You’ve successfully incorporated keywords into your website strategy. Just remember: Interior designers face strong competition for getting their website found online. Keywords are the way your website gets found. Feature relevant keywords you on your interior design website, and include keywords that feature design style, materials, and products used in your designs and the geographic area you hope to attract clients from. To ensure you have an ongoing strategy for incorporating keywords into your website is to write blog articles on a regular basis. Two blog articles a month is a minimal amount, one blog article weekly is good, but two or three blog articles weekly will grow your business and attract better clients than you can imagine. Want proof? Look at our case study for Skillings and Sons, Inc. In three years they went from 120 visitors per month to 22,000. All of this increased website traffic presented a significant problem... turning clients over to their competitors or buying a company. They bought two competitors. Of all the problems to have, to many clients is one most interior designers would love to have.

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About Michael Conway
I'm the owner and strategist at Means-of-Production. My firm builds Squarespace websites, Houzz profiles, and content marketing and advertising solutions for architects, interior designers, design-build contractors and landscape design firms. Our all-in-one marketing tactics attract the right clients with exceptional architectural photography and brand messaging that sets you apart from the competition.

5 Steps to Great Keywords and On Page SEO for Interior Designers