The Ultimate Guide to Local SEO for Interior Designers in 2024
Ever wondered what we mean by Local SEO, how it differs to generic SEO and how to apply it to your website? In this comprehensive guide to Local SEO, we explore how to boost your online visibility with relatable language, tips for beginners and some quick wins. Divided into 24 easy-to-read sections with a handy table of contents for quick reference, it covers all you need to know to get started. An essential guide for interior designers and interior businesses who rely on local trade.
Local SEO Decoded: Attracting Design Clients in Your Area
When you search on the internet for local businesses, scroll just beyond the sponsored ads and you will see an area map pinpointing three local businesses that fall into the relevant search category – A, B and C. It shows their location, business name (linked to their website), address and phone number (or NAP details as they are known ie name, address, phone) and is listed above organic search results. Even without including a geographical location or typing the words ‘near me’, Google will detect that your search has ‘local intent’ (to use its common term). On a desktop, IP addresses determine location. On mobiles, location is deduced by connection signal or location services, if enabled. Priming your website for optimal ranking on the local Map pack 3, introduced by Google back in 2005, is what we refer to as local SEO.
If you’re not in the top three, you might be included on an expanded map if the searcher extends his search area. The pull-down menu (listed under ‘view all’) shows local registered businesses in order of prominence and continues over many pages.
Being in the top three rankings is where you want to be. It’s pure gold for revenue and sales traffic conversions as it literally puts your business on the map.
Why Interior Designers Can't Ignore Local SEO in 2024
Local SEO is a must for local businesses such as interior designers, local estate agents and retail businesses
Why? Because local people visit shops on their doorstep and use local services, for convenience to save time and money. A high proportion of local marketing comes through local internet searches.
1. 4 in 5 consumers conduct searches to find local information
3. 97% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else.
How Local SEO Transforms Interior Design Businesses
The good news is that it’s free to register. The not-so-good news is that appearing on Google Maps is not an automatic process. Your website ranking is determined by several factors. Taking the necessary steps to optimise local SEO will move you higher up the listing.
Research shows that the results on page 1 get 67% of the clicks.
In other words, it’s a BIG DEAL.
Google Business profile allows business owners to link to automatic bookings with the Maps Booking API feature, adding their own booking button, useful for local service-based businesses eg interior designers. For local home retailers, connecting their profile, to direct retail ordering, is an invaluable feature. This greatly enhances click-through rates presenting the client with a convenient user-friendly experience, that makes follow-through easy.
Local-based businesses must be’ in it, to win it’. So how do you get in the game?
Claiming Your Google Business Profile: A Designer's Essential Guide
The number one task is to register for Google Business Profile, formerly Google my Business, but first you must set up a Google account profile if you haven’t already done so (which will also provide you with a Gmail address). Chances are that you, or your website developer, will do this when you set up your website, integrating Google Console and Analytics to monitor and track your website’s traffic and performance. Keep all your business-related information under the same Google profile. It makes life easier.
Once signed into your Google Account, navigate to the Google My Business website to set-up, claim and verify your google-my-business listing. Follow Google’s steps to register, claim and verify the listing.
Select a category that accurately reflects your core business services eg Interior Designer. You can add up to nine secondary categories for niche and specialist services which helps attract more qualified leads eg commercial interior designer, residential interior designer or architectural designer. If you have a target interior service you might choose kitchen or bathroom remodeler, for example, or furniture store. Secondary categories might include kitchen supply store or lighting store. Be specific, choosing categories that accurately describe your business and limit your choices to maintain a clear focus. Research competitors to see how they categorise themselves. Adding keywords to your Google Business Profile, aligned with your pillar services optimises visibility.
NAP Citations: The Backbone of Local Visibility for Interior Businesses
When setting up your Google Business Profile you will be asked to provide information on your name, address and phone number (NAP data). This information must be both accurate and consistent across the board. You’ll need to keep a note of it to ensure it is duplicated on all internet entries. Google gathers this information from various online sources to verify your authenticity as proof that you are who you say you are, and your website and business are bona fide.
The Importance of Consistent Nap Citations
The more consistent online NAP citations you have, the more you’ll gain favour with Google for local SEO as each entry is a further endorsement of your business legitimacy. So how do you go about gaining further entries?
Boosting NAP Citations with Effective Endorsements
Submit your data to other online directories such as Yelp,Yell, Bing Places and Apple maps. Interiors-related businesses should also register with Houzz, build and design software for pros and homeowners. This dedicated interior designer directory, offers a free subscription in addition to the pro. Check out how to create a free business account on Houzz. You can piggyback off their SEO since they tend to rank highly.
Other professional organisations’ directories for UK designers include the Society of British and International Design (SBID), the Interior Design Society (IDS), and the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID). US-based interior designers should target the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and the Interior Design Society (IDS).
UK industry-specific directories include: The House Directory, InteriorNet Directory, Interior Design Directory by Industville and The List by House and Garden.
Similar US design directories include: Porch, BuildZoom, HomeBlue, Dexigner and Nextdoor (which is location-specific).
Check out other local business directories in your area too, including community listservs and Facebook groups focused on interior design as well as industry-specific blogs and websites featuring interior designers. NAP details for your website’s contact page and your Google Business profile should also be consistent so it’s good practice to list and save your details to cut and paste across all entries.
Here’s a list of the top local citation sources for United Kingdom and the top local citation sources for United States.
Social media is worth mentioning here too, because your social media profiles can act as additional NAP citations. Claiming profiles on social media platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and keeping a consistent business name across all platforms, will make it easier for Google to verify you which in turn will increase your local SEO ranking.
So how exactly do you go about optimising your local SEO?
Ranking Higher: What Gets Interior Designers into the Local Map Pack?
So how do you go about optimising your local SEO? The top three factors for ranking include:
· Relevance
· Distance
· Prominence
Let’s examine them in greater detail.
Relevance
How closely your business and services matches the search which is influenced by keywords.
Distance
This is calculated by the proximity of your business to the search map directory. Whilst this isn’t something you can directly influence, there are other merit-based factors that determine ranking.
Prominence
This is ranked by reputation and brand recognition. Although this naturally favours well-known brands, local businesses can successful gain status through high-star local reviews.
Local SEO vs. Organic SEO: Key Differences
It’s important to understand that ‘local intent’ searches operate separately from organic searches determined by a different set of algorithms. For example, with typical organic searches, locality is not a ranking factor.
Generic SEO ranking uses the following criteria:
Relevance
The same criteria used for local SEO.
Authority
How reliable, credible and trustworthy the site is.
Usefulness
This covers user-friendly factors such as well-structured websites, workable links, page load speed and mobile friendliness.
Websites that rank well for generic SEO often also rank well for local SEO as they share some common ranking factors.
Effective Keyword Research Strategies for Local Interior Businesses
Choosing the keywords that most closely match those of your potential customers, can determine the ‘relevance’ ranking factor, so it’s important to focus on conducting local keyword research. Although Google is getting better at detecting local search intention, it helps to include reference to geographical locations such as your local town and county or for US customers, city, state and metropolitan district. Sprinkle them throughout your key words and phrases for optimum results.
5 Ways to Discover Popular Local Search Terms
Check out the ‘searches related to’ or ‘related searches’ section on Google search for additional alternatives or the ‘people also ask’ section.
· Use Keyword planner tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, Uber Suggest or Google Keyword Planner.
· Check common terms and language used on forums such as Quora and Reddit and local community FB groups.
· Check out the category terms shown on your Google Business Profile when you type in related keywords.
· Analyse competitor’s keywords to determine their strategy and leverage the words they are using.
Keyword Research: Targeting Clients Seeking Interior Design Services
In an oversaturated market it’s hard to rank for highly competitive phrases so you need to get savvy, particularly if you are a new business or have a new website and want to rank quickly. This process involves looking at lower monthly search volume words that fall into the category of ‘very easy’, ‘easy’ or in some cases, ‘medium’ ranking difficulty in other words choosing words that have a higher probability of ranking well alongside multiple competitors. Sometimes it is easier to gain traffic from search phrases that have a fewer number of searches than it is to attract visitors from search words that have a greater number of searches but the number of competitors vying for them is high. The skill is to weigh up the best option to gain highest visibility when determining your keyword strategy. Aim for a figure of below 60% ranking difficulty, but with enough traffic to justify the choice. Keyword planning and SEO software tools such as SEMrush and Ahrefs can help you analyse the patterns.
Newbies should aim to rank for keywords with lower search volume to get some initial traction, introducing higher search volume words later, as the business becomes more established. Why? Because you wouldn’t run before you can walk. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. You wouldn’t start competitive league sport at the top. Unless you had beginner’s luck, you would lose every time against more established players. Start at the bottom and your chances of winning are greater. You get more confident as you begin to acquire some wins, your game improves and you move up the ladder. It’s only a matter of time before your competence level increases as you consistently practice and you’re up there competing with the top players. Now you can afford to introduce some higher volume words. Slow and steady moves the needle.
On-Page SEO Tactics for Interior Design Websites
Title tags are key for Local SEO. Add location but don’t just bolt it on the end. Think of creative ways to include it.
Title Tags
Titles need to sound natural and enticing, but concise, so avoid keyword stuffing that sounds awkward. By concise we mean approximately 50-60 characters to ensure that your title isn’t truncated mid-flow. Google’s imposed limit is based on the pixel width available in search results. As a best practice, keep the crux of your title within the first 50 characters and never extend it beyond 80 characters. If Google don’t like your title tags, they may rewrite them for you, to ensure they better align to the search. If you want to stay in control, it pays to get it right first time.
Title tags are the blue descriptions that you see under your URL site. Checking site:yourdomain.com allows you to view your current title tags.
Meta Descriptions
Unlike title tags, meta descriptions do not directly determine SEO ranking. However, they are an important feature for enticing traffic as they provide more information on what the site is about and contain valuable keywords that might resonate with the reader. It’s a bit like a book blurb that you might read to decide whether or not to buy the book.
Include target keywords to highlight the benefits and USP of your core business services and your geographical location. Aim to balance a compelling tone with a natural flow.
Optimising Mobile Design for Interior Businesses
Most local searches take place on mobile, so it’s crucial to optimise for different mobile screen sizes. Use responsive design for compatibility. Ensure your font is visible, legible and easy on the eye, in terms of size, style and colour against the background. It’s easy to fall into the trap of fancy design that detracts from easy reading. Remember many older people rely on reading glasses and sometimes they search without! It’s easy to get irritated if a website’s difficult to read and many will simply give up and move on. Another way to optimise your mobile is to keep your menu simple and avoid pop-ups and flashing images which can be intrusive for mobile design.
By 2021, mobile devices will influence more than $1.4 trillion in local sales.
Faster Loading Websites for Better SEO
Patience is key. In this digital age, people are short on it. They simply don’t have the time to wait for a page to load. So, check your page loading speed to avoid visitors seeking a faster alternative.
There are a host of clever ways you can achieve this using a web designer or technical SEO expert. Here are some tried and tested methods:
· Choose a high-performance-optimised host for your website.
· Compress images using specialist software tools such as TinyPNG, Squoosh.app or Windows built-in Photos app compression.
. Aim for a file size under 200KB and maintain image resolution around 1200-1600 pixels wide.
· Ensure you use the correct file format when updating files and images. PNG: is best for images with text, providing higher quality, WebP: is a newer format using a smaller file size with good quality and JPEG: is good for photographs with a marginally lower quality for text.
· Reduce the number of 301 redirects, that automatically transfer the visitor to a new page. If redirects are essential, remember to remove them after a period of one year to allow search engines the time to process the page and transfer the link equity. This period may require extending if the old website continues to receive referral traffic or if other external links are pointing to it.
· Use caching software to copy and store files allowing quick access for returning visitors. This is the software found on web browsers, servers and hard drives to speed up efficiency of data retrieval from historical memory, which increases overall speed load times. Select tools like Redis, Memcached or Varnish for server caching (which may require some coding knowledge though tutorials can be found on YouTube). Plugins are available for WordPress like WP Rocket and WP Super Cache which are novice-friendly.
Local Link-Building Strategies for Interior Designers
As with generic SEO, the more referring domains you have, the higher your ranking authority. This refers to the number of live external websites that link directly to your website. Here are some techniques you can use to build local links:
Host events at your premises for local community groups asking the host to link to your website’s Google map directions when they market their group online.
· Ask for referrals from complementary businesses you support, that align well with your own.
· Get featured in local newspapers, magazines and online publications.
· Support, get involved and sponsor local events and community activities.
· Volunteer or promote yourself for guest speaker spots on related podcasts or local radio.
Traditional generic link-building strategies also work to build links for Local SEO. This involves actively reaching out and pursuing back links by promoting the value of relevant statistics, reports or infographics from your blog posts as useful referring links or asking other websites to link to your business where you feel it adds value.
How to Track and Monitor Local SEO Performance
Use the Map Rank Tracker from SEMrush. It’s currently free for your first campaign. See where your business profile ranks in Google Maps. You can also use free or pro versions of specialist software tracking tools to help assist such as BrightLocal, Moz Local and SEMrush. Other tools include Local Falcon and Places Scout. Regularly tracking your progress will help you identify areas you need to improve.
How to Embed Google Maps for Optimal Local SEO
Embedding Google Maps on the contact page of your website is a way to optimise SEO whilst also making it easier for customers to find you. Check out the University of Maine’s web tips for web managers on how to embed maps.
Geotagging: Putting Your Interior Business on the Local Map
Geotagging images adds geographical metadata in the form of longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates to your photos to assign them a location before they are uploaded to your website. Several specialist tools exist to help you do this. Here’s how you can geotag a photo in windows 10 or 11 .
Highlighting Local Landmarks: Local SEO Strategy
· Unique amenities available at your business location
· Location-based products and services that includes the area you cover for your interior business.
· Local events, history and landmarks
. Location based design projects and case studies
· Local team members including bios and photos
Schema Markup: The Hidden SEO Weapon for Interior Design Businesses
A technical SEO expert can add schema local business markup to your HTML which helps search engines read and understand your data.
· Structuring your data helps Google understand what your page is about, which gains you favour and in turn increases traffic.
· Google may choose to enhance your listing to make it stand out, which gives you a competitive edge.
Whilst this isn’t essential SEO, it can give you a competitive advantage.
Enhancing Local SEO Through Google Business Reviews
Reviews matter. Clients read these before deciding whether or not to buy from you, appoint your services or check you out. They are a powerful endorsement for potential customers who want to know how others rate your service.
Searchers will prioritise high volume, good quality, up-to-date reviews and highly starred ones that exceed their competitors. So don’t forget to ask for them!
· Always proactively ask for Google reviews.
· Make it easy for clients by giving them a shareable link. (Click ‘Ask for Reviews’ in the edit section of your Google listing).
· Timing is everything. Ask when the client has received good service from you and experienced a positive interaction.
· Follow up if you need to. People lead busy lives.
· Always take the time to appreciate good feedback to foster loyalty.
. Monitor reviews regularly. This enables you to quickly respond in a professional positive manner to mitigate any damage from unjustified comments if by chance you receive a bad review.
Optimising Your Interior Design Google Business Profile
Include keywords in your Google Business Profile and ensure they are consistent with your website to strengthen SEO, once again ensuring that you keep it natural instead of forced.
Once established, don’t neglect your Google Business Profile. Regularly monitor it, to keep it up-to-date with photos, business opening hours and regular posts about your latest news, events and special offers.
Content Marketing for Interior Designers to Attract Local Clients
Last but by no means least, this ultimate guide to local SEO, would not be complete without mentioning content marketing to optimise your SEO through a consistent supply of scheduled blogs. As with generic SEO, consistent blog content aligned to your keywords and core services will optimise ranking. In moz.com/beginners-guide-to-SEO, content is ranked second most important in all SEO factors, topped only by Googlebot’s crawling and indexing of your site, without which your site would not be listed. Why so important? Because SEO blog content should include what your searchers are looking for (thereby increasing the search relevance through the use of SEO keywords). To strengthen Local SEO, include local geographical keywords in your blogs. For an interior designer, for example, this might include:
· A case study that focuses on interior design in your location
· A local event you have attended and supported
· A spotlight on your business and the benefits it brings to the local community.
Step By Step Local SEO: A Roadmap for Interior Design Businesses
So, there you have it, your ultimate guide to Local SEO.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed. Don’t be. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Take each step at a time.
Think of it like building a framework. Once you have the key, you can understand which piece to begin with and how the pieces naturally fit together. This guide will ensure you get off to the right start and successfully navigate the challenges. Remember that SEO results can take approximately 3- 12 months to gain significant traction. But the results are worth it. When all the components come together, the benefits can be dramatic and worthwhile, creating passive income that drives significant website traffic and revenue. In the meantime, you will notice small wins as you progress on the journey. It’s a details game. The more you practice, the more it makes sense and the more buzz you get from seeing visible results.
We have already established the importance of online searches for local businesses.
If you’re an interior designer relying on local business clients or a locally based home retailer, or indeed any local business, it’s essential to prioritise Local SEO, breaking it down into manageable steps to avoid overwhelm.
If you haven’t yet registered your Google My Business Profile, take heed. It’s never too late to start.
Written by Jane Eley
Freelance Interiors Copywriter
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Interior Design Copywriter for Home and Luxury Lifestyle Brands
