Beyond the Portfolio: Why Interior Designers Need a Quality Website and Strong SEO to Stand Out

A Note from Lezlie, founder and CEO of Swink Social Co.

Today I’ve decided to do something a little different.  I brought in a guest for this subject. Marta Luvian of Anchor Marketing Co. is sharing her expertise because social media and a strong, SEO-optimized website go hand in hand. One drives attention, the other captures it. I'm all about your social and Pinterest strategy, but those platforms work best when they're pointing people toward a website that actually converts. Marta lives in that world, and what she has to say here is worth your time. I'll let her take it from here. 

---

Introduction: The Evolution of Interior Design Marketing

Interior designers have always relied on real proof to show off their expertise. The Instagram feeds with to-die-for photos are swoon-worthy. While social media is amazing for inspiration and brand awareness, a beautiful Instagram feed is no longer enough. 

Your website should not be treated as a static online brochure or a social media feed where people can browse photos. To build a vibrant and resilient design firm, your website must be the foundational “hub” with SEO as the vehicle to drive those high-intent clients to.

In this post, we will cover these key areas to having a strong marketing strategy with your website and SEO:

1. The Modern Website is Your Digital Showroom

   1. Your Beautiful, Interactive Portfolio

   2. Clear User Experience (UX)

   3. Quality Data Capture and Lead Funnel 

2. The Reason SEO is Important and Some Basic How-Tos 

   1. SEO Captures Intent

   2. Image SEO 

   3. Why Local SEO is Important

   4. Blogging for Client Intent and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

The Modern Website is Your Digital Showroom

Your Beautiful, Interactive Portfolio 

I have worked with many interior designers who have incredibly beautiful photos of their work. However, their website was another story. It was outdated (sorely obvious) and lacked the excellence shown in their photos. Once I shared the importance of having a site that matches the quality of their work, things started to click. In fact, 75% of website visitors will judge a company’s credibility on their website design alone (Standford Web Crediblity Research). 

What’s more, when someone visits the portfolio section of your website, integrate storytelling to move past the photo grids. For that specific project, explain your client’s problem and the vision they had. Talk about the process and the inspiration behind the design. This invites the reader into the project and allows them to envision themself working with you.

Clear User Experience (UX)

User experience is a simple marketing term that explains the way someone navigates your website. The top issues (not limited to) that impede someone’s ability to seamlessly navigate your site are:

• Unclear call-to-action buttons

• Unclear navigation (for starters, the titles on the pages need to match your navigation; don’t overcrowd the menu navigation bar)

• Unclear headings

• Too much text that feels more like filler text than helping with the navigation experience of your website

• Slow load times 

• Blurry photos

• Broken mobile responsiveness (unclear visibility on a mobile device)

• Unnecessary pop-ups

• The text is too small or unreadable due to the color of the text on the background

This may seem harsh, but 88% of online site visitors are less likely to return after a bad experience (Tenacity). If your website is not built to sell in these key areas, you have likely already lost that potential lead. 

Quality Data Capture and Lead Funnel 

Many business owners fail to realize that their ideal customer wants them to tell them what to do next when they visit their website. Having distinct next steps allows your ideal customer to become closer to converting into an actual client. Here are three key areas to follow on your website:

• Have a clear Contact page on your website header navigation or footer

• Integrate a Schedule Now button on your navigation if you would like as well

• Have call-to-action buttons throughout your website, such as “See Client Reviews,” “Let’s Chat,” “Our Process,” “Read FAQs,” “Contact Us,” and more. 

• If you find email marketing to be an effective means of generating leads, make sure to include an email form subscription option in your footer.

• On your Contact page, make sure you have a clear intake form. While too few questions may bring about more spam fills, too many questions can lead to “form fatigue.” For the interior design industry, the “sweet spot” for an intake contact form is 4 to 6 questions. See the image below for a good example from one of our interior design website projects.

The Reason SEO is Important and Some Basic How-Tos 

SEO Captures Intent

The term SEO is one that can easily confuse interior designers. Basically, search engine optimization is the means of getting found on Google through the optimization of your website. Social media captures passive attention (people like the post and scroll on), but search engines capture active intent (people type “quality kitchen remodel near me”). 

When your website is ranking for the keywords your ideal client is typing in, this will lead to massive conversions and close rates in comparison to cold outreach. In fact, SEO drives 1,000% more traffic to a business’ website than organic social media, and leads from SEO, on average, have a 14.6% close rate (Intergrowth). 

Image SEO

The interior design industry is highly visual. However, if you don’t have proper SEO for your images, it can be a missed opportunity to rank on Google Image Search. Instead of keeping your image files to “IMG_120” you can rename them to have detailed ALT Text such as “modern-cottage-kitchen-island”. 

Also, it is important to check how large your images are. Many interior design photographers provide files that are just too large for a website. While higher-quality photos appeal to users verses the blurry, low-resolution ones, images are also the overall contributors to the total page size which can quickly slow the speed of your site (and causing people to leave your website sooner due to poor loading). 

For image sizing, stick to these formats (industry best practices based on how modern responsive websites are built, per web.dev):

• Small images and team photos: less than 100 KB (or less than 800 px)

• Most images: 100-200 KB (1200 px )

• Large section images: (1600 px)

• Hero/background images: 200-400 KB (1920 px)

Also, while PNG and JPG are commonly used file formats, using WebP or AVIF may compress your images better, which helps with better website loading (web.dev). 

Why Local SEO is Important

Many business owners easily overlook local SEO. Or, they think they can rely on word of mouth and their network. Especially for the interior design industry, your clientele is usually very geo-specific. 

It is important to integrate local keywords in your website (on the backend and frontend) to get your website in front of your ideal customers. Google Business Profile is also very important. Even if you do not have a physical office, you can still set up a Google Business profile. Your business will show up in search engines, and having Google Reviews will boost credibility and the strength of your online presence. Let this statistic motivate you: 88% of consumers use Google Reviews before deciding on who to choose or contact (Shapo). 

Blogging for Client Intent and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

Nowadays, business owners are concerned about whether their company is showing up on AI. While SEO (as outlined above, but not extensively) is important, blogging for client intent is critical. This is called AEO, Answer Engine Optimization. You have likely found yourself doing this as well: you will either go to Google or to an AI tool and ask a question such as “What should I ask an interior designer when they view my home?”

If you want to generate 55% more website visitors, start blogging (Hubspot). What’s more, blogging generates 3x more leads than traditional market, while costing 62% less (Hubspot). To start creating quality client-intent blog posts, write a list of the top questions your clients ask you and be as detailed as you can on that one topic. Quality over quantity matters!

Conclusion 

While you may have great photos on your Instagram, a frustrating website experience (slow loading, unclear messaging, difficult navigation, etc.) will drive potential customers away before they ever reach out. A bad website is costing you money, opportunities, and credibility, whether you realize it or not. 

In this post, I covered the basics of a quality website for interior designers, along with demystifying what SEO (search engine optimization) is and how to practically apply it to your interior design firm’s website. 

1. The Modern Website is Your Digital Showroom

   1. Your Beautiful, Interactive Portfolio

   2. Clear User Experience (UX)

   3. Quality Data Capture and Lead Funnel 

2. The Reason SEO is Important and Some Basic How-Tos 

   1. SEO Captures Intent

   2. Image SEO 

   3. Why Local SEO is Important

   4. Blogging for Client Intent and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

If you want to have a competitive advantage over your competitors, this is the place to start. If you need help, we would love to chat. 

---

Meet Marta Luvian, owner of Anchor Marketing Co.

Marta empowers interior designers across the United States and Canada to decode digital marketing and scale their firms with confidence. Specializing in high-impact website strategy and search engine optimization, Marta and her team transform static online portfolios into powerful, client-attracting platforms. Learn more at ​​https://anchormarketingco.com/.