Ugh! SEO. It’s so darn complicated. And overwhelming. And confusing. But you really do need it to help drive clients to your interior design website. As a copywriter, I’ve learned a few SEO tips for finding the right keywords.
SEO TIP #1 What makes a keyword ‘right’?
Finding the right keywords to try to rank for is the most important thing you can do to boost your SEO.
In a nutshell, a keyword is ‘right’ if it checks off the following:
√ It’s searched for fairly frequently
√ There isn’t a lot of competition in the search results I’ll explain more in SEO TIP #3.
√ It matches up with what the people you want to attract are searching for I’ll explain this one in SEO TIP #2.
SEO TIP #2 Think like your ideal clients
Think about what your ultimate goal is in trying to rank (i.e. get on the first page of Google results) for a certain keyword. If it’s to be known for a certain design style, project type, etc. that’s fine.
But I’m guessing that what you want most is to get more of your ideal clients (as in people who actually might hire you) to find your website. If that’s the case, this needs to be the primary focus of your SEO efforts.
As I mentioned above, you want the keywords you choose to match up with what searchers (i.e. your ideal clients) are looking for.
To find those keywords, start by thinking about the exact words your ideal clients might type into the Google search bar when looking online for an interior designer (this is called ‘user intent’ or ‘search intent,’ which you can read more about here if you’re interested).
They’re most likely typing something like ‘interior designer [your location]’ or a variety of that query.
Let me give you an example using my own business. I know that when looking for writing help for their interior design businesses, my ideal clients tend to search for things like:
Interior design copywriter
Copywriter for interior designers
Website writer for interior designers
Interior design website copy
Writing help for interior designers
Interior design blog writing
Let’s flip that over to thinking about your ideal clients. The majority of them probably aren’t looking to bring an interior designer in who isn’t within driving distance, so they’re probably searching for things like:
Interior designer [your city, state]
[Your city] interior designer
Interior design firm in [your city]
Best interior designer [your city state]
Even though it would be super cool if you ranked for something like “best interior designer” or “award-winning interior designer,” those phrases don’t match how people in your area search for a designer to hire for their upcoming project.
Focus on the kinds of keyword phrases you’d use if you were looking for a plumber (except you’ll use ‘interior designer,’ of course!) and you’re closing in on how your ideal clients search for you.
SEO TIP #3 Play the keyword numbers game
In SEO #1, I mentioned keyword difficulty. Basically, this refers to how many other websites/webpages are targeting that keyword.
When you search for something on Google, sometimes you’ll get only two or three pages of results and other times, you’ll get hundreds of results. If a keyword yields a ton of results AND those results are really good quality (meaning Google is giving people lots of the kind of thing they’re looking for), it’s probably going to be difficult to rank for.
You can’t always determine the level of difficulty just by looking at the search results, though, which is where keyword research tools come in (I use Ubersuggest and Keywords Everywhere).
Those tools show difficulty/competition as a percentage or out of 100. If a keyword has a 70% (70/100) difficulty or higher, that means a ton of websites are ahead of you in the rankings.
Some might be paying to show up there and some may just have lots of content using that particular keyword (that’s why big corporations and media outlets often show up first for many keywords).
On the other hand, if it’s 30% (30/100) you’ve got a good chance of showing up on page one of the results.
That said, a low difficulty score could be because no one’s searching with that keyword.
I talked about this in SEO TIP #1, as well. The amount of searches using a particular keyword each month is called ‘search volume.’
You’d be surprised how many seemingly great keywords are totally useless because no one ever types them into Google! The only way of knowing whether a keyword has good search volume is to run it through a keyword research tool.
Finding the right keywords to help your ideal clients find you can be challenging. If you find one that matches how those clients search for designers and has a high search volume and a low difficulty score), you’ve found the Holy Grail of keywords, my friend.
You’re more likely to find a few with decent search volumes and medium-difficulty scores. Don’t hesitate to use them! They can work together to give you some good Google juice and get you found by more of your ideal clients.
If you want help with your interior design website’s SEO, that’s part of my Full-Service Website Copywriting package. Give me a shout!
