Why your Architecture Website Is Worth Your Attention
The importance of a website for architects & interior designers
A professional website is much more than just a personal profile and portfolio repository. It is the core of architectural marketing strategy.
Architects strive for visual perfection, and thus the process of building or redesigning a professional website can be intimidating. And there are a plethora of other crucial aspects. Think of choosing the domain name, developing graphics & structure, writing copy, and optimising it all to appear at the top of search results in Google.
Conclusion? Plan the website for your Architecture practice carefully to not get overwhelmed and use it up to its full potential. Having a responsive website that showcases your best work, builds trust and attracts new clients is well worth it.
Your website is your home online
The website of Architecture or Interior Design studio is the only online platform over which you have total control. From the colour palette to text and imagery, every feature can be adapted to match your brand, showcase your expertise and convey professionalism.
Branding is a powerful strategy to present the personality of your Architecture & Interior practice. Investing in a strong brand online will help you establish your business as an authority in the market and generate more revenue in the long term.
Architecture website builds trust
A professional website adds credibility. The visitor can learn all the details about your work, go through your portfolio, read client testimonials and access contact information at their convenience.
It’s even expected to have a website, and many customers may get discouraged if they wouldn’t be able to find any information on your design studio online.
It also boosts your social media metrics
Your website can also boost other marketing channels, such as Social Media platforms, and build a stronger relationship with clients through email marketing.
Promoting Architecture office exclusively on Social Media is not sustainable
Social Media presence is vital for Architects and Interior Designers, but it won’t replace having a website. Your potential clients already spend a part of their day on social platforms, and that’s a great opportunity to capture their attention.
However, that also means you can only promote your brand in restricted ways. To have deeper and more meaningful conversations, you need to lead your prospects to your website. This way, you can generate brand awareness and open doors for direct communication to build a lasting relationship.
Reasons to combine website & social media presence
The benefits of Social Media use for businesses are undeniable. One of them is the ability to leverage the power of sponsored content. Investing part of your Architecture Marketing budget in ads allows you to target a specific audience. In other words, it increases the chances of finding ideal clients by narrowing down the targeting criteria.
Despite that, it is not safe to rely solely on social platforms to attract more customers.
Here are three reasons why Social Media should take the backseat when marketing your Architecture or Interior Design office:
It is not yours: You will need to adapt all content to specific platforms. It takes time to adjust the image size and format. Copy length must also adhere to rules outlining the character limit. Furthermore, it only takes one malicious competitor or a single instance of unintentional terms violation for the page to disappear or have the account blocked.
You don't have any control over your posts’ organic reach: putting out social media content consistently requires time and effort. Nonetheless, all can be lost if the post doesn't perform well because of unfavourable treatment by some algorithm.
There is no marketing if the platform is down: If social profiles are the only way a client can contact your studio or see your work, valuable opportunities may be lost.
How will the website help my Architecture practice?
There are many benefits of developing a website for your architecture or interior design office. In short, it’s the most effective investment when it comes to getting new projects. Here are the main:
Your site will attract more clients
Many architects rely on the word of mouth recommendation from past clients. Plenty has
never received an online enquiry about their services. At the same time, most people look for architecture services online.
A professional website may attract new clients and convince those who are unsure or shopping around. Not having it means missing out on many opportunities.
Think about it: when looking for a product or service, the first thing most people do is to research online. If they cannot find your webpage, you might lose potential clients for competitors who have their pages up and ranking well on Google.
It's a reasonably low-cost solution
Websites are not expensive to set up or maintain. The monthly prices for hosting a professional website in platforms such as WordPress or website builders like Wix are as low as $3/month.
You can publish relevant content that will attract your audience and enhance positions on search engines like Google, making it easier for your website to be found without investing in paid advertising.
For that matter, it’s essential to start as soon as possible and commit to it. Search engines and people alike are more inclined to trust firms with a track record of a credible online presence.
It’s a high reward, long-term effort
Although it requires some initial work and investment, the most benefits come over time. Immediately after publishing your website, you will gain credibility in the eyes of your existing clients.
Then, attracting high numbers of visits to your page may take time and requires careful and cleverly planned work and execution rather than large investments and hectic casual hassle.
Regular posting and gradually improving the technical aspects of your website will make a big difference. But first - let’s take a closer look at the visual dimension of your online home.
Harmonious Web Design builds a positive perception of your company
No matter if minimalism or flamboyant creativity define your style, the design of your web page speaks a lot about your practice. Yet, what’s obvious offline doesn’t have to come easily online. Why should you care about the looks of your website?
Design sells
The aesthetics of your webpage impacts how the visitor perceives the brand on the first contact. A modern professional website is a valuable opportunity to impress your target audience. A remarkable brand will set you apart from the competition. Ensure your logo, colour palette and theme are consistent, and it is easy to navigate through your website to find relevant information.
Website design improves your recognition
As part of your branding, it is yet another opportunity for people to remember your company. Combining your logo, design style, and visual identity with your work helps with attribution.
What defines excellent web design?
A well-designed website has the power to appeal to your audience and communicate your message. People like neat and charming visuals online, but only if they don’t complicate things. User experience and functionality must lead all the aesthetic decisions. Providing clear information and directing the user forward on the journey to hiring your office for a project.
Web design principles to consider
Grid-based layout: Helps to maintain consistency by aligning elements and keeping them organised.
Visual hierarchy: One of the most critical principles of a harmonious design. It is the order in which users distinguish information. Ensure that the essential elements such as calls-to-action and contact details are easily identified among less critical sections.
Colour palette: Makes your brand easily recognisable by visitors. For a balanced result, limit the range to up to five colours.
Imagery: Beautiful, high-resolution images contribute to an aesthetically pleasing web page.
Typography: Make sure everything on your page is legible. Varying typeface, colour, and size helps organise the content and creates a visual impact.
Thoughtful User Experience (UX) leads to better results
Along with the planning of website visuals (UI or User Interface), focus on user experience (UX). An optimised website makes it easy to understand, navigate and find information. It also embodies the Modern Architecture concept of “form follows function”.
For instance: when developing a room layout, we first consider its purpose and the activities it will accommodate. As a result, the structure is designed for optimal usability. From the business perspective, a well-thought user experience paves the visitor’s path from the first interaction to hiring you.
UX & UI: what is the difference?
You probably have heard about the terms UI and UX. They seem opposing disciplines, but they are, in fact, complementary. Simply put, UI corresponds with the visual features of a web page: the grid layout, animations, and how interactive parts work. UX prioritises the human experience and functionality of your website.
How to optimise your architecture studio website for UX?
Understand what your visitor is looking for Knowing your target audience is crucial for orchestrating an excellent user experience, resulting in more inquiries. Plan your website to meet their needs and answer their queries. You can also use their feedback to improve your design.
Assure your website is properly displayed on different devices
A responsive website provides a great experience on various devices. Ensure that your website loads reasonably fast (up to 3 seconds) and is readable on every type of screen, especially on smartphones. Make sure that images and videos in your portfolio are high-definition and load on different browsers.
Audit accessibility of pages, especially the portfolio and contact page?
People rarely read what is on your website. Instead, they scan through it until they find the information they are searching for. You should use different fonts, buttons and graphics to help them find it and lead them to take action.
Combining User Experience (UX), seamless design, and relevant content sets a competitive advantage online. Your website serves a purpose. From brand awareness to customer acquisition, these three disciplines must be considered when establishing strategic goals. Let’s see how content creation fits into this picture.
Engaging Architecture content is excellent for your clients and your bottom line
Content is all information provided on your page, including text descriptions, videos, graphics, articles, guides and more. The primary purpose of creating good quality content is to keep visitors' attention, inform them and “befriend” you and the concept of acquiring your services. It isn’t about bragging about what modern-day Da Vinci you are: it is all about educating your audience and adding value.
Do architects need to create content for their website?
Content creation is one of the powerful strategies to attract clients. Sharing knowledge and answering visitors’ queries increases interest and builds trust. When they find answers to their design choice dilemmas in your guide or blog post, they may simply choose you to execute the project.
To create engaging content, you have to understand who is your ideal client. Perform online research and outline their main challenges, obstacles, and desires. If writing is not your thing, you may have your architecture content written by an experienced writer.
Choose the right content format
Use the information collected from your target audience research to generate content in the most convenient format for them. You can create blog posts, videos, ebooks and more. Also, repurposing each content for different media expands the reach and maximises effectiveness.
Some key factors to focus on when creating Architecture content:
Value proposition: your content must address clearly (but never sales-y) how your service adds value to the customer and what makes it unique.
Write for humans: use your service page, blog and portfolio to captivate and educate the visitor. It makes your practice trustworthy and approachable.
Get into your customer shoes: find keywords your audience use to find Architecture and Interior Design services. Avoid industry jargon.
How to make your Architecture Website visible: SEO techniques
SEO stands for Search engine Optimisation. It is the practice of enhancing the webpages’ content to increase the ranking position on the search results. It’s often referred to as getting you to the top positions on Google or Yahoo. This strategy is an essential part of your Marketing Plan, as studies show that most people tend to click only on the first results of the first page.
Understand how your clients search for Architects or Interior designers online
You may already know what keywords you want to rank for, but those may not be what your client types on the search bar. When optimising your content to match search queries, try walking a mile in the shoes of your audience. What terms would they use when searching for a professional to plan a kitchen extension?
Consider all aspects of their searching endeavours. They may not necessarily know your specialisation name and type an indirect reference like “architect that plans factories” instead of ”industrial architect”.
Perhaps, your clients also use specific adjectives that indicate what they are looking for. Experienced, certified, awarded, but also cheap or budget services are some of them.
Combine SEO with high-quality content
Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, favour keyword-dense, content-rich articles that provide precise answers to customer queries. As an effect, the content also increases the chances of being featured on the snippets (highlighted links that quickly answer the searcher’s questions on Google) and attract more visitors.
Create free, relevant content that engages and educates your audience. It will also enhance the chances of having it shared by customers and larger websites, growing your audience and establishing authority.
Variate your website content to increase engagement
Different content formats appeal to diverse audiences. Leverage a variety of them to activate all types of readers, no matter what text form is their favourite.
FAQs:
Checklists
Videos
Client testimonials
Blog articles
Case studies
Spend time on online PR & building links
Great content pays off. When established websites link to your page, it signals to search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant in the field. Look for opportunities to write and be featured on portals such as Country Living and Architectural Digest. Avoid links from spammy domains, as they can backfire by hindering ranking opportunities.
Being quoted in reputable journals and popular blogs may also drive your traffic and increase prestige. Those are all assets that may stay with you for years.
Use website analytics to improve its performance continuously
The author Peter Drucker composed one of the most famous business quotes: "If you can't measure, you can't improve it". This is also true for your Architecture website. How do you know if the goals previously set on the marketing plan are actually being met?
Collect data to make strategic business decisions
You can gather anonymous user data from website visitors through Google Analytics. By installing a tracking code on yed.our website (also known as cookies), you can gain insights about your most popular pages, user’s device and geographical location, among others. Improve user experience on-page and identify valuable business opportunities based on the data obtained.
Understand the customer journey
Regularly monitoring your website will deliver you intelligence on where your visitors come from and what is their behaviour on the page. You will gradually understand what makes you lose their attention and what captivates it.
Besides, Web analytics will accurately track your online marketing efforts and give insights about a prospect's journey from the first contact until enquiry and buying your services.
There are excellent affordable tools to help you monitor your website. Here are some popular options to help you gain more understanding of your website traffic:
1. Google Analytics: One of the most powerful free tools to track and analyse user data.
2. CrazyEgg: Affordable option for small business owners. Offers exciting tools such as heat map, tracking where visitors click more often to improve user experience.
3. Woopra: With a simple interface, it helps analyse quantitative data, such as traffic origin and conversion rates.
4. Hotjar: Like CrazyEgg, it also offers a heat map and the option to record visitors' activities on your page.
Conclusion
Since your website is an integral part of any successful Architecture marketing plan, you must pay attention to it. When creating your website, keep these four main aspects in mind:
Follow a Marketing strategy.
Focus on Design and User Experience.
Write relevant content for your audience.
Measure and Iterate for optimal performance.
Always have in mind that marketing your website is a process that pays off. We encourage you to bookmark this page and come back to use it as a reference. It may help you with auditing your existing website or building a new one.
Our goal in every post is to make the most of your precious time and pack articles with actionable content!
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