5 Myths About Ranking Higher in Google and What Interior Designers Should Do Instead
Do you wish your interior design, home staging, professional organizing, or window treatment website would get more traffic? Optimizing your website for search engines is a must. However, search engine optimization (SEO) isn't just about using the right keywords.
SEO also includes making sure your website loads quickly, is mobile-friendly, accessible to those with eyesight disabilities, and easy to navigate. Navigation requirements include putting buttons and headlines in the right places...using enough of them, but not overcrowding the screen.
If you've been told that having good SEO means adding new pages to your website for each location that you serve or that you need to pay for vague services like keyword monitoring, you need to read this blog post. I'm busting five SEO myths that are hurting home industry professionals like you.
Let's liberate your website!
5 Myths About Ranking Higher in Google and What You Should Do Instead
Everyone wants good SEO, but it's hard to know when you have it if you're getting blasted with myths from every direction. These myths don't always come from a bad place. Sometimes they stem from outdated information or a misunderstanding of how SEO works. Regardless, you need to know about them.
Myth #1: You need to constantly add new pages to your website with different location keywords to rank higher in search engines.
This tactic is so outdated, and I'm shocked every time I hear someone tell me how much they are paying for this particular ongoing service. Often, this service is sold by SEO companies alongside something else just as useless — keyword monitoring.
Adding new pages to your website, essentially duplicating an existing page but swapping out one geographic location for another, is not necessary. Simply list all your geographic service areas on your home page and in the footer of your website. That's it! (And if you have a Google Business Listing, be sure to include those geographic areas.) Search engines are smart, and you no longer need to have a page for how you serve New York residents and a page for how you serve New Jersey residents. Don't fall for this service.
As for keyword monitoring, save your investment. Google Analytics and Google Search Console can tell you which keywords people are using to find your website, and that information is completely free to you.
Myth #2: You need ongoing SEO services to ensure your website shows up in Google and other search engines.
This isn't true. Your onsite SEO can be thought of as the foundation of a home. You don't need to pour the foundation again every month, yet there are many business owners in the home industry who are paying for monthly SEO services and have no idea whether those services are helping.
Spoiler alert: They aren't.
If your website was designed with SEO in mind, if your copywriting was done with accessibility and search engine optimization at the forefront, you already have as much search engine optimization as you can possibly have, barring a regular blogging schedule.
That's right: Blogging consistently at least once a month is the only other activity you can do to increase or continuously improve your SEO. But throwing words on a page and calling it a blog post isn't enough, either. More on that later.
Myth #3: Overly large image sizes don't hurt your ranking in Google.
Sadly, this is one of the most common mistakes people make on their websites. If you received photos from your photographer and they didn't provide you with web-sized versions of the images, you shouldn't upload them to your website without first compressing them.
If you upload the original resolution images, which are often upwards of 3,000-4,000 pixels each, your website will become heavy and sluggish. It will load slowly, and this will directly lower your SEO score.
Myth #4: Image slideshows don't slow down the loading speed of your site or negatively impact your SEO.
As I referenced earlier, loading speed matters. SEO isn't just about keywords. Search engines know how fast your website loads. If it doesn't load fast enough, it will receive less traffic. Unfortunately, image slideshows that automatically scroll through photos are one of the key reasons why certain web pages become sluggish. These slideshows are often placed on the home page banner of a website — the worst spot! Not only does it cause the most popular page of your website to earn a poor SEO score, but slideshows also prevent visitors from being able to see and digest your portfolio.
Myth #5: Blogging will always help your website rank higher in search results.
You've heard me rant for years about the importance of blogging, but just like interior design, there is a right and a wrong way to do it. Some of it is up for interpretation, sure, but the best practices are non-negotiable.
While I have an entire post on blogging, I'll give you a quick summary. Blog posts that will improve your SEO absolutely MUST meet the following standards:
Posts should be at least 500 words.
Include at least one image (if you're in the home industry, visuals are important).
Write an SEO-optimized title and headlines using H1 and H2.
Add alt / meta descriptions for each image (or just change the image file names).
Select topics that are relevant to your ideal client (not press releases, journal entries, or content that originally appeared on other websites)
End each blog post with a call-to-action that takes readers further into your sales funnel (sign up for my freebie or schedule a discovery call are excellent options).
Again, there is SO MUCH more to say about blogging. We offer blog post templates to make blogging easier for you here.
Should You Hire Someone to Help with SEO?
Do you need to hire an SEO company? Not exactly. Instead, work with a website designer who incorporates SEO into the foundational aspects of your new website. If you already have a website but you still have poor SEO, I highly recommend you work with an SEO consultant. SEO consultants provide a variety of one-time services, and any consultant with experience will never try to sell you something useless…like “keyword monitoring.”
Instead, a good SEO consultant will offer you:
A full SEO audit of your website.
A content plan, even if they don't create the content for you.
Google Analytics and / or Google Search Console set up, plus they'll show you how to interpret those analytics.
Is hiring an SEO consultant worth the money? Absolutely. While every good website designer should also be skilled in SEO, sadly few are. You might have to hire an SEO consultant after your website is designed. If that is the case, be prepared for your consultant to require changes to both the design and the copywriting of your website. You'll feel like you're double-paying just to get your website designed correctly, but it's completely worth it.
(rant alert)
It greatly concerns me that my agency has had so many clients say, "My last website designer didn't offer SEO."
That's similar to a full-service design-build firm doing everything to make a new build beautiful...except bringing in an electrical subcontractor. Sure, the house looks great, but nothing happens when you flip the light switches. Hmm.
As with any other professional, I'm highly critical of my own industry. SEO consultants are essentially the remodelers of the website design industry. If website designers would learn how to optimize each site they build, they would truly be offering full website design services and would thus prevent SEO consultants from having to come behind them to clean up the mess or complete the job (Harsh? Not really, because having to hire both a website designer AND an SEO consultant are two expenses that the client shouldn't have to pay — but often does).
If website designer os offering design and copywriting, but not SEO, the end result is not a complete website.
But, I digress.
4 Free Ways to Improve Your SEO
If you feel good about the SEO of your website and just want to increase traffic, make sure you have...
Google Business
Google Search Console
Google Analytics
Pinterest (only helpful if you are blogging at least monthly
