3 Tips for Boosting Your Dering Hall Profile in Search
The most common way for interior designers to book projects is through word-of-mouth, according to a 2018 Sourcing Survey by Dering Hall of 632 design professionals, with 96% of respondents saying they book projects through referrals.
The second most common response though, with just over 26%, was through online searches. People are more likely to find their designers, architects, and other design services professional by doing a Google search than print magazines (19%), advertising (20%) and even PR (12%). Where you rank in search engines is more important than ever, and Dering Hall can help.
What are the most common ways you book new projects?
Because Dering Hall has nearly 800 design professionals on the site and over 4,000 articles about design in the Dering Hall Journal, our online footprint is substantial. You can use that to your advantage by using your Dering Hall profile to get you on the first page of search results when people are looking for designers.
Here are five easy ways to improve your search results using you Dering Hall profile:
Write Content that is Optimized for SEO
How will people search for designers in your area? Likely it will be around geography (i.e. “Boise designers” or “SOHO Interior Design”) or it might be around style (“modern interior designer” or “residential interior designer”). Think through how people online might search for you, and develop a strategy around that term.
For this example, we are going to use geography. The profile below is Hyde Evans Design, an interior design and architecture firm in Seattle. Let’s say they wanted one of their key search terms to be “Seattle Interior Designer.”
The first thing they could do is to change their headline from Hyde Evans Design to “Hyde Evans Seattle Interior Design.” While it might be a little clunky, headlines carry more weight with search engines, so a simple change like that could make a big difference.
Changing your title can make a big impact in search results. The example to the left is a standard title, the example to the right shows the change with keywords.
If changing the headline is a little too unsightly, there are other things you can do. In the short description, description, and even quote on the back end of your profile, make sure to include your key search term. For this example, Hyde Evans would make sure “Seattle Interior Design” was in each of those blocks of content.
Finally, take a look at the ten question on the back end (pictured to the right). Are there ways you could answer those questions while also incorporating your key search terms? This is an easy, natural way to reinforce this term throughout your profile, which should immediately improve search results.
2. Get Backlinks to your Dering Hall profile
Backlinks give you “credit” with search engines and will boost your profile in organic search results. Backlinks are links from other websites to your profile. The next time you give an interview to a design blog, provide an image to an online design publication, or write an article for another website, make sure they link back to your profile on Dering Hall.
Backlinks can make a big difference with how you rank in search results.
3. Don’t forget about photos
Many of our design professional members have hundreds of images as part of their profile. In the descriptor, make sure you are incorporating your key search term. It’s another easy way to reinforce your position. The example below shows how you can easily take a simple caption and add your search term for maximum results.
Here is the caption as it’s written today
Here is the caption with keywords added “Boston Designer” and “Erin Gilbert”
Taking a few minutes to incorporate these three ideas will make a big difference for your profile. What kind of difference? It can mean your profile floats to the top of search results when someone searches your area an interior design, as with the example below with Catlin Design.
Get more from your interior design profile on Dering Hall by making sure you are featured in the major search engines. It’s a way for you to be found when people are looking for design services. It’s a wonderful benefit of your membership and these three tips will help you get more value from Dering Hall.
Questions? Reach out to ce@deringhall.com and we will be happy to walk you through it in more detail.