SEO for Interior Designers: 6 Simple Steps to Get Found on Google

If you’ve been searching for practical advice on SEO for interior designers, you’ve probably found a lot of generic tips in blog posts that weren’t written with your business in mind. This one is different.

I’m Galen, a web designer and SEO strategist who has spent over a decade building websites for creative businesses, and some of my favorite clients are interior designers. Not because I have a soft spot for a beautifully styled living room (though honestly, I do), but because interior design is a business where the gap between doing incredible work and being found online is enormous. The designers I work with are talented. Their portfolios are stunning. And they need a lot of support making sure that comes through online.

That’s what this post is about.

Before we get into the tips, I want to frame how I think about websites. Your website is the foundation of your marketing. Not your Instagram. Not your Houzz profile. Not referrals from past clients, as valuable as those are. All of those channels work better when your website is doing its job underneath them. Social media drives someone to your site. Your site is where they decide if they want to hire you.

Why Your Website Comes First

When your website is built right, it does two things well. First, it ranks in traditional Google search results. Second (and this is newer) it shows up in AI-generated answers. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews are changing how people find businesses. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of making your site visible in traditional search. GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, is the newer layer: structuring your content so AI tools can understand your business, your location, and your expertise well enough to recommend you.

The good news: most of what helps with GEO is the same stuff that helps with traditional SEO. Write clearly. Be specific about what you do, where you do it, and who you do it for. The tips below cover both.

1. Spend the Most Time on Your Homepage

Your homepage is not a welcome screen. It is the most important page on your website, and most interior designers underinvest in it.

Here’s what a homepage actually needs to do: tell someone immediately who you are, what you do, and where you’re located. Not buried at the bottom. Not in your footer. Right away, above the fold, before someone has to scroll.

I cannot count the number of beautiful interior design websites I’ve visited where I had no idea what city the designer was in until I clicked through to the Contact page or scrolled down to the footer. By that point, a potential client is already gone. If someone lands on your homepage and can’t tell within ten seconds that you serve the Denver metro area, or the Nashville suburbs, or coastal Connecticut, you’ve already lost them.

How Long Should Your Homepage Actually Be?

Longer than you think. Aim for 500 words at an absolute minimum. Many high-ranking pages are 1,000 words or more. That doesn’t mean a wall of text. It means real content broken up with images, pull quotes, testimonials, and visual breathing room.

The goal is to give Google enough context to understand your business, and to give a potential client enough information to feel confident reaching out.

What to Include

Location Keywords should appear naturally throughout the page, not stuffed in once and never mentioned again.

Weave in context like:

• The neighborhoods and regions you serve
• How long you’ve been designing in your area
• The specific style of design you’re known for
• The types of clients and spaces you work with most

A great example of this done well is Jackie Barnes Design. On her homepage, location isn’t a footnote. It’s woven into her story, her social proof, in different sections throughout the page. A detail like “over 400 homes designed” isn’t just impressive, it’s a credibility signal that tells both visitors, Google, and Chat GPT that this is an established designer with deep roots in her market. That kind of specificity builds authority in a way that a single “based in [city]” line never could.

Images Matter Here Too

As an interior designer, you have a visual business. Your homepage should show that. Lots of images, varied by room type and style, with captions and context that reinforce your aesthetic and your location. Don’t let the images do all the talking… The copy needs to carry its weight too, but don’t hold back on the visuals either. I also encourage you to add visuals of your team, some behind the scenes working with clients, or some personal brand photography to tie it all together.

Ready to audit your homepage and figure out exactly what’s missing?
A Power Hour is a focused one-hour strategy session where we dig into your specific site and come up with a clear action plan. Click here to book your SEO Consulting one-on-one call.

2. Every Page Needs Its Own Page Title and Meta Description

This is a behind-the-scenes detail that makes a big difference, and most interior designers either skip it entirely or set it once and forget it.

What These Are

Your page title is the clickable blue link you see in Google search results. It’s also what appears in the browser tab when someone has your site open. Search Engines use it to understand what each page is about.

Your meta description is the short paragraph that appears beneath the page title in search results. It’s not a direct ranking factor, but it is your first impression in Google. A well-written meta description is the difference between someone clicking your link and scrolling past it.

The Rule: No Two Pages Compete

Every page on your site should target a different keyword and serve a different purpose. Your homepage is not the same as your Kitchen Design page, which is not the same as your Commercial Interiors page. When they all have the same page title, or when they’re all optimized for the same phrase, they compete against each other and none of them rank as well as they should.

Think of it this way:

• Homepage: focuses on your primary service + your location. Something like “Interior Designer in [City] | [Studio Name]”
• Kitchen Design page: “Kitchen Interior Design in [City] | [Studio Name]”
• About page: tells your story and builds authority, optimized for your name and studio name

Writing a Meta Description That Gets Clicks

Keep it under 160 characters. Write it like ad copy, not like a sentence in a brochure. Be specific about what someone will get when they click.

Weak: Welcome to [Studio Name]. We design beautiful interiors for homes and businesses.

Stronger: [City]-based interior designer specializing in transitional and modern spaces. Residential and commercial projects. See the portfolio and reach out.

The second one tells them who you are, what you do, where you are, and what to do next. That’s the job.

3. Your Images Are Working (or Wasting) Your SEO

Interior design websites are image-heavy by nature. That’s appropriate… Your work is visual. But most of those images are sitting on your site completely unoptimized, which means they’re either slowing your site down, invisible to Google, or both.

There are two places where images directly impact your SEO: file names and alt text.

File Names

When a photographer delivers your project photos, the files are named something like IMG_4583.jpg or DSC_0092.jpg. Those names tell Google nothing.

Renaming your files before you upload them is one of the easiest SEO wins on a design website, and almost no one does it.

Use descriptive, hyphenated file names that reflect what’s actually in the image. Think about what a potential client might type into Google.

Examples:

• transitional-green-bedroom-burlington-vt.jpg
• open-concept-living-room-nashville-interior-design.jpg
• modern-kitchen-remodel-denver.jpg

Keep names to 3-5 words. Use hyphens, not underscores or spaces. Include your location when it’s relevant, especially for any photo that showcases a project in a specific market. Vary your file names across similar images rather than repeating the same phrase with a number at the end.

Alt Text

Alt text is a short description you add to each image inside your website platform. It serves two purposes.

First, accessibility. Screen readers use alt text to describe images to visually impaired users. Writing good alt text is part of being an inclusive business owner.

Second, SEO. Alt text gives search engines additional context about your page and your images.

Write alt text for humans first. Describe what’s actually in the image in plain language. If a relevant keyword fits naturally, include it, but don’t force it.

Examples:

File Name	Alt Text
transitional-green-bedroom-burlington-vt.jpg	Green and white transitional bedroom with linen drapery and natural wood accents in a Burlington Vermont home
modern-kitchen-remodel-denver.jpg	Custom white oak kitchen with marble island in a Denver residential remodel

Not every image needs alt text. Decorative backgrounds and purely ornamental elements can be left blank. Focus your effort on images that show your work.

Don’t Forget Image Size

A slow website ranks lower. Interior design sites load slowly by default because they’re full of large, high-resolution photos. Before uploading anything, resize images to a max of 2500px wide for full-screen backgrounds and around 1500px wide for everything else. Then compress them using a tool like TinyPNG (free, works in any browser) or Freshly Squeezed if you’re on a Mac.

The difference in load time is significant. And load time directly affects how Google ranks your site because it affects the user experience. People don’t like slow sites. Period. So they leave… and Google notices.

4. Your About Page Is Doing More Than You Think

Most interior designers write their About page like a short biography. Name, background, design philosophy, maybe a fun fact about loving vintage finds at estate sales. It’s fine. But it’s leaving a lot on the table.

Your About page is one of the highest-value pages on your site for both SEO and GEO. It’s where you build authority, establish expertise, and give search engines, including AI tools, the specific information they need to recommend you.

What AI Tools Are Looking For

When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity to recommend an interior designer in their city, those tools are scanning the web for detailed, authoritative, specific content. A thin About page that says “I love creating beautiful spaces” gives them nothing to work with. A rich, detailed page that describes your aesthetic, your process, your market, your clients, and your background gives them everything.

What to Actually Include

Go deeper than most designers do. Cover:

• Your design aesthetic in specific terms (not just “timeless” — what does that actually look like in your work?)
• The types of projects you specialize in and the types of clients you work best with
• How long you’ve been in business and in your specific market
• Your process, briefly — what it’s like to work with you
• The “why” behind your studio that speaks directly to your ideal client
• Social proof: notable projects, press features, client testimonials, awards, any numbers that carry weight (projects completed, years in business, etc.)

Think about the best-fit client who is right now searching for exactly what you offer. Your About page should make them feel, by the end of reading it, that you are the right choice. Not because you said you were, but because the specificity of your experience speaks for itself.

A Note on Social Proof

Numbers and third-party validation carry authority in a way that self-description never will. Press mentions, recognizable client names (with permission), project counts, industry affiliations — these signal to both visitors and AI tools that you’re established and credible. If you have them, use them.

Not sure if your About page is positioned to actually attract the right clients?
That’s exactly the kind of thing we dig into in a Power Hour. One hour, your specific site, a clear direction when we’re done. [BOOK A POWER HOUR HERE].

5. Be Visible Across the Web, Not Just on Instagram

This tip sounds obvious. It isn’t.

Being visible online doesn’t mean posting consistently on social media. It means being mentioned, featured, and listed in places that already carry authority. When those places point to you, some of that credibility passes along.

Why This Matters for SEO

When other websites link to yours or mention your business by name, search engines and AI tools read that as a trust signal. The more credible the source, the stronger the signal. A feature in a local architecture publication carries more weight than a directory listing, but both count.

Where to Focus

Start with the directories that are most relevant to interior designers and local businesses:

• Google Business Profile. This one is non-negotiable. Set it up, fill it out completely, and keep it updated. It’s essentially a second homepage that shows up in Google Maps and local search results. Many potential clients will find your GBP before they ever land on your website.
• Houzz. One of the most visited platforms in the home design space. A complete, active Houzz profile with project photos and client reviews does a lot of work.
• ASID Directory. If you’re a member of the American Society of Interior Designers, make sure your profile is complete and current.
• Local Chamber of Commerce. A listing in your local chamber directory is a clean, authoritative local backlink.
• Local real estate networks. Many interior designers get referrals from real estate agents. If you’re not on their radar, introduce yourself. Some agents maintain or contribute to referral lists that live online.

Bonus tip: The content on your website as well as what’s said about you in your Google reviews actually helps your Google Business Profile to rank higher.

Beyond directories, think about earned media: getting featured in local publications, contributing to home design blogs, appearing on podcasts in your niche or your local market. You don’t need to pursue this constantly. One or two placements per quarter adds up over time.

The goal isn’t to be everywhere. It’s to have a web of mentions and links that consistently point back to you, reinforcing to Google that you’re a real, established business in your market.

6. Blog. Yes, Really. It’s More Relevant Than Ever.

Blogging sounds old-fashioned. It isn’t. It’s one of the most underused tools when it comes to SEO for interior designers

The reason blogging still works (and works better than ever for local service businesses) is that it lets you rank for keywords your main pages would never compete for. A service page for “Interior Designer in Brooklyn” is targeting a competitive, broad keyword. A blog post about “how to design a formal dining room in a Brooklyn brownstone” is targeting something far more specific, far less competitive, and far more likely to attract exactly the right kind of client.

Someone searching “how to style a brownstone dining room that feels modern but keeps the original molding” already has a project in mind and a clear aesthetic in their head. Blogging is how you reach the second person.

Treat Your Portfolio Like a Blog

This is the most practical and highest-impact blogging strategy for interior designers. Instead of a portfolio page with photos and a project name, write a detailed project brief for each project.

Describe:

• The location (city, neighborhood, type of home)
• The design style and specific choices you made
• The challenges of the space and how you solved them
• The materials, colors, and finishes you used
• What the client wanted and what the end result delivered

A single portfolio project like “green monochrome bedroom design in Providence, RI” can rank independently for keywords related to: the design style (monochromatic), the specific room (bedroom), the color palette (green, sage, olive), and the location. One project. Multiple search entry points.

Blogging and GEO

Detailed, specific content is exactly what AI tools pull from when generating recommendations and answers. A rich project write-up that includes your location, your aesthetic, your process, and your client’s goals gives AI tools the content they need to understand what you do and recommend you to someone looking for it.

A thin gallery with a project title gives them nothing.

What to Write About

Beyond portfolio pieces, consider:

• Design guides for specific room types (“How to Design a Functional Home Office That Doesn’t Look Like an Office”)
• Location-specific content (“The Design Trends We’re Seeing in [City] Right Now”)
• Process posts (“What to Expect When Working With an Interior Designer: From Consultation to Install Day”)
• Style guides that speak to your ideal client’s aesthetic

You don’t need to post every week. Consistent, well-written posts a few times a month will outperform frequent thin content every time. Quality over volume, especially for GEO.

SEO for Interior Designers: Your Website Is the Foundation.

All of the marketing channels that interior designers invest in (Instagram, Pinterest, Houzz, word of mouth) work better when your website is doing its job underneath them. A referral Googles your name. A potential client finds your Instagram and heads to your site. A feature in a local publication links back to you. In most cases, your website is where the decision gets made and the contact form gets submitted.

These six steps are a strong starting point. Homepage depth, page titles and meta descriptions, image optimization, a detailed About page, cross-web visibility, and consistent content. None of them are complicated. All of them require intention.

If you want to work through your specific site and get a clear action plan in one focused session, a Power Hour is the fastest way to do that. One hour, your site, a prioritized list of exactly what to fix and what to focus on. Click here to book your one-on-one SEO Power Hour.

And if you’ve been working with a site that wasn’t built with SEO in mind, sometimes the most efficient move is to start fresh. If you’re curious about what a new website could look like for your studio, reach out here and let’s chat.

Read next: 15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Website Designer