Handling SEO for architects can be rather tough due to the unique specs of this industry, especially if you’re just an architecture enthusiast and don’t have much expertise in search engine optimization or marketing. Yet, the importance of having a solid website with well-optimized content that people easily find is undoubtful for your professional growth.
While the core purpose of this marketing technique is to get you high in search engine result pages (SERPs), SEO is much deeper than that. It’s about establishing your credibility in the market, delivering outstanding user experiences, and driving new business.
Want to get all the benefits of extensive online visibility? Read on, and you will learn how to optimize your architecture website and get the most out of it.
What Is SEO?
Search engine optimization is a combination of practices used to increase a site’s position in SERPs and improve the amount and quality of traffic it receives.
SEO encompasses various activities that make your site look easy to understand, trustworthy, and user-relevant for Google. These activities can be divided into three categories:
- On-page – Optimization that focuses on improvements made on your page. For example, optimizing your content with keywords.
- Off-page – Optimization that goes beyond your site. For example, link-building.
- Technical optimization – Optimization that deals with the technical performance of your site. For example, page loading speed improvement.
Together, all types of optimization can help make your site more searchable in search engines. Yet, managing them all can be challenging.
Luckily, it gets much easier with the right tools. To get started with SEO for architecture firms, all you need is a versatile platform that can give you the tools and insights for mastering search engine optimization. For example, you can try the Website SEO Checker by SE Ranking, which gives you a complete set of features to deal with all three types of optimization. Namely, it can check your site’s on-page SEO, conduct a technical audit, and assist with backlink checking. With its help, you can easily handle on-page, off-page, and technical SEO to boost the visibility of your architecture website.
Top Benefits of SEO for Architects
Though not too large, the architects’ population is steadily growing (7% according to the latest reports), which means toughening competition in the market. Respectively, growing and thriving in the competitive commercial architecture niche requires being able to withstand this growing competition.
That’s where SEO for architects plays a huge role. If done right, it can offer you a number of pivotal benefits, such as:
- More traffic for your website – Search engine optimization helps your site appear higher in search results and respectively, get more clicks and visits to your site from your target audience.
- More potential customers – SEO will bring prospects interested in your services right to your site. This can mean more new clients and projects for you.
- More cost-effective marketing – Another advantage of SEO for architecture firms is its cost-effectiveness compared to other digital marketing strategies and channels. It can help you save a lot of money in the long run.
7 Architectural SEO Strategies to Enhance Website Online Visibility
1. Identify Effective Keywords for Architects
When ranking your website in SERPs, search engines match your content to the query of a specific user. Keywords play a crucial role in demonstrating your content’s relevance. Hence, keyword exploration is the first stage in building a winning tactic.
To find keywords for architects that your target audience uses, you first need to brainstorm related search terms and content topics. After you do this, enhance your research with keyword research tools for more informed decisions. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and popular third-party SEO tools like SE Ranking have access to extensive keyword databases and can help you uncover hundreds of keywords within your niche along with their metrics (i.e., competition, search volume, etc.).
For quicker results, you can consider filling your strategy with keywords with lower competition and higher search volumes as these are the easiest to rank for. Lastly, when you have a list of keywords, group them into clusters by theme and intent to divide them within your pages strategically.
2. Align Your Site and Content With User Queries
Once you have a list of keywords, you need to optimize your old architectural content and create new ones to align with your target audience’s search queries. Integrate keywords into:
- Title and meta descriptions.
- Article and page headings and subheadings.
- Content body text.
- URLs.
- Image alt text, etc.
Most importantly, keep user intentions in mind and create high-quality content that actually brings value. Insert your keywords naturally, without stuffing them or sacrificing the quality and readability. Remember that search engines reward high-value content above all.
3. Create an Extensive System of Internal Links
When creating and optimizing content, be sure to link other relevant pages on your site to create a solid system of internal links.
An abundance of internal links gives you two big perks:
- It enables Google bots to understand your pages better and index them accordingly, as well as understand the site’s structure.
- It allows users to find the needed information faster and, thus, improves their experiences.
To create an effective system of internal links, you can follow these simple steps:
- Determine the existing structure of your site and the structural hierarchy between your pages. It can assist in the linking process.
- While assessing your site, flag the most crucial pages and content that you really want your audience to discover. These will be the pillar pages that you will link to in related content.
- Create topic clusters to link to your pillar pages. For example, if your important page is about commercial architecture, you can create additional pieces of content about the architecture for office buildings, and so on.
- Identify your most authoritative pages that receive a lot of backlinks and traffic. If there is any relevant internal content you can link to these pages, you may receive more traffic to them.
- Lastly, if you are doing internal linking for a blog, feel free to include sections like “new publications” or “you may also read” and link to other pieces of content.
4. Optimize Your Site’s Speed
Site speed is one of the primary things affecting user experiences and behaviors. A site that loads too slowly can be rather annoying and inconvenient for users. Respectively, it can screw up users’ impression of your brand and even make them leave. Besides, site speed is one of Google’s direct ranking factors, meaning that sites that load fast are more likely to take better positions in SERPs.
Architecture websites that tend to contain lots of visuals might have certain issues with site speed. Hence, it’s one more thing that you want to optimize. A general benchmark for loading speed is 2.5 seconds or less. To achieve it, try using the following techniques:
- Compress visuals;
- Minimize the use of external plugins and apps;
- Avoid excessive redirects;
- Implement HTTP caching, etc.
5. Ensure Mobile-Friendliness
Google long adheres to its mobile-first indexing tactic. According to it, sites are now ranked not separately for mobile and desktop search results but together. Moreover, they are ranked based on the performance of their mobile versions in the first place.
Due to the growing number of mobile users, search engines want to ensure that all those users get exceptional experiences and thus, prioritize websites that perform well on all screen sizes. So if you want to obtain better traffic and visibility, you need to implement a responsive design.
6. Build a Solid Link Profile and Expand Your Presence With Business Listings
Backlinks play a significant role in architectural SEO. When reputable sites mention your content and share links to it, you gain better exposure to potential customers and a higher trust level. To use this to your benefit, make guest blogging and other link-building tactics an integral part of your strategy. Connect and build relationships with trusted sites, create share-worthy content, and submit guest articles to popular resources that align with your niche. All these actions should help you build a solid backlink profile.
As for business listings, these are elements of local SEO – the type of optimization aimed at improving your positions in local search. This optimization is important for local businesses as it can drive both online and offline conversions for you. To benefit from it, you need to create listings about your business on popular directories, such as Yelp, The Architect Directory, and others.
7. Create and Optimize Google Business Profile
Setting up a Google Business Profile is also a part of doing local SEO. It’s a free online directory of businesses created by Google to help users find local businesses in geo-bound search results and on Google Maps.
To use this in your architect SEO tactic, follow these simple steps:
- Claim a dedicated profile via Google Business Profile Manager.
- Select the architecture industry as your business category.
- Specify your area of service.
- Insert the basic info, such as NAP (name, address, and phone number), working hours, types of services you offer, etc.
- Complement your profile with attention-grabbing images of your work.
Pro tip: To make your business even more visible, conduct another keyword research to detect winning local queries and optimize your profile with them. Also, integrate these location-based keywords into your overall architect SEO tactic to drive local audiences.
Summary
SEO for architects can become a powerful tool to gain a competitive edge and make your business grow. When handled right, it can help you improve your user experience, capture your target audience, and drive lots of potential customers to your doorstep (both online and offline).
After reading this article, you will have a comprehensive guide to start taking your first steps in SEO. Use this chance to build a winning strategy for your brand today and watch it thrive in the long run!
