Attracting new clients & partners can be challenging for architect firms, especially in today's online environment. This mini starter guide will hopefully empower you to leverage Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and achieve organic client acquisition, potentially offering a valuable alternative to paid advertising like Google Ads.

We'll start by unpacking SEO strategies for architecture firms and techniques relevant to the architectural industry. Understanding these fundamentals equips you to make informed decisions about your firm's online presence and maximize your digital investment.

Think of this post as a "primer" to architect SEO terminology, concepts and tools. So, grab your coffee, take a seat, and let's chat about how you can rock the online game.

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Your Website Is Your Times Square

Imagine your website as your very own virtual Times Square, and every ad on the bright lights are all about your company! It's not just about bright lights; it's your ticket to new opportunities, clients, and an online reputation.

We surveyed over 250 small to medium sized architectural firms, 78% did not leverage their website's SEO. Guess what? The 22% that used SEO to their advantage appear in the top 5-8 searches on Google's search engine results page (SERP). If your firm is looking for an edge, a good SEO strategy might be an easy win for you.

Even if a bulk of your clients are coming from word of mouth, 78% of your competitors are not using their websites effectively to gain more clients, that's a huge missed opportunity. SEO is where smaller firms can really start to gain traction against competition.

A few years back, I was working with a small architecture firm that was hesitant about investing in a website. They thought their stellar local reputation would be enough. However, after we launched their website and implemented some SEO strategies, they saw a significant uptick in inquiries.

People who had never heard of them were now finding them online and loving what they saw. Needless to say, the investment they made in SEO and a new website has had a significant impact on their business.

The first step to understanding how your website is performing in SEO is to know your current baseline in SEO performance. Start tracking your current site with Google's free tools to monitor your site's traffic.

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What are the best free SEO tools for Architectural Firms?

If you're just starting out, the best architect SEO keyword research tools are the free tools that Google provides for you. Avoid paid SEO tools until you fully understand your goals and how SEO works for your specific field.

Since Google is the biggest search engine in the world, focus on keyword searches using Google and all the the other search engines (Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo) will likely treat your website the same.

There are only three tools I recommend to get started, Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google Search itself. Once you've outgrown these free tools, there are plenty of SEO companies wiling to take your money. But to start, stick with these three:

• ‍Google Search Console (GSC): GSC is 100% free and relatively easy to set up, this also assumes you have a Google Account, if not, just create a free account. Once you've signed up for GSC, follow the steps to verify site ownership and start tracking organic growth!‍
• Google Analytics (GA): GA is a great tool provided by Google that's completely free like most of their tools. The only downside to GA is the steep learning curve & it's become very complicated over the years. Start tracking your on-page analytics to gain a better understanding of which pages are performing well by using GA.‍
• Google Search: Google search itself will give you suggestions of what people are searching for. Ever enter something in the search bar and Google starts listing out suggested search phrases? It's not merely a randomly generated list of suggestions, they are the most common terms being searched for in that particular topic and combination of words.

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The website that can best answer the user's search intent, wins. It's really that simple.

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Why Does SEO Matter for Architects?

Imagine your website is a hidden gem in a bustling city. SEO is the 'X' that marks the spot to the treasure trove that is your website.

Here's why it's a game-changer for small architecture firms:

• Visibility - With good SEO, your website climbs the search engine ranks. When someone searches for an architect, you want to be front and center, not lost in the abyss of page two. SEO ensures you're visible to the right people at the right time.
• Trust Building 101 - A potential client is doing their homework on architects. They find your website on the first page of Google. Instant credibility boost! SEO isn't just about getting seen; it's about building trust with your audience.
• Organic Traffic - Remember when I said you don't need to spend a single penny on Google Ads? Good SEO is your solution. Play the long game and win traffic organically with people already looking for your architectural service.

Last I checked, there are about 15,000-20,000 architecture & planning companies in the U.S. alone, sizes ranging from 1 - 200 employees. Using good SEO strategy can be a way to stand out.

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Keywords are your friends, Long-Tail Keywords are your best friends

It seems simple from out the outside, but pulling off relevant keywords for your company can be a little tricky if you don't know how to look for them. If this whole SEO thing feels overwhelming, send us a note and we'll work with you.

Keywords

Think of keywords as the secret handshakes of the internet. These are the words your potential clients are typing into search bars. I once helped an architect who specialized in eco-friendly earthen designs. By optimizing their website for keywords, he started attracting clients passionate about environmentally conscious projects.

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However, SEO isn't just about attracting any traffic; it's about attracting the right kind of traffic – people genuinely interested in what you offer. Quality leads mean more opportunities to showcase your specific architectural services. But trying to rank for a single word like "architect" and "design" will have an insanely high competition, specially from companies with a large ad budget. So what's the solution then?

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Solution: Long-Tail Keywords to the Rescue

Imagine Long-Tail keywords as search terms that are far more specific than just the average keyword. The "Long-Tail" comes from the longer length search key-term, as the user intent is more specific.

As an example, let's say you're looking to buy a new pair of headphones. You probably won't type "headphones" directly on Google search right? The generic search of "headphones" would yield too many unrelated results that have nothing to do with your intent to:

• Research different headphones
• Buy a pair of headphones once you're done with research

A likely search term for headphones would be closer to, "the best headphones for....xxxxx".

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The long-tail search term will yield fewer results, but they will be more relevant to what you're looking for.

This is exactly the same as your firm's website. As an example, a potential client of yours is looking for an architect to design their residential dream home. Searching the term "architect" will un-likely yield any meaningful results for them since the search engine will return too many unrelated results for "architects".

Taking our "architect" keyword search example a step further with this scenario:

• User Search: Users are searching for "sustainable architects for the environment".
• Site Article: You have an article / blog post on your site about how your company prioritizes getting "LEED certified architects",  or how your firm is composed of, "environmentally friendly & sustainable  architects + designer".

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If your article answers the search query and user intent, there's a good possibility that Google will eventually reward your site with a good ranking. To drive the chart home even further, when we use Google's own Keyword Planner for ad service, we see that that there are in fact about 1,000 people searching for "LEED certified architects", each month. You might be saying to yourself, "but it's only 1,000 people?", but keep in mind that these are highly targeted searches. Your goal now is to find the search intent and come up with a keyword strategy around those 1,000 searchers.

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It may seem counter-intuitive to go after lower search volumes, but the specificity of the long-tail keywords on your site attract visitors already looking for your specific services.

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Show off your work with SEO in Mind

I've probably audited close to 3,000 architect websites. Most are using the white background, photos with no titles or descriptions, limited about page and no specific information regarding their work. The pattern is virtually the same across 90% of architect firms.

Accessibility is another area of SEO where your architect firm can win against the big guys because it plays a huge role where Google will rank your site. Here are a few suggestions to show off your work without breaking SEO:

• Use keywords to describe your work, no really try it. Add details about the project you've just completed or currently working on. Search engines love keywords.
• Generate modern image formats to your portfolio like WebP.
• Don't use your website as a dumping ground for all your project photos, it's terrible for SEO and rarely adheres to the best practice for accessibility (more on this in the next section).

I'm all for clean & minimalist designs, actually, I love clean design type. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't add relevant keyword information to each project for SEO & accessibility purposes,  details matter to search engines. Think about the different types of users that may visit your site, every visitor is a potential future client.

Additionally, here's a post that covers good portfolio layout vs. bad portfolio layout for architects.

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Accessibility Can't be an Afterthought

In general, users are rarely forced to think about how accessible a website is until they are forced to view the world with an impairment. The most common form of accessibility issue that plague architect websites is by far visual. Low contrast, uncomfortably small fonts and colors that harass the user's eyes are common visual design mistakes. ‍

Remember, your website is for YOUR customers, not for you.

Beautiful, practical and accessible can all be achieved if your web designer & developer make it a priority from the very start. Here are anti-user implementations that I see the most from architect websites:

• Low contrast color scheme: Background color vs. text color lack contrast, making it difficult for people visually impaired to see text. Gray on white background is extremely popular and an accessibility nightmare when done incorrectly. ‍
• Images have no alt-text: acAaf3242411sadf.jpg, is not a good name for an image. Believe it or not Google actually uses the naming convention of your images (and 'alt' tags) to identify whether or not the image has any SEO value. But more importantly, populating the alt-text is great for e-readers, SEO and accessibility.
• Portfolios with no details: I see a ton of minimalistic approach for architect websites, which I can appreciate, but leaving out meaningful details is a big SEO mistake. I've even seen project portfolios with no text, no titles, nothing. But why?
• Images are too big: You want your work to be displayed in its full glory, but using a 15 MB file size is a nightmare for loading times. Long wait will cause people to close the tab before your site even loads on slower connections.
• Poor page layout & content: Poor landing page layout and incoherent content structure is one of the most common mistakes I see with architect websites. Again, minimalist design does not mean lack of relevant information. Imagine designing a home for your client and it feels more like a corn maze. I've seen too many websites with poor navigation and layout.‍

Why is accessibility important for SEO? Search engines check metrics of how long your website loads, how much time people spend reading articles and search engines also check the underlying code that's generated by your website. All this adds up to how Google and other search engines will rank your site.

Poor accessibility generally means poor ranking.

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Content Is King – And It Wears the SEO Crown

Blog posts, case studies, or even videos – it's all fair game. Google rewards websites that consistently provide valuable and relevant content.

So, dust off that keyboard and share your architectural wisdom with the world. I remember the joy of seeing a client's eyes light up when they realized their blog posts were not just attracting traffic but establishing them as thought leaders in their field.

Content strategy is a post on its own, it's too much to cover in this guide.

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SEO using Data-Driven Decisions with Analytics

Don't be afraid of the numbers – embrace them! Tools like Google Analytics & Google Search Console are your SEO sidekicks. They give you the lowdown on who's visiting your site, what they love, and where they hang out the most. Use this data to tweak your strategy and make your website even more appealing.

Strategic changes to your website can result in significant boost in engagement, thus increase in traffic to your site.

Familiarize yourself with Google Analytics to see how visitors are finding your site. Also use Google Search Console to understand how pages and posts are performing with impressions and click-through-rates.

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Putting It All Together

Crafting an exceptional website with a sprinkle of SEO  can feel like magic once you start attracting organic traffic to your site & spending $0. on ads. Now that you've learned a few key terminology regarding SEO, you can move to more advanced topics, like content strategy, keyword strategy, local SEO, on-page SEO, backlinks and the list goes on and on.

Remember, SEO isn't just about algorithms and keywords; it's about telling your story in a way that captivates both search engines and your future clients.

If you've made it this far, I can assume you're bought in why SEO matters for your business.  Every Ronin & Co. design + development package comes with free SEO monitoring. Hit up our contact page if you're interested in working with us.