SEO for Architects and AEC firms: Amplify Your Marketing
Construction is currently undergoing an exciting period of transformation. Forward-thinking architecture firms are addressing key industry challenges by implementing new digital initiatives, cutting-edge technologies and innovative processes. To stay competitive in this evolving landscape, it's important that architecture businesses embrace modern marketing practices like SEO for architects and the power of digital and content marketing more generally.
These online marketing tools represent a key step for architecture and AEC businesses looking to succeed in this rapidly evolving arena and shouldn't be overlooked. They provide a real opportunity for architecture and construction businesses to expand their reach, build better brand recognition and enhance their reputations.
Architecture Firms: Grow With Organic Search Traffic
Often heavily reliant on traditional marketing techniques like personal networking and word-of-mouth referrals, many architecture firms, engineering practices and construction companies have still not fully embraced the benefits of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and digital marking more generally.
While some companies simply haven't gotten around to implementing a digital marketing plan yet, other firms mistakenly believe that SEO isn't relevant to construction, or that it isn't a high-value strategy.
And yet, this couldn't be further from the truth. Search engine optimisation offers the same benefits for architecture, as for every other industry with valuable services, exciting projects and interesting ideas to promote.
SEO for architects can provide a number of benefits:
Increase visibility of your AEC business.
Reach a wider audience.
Improve awareness of your brand.
Build trust and credibility with potential clients.
Increase website visitors, leads and clients.
Improve ROI by ensuring that your website is easy to find and navigate.
Achieve higher conversion rates.
Is Your Architecture Website Working Hard Enough?
We often hear from architects who feel their websites aren't working hard enough for their businesses. For example, you may be feeling frustrated that you're not getting as much traffic as you'd like, or that the enquires you're receiving aren't the right ones.
Perhaps you're doing design work with transformative benefits and would like to share your ideas more widely and raise awareness of your company. Or maybe the construction skills shortage means you'd like additional opportunities to attract new talent and grow.
The good news is, if you're a firm in the architecture industry looking to get more out of your marketing, SEO for architects can act as a powerful, inbound marketing technique to help you achieve a variety of marketing goals.
Benefits Of Search Engine Marketing Strategy
As an architect or other AEC professional, your website should be doing more for your business than just sitting passively on the internet as a digital brochure of your services.
Each key web page and blog post you produce should be a magnet - a way to strategically attract targeted opportunities from Google rankings and other search engines via specific keywords.
In other words, the strength of your website's SEO position should enable you to begin cultivating relationships with potential new clients and help you to spread awareness of your ideas and services more widely.
But what exactly is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of specifically optimising a website to increase its ranking position in search engine results pages (SERPs). A smart and efficient inbound marketing strategy, SEO provides real results in a targeted and potentially long-lasting way.
By using SEO for architects to successfully position your AEC business in the SERPs, you make it easy for your potential clients to find you when and where they want to - in highly relevant places.
Common Problems with Architecture Firm Websites
Whether your speciality is sustainable design, residential architecture, or construction technology, it's important to understand that having a successful website for your AEC business isn't just about making a good first impression.
Many architecture firms make the same mistakes with their websites and these issues prevent these AEC businesses from really maximising their marketing and potential for growth. They are:
Thin content that focuses only on top-line details and project specifications.
Dense, heavily technical copywriting that is more suited to other architects and designers than potential clients, including asset owners.
A lack of focus on unique value propositions, with benefits either missing or not presented in a clear and engaging way.
Further, to really get the most out of your website and online marketing efforts, your architecture business should take a proactive approach and use SEO for architects and content marketing to provide helpful information and services to your target audience at strategic moments of the customer journey.
Ranking well in search engines for key terms helps architecture practices to achieve this.
How Do I Promote Myself As An Architect? Basics Of SEO
Businesses win clients and find success by providing solutions to problems, and the construction industry is no exception.
However, architects and designers need to find more ways to meet their ideal clients in the places where they're looking for services and solutions, at the point they're actually seeking them. Search engines provide a solution.
Google acts as a key research and information hub for 4.3 billion users worldwide. With search data showing significant activity across a wide range of building-related topics, the potential on offer with SEO for architects is clear.
Ensuring that your website has a strong presence within the search engine results pages is a key component of a successful digital marketing strategy.
Using organic search marketing techniques can be an excellent way to boost your online presence in a long-term way without necessarily needing to rely on other forms of online advertising, such as paid social media ads or PPC campaigns.
Additionally, as with some other digital marketing techniques like social media marketing, SEO enables architects and other AEC professionals to share their projects and unique thought leadership content with a broader audience.
However, search engine optimization is particularly powerful in the way it helps companies position themselves to attract new opportunities and promote their ideas in very strategically chosen areas of search. This is achieved by implementing a targeted keyword strategy.
Digital Communication: Keywords, Metadata And Backlinks
SEO can be a valuable tool for increasing web traffic and generating leads for your architecture business. To improve SEO results on Google and other search engines, architectural firms should take a number of different steps:
Content Marketing and Off Page SEO
Creating high-quality, informative content like blogs, company podcasts and professional videos for social sharing, and for search engines to crawl and index in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
Keyword Optimization
Optimising your website's content with an intentionally designed SEO keyword strategy featuring long tail keywords, and including those terms in key areas of your architectural firm's website such as your meta title tags, page titles, body copy, anchor text and more.
Adopting a Topic Cluster Strategy
Deploying a topic cluster strategy around key AEC services and topics of interest to help establish authority and relevance when search engines crawl, thereby aiding with SEO performance.
External Link Building and Internal Linking Strategy
Building backlinks from high-quality external websites to your existing website, as well as implementing internal links throughout your own site to connect related topics and content assets, as well as to demonstrate relevancy and expertise.
Technical SEO
Ensure your SEO efforts achieve maximum impact by addressing any key technical SEO issues like indexability and crawlability errors, meta description issues, slow page load times, broken links, insufficient text-to-HTML ratios etc.
A Word About Keyword Strategy for the Architecture Industry
When looking to adopt SEO for architects, it's important to understand that a good keyword strategy needs to be specifically customised for your business and should inform the copywriting on all of the key pages of your website.
Your strategy should also act as a springboard for the creation of a detailed content plan with copywriting that speaks directly to your ideal client.
For example, an architecture firm specialising in sustainable design in London will need to use a different on-page SEO keyword strategy than a company specialising in home extensions in Glasgow, modular design in San Francsico, or luxury interiors in New York.
Not only will the primary keyword be different, but many closely related keywords will differ as well.
Keyword Research for SEO Copywriting
All of your SEO copywriting should be rooted in a carefully researched, data-based keyword strategy to give your architecture practice the best chance of ranking well in search engines.
While there are a variety of different SEO keyword research tools available to help you navigate the process of creating your strategy, there are a couple of points to keep in mind.
Getting the Most From Your SEO Tools
Your chosen keyword research tool needs not only to provide you with sufficient data to evaluate the best keyword opportunities on offer, but you will also then need to analyse that data and put it to use for your architecture practice in the best way.
It's easy to make the mistake of looking only at the monthly search volume for a particular term, choosing a keyword strategy based on which words or phrases have the largest number of searches, but that won't give you the best results.
When conducting your keyword research, you need to evaluate other important elements as well, including factors like domain authority, ranking difficulty, CPC data and competitor positioning.
All of these elements need to be weighed and taken into account when deciding on your keyword strategy.
It's the evaluation of different types of data in combination that will help you choose the best SEO keywords and ultimately create a successful content plan.
Using different types of SEO keywords
In addition, keep in mind that while short-tail keywords may often seem the most obvious choice, in today's crowded market, long-tail keyword strategies yield the best results. These more detailed and slightly longer keyword phrases can generate very high-quality, organic traffic.
Although long-tail keywords have fewer searches overall, their high level of specificity keeps them very relevant, helping your content to better resonate with searchers.
Always remember to keep search intent in mind when doing your keyword research, and to choose a long-tail keyword strategy that will work well with the search terms being used by the target audience you want to attract.
To increase your potential of ranking in search engines for a higher volume of keywords, and to help your architectural firm build topical authority, try targeting closely related keywords in your strategy as well.
Content Creation And Search Engine Rankings
Once you've decided on your keyword strategy, it's time to start creating content. A key part of a successful SEO strategy is ensuring that your website is filled with high-quality, helpful information related to your services, projects and ideas.
This can take the form of marketing tools like copywriting, videos or company podcasts, but whichever you choose, having fresh, relevant content will help you achieve good engagement and positively impact your performance in SERPs.
This makes content creation a fundamental digital marketing tool, so don't forget to prioritise it by updating and SEO optimising your content assets regularly.
Creating SEO Blogs For Your Architecture Firm
SEO blogs are a great way to pack a big punch with your digital marketing. The marketing impact of a well-optimised, strategically positioned business blog simply can't be underestimated.
When you implement SEO for architects as part of your digital marketing strategy, it's important to keep the quality of the SEO copywriting you create high. Emphasise your original thinking and be clear about the solutions and unique value you provide.
Write articles that educate and engage your potential clients, and make sure to use your target keyword strategy in your tags, URLs, meta descriptions and body copy. Use your strategy in a natural way, without keyword stuffing.
In this way, your architecture or design firm has the best chance of reaching and resonating with the right people - the ones actively searching for information or services in your niche.
Not only will this help potential clients find you more easily, but it will also help you showcase your unique thinking and thought leadership to a wider audience.
By following these simple SEO copywriting and digital marketing tips, architecture and design firms can improve their chances of ranking in the search results, generating exposure and the potential for high-quality, new leads.
Technical Tips For Improving Your Website's SEO Ranking Potential
Search engine optimisation is a complex and ever-evolving science, but there are a few other simple tips that your AEC company can follow to improve your website's SEO ranking potential. One of the most important factors to take into account is your site's architecture.
A well-designed website will be easy for search engines to crawl and index, making it more likely that your web page will show up in relevant search results. Similarly, the site's design can also impact its SEO ranking.
A clean and user-friendly design will improve user experience (UX) and keep visitors on your site longer. This type of engagement sends a signal to search engines that the site is relevant and authoritative.
By following these steps, you'll make it easier for search engines to index your website and direct traffic to your business.
Using Social Media To Promote Your Work
Digital marketing is like a machine, and the different components of a digital marketing strategy often work best when they're functioning together as a cohesive whole. As with content creation, this means that architects and designers can no longer afford to ignore social media marketing.
To remain competitive, modern architectural practices need to use social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as key tools to engage with potential clients, promote their work and drive website traffic.
Although it isn't necessary to be active on all of the social media platforms around, by choosing a focus and regularly sharing high-quality content, firms can build up a following of engaged users who are interested in what they do.
The Importance of Social Signals & Website Links
This social media engagement helps to improve SEO for architects, as social signals are one of the factors that search engines take into account when ranking websites.
In addition, by including website links in your social media posts, you can drive direct traffic to your site and further improve your SEO.
Ultimately, using social media marketing to give your online visibility a boost is an essential digital marketing strategy and an excellent tool for promoting your SEO-optimised blog content.
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of embracing social media for architects read our blog. Alternatively, please visit our social media services page to find out more about how we can help your built environment firm enhance its approach to digital marketing for architects.
Why Local SEO Is Important For Architects
For architects and designers who work closely with their local communities, it's also worth considering the importance and impact of local SEO. For projects like home extensions, loft conversions and new residential builds, clients will often be looking to work with architecture professionals in their local area.
Implementing a local SEO strategy can help to improve click-through rates and conversion rates, as well as organic search rankings. Just like broader SEO strategies, local SEO is a cost-effective marketing technique that can produce long-term results.
Architecture and design businesses can help themselves thrive by optimising their websites with a localised keyword strategy that includes location information. You should also consider creating locally focused content that's relevant to your target audience.
Building Local Citations
Building local citations with your NAP details (name, address and phone number) on high-quality websites can also help to improve your chance of ranking higher in SERPs.
Finally, to really make the most of SEO for architects, make sure you set up and optimise your Google Business Profile to help you increase visibility in your local area.
Voice Search
It's important to remember that technology is always evolving and these days search isn't limited to the words people are typing into the Google search box.
With the rise of smart speakers and virtual assistants, more and more people are now using voice search to find the information they need.
Voice search is particularly popular for activities like checking the weather, searching for local businesses and shopping, among other things.
Typing vs Talking in SEO
The most important thing to keep in mind about voice search is that the words people say are different to the ones they type into Google, so make sure you use concise, natural language in your content.
Remember to optimise web pages for local search and make sure your site is mobile-friendly, as voice searchers are often on mobile devices and focused on local search queries.
Building Backlinks: Expanding SEO For Architects
Another important SEO tip to focus on is building backlinks. This means getting other quality websites to link back to your own. By creating these links, you can increase your website's visibility and authority in search engine results pages.
This can be done by guest blogging, publishing articles online, or even creating guides or infographic content for your industry that other websites will want to link to.
The more quality backlinks you have, the better your website will perform in search engine results pages, resulting in more quality traffic for your business.
What Makes a Good Backlink?
However, it's important to remember that not all backlinks are created equal. To maximise the SEO benefits of backlinks, it's important to focus on quality.
Links from high-quality websites that are relevant to your architecture or design business will provide the best results.
You'll also want to use a mixture of both internal links and external links on your website, linking between pages, and also out to external content in a relevant and helpful way.
When implementing your link strategy, always keep your target audience in mind and focus on creating links that will be valuable to them.
How To Track Your Website's SEO Progress And Results
Tracking the SEO progress and results of your site can help you to refine your marketing strategy, making it more effective and helping you to reach even more potential customers.
Two important tools that can help you to track your SEO progress are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
By monitoring key metrics such as website visitors, traffic sources, and keyword rankings you can gain greater insight into how well your site is performing and make necessary changes to improve your results.
In today's competitive market, tracking your SEO progress is essential to ensure that your architecture business stays ahead of the curve.
Moving Ahead With SEO Marketing For Your Architecture Firm
As a professional in the architecture and design industry, SEO is one of the most important tools you can adopt for growing your business.
Not only will it help you to optimise your website for search engines, but search data can provide valuable insights into consumer behaviour and industry trends.
Although digital marketing can be a complex and overwhelming topic, it's important to understand the basics if you want to compete in today's market.
These SEO tips for architects and designers will help you begin improving your website's traffic and generating more leads for your practice.
SEO Services for Architects and AEC Professionals
If you need help getting started with SEO for your architecture firm, have any questions, or would like more information, please feel free to contact us about our SEO services.
Looking to improve your digital marketing but not sure where to start? Check out our SEO copywriting service!
We'd love to help your architecture practice create quality content that's optimised for search engines, and help you to attract more of the right visitors to your site.
Reach out today to learn more about how implementing SEO for architects can help your business grow.
