Your website is one of the best tools you have at your disposal as an interior designer. If you want your business to grow, you need to generate leads and find new clients, and your website can help you do that. Most people will search online if they need a designer for their home and if you create a website that hooks people, you’ll have lots of new clients on your books in no time. 

However, a lot of designers create a website and put it up expecting the phone to start ringing, but nothing happens. Sound familiar? If your interior design business website doesn’t seem to be getting you any new clients, you’ve probably made some mistakes with the design or execution somewhere. Don’t worry, you can make changes to improve the situation, you just need to identify the problem first. These are some of the most common reasons why your interior design business website isn’t getting you any leads. 

The Site Is Confusing To Navigate

People need to be able to navigate your site easily. If they can’t even figure out where the contact form is, how are they meant to get in touch with you? If it takes them ten minutes just to find your phone number, you’re not going to attract many clients. When designing or reviewing an interior design business website make sure everything is clear and easy for people to find. 

The reason that a lot of designers go wrong here is that they are trying to show how creative they can be with their website. It’s good to show your creativity but within limits. Often, people will focus so much on a crazy design that hasn’t been done before that they forget all about practicality. The site might look like no other, but it’s also impossible to use and potential clients can’t find the information they need, which means that you lose a lot of customers. 

The Site Doesn’t Show What You Actually Do

When people land on your website, they have a specific job in mind. Whether they want a specific room designed or they are looking for a complete overhaul of their home, they are looking for a designer that fits their job. So, you need to have clear information about what services you offer and what kind of homes you work on. 

If you don’t have this information, people will assume that your business doesn’t fit their needs and move on to the next option. They aren’t going to waste time searching for basic information that is not immediately presented to them. 

Again, this becomes a problem when designers focus too much on the concept and forget about practicality. They end up with a site that is filled with buzzwords and vague statements designed to impress people, but it doesn’t actually have any clear information about what they do. 

The Branding Is Wrong

Getting the brand right is crucial if you want to attract new clients. You need to make sure that your branding reflects the style and tone of voice you want to present to people. If you get it wrong, people will get the wrong impression when they land on your site and immediately leave because they don’t feel that it’s aimed at them. 

Make sure to research your target audience and think about the kind of branding that speaks to them. It may be a good idea to work with a digital marketing agency that can help you develop a strong brand and incorporate it into your site. People often underestimate the importance of branding but it can be the difference between success and failure, so make sure you get it right. 

You’re Not Displaying Your Best Work

You need to show potential clients what you can do. If you don’t, then they are going to assume that your work isn’t any good and look for somebody else. You should have a gallery on your website where you display some of the best examples of your previous work. This will help people see whether or not you’re right for them. 

When you are creating your gallery, it’s important to keep it updated so people can see that you are busy. If you only have the same few projects on there, people will assume that you don’t get that much work because you’re not that good. But don’t make the mistake of always displaying your most recent work first because it’s not necessarily the most exciting. Go through your projects and put all of your best work front and center. People can still look through the whole gallery if they want but if they only look through one or two photos, at least you know that they are seeing your best work. 

The Content Is Low-Quality

Content marketing is a brilliant way to get more traffic to your site and show people that you are an experienced designer. Creating a blog where you can post articles and how-to guides on interior design demonstrates your expertise and brings a lot of people with design problems to your site. Hopefully, they will then explore further and get in touch with you. 

However, it can backfire if you don’t manage your content strategy properly. People are going to judge you based on your content. If it’s poorly written, they aren’t going to take you seriously. They will assume that you don’t know what you’re doing because of the way that it’s written. 

The same goes for images. You need to have high-quality photos or this assumption will be made even faster than before. People love looking at good quality photos and if yours are grainy and pixelated, it sends the wrong message. 

The Site Is Slow

If your site is taking a long time to load, one of two things might be happening: people get bored and click away, or they assume that it’s slow because of poor web design, which means that again, you’re not going to get much business.

This can be caused by having too many images on there or having complex animations on every page. However, it might also just be down to bad web hosting. This can happen if you aren’t careful when choosing who hosts your website and don’t study their past work before you agree to a contract with them. 

Work on speeding up the website and keeping it well maintained. If you neglect maintenance and your load times are very slow, you’ll alienate a lot of your potential customers. 

You Haven’t Provided The Right Contact Details

People want to be able to reach out and get in touch with you. So, if there isn’t a contact form on the website or the phone number is difficult for them to find, then they’ll just assume that you don’t want to speak to them and will look elsewhere. 

Many people will try and call first if they can so make sure your number is prominent and easy to see. Having a simple contact form on there as well makes it easier for people because they can go ahead and send you an email straight away without having to leave any more of their details such as name or email address.

Some designers decide to leave out their location because they want to attract customers from a wider geographical area. However, a lack of address can make a business seem less legitimate, so this doesn’t work in your favor. In most cases, it’s best to include a detailed address and map alongside your other contact details. 

The Site Doesn’t Have A Call To Action

It seems fairly obvious, but if you want people to take action, you need to encourage them to do so. Every page on your site needs a call to action. This could be a call to pick up the phone and get in touch or it could be a big button that makes them go through to your contact form. On certain pages, you might invite them to check out your gallery and look at some of your previous work. 

The purpose of these call to action buttons is to show people what to do next. You’re essentially guiding them around the site and then encouraging them to get in touch with you to discuss your services. Without a clear call to action, a lot of people will simply leave the site. 

The key to writing a clear call to action is to keep it short and concise. Make sure you’ve got a prominent position on the page, but don’t make it stand out too much because this can be overpowering. It also needs to be clear what you’re inviting people to do.

Your interior design business website is such an important part of your marketing strategy. If you get it right, you can attract a lot of new clients and grow your business. However, if you are making any of these big mistakes, your site will not get you any new leads. The good news is, a quick redesign should rectify these problems and turn your website around.