Clients hire the portfolio they can actually find.
Interior design search doesn't behave like trade search: photos do the ranking work reviews do for plumbers, and the real citation layer lives on Houzz rather than in contractor directories. Studios running a generic local SEO playbook leave the visual signals Google actually uses sitting unused.
Where interior designers lose the map pack.
Your photos are the product evaluation
A homeowner comparing studios judges GBP photo galleries and project pages before reading a word. Studios that shoot professional photography for Instagram but never upload it to their Google profile hand the ranking and conversion signal to competitors with weaker work and better distribution.
Houzz is a citation most studios let rot
Houzz profiles rank organically for 'interior designer [city]' searches and feed the NAP consistency signals Google uses to validate a business. Profiles created years ago with an old address or a personal cell number quietly undermine the Google Business Profile they should be reinforcing.
Low review counts get misread as a weakness
A design studio doesn't finish enough projects a year to build trade-business review volume, and Google benchmarks against the category — not against roofers. When I measured in October 2026, the studios in the top three across the metro had a median of 5 reviews, so a few dozen changes competitive position, which makes the end-of-project ask the highest-leverage habit most studios don't have.
Who holds the top three, city by city.
30 of the 42 top-three spots across the metro went to listings with fewer than 20 reviews.
Google reviews held by the three businesses at the top of Google Maps when someone at each city's center searches “interior designer”, measured October 2026. One day's snapshot: the map moves with where the searcher stands, and a listing with a handful of reviews can sit on top on distance alone. That is why the audit measures your own map pack, not an average.
Bold numbers are listings with 20 or more reviews; light ones have fewer.
What moves the map pack for interior designers.
One page per project, named for the neighborhood
Clients look for designers by area as much as by style. A project page anchored to the neighborhood, with the brief, the decisions and the photographs, earns those searches.
Build the architect and builder links
Architects and builders pass clients to designers and back. A credited project on a partner's site is a link and a referral at once; ask for it when the project wraps.
Show the credentials clients check
The clients who hire designers research them like any other advisor. Show the professional memberships, published features and awards you actually hold, with links where they can be checked.
What I do for interior designers.
Every engagement starts with the $197 audit: where a design studio stands against the three businesses above it, and what to fix first. Then one of two builds, and Grow keeps everything running after.
Launch
A new design studio, in its first year.
$7,500, paid $1,250 a month for 6 months
The Launch page →Optimize
An established design studio that is underperforming on what it already has.
$1,895 a month for 3 months
Optimize on the pricing page →Grow
After a build. The monthly plan that keeps everything running and moving.
$900 a month, month to month
Grow on the pricing page →The work is the same eight parts for every local business; the trade changes the details.
What the audit checks for a design studio.
- Your map pack position for the interior design searches actually typed in your cities — tracked, not guessed
- Your review count against the studios winning your map pack, in a category where single-digit gains move rankings
- GBP category, photo volume, and upload recency against what top-ranked studios run — the visual signals that carry this vertical
- Houzz profile presence, completeness, and NAP match against your Google Business Profile
- Citation presence and NAP consistency across 22 directories, with claim links for every miss
- Whether project pages exist for your significant work, anchored to the neighborhoods clients actually search
Delivered within 3 business days as a written report, a working spreadsheet, and a prioritized plan — with a money-back guarantee. It's the same audit that starts every plan.
Not ready to spend $197? Run the free 60-second grade — live map pack checks for your searches, the review gap to your market's leaders, and your website basics. No card, no account.
Quick answers.
How long does local SEO take for a design studio?
Is the audit specific to interior design?
Most of our work comes from architect and remodeler referrals — does search still matter?
The guide, the playbook, the checklists.
Find out why the interior designers above you are above you.
The $197 audit maps your rankings, reviews, citations, and competitors — and tells you exactly what to fix first.