“Houzz” Your Ranking and Success?

By Drue Lawlor, FASID
Director of Coaching at DSU

Many of you include Houzz in your marketing efforts, but have you created a profile that will “connect” with your “ideal clients” and outranks your competition?

The tagline for Houzz is ‘The New Way to Design Your Home’ and many have seemingly embraced that statement as they have grown from nearly 16 million monthly users reported in early 2014 to more than 25 million monthly users in early 2015.  This growth shows that your clients are using it and most likely your competition is using it, so then the question becomes, are you using it as effectively as you should be?

A number of articles all point out what should be the obvious goal: to appear in the search results for as many of your potential client’s searches as possible.  But that is not enough, as you want them to go further and to click through your profile, add your images to their Ideabooks, continue to your website and finally, of course, hire you.

So how can you influence your ranking and success within Houzz?  Various experts in online marketing share a number of the same factors.

1. Post a large number of quality photos (recommendation is to make sure your projects have at least five images each).
2. Use popular, relevant keywords.  Be sure to do your keyword research and really spend enough time writing exceptional descriptions for everything you put on Houzz.  Include plenty of detail. Remember, you want to stand out from the competition.
3. You need a number of good reviews (at least three!).  You can go on the Houzz website and they will show you how to formally send review requests to your clients.
4. Add a Houzz badge to your site.  Do a search for Houzz Badges 101 and you will find the directions to add a Houzz badge to your website.
5. Be engaged.  Interaction with the community increases your exposure so follow other businesses in your local area that are complimentary to yours, or you might follow competitors outside the area(s) you consider “local”.
6. Stay involved.  If you are serious about marketing through Houzz, then you need to check regularly for questions or comments on your profile and respond promptly.  And don’t be shy if others are not responding to questions asked by their followers.  If the questions have been sitting there for a week or so, consider responding with an answer yourself.
7. Start a “conversation” by asking a question – just as on other social sites, you have the opportunity to hear their challenges and concerns, and/or to then share solutions your designs have offered and include a link to one of your images.  Remember, we are problem solvers and this gives you the opportunity to showcase your ability to do just that.

And one last tip.  Don’t forget to submit your best projects to editors through Houzz and you should see a big jump in your exposure and traffic. (Free advertising is always nice!)