If you live and breathe all things home decor, starting an interior design blog could be the best decision you ever make.
You get that good feeling of helping others, and the more people you help with your pearls of wisdom, the greater the monetization potential.
But therein lies the conundrum: you probably know a lot about home interiors and very little about blogging.
In this guide, we cut straight to the chase with our top secrets for succeeding as a blogger, touching on the three most important areas including SEO, photography and content.
If you’re just starting out or want to reverse the fortunes of an existing blog, implement at least one of these blogging tips and watch your traffic numbers go on the rise.
SEO tips for interior design websites
All websites that want to rank on the first page of Google need to think about search engine optimization.
More specifically, use keywords in your content to help Google understand what your content is about, so they can show it to the right audience.
Your content must have keywords, and those keywords must be used consistently and in the right places.
Make sure your permalinks are keyword-focused
Not only must your permalinks (URLs) include the keyword, it’s better for SEO to make them keyword-focused.
Let’s say you are publishing a post titled ’10 Console Table Decor Ideas That Will Impress Everyone’. WordPress will automatically use your title as the permalink:
example.com/10-console-table-decor-ideas-that-will-impress-everyone/
But since your audience is searching for “console table decor ideas” (your keyword), just use that as the last part of the permalink:
example.com/console-table-decor-ideas/
Doing this gives you added flexibility if later down the line you decide to increase or decrease the number of decor ideas in that post.
You can edit the title to ’20 Console Table Decor Ideas’ and the permalink still makes sense, as it doesn’t include the number.
Or you may decide to change the wording at the end of the title from “Impress Everyone” to “Change Your Life”. Again, this won’t affect your streamlined permalink in any way, shape or form.
Because remember: If you change the permalink of a published post, it becomes an entirely new post in Google’s eyes, which means its ranking will be reset.
Write topic-relevant alt text
It goes without saying that a successful home decor blog must have lots and lots and lots of beautiful images, so you need to become a pro at writing alt text.
Good alt text is descriptive but not too descriptive.
In other words, don’t be tempted to mention everything you can see in the image – only mention things that have relevance to the topic.
Imagine the following image is used in a post about console table decor. How would you compose the alt text?
- Table lamp and vases used as console table decor
- Dark console table decorated with vases and a table lamp
- Decor on a console table in an entryway with white walls and a carpeted staircase
1 is perfect because it contains the keyword and identifies the decor. 2 is fine because the word “decorated” is a good example of keyword variation.
3 starts out well but loses its way towards the end by mentioning the carpeted staircase i.e. it’s not topic-relevant.
Mentioning the entryway is great if you talked about console table decor for entryways. Likewise, definitely mention the wall color if you made decor suggestions for white color schemes.
Google will better understand the point of the image if you write focused, relevant descriptions.
We can all agree (including Google!) that carpeted staircases have no relevance to the topic and therefore drawing attention to it dilutes the image’s SEO value.
And in the unlikely event you receive a tiny trickle of traffic for “carpeted staircase”, they’re just going to bounce when they realize your content doesn’t serve their needs, hurting your ranking in the process.
Be strategic with image filenames
It’s hard to say how much weight search engines give to filenames, but it’s safe to say that names like “IMG_948192.jpg” is helping nobody.
Going through the effort of writing descriptive filenames sends positive signals to Google that you care about the user experience.
Why? Because filenames stay the same when downloaded, so if a user downloads one of your images, they will know what the image depicts before they open it – that’s a big thumbs up from Google.
But more importantly, it’s a chance to reinforce or supplement the alt text so that Google itself can determine what an image is with absolute confidence, making them more likely to show your images in the search results.
Many SEO experts insist on repeating the alt text in the filename, but I like to be strategic in the sense of filling any holes in the alt text.
If I can’t find a natural fit for my keyword in the alt text, I will insert it in the filename instead. If the alt text does contain a keyword then I’ll use keyword variations in the filename.
For example, if I used “Table lamp and vases used as console table decor” as the alt text for the image above, I’d use “dark-console-table-decorated-with-vases-and-table-lamp.jpg” as the filename.
Interior design photography tips
You have to put out image-heavy content if you want to generate traffic for your home decor blog. But that doesn’t mean you should prioritize quantity over quality!
Use these tips to help you master home decor photography, or keep them in mind when sourcing images online.
Neutral interiors work best
Experts always recommend neutral wall colors for home staging because it offers a nice blank canvas for buyers as they visualise their own ideas for the look of the space.
Colorless interiors are impersonal – they are the default starting point – and so they’re guaranteed to please everyone.
If you take photos of decor in a colored room, your readers may not like the decor simply because they don’t like the interior as a whole!
Creams and whites will widen the appeal of your images and put your decor in the best possible light (quite literally, as white interiors feel lighter and brighter).
The only time you should use images of colored interiors is when you’re specifically talking about decor for colored interiors i.e. the best decor for red living rooms.
Make it clear what the subject of the image is
The best images fully illustrate the points you make in the written content.
But you have the additional pressure of illustrating the point as quickly as possible, as your readers don’t have all day to figure out what an image is trying to convey.
Making images super easy to understand starts with having a clear subject. The subject of the image should always be relevant to the topic so your readers know exactly what to look for as they scan the image.
Let’s say you are writing a post titled ‘How To Hang Art Above The Bed’ and you include a few images showing just that: art above beds. How do you make the subject crystal clear?
Here’s an example of an image without a clear subject:
While the image does show art above a bed, it’s not immediately apparent since there’s so much going on, both in the background AND foreground.
The awkward angle gives the desk with art above it more prominence than the bed, which is confusing since it has no relevance to the topic.
Here’s an example of an image with a clear subject:
Much better! The subject is very easy to locate because it’s front and center. Readers won’t have any trouble at all understanding the image and its wider context.
As long as the subject occupies the center of the image, you’re golden. Also use things like the floor, ceiling, walls, doors and windows as reference points to help keep your pictures level, although I do like to use angled images from time to time for the sake of variety.
If you’re using images purely for decoration or to break up blocks of text, then you don’t need a clear subject – point the camera wherever you like!
Use close-ups where necessary
Home decor bloggers love to show off their homes as much as possible in their images. This isn’t a criticism – it helps readers see how well a piece of decor slots into the overall scheme.
But it could become a problem if the decor has fine details that are hard to enjoy from a distance. Don’t be afraid to zoom-in in such cases.
Here’s a close-up shot of a bedroom mirror with a chipped paint effect:
No matter how gorgeous the bedroom may be, a close range shot is necessary, as the chipped paint is a key feature of the mirror and deserves to be shown in greater detail.
Obviously, there’s nothing stopping you from having multiple images of the same decor at different angles and distances to cover all bases.
It’s just about being conscious of the type of information your readers want to know about an item and adapting your photography skills to serve up that information.
Content tips for interior design bloggers
What should you write about and in what format should you write it?
I think this part of the blogging process is very personal. You may be an expert in some areas of home decor and totally clueless in other areas, which will influence the kind of content you put out.
And we all have different writing styles that may or may not be a good fit for certain blog format types.
So I’m just going to talk about what works for me, and hopefully you will be able to use my experiences to infer what works for you.
Write lots of listicles
You can’t browse the web today without encountering a listicle or two. They’re just so damn easy to read. I love them because they’re so damn easy to write.
Heading, image, text… heading, image, text… heading, image, text….
The list format is my format of choice because it provides me with a clear set of parameters: a heading, an image, and a couple of sentences. Rinse and repeat.
It’s ideal for systematic individuals like myself. I’m not the strongest writer, so I don’t like the free-flowing nature of how-to posts or posts with open-ended questions.
That doesn’t mean I never write how-to posts. It just means they comprise a smaller share of my total output and are reserved for topics that I feel comfortable talking about in depth.
You’ll also find that listicles are brilliant for populating your content with images in large quantities, which is crucial in order to become a successful home decor blogger.
You don’t always need location-specific images for location-specific content
This is a tip I wish I learned much earlier in my home decor blogging journey, as I would have been able to publish more content, much sooner.
For a post titled ‘How To Hang A Mirror Above The Fireplace’, do you need images of mirrors above fireplaces?
Yes, absolutely. It’s a how-to post and therefore it’s educational. Readers will want to see how the mirror looks in relation to the fireplace.
For a post titled ’20 Best Mirrors To Hang Above The Fireplace’, do you need images of mirrors above fireplaces?
No, because the emphasis is on the mirror. You can use images of mirrors above the bed, couch, in hallways – wherever – for a post about the best fireplace mirrors.
Would it be better if there was a fireplace in every picture? Yes. But then I would have never been able to make that post, as I didn’t have enough fireplace images.
As long as the featured image contains a fireplace, and you try to use close-ups of mirrors that happen to be in other locations, your readers won’t care.
This tactic has really expanded the number of topics I can cover, and made life 10x easier when I’m sourcing images online.
And besides, I can always go back and swap those images for location-specific ones once I have them.
Use Pinterest for content inspiration
I’m yet to give a verdict on Pinterest as a promotional platform for interior design blogs (keep an eye for that post), but it certainly has its uses for content inspiration.
I like to use Pinterest for keyword ideas by letting it finish my sentences in the search bar:
“Best decor for airbnb” (Pinterest’s suggestion in bold).
I know that search engines like Google already do this, and they should definitely be utilized as well, but it’s important to experience Pinterest as a user so that you’re in a much better position when you inevitably become a creator on the platform.
As a Pinterest creator you’ll design amazing pins, write useful descriptions, harness the power of Pinterest boards etc. The more you’re exposed to all this, the more effective your Pinterest marketing strategy will be.