Website Essentials For Design and Remodeling Professionals In 2026

1 - > Mirjam Lippuner: Welcome to Designer Discussions with Jason 2 - > and Miriam. 3 - > Today, Jason is going to talk about the top 10 things design 4 - > and modeling businesses need to know about their website. 5 - > Welcome to the Designer Discussions podcast with Jason 6 - > and Miriam. 7 - > Tune in each week where we talk about marketing PR and business 8 - > advice for design professionals.

9 - > Jason Lockhart: Thanks, Miriam. 10 - > Today I'm going to talk about website tips for 2026 that will 11 - > impact the remodeling industry. 12 - > If you listen to the previous podcast where I talked about the 13 - > top 10 tips, it was on social media. 14 - > I'll have a link to that in the show notes.

15 - > And just like with that episode, I'm going to go over five. 16 - > And then if you want to get the other five, you have to go to 17 - > the website and look at what the other five are. 18 - > All of them you need to know, but I'm only talking about what 19 - > I feel will help impact you now. 20 - > So where I'm going to start, number one is photography.

21 - > So you want to ensure that you have good photography, high 22 - > quality photography on your website. 23 - > Now, most design and remodeling professionals do do this, but 24 - > there are some remodeling professionals out there that 25 - > don't actually get high quality images. 26 - > And that impacts how the end user views your business. 27 - > Because if they don't see the type the high quality that they 28 - > would want for their own house or their own building, then they 29 - > may not select these.

30 - > So having high quality imagery is important. 31 - > And that heads back to hopefully you're hiring a professional 32 - > photographer to take these images. 33 - > If not, I would say that you need to either use a program to, 34 - > if you take them on your own, you use a program to enhance the 35 - > images so you can have it as high quality as possible. 36 - > But I would suggest highly that you hire a photographer because 37 - > that's what they're trained to do.

38 - > They have the eye for what will be appealing to the end user. 39 - > So making sure you have that strong photography on your site 40 - > is important. 41 - > Okay. 42 - > Next, I'll talk about ensuring that you have a strong call to 43 - > action, that you have to tell people what you want them to do.

44 - > When they're on your site, they're going to see images, 45 - > they're going to see content. 46 - > They may see remodeling and design that they like. 47 - > But if you don't then tell them that you want them to reach out 48 - > for a consultation, you want to enter in your information here 49 - > so you can submit for the project, whatever it is, having 50 - > a call of action where you tell them exactly what you want them 51 - > to do is important. 52 - > Because oftentimes they'll head to a site.

53 - > Or it didn't say fill out the form, download XYZ. 54 - > It didn't have anything on it. 55 - > So there was lost opportunities in that website because you 56 - > didn't actually tell your end user what you want them to do. 57 - > So having that call action is vital to having a successful 58 - > website.

59 - > Okay. 60 - > Next, I would say what would be to showcase your social proof 61 - > everywhere. 62 - > On the majority of sites, you're going to see a lot of people say 63 - > how great their design is, what they do, what they're 64 - > differentiating pack three of some of the other designers, and 65 - > you're going to talk about what you do. 66 - > Having that third-party proof is vital because you want to have 67 - > other homeowners or other businesses that have worked with 68 - > you talk about the work that you did.

69 - > So that's that social proof that you need to have. 70 - > And a lot of our clients, we actually have a live link to the 71 - > either the Google reviews, the house reviews, whatever it is, 72 - > wherever you get your reviews at. 73 - > Having that live link shows the end user that you care about 74 - > authenticity and about what other people say. 75 - > Like I said, you can say whatever you want on your own 76 - > site, but having that third-party social proof is 77 - > vital because it shows from other people how they feel about 78 - > what you did and not just you hyping up your own business.

79 - > Okay? 80 - > Next, number four, I'm going to talk about location specific 81 - > pages and project pages. 82 - > One of the things that I see on a lot of websites in the 83 - > Wamaling industry is they'll have, they'll have their 84 - > projects on there, but they won't actually have a page that 85 - > just explains what the project is. 86 - > Because when you work on a project, there's a lot of areas, 87 - > there's a lot of stages and phases of the project, whether 88 - > it be the initial conversation, air down, demolition, heading to 89 - > the showroom to get all the FFE, the Ramali project.

90 - > That whole remote has a process. 91 - > And on the project page, you can explain that. 92 - > And that helps you in a number of ways. 93 - > A, it helps you on the SEO side because you're explaining that 94 - > project in detail.

95 - > And a lot of the words you're going to use to explain it are 96 - > go actually trigger a search. 97 - > So it could be like the material you use, the appliances you use, 98 - > those names, where there'd be like a Kenmore, where there'd be 99 - > a Kohler, those could trigger a search. 100 - > Also, by having a project page, you're going to have detailed 101 - > information on the project, which can also trigger an AI 102 - > search because how you answer the question could trigger AI to 103 - > find that page and ultimately on your website.

104 - > So having project ages on your site is important. 105 - > Normally on a designer remodeling sites, they'll have a 106 - > portfolio page where they have all these images. 107 - > But if you click on it, it just blows up the image, but there's 108 - > no detail on that actual project. 109 - > That's where the project age helps you out.

110 - > So having that is important. 111 - > Okay. 112 - > And then lastly, what I'm talking about here, because like 113 - > I said, there are 10, but I'm only head over five right now. 114 - > So what I'm going to head over now is integrating video into 115 - > your website.

116 - > Oftentimes out here, like, I don't want to be on video. 117 - > That's not what you want to do, and that's okay. 118 - > But there are other ways to create video. 119 - > If you have Canva, you can easily do a slideshow, add music 120 - > to it, and you have a video.

121 - > You can video the process of what's happening in the project 122 - > because that helps differentiate you from another designer down 123 - > the street. 124 - > And video is the best way for you to add in on social media, 125 - > which we talked about last time. 126 - > So having that video someplace on your site, it also draws a 127 - > lot of attention from a search because all of the imagery, the 128 - > video, music, that content on there, that's a lot what others 129 - > may be looking for to search for you.

130 - > And what also happens, it actually causes people when 131 - > they're looking on your website to stop because now they're 132 - > going to look at the video, play it. 133 - > And one of the factors in SEO, which we'll talk about when I go 134 - > over the SEO tactics, is time on page. 135 - > And the longer they're on the page, the better. 136 - > So video is a great way to have them stop, look, watch, learn 137 - > more about what you do, what the services you offer, and all.

138 - > So that's another great tip that is that you should now integrate 139 - > into your website. 140 - > So that's five that I want to talk about. 141 - > Like I said, there are five more, but you have to head to 142 - > the website to see what they are, okay? 143 - > If you have any questions on any of this, let us know.

144 - > And also, we talk about this a lot on the academy. 145 - > We talk about website information, SEO, social media, 146 - > and all we talk about, and we go over all this to train you to 147 - > show you how to do this. 148 - > There is a link in the show notes if you want to learn more 149 - > information about the academy. 150 - > And if you have any questions at all, just let us know.

151 - > And I look forward to hearing and seeing you here in two weeks 152 - > on Designer Discussions. 153 - > We hope you enjoyed this episode of Designer Discussions and all 154 - > of the helpful information. 155 - > Subscribe to our podcast, leave us a review, and share it with 156 - > your friends. 157 - > We look forward to having you back next week for more 158 - > information on the podcast and the marketing studio.

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