Five Steps to Fix Your Architecture Firm Website

In 2019, Archmark Architecture Branding & Marketing, revealed the results of our study of more than 400 architecture firm websites (we’re currently at over 500 today). 

What we learned from that research was that only 25% of architecture firm websites met Google’s most basic criteria for an effective web presence. 

Yes, you read that correctly, a full 75% of the firms we evaluated failed to meet the basic standards for an effective website for architects. This doesn’t include firms that had no presence at all, or had a website that was non-functioning due to hosting issues or obsolete technology.

Even under the best of circumstances, those results are a problem. But right now, in the age of social distancing, when everyone is suddenly online — and quickly adjusting to working remotely — those results have become a more critical problem.

Your website is now the first place most buyers will go to learn about your firm, even if they are referred to you.

It’s also the first place talented architects, whom you may want to hire to grow your team, will go to learn about your firm.

Contractors, developers, and other potential partners are also checking out your website.



What are they finding?

Is your website helping them to better understand what you do, what makes you different, and why they should work with you?

Or is it frustrating them?

Based on our research, there is a 75% chance that your website sucks, so keep reading and take these steps to start improving your firm’s website today.

Before you start looking critically at your website and decide what you need to do to improve it, let’s talk about the purpose of your website. 

Ten to fifteen years ago, if you were building a new website, you probably were approaching it as a simple brochure or portfolio website. 

But times have changed, and visitors now have different expectations from your website. People searching for architects now have higher expectations than ten years ago.

They want more than pretty pictures. They are looking for specific information, answers to important questions.

If your website makes this information difficult or impossible to find, then you’ve lost them. And based on what we have seen, many firms seem bent on frustrating their website visitors.

You need to avoid making basic mistakes that will turn them off and lead them back to Google to search for another firm.

Do yourself a favor, check your site to make sure visitors don’t experience these four big website user experience issues:

A poor mobile experience

Does your website display well on smaller screens, have you checked recently? In 2017, 50% of B2B search queries were made on smartphones, and Boston Consulting Group expects that figure to grow to 70% in 2020. However, many of the sites we evaluated had issues related to mobile responsiveness.

A confusing site navigation menu.

Make sure that your navigation menu uses clear, concise, plain English. Do not use menu labels that force people to have to guess or decipher where the information they are looking for is located on your website. This is a big problem with architecture firm websites. Over and over, we have seen firms try to use confusing terminology in their website navigation. Keep it simple.

Broken links and dead ends?

I can hear you saying, “Thanks, Captain Obvious!” However, you would be surprised at the number of broken links, and missing pages we’ve found on architecture websites. It’s easy to locate these errors using a free tool like Screaming Frog.

Hidden or missing contact information.

This is our pet peeve. We’ve had so many architects tell us that they never get contacted through their website, and based on the number of firms that hide or do not include their contact details, we are not surprised. Your future clients are busy. They are not interested in a scavenger hunt to find your phone number, or email, and most people do not fill out contact us forms. Make it easy for your visitors. Put your phone and email links in the top right corner of your website.

Avoiding these mistakes will ensure that users don’t leave your site because of a bad experience trying to use it.

Before the Coronavirus crisis, we already knew that getting found online was critical to finding more new business opportunities. 

Getting found is only part of the challenge. 

In 2018, Hinge revealed that 84% of surveyed B2B buyers will look at your website before contacting your firm.

In that same survey, 83%of AEC Buyers revealed that they will also eliminate a firm from consideration for a project, based on the firm’s website.

The conclusion here is that online first impressions are everything. 

You need to create an online experience that reflects the same great experience that you provide to clients in person.

However, when we evaluated more than 400 architecture firm websites, we learned that many firms fail to pass even the most basic expectations for an online experience.

We measured sites on the following four criteria, using basic best practices outlined by Google:

1. Website load speed - How quickly a website loads in a user’s browser.
2. Mobile responsiveness - As mentioned above, you need a good mobile experience. Mobile responsiveness refers to the ability of a website to adapt to various screen sizes on devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, or desktop computers.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The process of optimizing a website so it is easily indexed on search engines like Google. 
4. SSL Certification - How well website data is protected from hackers and other online threats.

We chose these criteria for three reasons: 

1. Anyone can test these elements without needing admin access to your site. 
2. They’re really good indicators of how well your firm is managing its web presence. 
3. They’re basic requirements for a positive visitor experience. 

To keep our scoring simple, if a website failed in any category, it received a failing grade overall.
Our findings were a bit shocking:

On a positive note, this means that, if you decide to take action to improve your website, you will have an immediate competitive advantage over many other architecture firms.

Working in the AEC industry since 2006 – and exclusively with architecture firms since 2016, we’ve learned that many architects hire website designers and developers assuming that they will be able to build a site specific to the needs of their architecture firm. 

Many developers recommend Wordpress, or similarly complex platforms or custom-coded websites, that need constant attention to update 3rd-party plugins that become vulnerable to security flaws or obsolete over time. Such platforms also require the architect to rely on the web developer to make even the most basic changes and updates going forward.

When looking for someone to create a new website for you, ask upfront for details about how the website platform works—how easy will it be for you to make routine updates to the content and copy: Add a project gallery, write a blog post, change an image, update a team bio, create a new page to share a job opening, etc.

Whether or not you or a team member handle these things in-house for your firm, you’ll want to understand what is involved and what level of ongoing support you will need from your developer. 

With our own Archmark approach and method of website development, we work to give you as much freedom to easily own and maintain your website. We will provide you with customized training so you can confidently make regular updates on your own—if that’s what you want to do.

Or let us be your website concierge to make sure your website stays fresh and plays a strategic role in your firm’s business growth.

Many architects tell us they want to find better clients, better projects. By that, they mean the type of clients that will value their role in the design process, and higher-value projects they’ll be excited to work on.

The first step to attracting better opportunities online is to communicate and share your firm’s expertise and experience relevant to those clients and projects.

Often, when we look at a firm’s website, it’s difficult to know what they specialize in. This is particularly true on most architecture firms’ website homepages.

Often firms refer to themselves generically as architects, designers, studios, etc. This leaves it up to the website visitor to play detective to find out whether the firm does the type of work they are looking for.

Unfortunately, most website visitors are busy, they don’t have time to decipher your website or decode your archibabble.

If it’s not immediately clear on your homepage that you provide the services they are looking for, they will simply go to Google and search for another firm.

It is absolutely crucial to have a homepage that quickly communicates what you do, why they should care (i.e. what makes your firm different), and what they need to do next to learn more.

Website visitors can’t read your mind. You need to make things easy for them. 

And you only have about 7-10 seconds to answer these three important questions in order to capture your visitors’ attention. 

Let’s look at each question more carefully:

Question 1: What do you do?

Question 2: Why should they care?

“The first step to attracting better opportunities online is to communicate and share your firm’s expertise and experience relevant to those clients and projects.”

Visitors want to know why they should choose your firm over another. 

What can you tell them to help them understand what makes your firm different, unique, or interesting?

An easy way to get their attention is to communicate how you help them. 

Your homepage presents a great opportunity to communicate the value that you, as an architect, bring to your projects. 

Paint a picture of the results you will deliver for them. 

In Joyce’s case, when we spoke to her and her team, they kept talking about how their clients described their new homes as works of art that they feel privileged to live in.

We translated that idea into a simple phrase, “The Art of Joyful Living.”

This phrase, which also plays on Joyce’s name in a clever way, juxtaposed with images of the beautiful homes that Joyce designs, sends a clear message to her website visitors. 

It helps them understand not only what Joyce does well, and differently from others, but it also speaks to what she can deliver for them.

Here is a big takeaway, and this may go against everything you believe, but your website is all about helping your prospects to see what’s in it for them.

What do they get out of it when they choose to work with your firm?

Visitors to Joyce’s website understand that they too could experience the Art of Joyful Living.

Question 3: What do they need to do next?

If you don’t make it easy for your website visitors to take the first step, they simply won’t do it. 

Sure, you have a “Contact Us” page with that email form and your phone number. 

But, searching through a website to find that form is not what moves people to take action. In fact, most people will leave a website when they can’t find the phone number quickly.

In short, it adds up to lost opportunities. 

The solution is simple: 

• Tell people what to do next to get started with you and make it easy
  
• Give them a good reason to engage with you, even if they aren’t ready yet.
  
• And, make sure the tools you are asking people to use on your website are working!

Easy 

One reason for lost opportunities is because website visitors can’t easily find how to contact you — and they don’t see options to contact you on every page of your website.

We also know that most visitors will not fill out long forms for that first contact, especially forms asking for too much information and project details.

Why is that?

Primarily, when someone first visits your architecture firm website, they’re in the early stages of looking for an architect.

In fact, they may be wondering if they need an architect at all. Or they may simply be looking for ideas and inspiration.

Often, they are not at the stage where they are making a decision about hiring you — at least not yet. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to engage them.

Even during the first website visit, they are forming opinions about their experience with you and deciding whether or not to continue. 

These visitors may be your ideal future clients. Don’t put too many hurdles (*required fields) in their way. 

Keep your contact forms brief and leave the digging for details for that first discussion.

Engaging

Think about it, when was the last time you filled out a Contact Us form? Now think about how many times you’ve filled in your email to download something helpful from a website — maybe a checklist, template, or guide that interests you. Learn more about how to create an Email marketing strategy here.

A really easy way to engage your website audience into contacting you is to offer valuable, free help. One of the easiest ways to do this is to provide a digital download — often referred to in marketing-speak as a “Value Offer.”

Once you have someone’s email, you have the ability to communicate with them directly, to send them more information as they go through their decision-making process.

You have the opportunity to stay top-of-mind and remind them that you are available to help them with their project.

For architects, there are many types of value offers that will engage prospective clients: 

• A guide to hiring an architect
  
• A project planning checklist or workbook
  
• A project inspiration kit
  
• A downloadable portfolio of your best work
  
• A guide to why it’s important to hire an architect and when

Other options include online quizzes and free project consultations—once you start thinking about it, there are many good ideas that you can apply strategically to move people to give you their email in exchange for your “value offer.”

Unfortunately, few architects offer some type of value offer.

In fact, of the more than 550 websites we've tested, not one had a value download on their homepage. 

(The good news: If you add a simple offer to your website, you’ll have an edge over those architects who don’t.)

Remember, many website visitors will gladly exchange their contact information for something they perceive can help them.

And once you have their email address, you can send them more value, directly to their inbox.

Functioning

Even when you’ve made it easy and engaging for people to contact your firm, you still need to be sure everything is functioning. 

It’s really no surprise that nearly every architect we talk to says the same thing: “I don’t know if anyone has ever filled out our contact form.” 

When we first started working with one of our clients and digging into their old website, we discovered they had a backlog of more than 100 form submissions dating back a couple of years. The forms were being sent to an email address that had been removed due to an employee leaving the company. 

We checked the list of “contact us” form submissions against the client’s list of past and current prospects. None of them matched. 

That means that for more than two years they were missing opportunities to win new business simply because they never tested the “contact us” form on their website. 

Have you tested out the contact forms yourself? If not, go ahead and do that and make sure you know where those requests are going, and then how they are handled. 

Don’t wait on this last step, it’s easy to do right away. 

Your website should grow with you —  it’s not a one-time update and you’re done kind of thing.

The main purpose of this article is to cover the primary elements of your site, which we’ve discovered through our research, many firms seem to struggle to get right.

There’s so much more to cover, like how to write effective ‘about’ pages, what type of content to include on your firm’s website, and how to attract more traffic to your site.

However, the basics covered in this article are where you should start. Getting these basics right will help you better attract and engage your website visitors, and that will lead to more new business opportunities.

Your website is key to attracting more of the projects you want. But you need to take action. 

We’re here to help

We only work with architects, and as a result, we know the industry better than anyone else. If you’d like a head start with your online presence, schedule a free 20-minute strategy consultation call with us. 

This is not a sales call. We will simply review your current situation, talk about your goals and vision, and anything that may be standing in your way.

If we feel we can help you, we’ll tell you how, or we will give you some resources to put you on the right path. But you have to take action. 

Let's talk! Book your FREE call here: