What an interior designer website needs

The facts here come from primary sources, checked on November 14, 2026: Google Search Central's image SEO best practices, Google Business Profile Help on photos and videos and the guidelines for representing your business, the U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 30: Works Made for Hire, and Houzz Pro's own pages on its Premium Profile and custom website service. Points marked as our view are our own advice, not rules.

The short answer

An interior designer website needs a portfolio built from individual project pages, a services page that says what you do and for whom (full-service design, e-design, single rooms, renovations, commercial spaces), a page that walks through your process from first call to installation, a plain explanation of how your fees work, an about page with a real photo of you, and a consultation form that asks for the location, scope, timing and budget range. Behind it sit two practical questions: whether you may publish your project photos, and whether your directory profiles point back to the site.

Portfolio and project pages

A single gallery of your best rooms looks good but tells a visitor very little. In our view each finished project deserves its own page: a short title (such as "Family kitchen and living room, Mission Hills"), the brief in two or three sentences, what you changed, the main decisions and why, a list of the work involved (layout, lighting, custom furniture, finishes, styling) and then the photos. Before photos, plans and mood boards show how you think.

Group projects by type, such as kitchens, whole homes, small spaces or offices, so a visitor can find work like theirs. If you design in a particular style, say so in words on the portfolio page; a visitor who loves your style should not have to guess it from thumbnails.

Large galleries are the main reason designer sites load slowly: compress every image and lazy-load the photos below the first screen (see website image optimization). The portfolio section of our photography website guide applies to you too.

Project photos: rights and permission

Most designers hire an interiors photographer for finished projects. Who owns those photos is often misunderstood. The Copyright Office's Circular 30 explains that a commissioned work counts as a "work made for hire" only if it falls into one of nine listed categories, there is a written agreement, the parties "expressly agree that the work is to be considered a work made for hire", and everyone signs. A photo for your website is usually not in those categories, and the circular adds: "If a work fails to satisfy any of these requirements, it is not a work made for hire." In practice that means the photographer usually keeps the copyright and gives you a license.

So read the license before you publish. It may cover your website but not print ads, award entries or sharing with brands and contractors on the project; ask for the uses you need in writing. Our guide to photos and image licensing covers licenses, assignments and records in more detail.

The homeowner matters too. In our view you should ask every client in writing, ideally in your design agreement, whether you may photograph and publish their home, whether the city or neighborhood may be named, and whether any rooms, family photos, art or house numbers must be left out. Our guide's section on people and property in photos explains model and property releases.

Helping Google understand your photos

Google's image guidance says it "extracts information about the subject matter of the image from the content of the page, including captions and image titles", and asks you to place images "near relevant text and on pages that are relevant to the image subject matter." Project pages with real text help here.

Write short alt text that describes what is in the photo, such as "White oak kitchen island with three brass pendant lights". Google warns: "Avoid filling alt attributes with keywords", so do not repeat "interior designer in [city]" on every image. Name files descriptively and add captions where they help. Alt text also serves people using screen readers, which our accessibility basics guide covers.

Services and process

Visitors want to know early whether you do the kind of project they have. List your services with a sentence or two each: full-service design, design consultations, e-design or virtual design, renovation and new-build interiors, furnishing and styling, and commercial or hospitality work if you take it. Say where you work in person and whether you take remote projects.

Then explain the process in numbered steps, for example: first call, consultation or site visit, proposal and agreement, concept and design presentation, revisions, ordering and procurement, installation and final styling. For each step say what the client receives and roughly what the client needs to do. A clear process page answers the questions that otherwise fill the first call.

How your fees work, in words

Many designers prefer not to publish prices, which is fine, but a site that says nothing about fees attracts inquiries you cannot take. In our view you should at least explain the model in words: whether you charge a flat design fee, an hourly rate, a fee per room, a percentage of the project budget, or a combination, whether the first consultation is paid, how deposits or retainers work, and how furniture and materials are billed (at trade price, with a markup, or through the client's own accounts).

If you have a minimum project size or a typical starting budget, saying so on the services page or in the form saves both sides time. For fixed packages such as a paid consultation, see our guide to pricing pages.

The consultation request form

Make the inquiry form ask the questions you would ask on the phone: name and contact details, project address or city, type of space and rooms involved, new build, renovation or furnishing only, ideal start and finish dates, budget range, how they found you, and an optional upload for photos or plans. In our view a budget range as a dropdown works better than an open box, and it should be optional rather than a reason to abandon the form.

After sending, say when you will reply and what happens next. If you offer paid consultations, a booking tool can take the date and payment in one step; see our guide to online booking for service businesses. Field order, errors and spam protection are covered in our forms guide.

Houzz, Google Business Profile and your own site

Your Google Business Profile should use the same name, phone number and website as your site. If you work from a home studio, Google's guidelines say: "If you’re a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers," and a virtual office may only be listed if it is staffed during business hours. The guidelines also say the overall service area "shouldn’t extend farther than about 2 hours of driving time from where your business is based." Our Google Business Profile guide covers setup and verification.

Add your project photos to the profile as well. Google's photo guidelines say a photo should be in focus and well lit, with "no significant alterations or excessive use of filters. In other words, the image should represent reality." That rules out passing off renderings as finished rooms; keep renderings clearly labeled on your own site. Our guide to Business Profile photos covers the types and sizes.

Houzz Pro sells a Premium Profile, with features such as a "Featured Review" and a display of "Verified Hires", and says its custom websites "are included with select subscriptions." In our view a directory profile is a good place to be found, but your main portfolio should live on your own domain, which you control and which keeps working if you change subscriptions. Link each profile to your site; our guide to reviews and testimonials covers asking for reviews fairly.

Templates and examples

Website builders offer many interior design templates, and in our view they are a reasonable start for a new studio with a handful of projects, as long as you can give each project its own page, edit the text freely and keep the site on your own domain. A custom site makes more sense when you have many projects to organize, several services or locations, or want project pages and inquiry steps that a template does not support.

Whatever you choose, describe the business with LocalBusiness structured data (see our local business schema guide) and check every page on a phone.

A short checklist (our view)

• One page per project, with the brief, the decisions and before and after photos.
• Projects grouped by type, with your style described in words.
• A written photo license that covers every use you plan, and client permission to publish their home.
• Compressed images, descriptive alt text and file names.
• A numbered process page and an explanation of how your fees work.
• A consultation form with location, scope, timing and an optional budget range.
• A Google Business Profile and directory profiles that match the site and link to it.
• Renderings labeled as renderings, never passed off as finished rooms.

Contractors and remodelers have a matching guide in what a contractor website needs. If you want help building or rebuilding an interior design website, see our website development service or the full list of services.

Frequently asked questions

What should an interior designer website include?

Project pages with photos and the story behind them, services, a step-by-step process, how fees work, an about page, a consultation form, and links to your Google Business Profile and directory profiles.

Can I put my photographer's photos on my website?

Only within the license the photographer gives you. The Copyright Office's Circular 30 explains that a commissioned work is a work made for hire only if it fits one of nine categories and there is a signed written agreement, so the photographer usually keeps the copyright. Get the uses you need in writing.

Should an interior designer publish prices?

It is your choice, but in our view you should at least explain how you charge (flat fee, hourly, percentage) and any minimum project size.

Is a Houzz profile enough instead of a website?

In our view no. A profile helps people find you, but your own website on your own domain is the portfolio you control. Link the profile to the site and keep both up to date.