A Houzz Profile and the Website Behind It

Where homeowners collect ideas

Homeowners planning a renovation spend evenings on Houzz, scrolling through photographs of kitchens, bathrooms and additions and saving the ones they like into collections the site calls ideabooks.

When a photograph appeals, they tap through to the firm that did the work. That is why renovators, designers and builders keep profiles there, with project photos, reviews and contact details.

For some firms the profile has quietly become the main presence. The photos and reviews are on Houzz; the website behind it shows a few projects from years ago and a contact form.

That arrangement looks efficient until you follow a homeowner through it.

What a profile does well

• Photos found by people who were not looking for you.
• Ideabook saves that keep your work in front of planners.
• Reviews from homeowners, close to the work they describe.
• Questions under photos, which show what people want to know.
• A directory listing by category and area.

The first is the real value. Most people who find a firm on Houzz were looking at kitchens, not contractors, and a photograph introduced them.

What it does not do

It is Houzz's site, built for browsing. Your photographs sit among similar photographs from other firms, and a homeowner admiring your work is one tap from someone else's.

The layout, the order of things and the rules belong to Houzz and change when Houzz decides. It sells advertising to professionals too, so your profile is not the only thing a visitor sees.

And a profile has little room for what wins a renovation: how you work, what a typical project costs, how long it takes and where you will travel.

The website's job

Homeowners who like your work on Houzz usually look you up before they call. The website is where they decide whether to trust you with a large sum and several months of disruption.

That takes more than photographs. Each project needs its starting point, what the owners wanted, what got in the way, how long it took and roughly what range it cost.

It also needs your process, the areas you work in and the size of project you take on, so that unsuitable enquiries sort themselves out.

And it needs the practical answers homeowners worry about: who applies for permits, who manages the trades, and how deposits and payments are scheduled.

Linking the two properly

Fill in the website field on the profile, and use the same business name, phone number and address there as on your site and your Google listing.

Give each project the same name in both places, so a homeowner who saved a photo can find its full story on your site.

On the website, link to the Houzz profile where your reviews are, so visitors can read them in full. Houzz offers small badges for exactly that.

The direction matters. Houzz should send people to your site to decide; your site should send people to Houzz to read reviews, never to see your portfolio.

A worked example

A two-person company designs and builds custom wine cellars, from racks fitted into a closet under the stairs to glass-walled rooms with their own cooling.

Over four years it put about forty projects on Houzz, where its photos were widely saved.

Its own website showed five projects, the newest from 2013, and a portfolio button that led straight to the Houzz profile.

Prospective clients followed the button and stayed on Houzz. Several mentioned, when they eventually called, that they had been comparing its cellars with other firms' work shown alongside.

Enquiries often arrived as Houzz messages with no phone number, from people whose budgets and rooms the company had no way to judge.

It rebuilt its portfolio on its own site: a page per project with the space it started as, the bottle count, the cooling and the timeline, and an outline of what each size of cellar typically costs.

The portfolio button now stays on the site. Houzz still gets the best photographs of each project, and the profile points back to the full write-ups.

Keeping the profile current

Add each finished project while it is fresh, with a short description: the room, the scope, the main materials and the town.

Answer the questions people leave under your photos, which are often about paint colours, tile or fixtures. They are public, other homeowners read the answers, and an unanswered question suggests nobody is minding the profile.

Lead with the kind of work you want more of. The first photographs on a profile set expectations, and a firm moving towards larger projects should not open with its smallest bathroom.

Reply to reviews as you would anywhere else, and check the contact details and service area twice a year.

Whose photos they are

Many renovation photos are taken by a hired photographer, and the licence may cover your website without covering sites like Houzz, where other people can save the image.

Check before uploading, and ask the homeowners as well. It is their house in the picture, and a short written yes avoids an awkward conversation later.

Reviews in more than one place

Houzz reviews carry weight with people browsing Houzz; Google reviews carry weight with people searching your name. Both are worth having.

Ask each client for one review, on whichever site they already use, rather than both. Two requests at once tend to produce neither.

Quote a few on your website with the reviewer's permission, and link to the full set.

The counter-case

A firm that works mostly for commercial clients or on referral will get less from Houzz, and a basic profile with good photographs may be all it needs.

Some trades also matter less there than others, since homeowners browse finished rooms rather than the work behind the walls.

Whatever the profile's size, keep it current, link it to your site and never let it stand in for the website.

Before the next project goes up

1. Fill in the website field on your profile.
2. Match name, phone and address everywhere.
3. Point the portfolio button at your own pages.
4. Write up each project on your site first.
5. Check photo licences before uploading.
6. Answer questions under your photos.
7. Link to your Houzz reviews from the site.

Step three is the change that matters most. A portfolio that lives on Houzz turns your best prospects into Houzz visitors, one tap from every other firm in the area.

Deciding whether a platform deserves your time at all is the subject of a Snapchat account for a business.

Frequently asked questions

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