SEO for architects means getting an architecture firm found when clients search by building type, location, specialty and process. Architecture websites are built around images; search engines and AI engines rank and quote text. The fix keeps the design and adds what each project is, where, how large and for whom, plus a page per building type and place.
Why architecture search is different, how open it is, how clients search, the pages to build, and AI search.
SEO for architects is different because architecture websites are built around images, and search engines and AI engines rank and quote text. A project shown as full-screen photography with a street-name title gives Google nothing to match against "multifamily architect in Denver." The work is there; the words that describe it, building type, location, size, client and program, usually are not.
This is fixable without changing the look of the site. Each project keeps its photography and gains a few short paragraphs: what the building is, where, how large, for whom, and what the brief asked. Each building type the firm designs gets its own page gathering those projects. Google's image guidance says it uses the text on the page, including captions and titles, to understand what an image shows. That is the whole argument in one line.
Barely. In our October 2026 Semrush pull, "seo for architects" had 1,900 monthly searches at a keyword difficulty of 3, and "architecture firm seo" 90 at 0. That is high interest and almost no competition. The client-side searches, building type plus city, are similarly open in many markets, because few firms describe their projects in text.
For a firm, the practical meaning is that the pages do not have to beat strong competitors. They have to exist. A residential practice with a page for each neighborhood it builds in, or a commercial practice with a page per building type, is often the only firm in its market to have one.
By what they are building and where. Homeowners search for a residential architect in their area; developers search by building type and city; institutions search by sector and often follow with a formal selection; renovation clients search by specialty, such as historic or adaptive reuse. Many also search for fees and process before contacting anyone.
The process search is the one most firms miss. A homeowner typing "how much does an architect cost for a house" is early, but they are deciding whether to hire an architect at all. A page that answers plainly, how the firm charges and what each phase includes, is often the first contact a future client has with the firm.
A page per building type or sector, a page per significant project with its building type, location, size, client type and brief in text, a page per area or city you practice in, a page per specialty such as historic renovation or passive house, and a plain page on process and fees. Awards, licensure and certifications belong in text on those pages, not only as badges.
They ask ChatGPT or Google's AI who designs a kind of building in their area, and get a short list of named firms with sources. For architecture those sources commonly include design publications, award lists, residential platforms, professional directories and local press, alongside firm websites. A firm whose projects exist only as images is hard for an engine to describe, so it is rarely named.
Our AI visibility audit asks four engines the questions your clients ask, records who is named and what is cited, and compares your firm with the three or four you compete with for commissions. The first analysis is free and arrives in writing within three working days. Engagements start at $20,000: the audit, a specification for four pages, and the pages written, with no retainer. Your web designer publishes them.
Keep the photography. Add the paragraph that says what the building is.
The one change that matters mostFigures described as measured are from Search Standing's own analyses using Semrush, Google Search Console and direct queries to each AI engine, on the dates stated. Published ranges move quarter to quarter; the patterns are what we rely on.
Send your company and your market. We will run the analysis and send back a summary naming your competitors, the terms they are winning, and where you sit against them.
No call required and no obligation. Read it, check it yourself, and decide. If the findings are worth discussing after that, we can talk then.
Prepared for your company against the competitors you name. Written by the person who would run the paid work.
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