Turn Your Architecture Portfolio Into Helpful Content

The architecture portfolio is the most important section of an architect’s or firm’s website. It showcases the results of our hard work and talent.

Our websites’ visitors are not architects. They don’t see what’s obvious for us. They also can’t find the information they are looking for. We also have slightly different values. An award-winning project for us is a confirmation of the quality design, but for them, a red flag regarding construction costs. But you turn your portfolio into the spine of your content marketing for your architecture firm!

Can your architecture firm’s portfolio send the right message to your website’s visitors?

An image’s worth is a thousand words! Is it? All these words come mostly from the viewer’s mind. It’s mostly a monologue. Your marketing’s role is to turn it into a dialogue.

Why don’t you turn each project page into a case study? That is, how does your design solve problems? What is the journey from idea to this awesome piece of architecture?

Is it possible to do that?

Architects learn something new with every project. Each project is a new set of challenges (problems) that you overcome by design (solutions). All projects are nothing more than exercises for our architectural muscles.

A case study has to evolve from the first interactions with your clients to the moments when your building is finished and even after.

Did you estimate the gross floor areas during the preliminary stages? Why don’t you write a short article about this service you provide? Did you help your client to choose the plot of land? Write it down!

Time-evolving project pages

The project’s page should start with your beautiful renders. Later, when the project is completed, with great photos. But during this whole process, it should aggregate more and more content showcasing your involvement and contribution! Explain as much as possible the decision-making process!

Turn each project page of your architecture firm’s portfolio into a case study

Documenting each step of design it’s not very difficult. About one hour weekly would be enough. Illustrate this process with sketches, graphs, plans, pictures, renderings, videos, and data sheets!

Link every such post to the project’s page, project’s category, services’ pages, team members’s pages, and so on!

Each such post is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to tell about your project, your services, your staff, your external collaborators, and so on.

Example of useful content on a project page

Let me exemplify. You visit the construction site. Concrete has to be poured into foundations.

Writing a small report on this phase, you can:

• Link to larger articles on your website about:
  • quality control
  • concrete works
  • structural project
  • importance of site supervision
  • etc
• List the people and companies involved:
  • Team members, linking to each of their pages.
  • Structural and MEP engineers, also linking.
  • Construction company and its staff
  • Suppliers
  • etc
• Construction schedule, challenges of the specific construction stage, and works
• What challenges did the structural engineers overcome designing the foundations? Why did they choose a specific solution?
• How did the architecture design facilitate or lead to this solution?

Why would such information be of any interest to other prospective clients?

First of all, this shows your involvement in the project. This also links to other resources of great importance for any client, professional, or private person. It gives them hints on the complexity of architectural design, construction, and investment process.

Aggregate project-related short posts to each project page from your architecture firm’s portfolio

Aggregation of such posts on a project page turns your piece of portfolio into a story. A story tells much more than images.

If you end this story with an important award, even better! If not, who cares? The award will be the next project, the next experience, the next client.

Our clients don’t want an architecture project. They want to build. In too many cases, they think that legislation forces them to work with architects.

Telling the story, you are telling that architects are not a cost, but the most important partner of a client.

Use WordPress’ tags and categories

Luckily, WordPress websites allow you to do that. A single post can also include many other posts selected by category or tags.

As the project evolves, change it from one category to another. You can start with Ongoing Work, then Un built Projects, and then Built Projects.

Therefore, a content marketing strategy helps build a strong internal linking structure. A project page gets tens of links, gaining authority.

Such short posts can be added to many other categories, such as News, Site Supervision (Service), Foundations, Team Members, etc.

A strong internal linking structure on your website increases your SEO score

A strong internal linking structure helps keep visitors more time on your webpage. This lowers your bounce rate, which is a clue for Google that your webpage is helpful.

Your architecture firm’s portfolio. Structure, internal links, and time evolution

Structure your architecture firm’s portfolio like this:

• Project types – residential, commercial, etc
• Years
• Built -Un built, Completed Design, Ongoing Design, etc
• Size
• Provided Services
• etc

A project page (post) can be in many categories. As the project’s status is changing, you can move it from one category to another. Once you complete the design, uncheck the Ongoing Design to Un built, then to Currently Building, and finally to Built.

Aggregated short posts

Now let’s say you provide feasibility studies to your clients. It’s a great service, of utmost importance for developers.

So a post describing your feasibility study for Project X can be aggregated on several other pages:

• The Service’s Page
• The Project’s Page
• The News Page

This service’s page would link to the Project’s Page and the Service’s Page.

There is no limit on how to aggregate such posts. It can be shown on each team member’s pages as well.

Learn more about marketing for architects and content marketing for architecture firms!