Why Your Interior Design Website Looks Great But Isn't Booking Clients
Your website is gorgeous. Your portfolio showcases stunning transformations. So why aren't potential clients reaching out?
Website designer / strategist / data guru Cathleen Barnes has seen this problem a bazillion times. After spending years optimizing e-commerce sites, Cathleen shifted to helping interior designers fix the strategic & technical flaws gaps that prevent beautiful interior design portfolio websites from generating actual business.
"Designers create these visually perfect sites, but forget to guide visitors toward taking action," Cathleen explains. "You need clear navigation, strategic messaging, and calls-to-action that actually make people want to contact you."
In our latest Interior DesignHer podcast episode, Cathleen shares the exact framework she uses to transform pretty portfolios into client-booking machines. She reveals why certain pages are essential, how to track what visitors really do on your site, and which automations can nurture leads while you focus on designing.
This isn't about making your website prettier. It's about making it work harder for your business.
Key Takeaways:
Most designer websites need only 5 essential pages (homepage, about, services, portfolio/case studies, contact)
Strategic CTAs throughout your site guide visitors better than scattered "contact me" buttons
Heat mapping and visitor recordings reveal what people actually do vs. what you think they do
Case studies showing your process attract higher-quality clients than portfolio galleries alone
Automation can save designers several hours per week on client communications
One designer booked a new client within 2 weeks after adding basic SEO and improving site structure
Listen to the podcast…
Apple - Youtube Music - Spotify - Youtube
Watch the podcast…
Chapters
01:17 Origin Story
03:25 Common Website Mistakes
07:00 Success Story
11:07 Does Your Website Reflect Your Style
12:14 Turn a Visitor Into a Client
15:40 Call to Action
17:17 Client Journey
20:48 Most Important Webpages
22:02 Case Studies
25:45 Video
28:47 FAQ Page
30:02 Contact / Booking Page
32:51 Automations
33:54 Website Platforms
39:28 Website Updates
41:13 Platform Updates
42:32 Website Content
43:44 WEBSITE DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS
50:47 Instagram Hack
51:45 Metrics
53:14 What Can I Expect?
54:50 Work with Cathleen
1:00:51 Outro
Read the transcript…
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Cathleen, you have kind of a unique background. The things you did before getting into this, can you tell me how you transferred from like doing corporate e commerce to designing websites specifically for interdesigners?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah. So over the past 10 years I've been working in the corporate world primarily, like you said, in the e commerce world. And this really gave me a very deep understanding of how websites work, what makes them effective and how they convert.
And so I have a lot of knowledge in that area and I've worked with other businesses as well, just designing their websites. But over the past year, year and a half, I had the opportunity of starting to get to work with interior designers.
And for me personally, this was awesome because I have a huge love for web design and I really like interior design. I do home projects myself, from diying things to just appreciating a beautiful space.
And I have an appreciation for what designers can do. And so when I started to work with interior designers, it felt extremely fun. But it also their businesses are very unique and I saw a lot of the problems that kept coming up from, you know, attract them, wanting to attract their, you know, ideal clients to wanting more bookings that would then lead into higher paying clients, or they wanted to streamline their client onboarding processes to even connecting e commerce shops or their LTK shops.
And so with this, I really felt like there was a need for this space and there was a problem that I could help them solve and help them understand the value of their website and what it could do for them in terms of growing their business, in terms of saving them time from streamlining their processes and ultimately getting them back into why they originally started their businesses in the first place.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Since you brought up kind of things that are wrong with designers websites and how they're using them, could you go in maybe and highlight a few things that you see that are common amongst designers when you get a look at their existing website?
Things that are just not right, that you're like, no, we're changing this right away.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah. So there's definitely some critical things that designers I find do because a lot of them come in, they might have DIY their websites when they are starting to come and work with me.
So they're not web designers. That's not the core of what they do. And what I find is they don't have like a clear path to conversion. So they might not have a very simplified navigation. So when it comes to like your main navigation, you should have between five to seven clear headings and pages.
And if you have more than this it can be very overwhelming and cluttered, and so it can just confuse visitors. So that's one thing. The next thing would be not having clear calls to action. So your call to actions are those buttons on your website that tell someone where they're going to go and what they need to do on their website.
It really guides them to that next step. And if those call to actions are missing or they're confusing again, it's going to cause someone to leave their site. And then there's things in terms of, like, the layout as well.
So it might not be clearly defined sections that you know, make sense in a logical order. So someone really wants to come to your website, understand who you are, what you offer, but then there's got to be an order of how they're going to consume that content too, and what you want to show them and guide them along the way.
So it's really making them understand that your website is really set up to have specific goals, to get someone to ultimately fill out that contact form with you or to book your calls. And then I would say the last thing is really the messaging as well.
So a lot of designers, when they first start out, they're not really exactly sure who they want to serve and who they're working with, because they might still be understanding what their process is. They're trying to get clients in the pipeline and figuring all that out and identifying who it is that they really want to work with.
And so their messaging is a little bit all over the place and it's talking to everyone. And what we have to do is kind of hone that in and talk to the people that they would ideally like to work with. Think about someone that you've worked with in the past that would have been an ideal client for you and the type of, you know, style and design that you want to do in your business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I would assume for a lot of interior designers, everything you just said can probably feel a little overwhelming. And I would assume that designers should be able to understand this, because when they sit down with a homeowner or whoever their client is, and there's so much that goes into designing a space that the client, even if they've binge watched HGTV for years, they may think they know interior design, but they don't really know what goes involved.
And so I hopefully we haven't scared people off right away with all of this detail. You said so. So maybe you could give me kind of a success story. You know, a client that you've worked with that you Know, came in not understanding all of this stuff.
Not. And, and what you were able to do for them and what you were able to produce for them. Their website.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah. So there's some simple things that I've done for clients. Maybe taking their one page DIY website that just had a lot of various information on that one page and now we've broken it out into, let's say five different pages.
So it's their homepage, their about page, services portfolio and contact page. And just making sure that we are having high quality imagery on there, we might be able to align their design style with the colors and the fonts that are being used.
So let's say, for example, if I had a designer that does, you know, very bold colors and they like patterns and textures, we would really want to take some of those pieces and incorporate it into their site so that it mimics their design style.
So when you go from like a one page to a five page website, it's really going to give people more information in what around what you do, how you can connect with them, what you, what problems you solve and you know, the pain points that people can kind of understand and relate to and how you are the designer and the right choice for them.
So which is simple fixes like that, you can immediately see changes from the design perspective. But then when it came to, you know, a lot of designers get very overwhelmed with technical things like SEO.
It's just very overwhelming and they don't even know really where to start. And so I'm there to kind of guide them and be that source and say, this is really what it is. It's going to help you get found in search engines, it's going to help you rank on Google.
And this is the key things. We need to put some information in your title tags, we need to put information in the meta descriptions for each of the pages. We need to rename images so that they don't say image 1, 2, 3 on them. And those keywords that you put in throughout the website are then going to help you rank in like your local areas or on the search engines.
And so I just really try to make sure that when designers come to me and they're working with me, that they see me as a strategic partner in their business and someone that they can trust. And I'm the expert in web design, you're the expert in interior design, and we can collaborate together and make a really great end product that feels great for you and your business, but that you also know that it's been Set up production properly and it's going to function properly as well for you.
At the end of the day, it sounds like there's real strong education component to what we do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think there's a lot of things that designers, they just hear kind of buzzwords sometimes from web designers and they're just not quite sure exactly how that can correlate back to them.
And so just really breaking it down into an easy, simplified way for them to understand and can relate interior design back to web design and how this is really going to help you grow your business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And you, you also brought up talking about a designer's style and relating that to their website.
So I assume, hopefully correctly, that there's that. That designer style, their ideal clients, their positioning as a designer, does that. How much does that impact how when you work on building their website.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: it impacts it a lot because I think you have to really understand who those clients are that you're working with and what that design style is that you enjoy doing.
Maybe personally you like bold, flashy colors, patterns, but the ideal clients that you are working with maybe like more neutral colors. They like more, they have more sophisticated palettes. And so you want to make sure that your website is reflective of the people that they can then see themselves in that design style.
And so that's reflected into some of the imagery that you put on your website so that they can envision themselves in that space, see what you've done for another person and how you could do that for them.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. So the end goal of the website is to have people hit the contact page and make a connection with that designer. Right. Is there a strategy that you employ, like how you design your pages to, to take the potential client through a journey to lead them towards that contact page?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah. So I mean, there's a couple of different ways. You can either have them fill out a contact form or you might have someone fill out like an application form. Or maybe the goal is to get someone to book an inquiry call so you can set your website up in a couple of different ways and just depending on how you want to get there.
So the way I would structure it in terms of like that client journey is to make it as seamless as possible. So just like a well designed home, you want to make sure that your website flows just as seamlessly. And in order to do that, you kind of want to break it down into, okay, the first impression that someone's going to see when someone visits your website.
It's oftentimes the first time that they are visiting your business, getting to know anything about it. And, and so you want to make sure it's saying I'm professional, I'm the expert, I'm your go to designer. And so that's the first thing.
Then you want to take them more into like the exploratory phase where you want to encourage them to learn more about your services, learn more about your company and who you are as the designer. And then you also want to be able to have them explore, explore your portfolio and get a sense of your design style and taste and how you've done that for other clients.
And then the next thing, which is really, really important, and this is why called actions are important, is to drive them to take that action. Whether that's saying book a discovery call with me, let's work together and you know, flowing them into their contact page or if you had an application form like apply here, just being very specific with that terminology so that they know after they're done exploring and you've kind of built trust with them along the way through maybe FAQs or testimonials from other people that you've worked with.
Once they've kind of hit all those points, then you want to call them in to take that action step with you.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I've spoken with designers in the past who feel uncomfortable with call to actions.
They might have up at the header, they might have the book a discovery call kind of button. And then you go to their portfolio page and it's, it's beautiful images and they take a look, they don't lead them from that portfolio page to take an action.
And when I've discussed it, I mean, everybody's got their own specific reasons, but I consistently see a concern that the impression they're giving to their potential clients is too aggressive in terms of saying, hey, come, you know, I need you to come here, connect with me.
We need to do business. And what they ended up with were websites that looked pretty but didn't result in the number of client leads that they wanted. So can I assume that there's a balance to that between looking like a slimy website that's with pop ups and all sorts of things going on versus never really asking to make that connection?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah, if you're not asking to make that connection or have some kind of call to action, someone has no idea what to do and where to go. And if they're on a page that has no call to action button at all, they're not going to be able to take whatever next Step that is, they're going to have to go maybe all the way back to the homepage or up to the navigation.
So that's why it's key to put call to actions throughout different points of like, the page that you are designing. You don't have to have them all over the place, but you need to strategically place them. So, like, for example, on your portfolio page, you can have your nice imagery of the designs that you've done.
You could even have a narrative. So make it into a case study showing someone exactly what you've done for another client, the results that you were able to bring, the challenges and problems that they had and walk them through that story. But if at the end you don't have a call to action saying, you know, would you like to work together or book a discovery call with me?
Because, you know, this is your design style, like, you can do it more in a conversational way. It doesn't have to be like, just come work with me it. But you definitely need something there to take them to that next step because otherwise they're just going to read it and be like, okay, and then leave, maybe go somewhere else and not continue to, like, flow through your website.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the concept of client journey. If you could just kind of describe that writ large what you mean by client journey. And also are there, I assume, not every potential client, every homeowner who's on a website, is going to interact with the website in the same way.
Maybe they've already been through your entire Instagram and they're pretty sure that they really like what you do. And, and maybe when they come to your website, they just hit that book a call button right there that's in your header right away. Whereas other people need to read every single page and do their research and all that kind of stuff.
So those two things.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah, so there's definitely different points of places that people can enter into your website. Not everyone's just maybe going to land on your homepage or someone's going to come in, you know, like you said, through Instagram and maybe book a call for you.
Maybe they've, you know, seen you a couple times either through Instagram marketing and then have come to your website or they've just landed on your website, learned more about you. There's different styles that people have. They're maybe need more time to absorb the information and really sit there and think about it because it is a big purchasing decision for them and they need to figure out if you know you are the right designer for them or if maybe someone else is a better fit.
So sometimes people just need time to process and then there's other people are that are like, yep, this person is my absolute go to. There's no question about it. I already know like I'm just going to book the call right then and there. So there's different access points.
Someone can come in and depending on which page you're on, you still need to be able to try and navigate them through through to see other pages. So let's say they land on your about page, you might want to take them to then go to learn more about your services.
And then from your services page you want to might you might want to take them to go see your portfolio. So just having a couple critical steps, not saying everyone's going to go in the same order, but having enough information on there for them to gather and absorb it and understand exactly what you do, how you're going to help them and serve them at the end of the day.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So just so I understand. So you set up this journey for the site visitor who maybe needs to take time and learn all the different steps about you. But for the people who are ready to make a decision, they'll be called to actions on those page to let them.
If they want to bypass all of that other information, boom, they can just jump ahead and make the connection right away.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah, that could either be in the form of like booking a booking button to just book a direct call with them. Some people like to let people apply to work with them first because they might want to understand who it is that they that's inquiring with them because not everyone might be the right fit for for that designer.
So they may want to like vet them out first or it could just be as simple as just going to your contact page. So you might not have those application forms or that booking tool. It's more just you need to make sure that the contact page is easy to access with that form for them to fill out.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, you touched on it a little bit earlier, but could we go over the pages that are more most critical to an interior designer's website? Yeah, I think I said it before, but I think there's five pages I would consider as critical for interior designers.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Certainly your homepage, then your about page, your services page, your portfolio and then your contact page. Those are definitely the five main pages that I see most designers using all the time and they're extremely critical to their business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I'm thinking about the portfolio Page. And this, once again, this is another example of things I've seen from other designers where Portfolio Page reminds me kind of of their Instagram feed, of their, of their grid and how it's made up generally of beautiful images of their designs.
But you also mentioned the case studies. Is that something you help designers with? I mean, I know a little bit about it and I mean, I think it's a fantastic tool and I think when combined with images, it provides something that most interior designers aren't doing.
So if you could kind of elaborate on case studies.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah, correct. So I don't see a ton of designers doing this right now. I think it's starting to become more prevalent in the industry and people doing it. And what a case study is. It's really just a story about the specific project that you worked on with a client.
And so this is going to be highlighted by why did that client come to you? What, you know, services were they seeking? What problems did they have? What did they need help solved? And then you can incorporate it in a story format and then also weave in your images throughout it and maybe like your design process and your mood boards and different, you know, design presentations and just create it as a story along the way so that people can understand what you've done for another client, solving their problems, the solutions that you had to come up with and then the results that you were able to achieve for them.
And you can get it as creative, like I said, as you want. So you could integrate, you know, maybe videos in there, you could do video walkthroughs, you could do mood boards, you could get as fun and creative as you want.
And this is really great when you're trying to attract high end clients because higher end clients definitely want to see how you've done something someone else in specific detail because like I said, they are investing a lot of money into your services and they really just want to make sure that you are that right designer for them.
And how you've been able to showcase what you're able to do for someone else just puts them in that person's shoes of what you could do for them.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. To my mind, that seems like something.
If you're willing to offer that to designers to help them with their website. That doesn't seem normal in terms of what a web designer normally does, like just build the website. That kind of ties back to where we talked about education. So I think that's definitely something like unique value that you're providing to clients.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah. So it really depends on the client that I'm working with too. So what are they coming in to work with me for? Like, what are their specific goals and objectives that they have, where do they want to take their business? And then I give them different things that they can think about that we can incorporate into their website that maybe they've never even heard of before or they're just not even aware even it maybe exists in the platform itself that we're working with.
And so I really just help kind of educate them in that way and show them. If we do this, let's say we turn their portfolio instead of just having a curated gallery of images, we turn it into a nice story of a case study, really highlighting on the results, how that could help get them more inquiries at the end of the day and really connect better with their audience.
So like I said, it does depend on the client whether I really do it or not with them. But it is something that I found a lot of designers are interested in doing. And so we just get a little bit creative with, you know, the imagery that they have, the videos that they have, if they're using, you know, mood boards and design presentations and how we can weave that into the website.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Have you found many designers using video or wanting or open to it even?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Absolutely. So there's a lot of video that designers have that they're already sharing on Instagram or they're doing branding photo shoots and that's now part of their process because they do know that video is really important.
I have had designers using video more often in their websites, but then there's some that still don't have it. It is an investment in your business and it is going to cost you some money to have those profess videos. So sometimes people don't have them right away, but it's something that you can also incorporate over time.
I like the videos just because it gives a little bit more of a personal touch to it and just a unique vibe to the. The website makes it a little bit more interactive and engaging for visitors.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. I was speaking to someone else the other day about Studio McGee and what, how they've used social media, especially video, to, you know, go from a two person design firm to like this insanely huge successful juggernaut.
And it, I went back into a lot of their, like old stuff and you know, it was, it was her talking to the camera, walking through a job site, explaining things, why they did this, why they didn't do this.
And I realized that the video on the website is when you're talking professional Right. Because you want it to look good. Not just, you know, your assistant holding their iPhone and taking this. But I think there are opportunities for designers to do things that nobody else is doing.
That paints a picture to that prospective client of, you know, the things that even things that could go bad. Right. Like something was installed incorrectly and you're saying, well, this is what happened. It sucked, but this is what we did and this is what we're going to do to fix it.
Is that something that you. I mean, maybe. I'm asking. This is kind of outside of your scope. If something like that, more personal, would you involve that in a website or would you keep it very professional?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: No, you don't have to have a professional video.
With our iPhones or whatever phone you're using today, the video quality is pretty good. I think it's just taking a look at the video and seeing if it makes sense to incorporate in that specific area. I think having videos like that makes you more genuine and authentic and real with certain people, especially if you're trying to either educate them on why we did something in this space.
But I wouldn't put them everywhere on your website. I would just be very strategic on the times that you do use those videos and where you are placing them into certain pages.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Would you consider it a good idea for designer to create possibly like an FAQ page?
And that could involve video as well. Like, you could answer the questions in a video format. Obviously it's not as important as the five other pages you said, but have you done that for clients?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Oh, yes. FAQs are really important. Sometimes what I do is I don't necessarily just make it like a whole separate page, but it might be a section on your services page, and that could have, like, expanders that have your question and then you expand it and then it has the answer.
But. But FAQs are a critical portion of a designer's website, too, just because they answer common questions that people have. And this is going to help you also eliminate getting all the same questions all the time.
And if you can answer them for people up front on your website, this is going to help them make better decisions and get the information they need readily that's readily available that they don't have to maybe fill immediately out that contact form that they can get that answer from the FAQ section.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So let's. Let's jump over to the contact page or the booking pages. You know, five years ago it would have been. If someone visited the website of a designer, there would be, you know, A connect there would be like an email button or the phone number would be listed or whatever.
But with calendly or Google Calendar options, things are now automated. So when the designer is sleeping, people can visit the website and make a connection. Can you speak to that kind of stuff like automation or third party technology or whatever, how that's impacting your website designs?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah, I love the automation portion of it. So a lot of designers have those booking tools now. So either they're using a calendly service or they're using tools inside of the platform that they're utilizing. And those are really great because a visitor can come and possibly book a call with you immediately without you having to go back and forth through email with that person and setting up a, giving them like a link to the meeting.
So trying to incorporate that in the easy way, easiest way possible through like a button on your website is really good. There's also things that you can do in terms of automation. So when someone is coming and signing up for your email list, you could then send them a series of emails that they'll get immediately after they sign up and that's going to nurture, engage them for a period of time and you're not having to sit there writing out those emails, sending it off to anyone.
And then there's other ways too, like with your client onboarding process, you might have forms that you like, client intake forms or design questionnaires. You can build those forms out on your websites and then create automations to them through your email marketing system.
And someone fills out your client intake form, they push the submit button, you have an email that goes out to the client saying thank you, I got this, now here's the next step and then it'll take them to the next form so you can get really creative in how you're doing it.
And it's ultimately going to save you a lot of time at the end of the day. I've had clients that have saved several hours a week because before they were sending out PDFs or emailing back and forth with people, all the same information.
And now this is streamlined through their website and it's just saved them the headache from all of that.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And could you give us maybe a percentage or an idea of how many designers, when they come and have this discussion with you and you start talking about automations, are they aware of this?
Is this like something that surprises them? Or it's like, yeah, I know I should be doing this, but I'm not.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Some I definitely find are very surprised. They're like, I didn't even realize that this was even possible inside of this platform to do.
And then others are like, I'm not quite ready for this. And maybe that's like a phase two that we work on because I'm just not there yet. The first phase is just getting my website up, looking the way that I need and then we're going to, you know, incorporate client onboarding forms and the automations and emails.
For emails.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: That sounds exactly like an interior designer who sits down with the residential client is like, I just want to do the living. I know I want to do the kitchen, but I'm not ready to do the kitchen yet. We'll talk about that in phase two. Yep, that's funny. That is totally funny.
Okay, let's discuss platforms because I know you, you have a, you're not building like brand new, like setting up the coding. You use a couple of different platforms to build websites.
Can you tell me about that?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah, that's correct. So I use two different platforms that I prefer. I've used more, but I just come back to these two and they are WIX and Shopify. So a lot of times I'll suggest WIX to anyone who is like a service based interior designer.
Whereas for Shopify I'm going to suggest this to a designer who might be more E commerce based that they want to sell a lot of products. So WIX I really like using for service based interior designers because it's got a lot of features to it that a lot of people don't even realize like we were talking about before.
And I like it from the standpoint of the ease of use of it. So, so it's a lot of it is a drag and drop interface. You can customize a lot of different sections into the website without that need for custom coding.
Because you and I both know interior designers are not tech gurus all the time. Some of them maybe, but others are probably not. They really just want a website that works for them. They want to be able to maybe update their images or easily update their text without having to always constantly go to their web developer or web designer and being like, can you just change the name on this?
Or you know, I need to adjust this paragraph or image and they want to just be able to do it themselves. So that's why I use WIX as this platform. And then the other great thing about WIX is it's kind of like all in one stop for that designer.
So I find a lot of designers are using tools like Calendly and flow desk and other things and they're kind of just like overwhelmed by having all of these different places to go to and they're like I can't remember to go here or what this is used for.
And so they're just like is there a way to like have everything together in here? And Wix provides that. WIX has email marketing already built in. They already have tools for bookings that you can connect with your Zoom account or your Google meeting account and it's all free inside of wix.
And they also have integrations with like your social media feeds as well. They have CRM systems you can hook in, you know, your invoicing platform. So there's a lot of components behind the scenes within wix even with the automations portion.
Not just from the email marketing perspective but just if you wanted to create different workflows and reminders of different tasks or what you need to do, that's all available in wix. So I use it as like a one stop shop for people that they can get not only their website but all these additional tools and it's going to save them time and money as well if they do that.
And then for Shopify I really suggest this to designers who are really going that e commerce route. So they really want to sell a whole variety of products and Shopify is really set up to be able to scale those e commerce businesses because if you built it on wix it might not have all the capabilities later down the road.
So it's easier just to start off in Shopify, have everything that you need and then you can be able to scale your business later down the road without having to change platforms at a certain point in time. So those are the two ways that I use these platforms and why I love them.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Have have both of those platforms over the last couple of years. I mean I'm kind of tying it into AI and automation. Are they changing? Are they like improving constantly or, or not?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Oh they're absolutely changing all the time. So I would say if you ask someone maybe like 10 years ago about Wix, they might have a bad perception about it. But WIX has invested an incredible amount of money into the platform and it's now has all those tools integrated, it's got AI integration in it and pretty much everything that you need there.
Same with Shopify, they have done a ton of investing into that platform to make it easier for customers to use so that you're not having to rely on that custom development side of things because custom development is great.
But it's not for the everyday user either. And you need to make sure that you're creating websites that are easy for your clients to be able to utilize and update what they need. And it doesn't make a website effective if it's custom coded or not.
It's about how you're using that website, how you're using that platform, and is it set up to meet your business goals and tailored to your individual business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, the customization piece of it, I'm curious.
So you design a website for me. I'm over the moon with it, it's perfect. But six months I, oh, maybe I finished a new project, I want to add that new project and make a new portfolio page. Am I going to come back to you and ask you to do it and just shove all the images at you and maybe we can discuss a case study or am I on my own?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: We can do it in both ways. So when I work with clients, I absolutely continue working with them. So what I have implemented with clients, clients is what I call like a VIP day. So if they have something down the road that they need a quick change to, maybe like additional pages or functionality, they contact me and then we decide, okay, here are the main things that we're going to work on.
And then I set, you know, one or two days aside in my schedule to only work on their business so that they have full access to me and we can get all the things done that they need and they're never left on their own. But I also give clients video tutorials, instruction manuals, I have trainings with them so that they know exactly how to utilize their websites if they wanted to, if they wanted to just duplicate a page that has the same structure and format as something, as another page.
So let's say their portfolio page is set up in one way. They could duplicate that page and then put, plug in the images or the content that they wanted for that new portfolio piece. So if they wanted the option to do it on their own, they could.
But they also have that opportunity to come back and ask me as well for that help.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And if, if either WIX or Shopify did some amazing new update to their platform, how would you deal with that? Would you, would you blast out an email to everybody saying, you know, big changes at Wix and, or big changes at Shopify and let's get back in and implement this into your site?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: I definitely could, I could always, I always reach out to my clients every so often I give them a few months and maybe reach back in see how things are going, how their website is performing. I'm pretty much in regular contact with anyone that I have worked with.
So if something that I thought, you know, WIX or Shopify came out with that was going to be critical for their business, I would certainly send them an email. I don't know if I would do like an email blast out to everyone just because it might not be relevant to what they need at that time.
But if I thought that there was that need, I would certainly go down that route.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, so you take more of a personal approach with, with each individual?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Absolutely. I don't see a website as like it's a one size fits all type of thing.
Not every interior designer is the same, so I don't approach every website in the same way either.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. I'm curious about content designers producing content outside of their portfolio.
That could be a blog, it could be a vlog, it could be something like that. Do you, would you consider that to be another page to add to your website?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yep. Yep. So like in WIX or Shopify, they both have blog applications in there that you can plug in.
So I've definitely helped designers with their blogs and setting them up in terms of the posts and the content that they want to release, setting up categories and just kind of showing them what the blog can do for them. I've even integrated things like Google AdSense into blogs so that people could collect, they could have ads on there and then collect money from Google AdSense as well if they clicked on that ad.
So there's definitely possibilities there with blogs, but it's something I absolutely do and would be another page on their site.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: When we talk about results of a website, we're primarily. I mean, the most important thing is potential clients reaching out, making, making contact.
I don't know. Is when it comes to tracking that kind of data, is that something that, that you help with or setting that kind of thing up where we can track like different metrics?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yes, yes.
So that's actually one of the distinctions in my web design business is I'm not just a web designer, but I do a lot of web strategy. And so in the beginning, when someone comes and they'll have like discovery call with me, what we'll first do is kind of dive into their business a little bit, talk to them about why they're wanting a new website or the problems that they're facing.
And then I'll kind of try and dig in and say, do you know what maybe your website stats are? And look at that from that perspective and kind of dig in and ask them how many people are coming to your website? And then out of those people, do you know how many are filling out your contact form or signing up for your email list or booking a discovery call?
And so we'll take a look at those numbers and I'll, and I'll do more education with them. And I kind of explain it in a way that typically someone should have about like 100 visitors coming to their site. And out of those hundred visitors, they should have at least between one to three people taking an action step with them, whether that's booking a call with them, filling out their contact form, or maybe signing up for their email list.
And if so, that tells me that their website is converting in that average range of other interior designer websites. But if they're getting, you know, less visits than that, no conversions, that's telling me you have a really low converting website and something may be off there.
And if it's above, that's great. It's performing really, really well for you if it's above that three, if you have at least 100 people. So we'll take a look at those numbers and understand, okay, is this actually a website problem or is it maybe potentially a marketing problem?
So you can have the best website and the highest converting website, but if no one's finding you, you're not doing any marketing to it, it's going to be really, really tough to get found. And then there's a really unique aspect to my business and it has to do with the strategy around it.
So when someone, I guess, comes to work with me, there's a strategy component. And so what we do is I will install what is called like an inspector tool. It is essentially a piece of coding that I put on that client's website, so their existing website.
And then we don't necessarily start their project immediately. We let that piece of coding do its job on their website because it's going to tell me exactly visitors who are coming to their site and what they're doing.
And so I'm going to be able to see, okay, where are they clicking on the website, what buttons, what call to actions, where their mouse is moving, how far they're scrolling down the page. There's also video recordings, heat mapping functions, and we'll take a look at that and say, okay, we thought that this button should be doing its job, but maybe there's something that we need to change about it.
Whether it's like the wording on it, we need to move it to a different area or if there's a page that is getting a ton of clicks, maybe we need to move it up further in the navigation. So if a lot of people are clicking on your services page versus your about page, we're going to move your services page up.
And so we're using that data behind the scenes to actually make informed decisions about people who are coming to your website and what they're doing so that we can build you a website that's really going to work and function a lot better than your current one and we have the actual information to prove it.
And then what I do is I'll share that tool that I use with my clients so that we can then look at it, you know, six months, a year, whatever it is, down the road, once there's even more data behind it to really tell us the story of what's going on.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And are there other improvements that we could make? I'm assuming that's a third party tool not built in for or wix or Shopify.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yeah, that is a third party tool.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: It kind of sounds like what is the Facebook thing called?
Pexel or Pexel. It sounds similar to that, right? Where. Yeah. Now, I mean, I could nerd out on this and I, and I, I don't understand most of what you just said, but I mean, it gets me excited. But it, if, if the designer was they, you built their website for it and they're trying to kind of manage things on their own, would they have access to that data or is that strictly like that's something that you kind of hold on to and would reach out to them.
And maybe…
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: I've done it both ways where there's some people that might not really want to be involved in those granular details of that data, but it is something that I do give them access to if they would like it. I do share that and say, hey, if you can find this useful, here's this tool.
We already have the coding installed on your website and you can go back and reference this at points in time and I can show them how to utilize it too. So what they really need to be looking at, I wouldn't overwhelm them with all the data in here. But I would say here, this is the area that you need to look at in the heat mapping.
This is going to tell you where maybe your top three clicks are. And here's a section. If you ever wanted to look at a video recording, I would look at the ones that maybe people are spending more time on your site. So that means that they're more engaged, they're not leaving immediately.
So you want to kind of just watch and see what they're doing. And if they're getting stuck anywhere, would that, that software tell where visitors are coming from as well? That doesn't necessarily say to me where they're exactly coming from.
It's more when they land on the website, what they're doing.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: No, I was curious if, like, so say a visitor's been to your, your Instagram, they click on the link from your bio, come to your website, and then you can watch them go through the process and see, okay, I mean, not that all your Instagram visitors are going to be a monolith and behave the same way, but that would kind of give you a bit more detail of how to kind of talk to those people.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: The one way that you could definitely track that is, and this is an organic way to get like search engine traffic. So a lot of people in their Instagram bios will use maybe a service called like Link Tree or Smart Bio.
But instead what you could do is set up that same page on your website with all of those links on it. And so if you saw that someone was coming into that designed page on your website, you, you would know then that they were coming in through Instagram from that recording because you had set that, that immediate page up on your site with all those links.
So you would know someone came here, saw these links, clicked in, and then proceeded through the website. So you could get some intel that way. If you set up your Instagram bio that way.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: That seems really smart. Thanks for that. That's a good one. That's a good tip.
Okay, let's talk. Okay, now we're kind of getting granular anyways. Let's talk about, about metrics that you consider most important. End of the day client reaching out and saying, hey, I want to work with you. That's the number one metric. But what about all the other nitty gritty nerd stuff? What do you consider important?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: I really look at more like the conversion. So when someone is booking a call or filling out your contact, I would say we measure that with how many people are are taking those action steps.
But then out of those number of people, how many of them are actually like quality leads? So are these people that you are going to want to work with as clients in the future and, or some. Maybe they're not, you know, the right fit for you.
So we would look at the quality of them and then I would take a look at like the success metrics. So out of those numbers of clients or people that were able to book with you and they were quality, how many actually turned into high paying clients? And that's really your success rate that you should be monitoring.
And you could look at that based on, I would suggest at least on a monthly basis to see are those leads getting, you know, better over time and are you able to book more of them as well the more that they come in?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, let's see. How about if you've, you've started working with me, you've rebuilt my website, I understand things a lot better. What, what kind of changes can I expect to see in terms of getting those higher quality leads, like number total and then higher quality?
What is there kind of a typical, like people get excited, in 6 months things start changing or…
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: I've seen it as quick as just a couple of weeks. So and then for other people it's been, you know, definitely a couple months.
So it really depends again on the designer and what also their marketing is doing as well and the changes that we were able to make. So for example, I had a designer that got a client within the first couple weeks of changing her website.
She didn't have any SEO built in, no localization to it, so people weren't even finding her, knowing that she was, you know, available in her local service area and beyond, just changing the design and layout of her website so that people could easily contact and so that I saw very quickly.
But then there's others who might not be as active with their marketing and it's taking a little bit of time to build up people coming into their website and then converting with them. So it just really depends.
And it depends on like the keywords that you're using, the location that you're in, and how you're kind of ranking as well throughout the search engines.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Maybe a weird question, but say I, I do. I've started working with a marketing agency specifically for local.
Would you help in terms of like kind of working with the marketer and like feedback going back and forth between the three of us in terms of website design and tying that into a new marketing strategy?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: It really depends on who that is.
Like I have different partners sometimes that I work with and can suggest out to a designer. Ultimately I think the first process is you would make sure that you have a good website set up and hopefully a strategic website and then the next step would be marketing.
So not necessarily does let's say a social media manager need to reach out to the web designer For a particular reason. It's more I would work closely with like professional copywriters throughout the website process.
If that was something, a route that we went down. Okay, let's pretend I'm an interior designer who's listened to this podcast and is blown away by Cathleen Barnes and wants to work with her. What, what would that process look like? Yeah.
So first you would go to my website and you would apply to, to work with me and you would fill out my application form. And so then I would take a look and see if we were a good fit fit. And if that was the case, I would book a discovery call with you.
And through that discovery call, we'll get to know each other. I'm going to learn more about your business, what problems you've been having with your website. Why do you even want a new website, what your goals are, you know, between now and maybe three years down the road so that we can strategically structure your site.
And then I'll go through them, you know, talking to them about the website strategy process that I have with those inspector tools, exploring, explaining how I use all of that in my design. And we do the strategy portion before we even start the web design phase.
And then we'll go into the web design phase, web development, and then we'll test and launch and that I'm there to really support them and be a strategic partner in their business. And that just has worked really well. So if someone wants to work with me, that's really, you know, what that process looks like.
Like, and you get, then you would. If you decide to work with me, you'll get a client project timeline, calendar of everything that's going to happen during our time working together. And then we'll sign contracts, deposits, and hit the, hit the road running on our project start date.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Okay. Let's say I'm a new interior designer and I don't feel I can. For the full service package that you offer, is there any way for me to dip my toe in a little bit?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Yes. So I take every person that comes to me on a case by case basis and where they're kind of at in their business and what their specific needs are. Like I said before, not every website is the same and not every interior designer is the same.
So if someone comes couldn't invest in my full service offerings, they couldn't pay the prices or something. I do offer semi custom websites. They're all completely designed by me. It's just more of a templatized website that's already set up by me, it's already strategically designed.
And then we will take your information and plug it in and same with your images, work on your branding, things like that. So there's definitely options. And then I work with each person too, on how robust the website needs to be. Or maybe just looking here, the three pages that might be extremely critical just to get you up and running, and we kind of just move through the process like that.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, that seems like a good way to get somebody kind of involved in your world who maybe either is concerned about the financial side of it, or maybe they think they DIY their website for years and it's not, but they still kind of want to keep their.
Their hands in there. And they would have the potential of if they, after working, doing this with you for a little while, then maybe saying, you know what? I think I do want to transition over to the full, the full service. They'd be able to do that.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Absolutely.
Yeah. So it's never. I just, you know, do a website and would never work with you again. That's not how I operate. I definitely leave it open to help you continue to grow in your business. And I will bring things to your attention.
If I, if I thought, you know, this could really help you move the needle in your business, you may really want to consider this. And so a lot of times when it comes down to like the proposal portion of giving my clients that proposal to look at, I will give them different options as well so that they can see, see, okay, this is tier one.
This is really the fundamental basics, kind of bones of the website. And then I'll say, here's another option that you can look at. This has got more features, maybe more pages, integrations, something that I thought that was, you know, kind of necessary for your business.
And then you could have another package that's like all the bells and whistles just so that people kind of see of like, okay, here's what I'm going to get when it's the bare bones. And here's actually if I did everything, what that could look like for me and do I want to invest in it or not.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yep. And once again, this sounds like a conversation that an interior designer will have with potential clients, Right? Yep. It's very similar. Yeah. Interesting. Well, that's all I've got in terms of questions. Is there anything I missed? Anything you want to discuss?
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: I think we really just, we did cover a lot of different things. I would just mimic again that definitely working with an interior designer is an investment, but your website is also investment.
You should really see the value in it. It's going to give you a return at the end of the day. Or it should. And you should use it really as a business tool. So when you do come and work with an interior designer, with a web designer.
I'm sorry, too many designer terms. You should really look at them as a partner in your business, someone that's there and fully invested in your business and your growth and success and not just someone who's there to just set up your website to make it look pretty.
It's there to. We really do want to help you grow and be successful at the end of the day. And that's at least what my job is as a website web designer.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Well, I think that's just about perfect. That's awesome.
Cathleen, I want to thank you for coming on the podcast. I learned a ton, and I'm pretty sure designers will learn a lot from our discussion today, so thanks again. Yeah.
Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting: Thank you so much, Douglas, for having me.
Why Your Designer Website Needs Strategy, Not Just Beauty
The most successful interior design websites share one critical trait: they're built for conversion, not just admiration. Cathleen Barnes reveals that transforming your website requires:
Strategic Architecture: Focus on 5 essential pages rather than overwhelming visitors with too many options
Purposeful CTAs: Strategic placement and clear messaging guide visitors to take action
Data-Driven Decisions: Heat maps and visitor recordings reveal actual behavior versus assumptions
Compelling Case Studies: Showing your full process attracts clients who value your expertise
Smart Automation: Simple systems save hours per week on repetitive client communications
The designers who book consistent clients through their websites understand this truth: your online presence should work as hard as you do.
The 5-Page Framework That Actually Converts
According to Cathleen, your interior design website hinges on five strategic pages:
Homepage: Create a powerful first impression with clear value proposition
About Page: Build trust and connection with your ideal clients
Services Page: Address specific problems and solutions you provide
Portfolio/Case Studies: Showcase your process, not just pretty pictures
Contact Page: Make it impossibly easy to take the next step
This simplified structure, combined with strategic CTAs and automation, creates a client journey that naturally leads to bookings.
Transform Your Website Into a Business Asset
Interior designers who implement Cathleen's framework report:
Faster Results: One designer booked a new client within 2 weeks of adding SEO and improving structure
Time Savings: Automation eliminates several hours per week of repetitive tasks
Better Client Fit: Case studies attract clients who understand and value your process
Clear Insights: Analytics tools reveal exactly how visitors interact with your site
Improved Conversion: Websites that guide visitors typically see 1-3% of visitors take action
The difference between a beautiful website and a profitable one isn't luck - it's strategy.
Connect with Cathleen Barnes - Cathleen Barnes Consulting
Ready to transform your website from a digital brochure into a client-booking machine? Connect with Cathleen:
Website: cathleenbarnesconsulting.com
Instagram: @cathleenbarnesconsulting
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