Building Web Traffic for Your DPH Showroom

“Content is King” is a phrase so catchy that it has already helped spawn an entire industry of content writers. Content writing was developed with one specific goal in mind – to increase traffic to Web sites. This is essential for decorative plumbing and hardware showrooms, and for the kitchen and bath industry as a whole, since most consumers these days are very savvy and will likely shop online before visiting actual physical showrooms.

There are many sites that offer free or fee-based content that claims to provide all of the right keywords and phrases to please Google search engines and get visitors to your site.

In theory, that sounds like a great idea – except for one teeny, tiny hitch. Your brand new content may be wonderful for a “robot” to crawl through and may even achieve maximum search engine bliss, but you may want actual humans to read it as well, right? And, not surprisingly, humans tend to get a bit bored reading keyword-optimized text that, in most cases, just doesn’t sound quite right.

Therefore, you need to develop a more engaging way to get great content on topics that are relevant to your company but not too narrowly focused on your decorative hardware and bath products.

You’ll probably also appreciate the added benefit of a few writers spreading the news about the new post for you because they have a vested interest in driving traffic to your site and increasing their own exposure.
Enter the design blogger.

Design Blogs

Design blogs have been around for several years now, with more than a handful of them attracting very significant numbers of readers. Many of them get their own content from freelance contributors and, some of the larger ones – such as Apartment Therapy, Design-Milk, Design Sponge and others – publish dozens of blog posts per day. They are frequently quoted and copied by other sites, other bloggers and even the print media.

But there are thousands of smaller, high-quality blogs to consider as well. In fact, many are beautifully designed and often personally written by people who have had the presence of mind to add a blog format to their own Web sites to create new traffic. These bloggers are often industry professionals like interior designers, kitchen designers and interior design journalists and stylists. They all have unique styles, a vested interest in broadening their own reach through guest blogs or syndication and wield more influence and leverage than you can imagine.

One case in point is Brizo Fashion Week. The concept was launched in 2007 in partnership with fashion designer Jason Wu in an effort to expand the brand’s visibility and reach into other design arenas. With social media on the rise, the company then trumped that bold move by reaching out to the design blogger community.

Twice a year, during fashion week, Brizo now invites a group of bloggers to the Big Apple to attend the Jason Wu fashion show, see some designer showhouses, participate in design competitions and learn about Brizo products and future product development.

I know from experience that it’s a very fun and engaging event and Brizo knows that it’s a worthwhile investment.

Why You Need a Blog

It’s quite possible that you’ve already added a blog to your site. If not, you should certainly consider it. Here are some important reasons to consider doing so: