SEO for architects that turns planning questions into appointments.

Where does an architect's next client start searching?

Often with the planning question rather than the architect, and the search volumes point that way. UK searches for 'planning permission' and for 'permitted development' each averaged about 8,100 a month in Google's latest twelve-month figures, which end in September 2026, with 'lawful development certificate' at about 3,600 and 'architect near me' at 6,600 (Google Ads Keyword Planner).

The search for an architect comes later, and it ends in a shortlist. RIBA tells homeowners to meet a few architects at home, ask to see their portfolios and even visit projects they have finished. ARB's checklist for clients puts one step before all of that: check the name on the Architects Register.

So your practice has to be found twice: by someone asking whether their extension needs permission, and later by the same person comparing practices' past work. A gallery of photographs and a contact form does neither job well. The rest of this page is how we get your site and Google profile doing both.

Planning permission or permitted development? Your site should answer it.

Pages that answer whether a project needs permission, for the area you work in, reach clients long before they appoint anyone. The Planning Portal's project guides set out England's rules for over 60 home improvements, from extensions to outbuildings. They can't tell a homeowner how those rules apply on their street.

The limits in England are precise. A single-storey rear extension can usually reach 3 metres beyond the original rear wall of an attached house, or 4 metres for a detached one, without an application, and outside designated areas up to 6 or 8 metres through prior approval (Planning Portal). But permitted development rights don't cover flats and maisonettes, are tighter in designated areas, work differently for listed buildings, and can be withdrawn by an Article 4 direction, most often in conservation areas.

That local layer is what you know and a national guide doesn't. We draft each of these pages from the Planning Portal, the legislation and your own decision notices. The Architects Code asks architects to promote their services 'responsibly and accurately', so if your appointment on a project ended at planning, its page says so.

The pages that do the work:

• One page per project type you want more of, such as rear extensions, loft conversions, basements or new houses, each opening with the planning answer for your area. How we structure a page to rank.
• Project pages that record the consent route. Householder permission, prior approval or a lawful development certificate, the council and the result, beside the photographs. A neighbour with the same house can see it has been done.
• A page on how you charge. 'Architect fees' averages 590 UK searches a month and 'how much does an architect cost' 480 (Keyword Planner). ARB's checklist tells clients to ask how a fee is calculated, so a page explaining yours answers that before the first meeting.
• Conservation and listed work, if you take it on. 'Conservation architect' averages 590 searches a month and 'listed building architect' 320, and RIBA's Conservation Register lists its accredited architects by location.

Can your SEO use the word architect?

Only if you are on the Architects Register, or a registered architect controls your practice's architectural work. Section 20 of the Architects Act 1997 bars anyone else from practising or doing business under a name, style or title containing 'architect', and section 21 makes breaking that rule a criminal offence.

That reaches well past the sign on the door. ARB's title protection policy lists websites, 'including URLs and metadata', among the places the title is commonly misused, and mentions Google business listings filed under the category 'architect'. A limited company or LLP needs ARB's permission to put the word in its name.

Google asks a similar question. Its guidelines say your categories should complete the statement 'This business IS a', using as few as possible. So the wording follows your registration:

• Registered practices. Architect as the main Google category, the word in your page titles, and a link from your site to each architect's entry on the Register. ARB encourages that link because it lets clients check your qualifications, insurance and professional standards instantly.
• RIBA Chartered Practices. The criteria require a RIBA Chartered Member among the full-time principals, Chartered Members making up at least one in eight of all staff, and all architectural work supervised by one. Your site says that in words, as well as showing the logo.
• Architectural designers and technologists. ARB points out that anyone can legally provide architectural services, and that terms like 'architectural consultant' are not protected. The profile belongs under Architectural Designer, and 'architect' stays out of the business name, page titles, URLs and metadata.

Homeowners and developers buy differently. One site has to serve both.

Homeowners arrive in far greater numbers; developers are fewer, and need a planning outcome they can build on. In the year to June 2026, councils in England decided 145,600 householder applications, for extensions, loft conversions and the like, and granted 90%. They decided 37,100 applications to build or convert homes and granted 76% (MHCLG).

Small practices rely on the first group. In RIBA's 2025 benchmarking, private housing, made up of extensions and alterations, one-off houses and other private housing, brought in 81% of revenue for one-person Chartered Practices and 67% for practices of three or four people (RIBA Business Benchmarking 2025).

Developers read your site for something else. The RIBA Plan of Work notes that developers often need to know early what a council will ask for in contributions such as section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy, because those costs can affect whether a scheme is viable. So show them schemes like theirs that got through.

So one site carries two routes. The Google profile, the project-type pages and the fees page are built around homeowners, whose searches they answer. A planning record, scheme by scheme with the number of homes, the consent and the council, is built for developers and linked from your home page. If you only want developer work, mention it when you ask for the free analysis, and it will show whether anyone searches for that work where you are.

Profile, projects, reviews and listings: the monthly work.

Alongside the pages above, this is the monthly work on your practice's presence on Google. Design and build as well? SEO for builders covers the construction side.

Who else turns up when a client searches?

Other architects, but also designers, technologists, planning consultants and directories. On 20 October 2026, a phone search for 'architect near me' set in London put a practice with 4 Google reviews first on the map. The same day in Manchester, the three firms on the map for 'house extension architect' had 55, 103 and 166 reviews. Google says more reviews can help, but it also weighs how well a listing matches the search and how far it is from the searcher (Google), so a review count alone doesn't settle the order.

Official routes send homeowners to all of them at once. The Planning Portal's find a professional page lists the Architects Register, chartered architectural technologists, RTPI planning consultants, FMB builders and RIBA's Find an Architect side by side, and Houzz files architects and architectural designers in one category.

Then there are matching services. RIBA's Find an Architect takes a client's project details and matches them with Chartered Practices, which reply if they are interested. Bark sends people a list of 'architectural professionals' to review. Keep any that bring you projects. The reviews and project pages on your own profile and site are the ones that stay yours.

The free analysis shows who holds these searches where you work, and the gap between their profiles and pages and yours. How the map's three places are won

From first call to first result

1. Free analysis

   Tell us your trade and area. We record a short video of where you rank, who is above you and what would have to change. It is yours to keep.

2. An honest answer

   If your market is not winnable, we say so. If it is, we agree in writing what a result is and how it is measured, before anything starts.

3. The work

   Your Google Business Profile, the pages that need to rank, citations and reviews. One business per trade per area, so never your rival as well.

4. You see every number

   Clicks, calls and where you show up, in your own portal, straight from Google. You pay once the agreed results are met.

What people ask us