How Interior Designers Can Build Authority That AI Trusts
How to build authority for AI with verified profiles, brand mentions, and 3rd party reviews
Summary: Be seen by AI and LLMs as real, reputable, and respected with these three steps:
- Claim and optimize your verified profiles.
- Earn credible brand mentions.
- Maintain strong reviews across platforms.
Introduction
AI and LLMs recommend interior designers that they can verify as real, reputable, and respected. That’s why authority-building signals, such as verified business profiles, third-party brand mentions, and strong reviews, are essential.
Step 1: Claim and Optimize Your Verified Profiles
- Google Business Profile: Keep hours, location, and contact information up-to-date. Fully fill out the profile with services, photos, and brand descriptions. Collect client reviews.
- Houzz: In addition to ensuring all the information is accurate, upload recent project photos and collect client reviews.
- LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social media: Optimize your bio and About info. Highlight awards, press mentions, and specialities
- Yelp: Ensure your information is accurate and start encouraging people to review you there.
- Find local and industry directories and create profiles: Get your brand listed accurately on local business directories, interior design directories, local lifestyle resource guides, etc.
Step 2: Earn Credible Brand Mentions
AI and LLMs look for your business name in reputable places, such as Architectural Digest, The Los Angeles Business Journal, Tampa Bay Journal, The New York Times, MarthaStewart.com, etc. To get these types of reputable brand mentions, you can:
- Submit your project descriptions and photos to design publications.
- Apply for local business and industry awards.
- Collaborate with high-profile partners who will credit you on their websites or when they submit their projects to publications and awards.
- Write guest posts on your partners’ websites.
Step 3: Maintain Strong Reviews Across Platforms
High ratings and reviews from multiple third-party sources reinforce trust. Ask satisfied clients to please leave reviews on your verified profiles, not just one platform, and not in an email that you then copy and paste onto your website. Reviews have more credibility on Google, Houzz, Yelp, etc. You can import those ratings and reviews onto your website, ideally on the home page. This increases your credibility and authority as well.
Learn more about creating content that appeals to AI and LLMs
Once you’ve built authority, you need to showcase it. In “How to Create High-Value Content That Makes AI (and Clients) See You as the Expert,” we’ll explore how to turn your expertise into AI-friendly content that seals the deal.
Need help creating content that gets found by AI and LLMs?
Authority isn’t built overnight, but with Wingnut Social, it happens faster and smarter. We help interior designers claim and optimize verified profiles, earn media mentions, and collect reviews that LLMs trust when deciding who to recommend. Let’s build your credibility so AI sees you as the leader in your market. Start building your authority today.
FAQ about how interior designers can build authority that AI trusts
Q1: What is structured content?
Structured content is content that’s organized with clear headings, logical sections, and schema markup so both humans and AI can easily understand it.
Q2: Why does structured content matter for interior designers?
It makes it easier for AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to pull accurate details about your business and recommend you to clients.
Q3: What is schema markup and how does it help?
Schema markup is a type of code added to your site that gives context—like business type, reviews, and project details—that AI and Google can recognize.
Q4: How can I structure my interior design portfolio pages?
Use headings for project titles, describe the design process, include the location, and apply schema markup for projects and reviews.
