Houzz, a popular home improvement website and app, recently launched a new tool that enables design professionals, such as pool builders, to create their own business websites for free. More than 3,000 of Houzz’s 350,000+ design professionals have signed up for Site Designer, said Liza Hausman, vice president of community at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Houzz. Site Designer is intended to address the problems a businessperson faces when building and managing a website, “from choosing the right layout to making it mobile-friendly.”
It is available to any professional with a Houzz profile. The platform allows a user to choose from among 10 templates, selecting colors and fonts. The tool automatically pulls in photos, reviews and other key content from their Houzz profile.
Each website starts with four core pages: Home, Projects, About and Contact. Users can add more as they see fit. Business owners also are given the option of choosing either a default URL or a custom domain name. Each website is optimized for mobile devices so it will always appear on screen in an easy-to-see format. Additionally, a business owner can manage content for their Houzz profile and business website from a single point, Hausman said.
A website can be set to automatically update when changes are made to a profile, such as adding or deleting photos. The free tool is solely meant to give Houzz professionals a better online presence, said company officials.
“We don’t profit directly from it. We make money through advertising,” Hausman explained. “By having the very best professionals on Houzz, it brings in consumers — and more professionals. “I’ve looked at a lot of pool sites, and I see that many are not optimized for mobile,” she added. “It’s really a benefit that [with Site Designer] their sites are optimized for mobile.”
