Almost nobody types "architect" as their first search. They type the project: a detached garage conversion, a second-storey addition, a lot they just closed on, a restaurant build-out in a shell space. The profession noun shows up later, once the homeowner has worked out that a designer or a design-build contractor will not get them through review. That means the highest-value queries for a firm are project nouns and zoning nouns, and a services page listing "residential, commercial, interiors" catches almost none of them.
Vetting is unusually documentary. A prospective client checks state licensure, looks for professional affiliation, and reads the portfolio for one thing above all: has this firm done a project like mine, on a lot like mine, under a code like mine. Photography is necessary and insufficient. A project entry that names the site constraint, the review path it went through and the material decision that came out of it does far more work than a hero image with a city name under it.
The cycle is long and front-loaded with unpaid questions. Months can pass between the first search and a signed agreement, and most of that time is the client trying to understand what they are buying: what the phases are, what happens if the bids come back high, how fees relate to construction cost, who talks to the city. Firms that answer those in public shorten the cycle. Firms that hold them for the consultation get fewer consultations.
