Featuring your past projects on your website is extremely effective.
That's because showcasing your work:

* Proves beyond doubt that you actually do this business
* Makes it easy for people to judge what you excel at and whether it matches their taste
* Builds credibility in itself if you've worked with well-known people or properties

In short, it gives visitors a powerful sense of confidence in you—a big advantage.
And there's a major benefit for attracting customers, too. Namely...

Project examples are easy to find in search

Not only do they make a good impression on people who visit your website, they're also effective for search ranking (SEO), so they're content that works for almost any industry—home building, remodeling and salons being obvious examples.

That said, some people feel they went to all the trouble of posting their project examples but didn't get the results they expected.
So let us introduce "three things you must not do when creating project example pages."
Every one of them can be fixed with just a little care. So check them right now and put them to use in your own project examples.

Mistake 1: Using a title that won't show up in search

A common one for home building examples is "Project Example 1" or "Hamamatsu City, Mr. O's Residence." In the worst cases, nothing is entered at all.
Page titles—not just for project examples—are one of the most important factors in search ranking. If you want to rank for searches like "Hamamatsu builder" or "Hamamatsu custom home," combining a "place name" + "business name," then the "place name" is especially important.
With that in mind, if you don't include the names of the areas you serve—"Hamamatsu," "Iwata," "Fukuroi" and so on—in the page title, all that work on your project examples goes to waste.
On top of that, it's better to include your distinguishing features in the title as well. For example, something like this...

* A bright, well-ventilated home built with natural materials in Higashi Ward, Hamamatsu
* An easy-to-live-in two-household home in Ninomiya, Iwata

What's so good about including the place name plus your distinguishing features? In fact, "feature" words like "well-ventilated," "two-household" and "natural materials" are used in search phrases surprisingly often. Phrases like these are especially common at the stage before people choose a home builder, when they're still gathering information.
From there, they narrow it down to a few home builders that match their taste and sensibility, then visit showrooms and request quotes as they move forward with their decision.
To tailor your search strategy to that customer mindset, you should include words like the ones above in your titles.

Mistake 2: Using photos only

This is a common pattern for hair salons. "Never mind explanations—it's the impact of the photos that matters!" We can certainly see why you'd think that.
But just like the page titles in point 1, if the body of the page doesn't include descriptive text, it won't show up in search.
And no matter how wonderful your portfolio is, if it doesn't appear in search and prospects never see it, it won't bring you any customers.

Mistake 3: Not entering titles (or alt text) for the images you post

This one is a bit niche, but the point is that you should also enter titles and alt text for the images you post.
If you use a website management system such as WordPress, when you upload an image you can enter an image title and alt text in addition to the file name.
What's the benefit of entering these? Your images start showing up in Google's "image search."
Google offers search methods other than "web search," including "image search" and "video search." When a searcher is thinking "I wonder if there are any examples that suit my taste," "image search" gets them to the look they're after far faster than "web search."
So how do you show up in "image search"? That's right—the "image title (alt text)" is the key.

How about it? Are the project examples on your website in good shape? If any of these apply to you, take a moment to add that extra touch!