Featured in Your Region: How MOA's State Rail Works

Featured in your region is the MOA Pro feature that puts your studio on a rail called "Architects in <your state>" on the home page of signed-in MOA visitors in that state. You qualify if your Pro plan is active, your profile lists a city in that state and you have at least one project on MOA. The rail holds up to 8 cards, shuffled into a fresh order every day (India time), and the order is the same for everyone that day. This guide explains each rule and the few things you can do to make the most of the spot.

About this guide: every rule here was checked against how MOA works on 21 Oct 2026. If the site changes, the site is right. The screenshots come from the profile of MOA's founder, Saahil Khattri (13 Designs Studio). The tips are our guidance, and MOA does not promise any number of views, enquiries or clients from this feature.

If you are still deciding whether Pro is worth it, our post on everything in the ₹399 MOA Pro plan covers all of its features. This post covers just one of them.

What the regional rail is, and who sees it

When a member signs in and opens memberofarchitecture.com, they see a feed rather than the public landing page. Near the top of that feed, above the general "Architects on MOA" and "Interior Designers on MOA" rails, MOA can show a row of Pro studios based in the visitor's state. The heading names the state: "Architects in Maharashtra", "Architects in Karnataka", "Architects in Delhi" and so on.

Three points matter for setting expectations:

• Signed-in visitors only. Someone who opens MOA without signing in gets the landing page, which has no regional rail. So the rail reaches people who have an account on MOA: homeowners who signed up to send an enquiry, as well as students and other professionals. It does not reach every homeowner who visits.

• Home page only. The rail is not part of the architects or interior designers directories. Pro does not move you up those directories, and it does not change how you rank on Google.

• One title for both roles. Architects and interior designers appear on the same rail, and its heading reads "Architects in <State>" whichever role each card belongs to. An interior design studio is shown alongside architects, under that heading.

What the regional rail looks like and where each part of your card comes from. Placeholder studios, not real members. Diagram: MOA

Who qualifies for a state's rail

Your studio can appear on a state's rail when all four of these are true:

1. Your MOA Pro plan is active. That includes the ₹99 + GST first month. If Pro lapses, you drop off every rail until you renew.

2. You are an architect or an interior designer on MOA. Other account types are not shown.

3. Your profile lists at least one city in that state. These are the cities in About > Company, under "Which city is your office in?".

4. You have at least one project on MOA. Publish it, so the people who tap your card have work to look at.

There is no separate sign-up and no form. Once those four things are true, you are in the pool for that state.

Cities in more than one state

The rule works state by state, so a studio that lists cities in two states can appear on both states' rails. The founder's profile, for example, lists New Delhi and Jaipur. That makes it eligible for the Delhi rail and the Rajasthan rail. When you pick a city in the About > Company dropdown, MOA shows it with its state code (for example "Jaipur, RJ"), so you can see which state each city counts for.

About > Company on the founder's profile. The cities under Which city is your office in? decide which state rails a Pro studio can appear on. Screenshot: MOA

How MOA works out the visitor's state

MOA decides which state's rail to show from the visitor, not from you. It does this in two steps:

1. The visitor's location. MOA reads the approximate location of the visitor's internet connection. MOA's hosting provider, Vercel, reports the country, state and city linked to the visitor's public IP address (Vercel's request headers documentation and its geolocation guide describe these fields). MOA only uses this when the connection is in India.

2. The viewer's own profile cities. If the location cannot be matched (a visitor abroad, or a city MOA cannot place), MOA uses the state of a city on the visitor's own MOA profile instead. A member whose profile lists Pune, browsing from Dubai, for example, sees the Maharashtra rail.

If neither step finds a state, or if nobody qualifies in that state, the rail simply does not appear. Location from an IP address is an estimate. MaxMind, a major provider of this kind of location lookup, says it cannot guarantee full accuracy and that mobile network addresses can be shared across large distances (MaxMind: Geolocation accuracy). So a visitor can now and then be placed in a neighbouring state. That is one more reason to list every city you genuinely work in.

Up to 8 cards, in a fresh order every day

The rail shows at most 8 studios. When more than 8 qualify in a state, MOA shuffles the whole pool once a day and shows the first 8. How it orders them:

• New order at midnight, India time. The order is worked out from the date and each studio, so it changes every day without anyone setting it.

• The same for everyone that day. Every visitor in a state sees the same order all day. Refreshing the page does not reshuffle it.

• The same rule for every studio. No studio can pay extra, collect followers or upload more to move up this rail. Every qualifying Pro studio is treated the same way.

• You never see yourself. Your own card is left out of your own home page, and the next studio moves up to fill the gap. To know whether the rail is working for you, use Analytics (step 5 below), not your own feed.

In a state with 8 or fewer qualifying studios, all of them appear every day and only the order changes. In a busier state, some studios are off the rail on a given day and back on another day. Because the shuffle is random rather than a strict queue, MOA does not promise that you appear on any particular day.

How the daily rotation works when more studios qualify than the 8 places on the rail. Illustrative studios and orders. Diagram: MOA

How to make the most of it: five steps

You cannot choose your position on the rail. What you control is whether you qualify in the right states, and what a visitor sees when your card does appear.

Step 1: list every city you genuinely work in (About > Company)

Open your profile, go to the About tab, then Company. Under "Which city is your office in?", add each city where you have an office or regularly take on work, including cities in other states. Save. Keep the list honest: the same cities appear on your card, your profile and the directory's city filter, and a client reached through a city you do not serve is wasted time for both of you.

One practical detail: the card shows your cities on a single line, so a long list is cut short on the card. All of the cities still count towards qualifying.

Step 2: keep at least one strong project published (/projects/upload)

The rail needs you to have a project on MOA, and the visitor who taps your card will judge you on what they find. Make sure at least one complete project is published: a sharp hero image, the project details filled in and a short description. Pro removes the 5-project limit, so you can keep your best recent work up. Our guide to publishing your projects on MOA walks through the upload form.

Step 3: make the card itself count (your profile)

The card is small: a round photo, your name, your studio name and your cities, then a View Profile button. So:

• Photo: a clear headshot or a simple studio logo. Busy site photos turn into a blur at this size.

• Name and studio: use the studio name clients already know from your signboard, Instagram and visiting card. It comes from About > Company, Firm/Studio Name.

• Cities: as in step 1. A card that says "Pune, Mumbai" tells a Maharashtra visitor at a glance that you work near them.

Step 4: check the profile they land on (/user/your-name)

View Profile takes the visitor straight to your public profile. That page has to do the rest: your studio, cities, completed projects, COA status for architects, the MOA Pro row and the Get a quote button, then your projects below. Open your own profile while signed out, or in a private window, and read it as a stranger would. Our profile guide covers each field.

Step 5: see what the rail brings (Analytics tab)

Every visit that starts from a card on the regional rail is tagged, so it shows up in your Analytics. Open the Analytics tab on your profile (only you can see it), pick 7, 30 or 90 days, and scroll to the breakdowns. Under How they found you, visits from the rail are listed as "Architects in your region", next to sources such as Google, Instagram, WhatsApp, Within MOA and direct links. Where your visitors are shows which cities they came from, and Who is looking separates signed-in MOA members from visitors without an account. Visits from the rail always come from signed-in members.

The Analytics breakdowns on the founder's profile. Visits that came from the regional rail are listed under How they found you as Architects in your region. Screenshot: MOA

If "Architects in your region" never appears, go back to steps 1 and 2: a missing city or project is the usual reason a studio does not qualify.

Free vs Pro: regional featuring is Pro only. On the free plan you still appear in the directories and can be found by city, but you are not shown on the regional rail, and the Analytics tab shows a sample preview rather than your own numbers.

Regional featuring and city promotion are different things

Pro also includes city promotion, which is easy to confuse with this feature. Regional featuring is automatic, covers a whole state and needs nothing from you once you qualify. City promotion uses your 60 monthly credits to place your profile or a project in a "Featured architects" or "Featured projects" rail, marked Sponsored, for visitors in up to three cities you choose, on dates you choose. It is covered in the next guide in this series, on City promotion. Both reach signed-in visitors only.

FAQ

How do I get featured in the "Architects in my state" section on MOA?

Have an active MOA Pro plan, list a city in that state in About > Company, and have at least one project on MOA, published so visitors can see it. There is nothing else to apply for.

Why can't I see my own studio on the regional rail?

MOA leaves your own card out of your own home page. Check the "How they found you" panel in your Analytics tab for "Architects in your region" instead.

Can I appear in more than one state?

Yes. If your profile lists cities in two or more states, you can appear on each of those states' rails. Only list cities where you genuinely work.

Do interior designers appear on the regional rail?

Yes. Pro interior designers qualify on the same terms as architects and share the same rail, which is titled "Architects in <State>".

Does every homeowner in my state see the rail?

No. It is only shown on the home page of people signed in to MOA. Visitors who are not signed in see the landing page, which does not have the rail.

Want your studio on the rail in your state? See MOA Pro, ₹99 + GST for the first month.

Sources

• MOA: MOA Pro, Get featured in your region, pricing and Free vs Pro table (accessed 21 Oct 2026)

• MOA: Architects directory (accessed 21 Oct 2026)

• MOA: Terms and Conditions (accessed 21 Oct 2026)