Benefits of Local SEO for Real Estate Photographers
Utilizing local SEO is a great way to gain new clients and distinguish yourself from your competition online.
In this article I’ll explain what local SEO is, how it can be useful for real estate photography businesses, and discuss the best ways to implement it into your website.
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What is Local SEO?
Local SEO (search engine optimization) is the practice of optimizing your website and the content on your site to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages, aka Google results, for specific local search queries.
It’s a way of optimizing a website to rank higher in search results for local-based keywords, and is very effective and important for small businesses that want to attract more customers via online traffic
For real estate photography purposes, utilizing local SEO would mean designing and running your website in a way that leads to you ranking high on Google for searches like “real estate photographer near me” or “best real estate photographer in * city *”
Common Local SEO Strategies
There are many tried and tested local SEO strategies that, if done consistently and given enough time, will lead to an increase in your local website traffic.
Here are 4 of the most common and effective local SEO strategies:
Claiming and optimizing business listings on local directories and review sites, such as Google My Business, Yelp, and Yellow Pages. This can be done by simply registering your business on those platforms.
Optimizing your website for local keywords and phrases that potential customers might use when searching for a business in their area. This is achieved by including text like “Your City Name Real Estate Photographer” in various pages on your site.
Building local backlinks from other businesses and organizations in the area. A backlink is a link on another website that sends people to your website. So, for example, if you photographed for a local business, see if they will put a link on their website directing people to your website.
Encouraging customers to leave reviews on local directories and review sites. After you take photos for a client, ask if they would consider leaving you a Google review.
How to Implement Local SEO Strategies for Real Estate Photography Businesses
There are several easy ways to implement local SEO strategies into your real estate photography business. Here are 6 actionable steps that you can take right now to have better local SEO.
1. Optimizing your website’s meta tags, including the title and description, to include local keywords such as the city or region that you serve is a great place to start. The most times you can reference your local market, the better.
2. Including a clear and prominent address, phone number, and contact information on your website will give search engines the information they need to determine where you are located.
3. Creating a Google My Business listing and ensuring it is up-to-date and verified. I wrote an entire article titled Why Your Real Estate Photography Company Needs to be Listed on Google My Business. Check it out for an in depth explanation.
4. Obtaining and displaying customer reviews on both your website and on local directories such as Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. Again, I wrote an article titled Why Google Reviews are Important for Real Estate Photographers. Give it a read for a detailed explanation.
5. Building backlinks from other local businesses and organizations that have used your services. If you photographed a store or business, ask if they could link to your website.
6. Creating and optimizing content like blog posts and landing pages that focus on specific local areas or neighborhoods. My article Benefits of Having a Blog on Your Real Estate Photography Website details how much it can help with local SEO.
Recommendations on Local SEO for Real Estate Photography
If you want to passively land clients simply by having them find your website, then local SEO is going to be extremely important in achieving that goal.
Local SEO is a very straight forward and easy to understand marketing strategy. Chances are you have a lot of opportunities already that you can take advantage of.
Local SEO has worked very well for me and has landed me tons of clients and photoshoots. Not just real estate shoots either…
I’ve landed several large commercial jobs for companies that aren’t headquartered in my city. When I ask how they found me, they tell me that they found me on Google and loved my portfolio.
If you’re willing to put in some work, local SEO is extremely worth it.
Additional Resources
If you’re just getting started in real estate photography, check out our Beginners Guide. It’s full of helpful articles and tips that will guide you in the right direction as you begin your real estate photography journey.
You can check out our Gear section as well to see reviews and recommendations on the latest real estate photography gear.
If you’re more interested in other resources that can help your real estate photography business, check out our Business Resources page.