Key Takeaways:
- Unique photos outperform stock photos for local SEO, building trust, improving engagement, and signaling authenticity to Google.
- On websites, unique photos help optimize image metadata (alt text, captions), reduce bounce rates, and increase time on site, all contributing to better rankings.
- On Google Business Profiles, unique photos enhance local search relevance and improve engagement metrics like clicks, calls, and direction requests, indirectly boosting local rankings.
- According to Sterling Sky, businesses using real images on their Google Business Profile experience more engagement and better local rankings than those using stock photos.
- Stock photos can lower trust and make your business seem generic, reducing both customer interaction and search engine visibility.
Now, let’s dive into the full blog post:
Visual content plays a pivotal role in how potential customers perceive your business, and it can directly affect your local SEO efforts. Whether you’re uploading photos to your website or enhancing your Google Business Profile, the choice between stock photos and unique images can have a noticeable impact on your online visibility. Understanding the differences in how these photos work for both platforms—and their overall influence on SEO—can help you make smarter decisions for your local marketing strategy.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of unique photos for local SEO and the distinct ways they enhance both your website and Google Business Profile. Plus, we’ll share insights from Sterling Sky and discuss how images can influence search rankings and user engagement.
The Importance of Unique Photos for Local SEO
Why Unique Photos Matter
Unique photos create a real connection between your business and potential customers. When someone sees real images of your team, location, products, or services in action, they gain a better understanding of what to expect. This kind of transparency can build trust, a factor that Google values highly when determining the relevance and authority of a business for local search results.
Additionally, custom photos tend to increase user engagement. This is a key aspect of SEO, as search engines prioritize content that engages users. Higher click-through rates (CTR), more extended site visits, and more interactions signal to Google that your business is meeting user needs, potentially boosting your rankings over time.
Why Stock Photos Fall Short
On the flip side, stock photos are widely used and easily recognizable as generic, often unrelated to your business. They may serve their purpose in a pinch, but they don’t build the same level of trust or engagement as unique, authentic visuals. Overuse of stock photos can make a business seem disconnected from its local community, which can hurt credibility and drive potential customers away.
SEO Benefits of Unique Photos on Your Website
When it comes to websites, unique photos can have a direct and indirect impact on SEO rankings and user behavior. Here’s how:
- Direct SEO Impact
- Optimized Images: Search engines can’t “see” images the way humans do, but they can read image file names, alt text, and captions. Unique images allow you to optimize these elements with relevant keywords, including local terms. For example, a photo of your Denver-based coffee shop could include alt text like, “Exterior view of Denver coffee shop on Main Street,” helping Google associate your business with that location. This can improve your local search relevance.
- Rich Visual Content: Google appreciates well-structured content, including quality images. Pages with unique photos are considered more comprehensive and user-friendly, improving your chances of ranking higher in search results.
- Indirect SEO Impact via Engagement
- Lower Bounce Rates: Custom photos are more engaging, and visitors are more likely to stay on your site longer. If they see a professional, yet authentic image of your business, they’re more likely to browse through additional pages, reducing your bounce rate. Lower bounce rates send positive signals to Google, indicating your site is delivering value.
- Higher Click-Through Rates (CTR): When users search for businesses, the quality and uniqueness of your visuals can influence whether they click on your listing in the search results. Unique images that reflect the real experience of visiting your business can increase your CTR, which indirectly boosts your SEO by telling Google that users find your business relevant to their query.
SEO Benefits of Unique Photos on Your Google Business Profile
Google Business Profiles (GBP) are often the first touchpoint for local customers searching for services near them. Here’s how unique photos impact SEO and engagement on your GBP:
- Direct SEO Impact
- Google’s Local Pack Influence: Google uses multiple factors when determining which businesses to feature in the Local Pack (the top 3 results shown in a map for local searches). According to Sterling Sky, businesses that actively update their GBP with real, unique photos are more likely to appear in these coveted spots. Photos showcasing your business in action (e.g., your staff interacting with customers or your storefront in a local neighborhood) can help Google better understand your business’s local relevance.
- Visual Search Results: When potential customers search for local services, Google often shows image carousels. Having unique, optimized photos in these carousels helps catch attention, giving you an advantage over competitors using stock images.
- Indirect SEO Impact via Engagement
- Encouraging Customer Interaction: Unique photos not only give customers a genuine sense of your business but also encourage them to click for more details, request directions, or contact you. GBP listings with more authentic photos typically see more customer actions like phone calls and direction requests, which signals to Google that your profile is useful to local searchers.
- User-Generated Content: Customers may be more inclined to add their own photos to your GBP if they see that you’ve already uploaded authentic images. This user-generated content further enhances your profile’s credibility and can improve rankings, as Google favors profiles with frequent updates and interactions.
Differences Between Photos on Your Website vs. Google Business Profile
While both platforms benefit from unique images, the type of content and SEO strategy differs slightly between websites and Google Business Profiles.
- Website SEO (Content Focus):
- Unique photos on your website help with page optimization. Here, the focus is on enhancing your overall website content with visuals that support your SEO strategy. These images need to be optimized with metadata (e.g., alt text, titles) to make them search engine-friendly, and they help in creating a comprehensive user experience.
- Engagement signals such as time spent on site, bounce rate, and CTR from search engine results pages (SERPs) play a crucial role in rankings. Custom images can help keep users on your site longer, leading to improved SEO performance over time.
- Google Business Profile SEO (Engagement Focus):
- Unique photos on your GBP focus more on customer interaction. The photos are less about keyword optimization and more about engagement metrics, such as how many people view your photos, interact with them, or take action (calls, directions). The more frequently you update your GBP with real, localized images, the more signals you send to Google that your business is active and relevant in your local area.
- GBP photos can directly impact your appearance in Google’s Local Pack and image carousels. Regular updates with real photos increase the chances of appearing in local search features.
Insights from Sterling Sky
Sterling Sky has conducted extensive research on how images impact local SEO, and their findings provide key takeaways:
- Unique Photos Lead to Better Engagement: Sterling Sky’s study found that businesses using unique photos on their Google Business Profile experience higher levels of engagement, including more clicks, calls, and direction requests.
- Stock Photos May Lower Credibility: The use of stock photos, especially on Google Business Profiles, can decrease a business’s credibility. Customers are more discerning than ever and can quickly tell if an image is a stock photo, which may cause them to question the authenticity of your business.
- Photos Can Impact Local Rankings: Sterling Sky’s research indicates that businesses that consistently upload unique, high-quality photos to their GBP have a better chance of ranking higher in local search results, especially in Google’s Local Pack.
Conclusion
When it comes to local SEO, the type of photos you use on your website and Google Business Profile can make all the difference. While stock photos might be convenient, they often fail to engage users and can make your business appear generic. On the other hand, unique photos build trust, improve user engagement, and send strong signals to Google that your business is relevant in the local community.
For websites, unique photos directly impact SEO by allowing for metadata optimization and indirectly by improving user engagement signals like bounce rates and CTR. For Google Business Profiles, the SEO benefits are more engagement-driven, influencing how often users interact with your profile and ultimately boosting your presence in local search results.
Investing in unique photos is an investment in both your local SEO strategy and your business’s long-term success.
For more detailed insights into the SEO benefits of unique photos, check out Sterling Sky’s article here.
