Commandment Number #5 – Honor Thy Photos
You may not know this, but Google Images accounts for a considerable number of searches, dwarfing those performed on YouTube, Google Maps, Amazon and Facebook combined. Searches in Google Images are made more than 10 times as often as any search on Bing or Yahoo, and they represent more than 40 times the number of searches on Facebook. Bottom line – your images are valuable, and you’re probably giving them away for free.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Instagram user, but I don’t share entire photo albums there, and I don’t think my followers would appreciate it either. Add to the fact that many photos, especially the HD or live motion ones, take up a considerable amount of memory which will slow down your page load times. Here is my recommendation, host your ALBUMS (not all your images) on photo hosting sites like Imgur, Google Photos, Facebook, or Flickr, and embed those albums just like i taught you to embed videos, onto your a page or post and share the link to your website’s page or post, NOT the album on the photo hosting site, which is what most people do. Yes. Everyone. Even your family and friends. Especially them as they’ll be the ones most interested in those Thanksgiving Photos, and they’ll spend the most time browsing them, thereby increasing the time spent on a page, thereby increasing your website’s value in the eyes of Google. Remember the longer people spend on your site the higher it ranks.
Lastly, for general website images used on your home page or in blog entries, I want you to name EVERY one of your photos with what they correspond to. When you use a camera or your camera phone, the images are arbitrarily given an automated name like IMG0164836.jpg. Most people upload these images without renaming them. This is a huge mistake. Your photos are yet another opportunity for spider bots on the web to identify what topics you are most relevant to. So for instance, if I have an image of a home in Beverly Hills, Ca rename it 1234-Rodeo-dr-beverly-hills-ca-90201-beverly-hills-real-estate-agent-90201-realtor.jpg and upload that image. This will only work for your website. You don’t need to do this when you upload to a photo hosting site as they rename all your files to prevent this.
Fun science fact: about half of the human brain is devoted either directly or indirectly to perceiving, processing, and understanding what we see. The takeaway is that human beings are as visual as they are verbal, if not more so. That means your content has to stimulate your site visitors in both ways. We’re not just talking about pictures attached to your listings, either. Slideshows, video tours and interviews, floor plans, even illustrations are all part of the mix. While you don’t want to go overboard—remember, you’re trying to enhance your foundation content, not replace it—your created content should give leads as complete an image of the properties in your inventory as possible. If you’re withholding information in the hopes of getting leads to call and find out more, you’re doing more harm than good. At the same time, if you’re worried all these great visuals will render you obsolete, you’re overestimating their power. The truth is that no matter how good your images and videos are, they’ll never replace walking the halls and rooms of a home, office, or retail space. They will, however, get leads excited about your properties and make them more willing to make the trip to see them.
Conclusion
In addition to blogging, there are many other types of great content that you can create to bring interested searchers. Hosting webinars, offering e-books or guides for download, and developing microsites will all attract leads who are interested in what you have to offer and eager to engage in a conversation with you about your organization. By sticking with these inbound marketing strategies, you’ll continually bring in new leads and grow in authority. However, it won’t happen right away. While inbound marketing will save you money, it does take some commitment and patience. You won’t become the top Google result for desired terms overnight, and your first few blog posts may only get a handful of page views. Nevertheless, if you make a long-term commitment to inbound marketing, you will see results. If you’d prefer handing over these responsibilities, and have the capital to invest in your business, I’d recommend hiring an SEO (search engine optimization) or SEM (search engine marketing company) to handle your site.
Here’s to your success!
