How do I rank on Google as a real estate photographer?

Join your MLS as an affiliate, about $500 a year, and get the link from their site. That one backlink took Cineminn from spot 30 to the top three for Minneapolis. Then one page per city with your prices.

What should a real estate photographer's city page include?

Prices on the page, the delivery promise above the fold, a form and your face. The agent searching at 9 p.m. is hiring a person for Thursday and books whoever shows a price.

Should real estate photographers run Google ads?

Last, and only once the page has prices and a promise and you know your cost per new agent. Cineminn runs about $50 a day at $38 to $75 per new agent.

Answers › Running the business

Ask the agent

How do I get found on Google for ’real estate photographer near me’?

I Google ’real estate photographer near me’ and I’m page three, behind Snappr and two studios. How do I get up there?Asked by a photographer on Reddit, r/RealEstatePhotography

One backlink, from your MLS. Cineminn is number one for Minneapolis real estate photography, and it wasn’t a six-month project. The agent Googling you is panicking; her guy fell through and the listing goes live Friday. Page three means she never sees you.

One backlink did most of the work

We sat around spot 30 for a long time. Then we joined our MLS as an affiliate, about $500 a year.

That one link from the MLS put us at one to three on Google. Not a content calendar. Not a blog. One link from the site Google already trusts for anything with "real estate" in it.

Abidur built one page per city and service and hit the top three in his county in two months. Same idea from the other direction: give Google a page for the exact words she types.

Ask your MLS what affiliate membership costs and where affiliates are listed on its site. That listing, with a link back to yours, is the whole point of the membership. The directory and the networking are a bonus.

One MLS affiliate membership, $500 a year. That backlink took us to number one.

The page says the words she’s searching for, and it says the price

Ranking gets her to the page. The page decides whether she texts you.

Prices on the page. If she has to click to see them, she leaves. "By 9 a.m. next morning or it’s free" above the fold. That’s the sentence a panicking agent needs at 9 p.m.

A form and your face. She’s hiring a person for Thursday, not a studio.

Abidur’s city pages work for the same reason. The page says the city and the service in the words she typed, and then it says the price. Google gets the first half. She gets the second.

Every photographer I found on Google in ten years as an agent, I found at 9 p.m. with a listing going live Friday. I hired whoever showed a price. Nobody wins that search with a portfolio and a contact form.

I hired whoever showed a price.

Paid comes last, and only once tracking is dialed

Tempted to just buy the top spot? Here’s when that burns cash.

Google ads at about $50 a day is where we run it. Our cost per new agent runs $38 to $75. Know yours before you spend a dollar, because that number is the only thing that tells you whether the ads are working.

No prices and promise on the page? Ads send panicking agents to a page that loses them. You’ll pay for every click and book none of them. Fix the page, then the ranking, then, maybe, the ads.

The big lesson

Google doesn’t rank the best photographer. It ranks the one the MLS links to.

Do this

This week: apply for MLS affiliate membership and write one city page with your prices on it.

Where you actually are

Five questions, sixty seconds, and your roadmap loads on the next screen.

Get my roadmap

Straight answers

How do I rank on Google as a real estate photographer?: Join your MLS as an affiliate, about $500 a year, and get the link from their site. That one backlink took Cineminn from spot 30 to the top three for Minneapolis. Then one page per city with your prices.
What should a real estate photographer’s city page include?: Prices on the page, the delivery promise above the fold, a form and your face. The agent searching at 9 p.m. is hiring a person for Thursday and books whoever shows a price.
Should real estate photographers run Google ads?: Last, and only once the page has prices and a promise and you know your cost per new agent. Cineminn runs about $50 a day at $38 to $75 per new agent.