Latest / The Local Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Small Business, Google Maps, and Local SEO / How a Landscaper Uses Google Photos to Generate Local Leads
Transcript
- Lucas: So we get a lot of questions about Google Business Profile photos — do they matter, how many should you upload, that kind of thing. And I think there's this assumption that photos are just cosmetic, like a nice to have after you've nailed your reviews and your categories. Luna: Right, like something you throw up once and forget about. Lucas: Exactly. But a landscaping company in Austin called GreenScape proved that photos can be a lead-generation channel on their own. They cut their cost per lead by 62 percent in three months just by changing how they approached photos on their profile. Luna: Sixty-two percent — that's huge. What were they doing before? Lucas: The typical stuff. They had maybe 20 photos total, mostly generic flower bed shots, a few team photos. Nothing terrible, but nothing strategic either. Their Google Maps listing was getting views, but people weren't clicking through to their website or calling. Luna: So what did they change? Lucas: They shifted entirely to before and after shots. Every single new photo they uploaded showed a project — here's an overgrown backyard, here's the same space with a patio and drought-tolerant plants. And they added captions with location keywords, like 'backyard renovation in South Austin' or 'artificial turf installation near Zilker Park.' Luna: So they geo-tagged their captions, essentially. Did they see an immediate bump? Lucas: Within the first month, their photo views went up 140 percent. But the real shift was in behaviour — Google started showing their photos in the image pack for searches like 'landscaper Austin' and 'patio installation Austin.' Their profile became a portfolio. Luna: That's smart because for landscaping, seeing is believing. A before and after tells the story way better than a five-star review. Lucas: Exactly. And reviews are still important, but a photo can answer the question 'can they do what I need?' in half a second. GreenScape figured out that their photo library was essentially a free ad unit that Google was displaying for relevant searches. Luna: I want to dig into the mechanics a little. How often were they posting photos, and did they use any tools to track which photos were working? Lucas: Great question. They committed to uploading three new photos every week — every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And they used a free tool called PhotoLens — it's not the only one, but it's simple — that shows you photo engagement directly from your Google Business Profile data. It tells you which photos are getting the most views, which ones lead to direction requests, that kind of thing. Luna: So they could see that a photo of a full backyard renovation got four times the views of a close-up of a flower. That's actionable. Lucas: Totally. And here's the thing that surprised me — they also found that photo recency mattered for their ranking. When they went from uploading once a month to three times a week, their average position in the local pack moved from eighth to third over two months. Google seems to reward freshness, even in photos. Luna: That makes sense. Google wants to show businesses that are active, and photos are a signal of activity. A profile that hasn't had a new photo in six months looks dormant. Lucas: Right. And you can game this a bit — you don't need a new project every time. A photo of your team at a job site, a shot of a tool you use, even a seasonal shot of the office with holiday lights — anything that signals current activity. But GreenScape's biggest wins came from the before and afters. Luna: And before we go further, you know, conversations like this are exactly why listeners tell us they keep coming back. If you've gotten something useful out of these episodes — maybe a tactic you've actually tried — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Seriously, it helps us stay ad-free and focused on stuff like this. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small thing that makes a big difference. And we really do read every message that comes with it. So, back to GreenScape — the other piece of their strategy was what they did with the photo captions. Luna: Right, the keyword captions. Did they just stuff the caption with keywords? Lucas: Not at all. They wrote natural descriptions. Instead of 'landscaper Austin,' they wrote 'Installed a flagstone patio and synthetic lawn for a client in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood. Took three days, included drainage solution.' That's a caption that a human would read, but it also contains location and service keywords. Luna: And I imagine those captions help with Google Image search too, right? Lucas: Exactly. Several of their photos started appearing in Google Image search results for 'flagstone patio Austin.' That's another entry point for potential customers who might not have searched for a landscaper directly. Luna: So what's the takeaway for a small business owner listening? Say I run a coffee shop or a hair salon — how do I apply this? Lucas: The principle is the same: show your work. If you're a hair salon, upload a photo of a client's hair before and after the cut and color. If you're a coffee shop, show the latte art, the pastry case, the line out the door on a busy morning. The key is consistency — at least two to three photos per week — and making sure each photo tells a story that includes a location or service keyword in the caption. Luna: And track the performance. You don't need a paid tool — Google Business Profile itself gives you photo view counts. Just check once a week which photos are getting the most views and double down on that type. Lucas: Exactly. GreenScape's data showed that photos with people in them got 30 percent more views than photos without. So include your team, include happy clients if they consent. It humanizes the business. Luna: Did they also use Google Posts with photos, or was it just the profile gallery? Lucas: They did both. They created a weekly Google Post — usually a 'project of the week' with one before and after photo and a call to action to get a quote. That Post would show up in their profile and sometimes in search results. They saw about 15 percent of their total profile clicks come from those Posts directly. Luna: So the photo strategy wasn't isolated — it tied into their posting strategy too. That's a good reminder that all these elements work together. Lucas: Right. Reviews, photos, posts, categories — they reinforce each other. But photos are the most underutilized, I think, because business owners assume they're passive. GreenScape proved they're anything but. Luna: And the cost per lead drop — was that purely from organic traffic, or did it affect their ad performance too? Lucas: That's a great question. The 62 percent reduction was specifically in organic leads — calls and form fills from their Google profile. But they also noticed that their Google Ads conversion rate improved slightly, because when someone clicked an ad and saw the profile with fresh photos, they were more likely to convert. So there was a halo effect. Luna: So the photos were essentially improving the quality of their digital storefront. Lucas: Exactly. And it's such a low-effort, high-impact thing. Taking a few photos of a job takes maybe 10 minutes. Writing a caption takes two minutes. Uploading takes one minute. So for 15 minutes a day, three days a week, they transformed their lead generation. Luna: What about the quality of the photos? Do you need a professional camera or is a phone good enough? Lucas: Phone is fine. GreenScape used an iPhone 14. The key is good lighting and composition — don't take a dark, blurry photo. But you don't need a DSLR. In fact, overly polished photos can look less authentic. A slightly imperfect real-world shot often performs better because it feels genuine. Luna: That's reassuring. I think a lot of small business owners assume they need professional photography. Lucas: And they don't. The consistency and the storytelling matter way more than the equipment. One more thing — GreenScape also added photos to their Google Questions and Answers section. If someone asked 'Do you do artificial turf?', they'd reply with a photo of an artificial turf project. That Q&A pair would then show up in search results for that question. Luna: So they're using photos to answer common questions. That's a tactic I haven't heard many businesses using. Lucas: It's rare, and it's effective because it turns a text answer into a visual proof point. If you're a dentist and someone asks 'Do you do teeth whitening?', reply with a before and after photo of a whitening case. That's gold. Luna: I love that. So to sum up: upload consistent photos — two to three per week — focus on before and after or work-in-progress shots, write natural captions with location and service keywords, track engagement in your profile analytics, and use photos in Q&As. That's a full photo strategy. Lucas: That's exactly it. And if you're just starting, don't try to do everything at once. Just commit to three photos this week and see what happens. The data will tell you what to do next. Luna: And for listeners who want to see GreenScape's profile as a model — we'll link to a case study in the show notes. But the principles apply to any local business. Lucas: Absolutely. Alright, next episode we're going to look at how a real estate agent used Google Maps virtual tours to double their listing inquiries. That should be a good one.