SEO

How Flickr Can Help Your Local Business Get More Traffic Emilia Doerr , Web Marketing Therapy - Nov 17, 2009

These days, Google search results show not only webpages, but also images, videos, maps, audio, and other media (called "universal search").  Certain kinds of local businesses can take advantage of images that may show up when people search for keywords related to your business -- especially travel-related businesses (hotels, restaurants, etc.), clothing botiques, photography businesses, gift shops, gallerys, some corporations, etc.

Flickr is a highly indexed website for photo and video sharing owned by Yahoo. Local business owners can share images on Flickr to boost their online brand and increase search engine visibility.

Each photo page you create on Flickr will get indexed by the search engines and may even rank highly on its own -- boosting your local visibility and your potential to drive additional traffic to your site.

How to Use Flickr to Boost Your Local Business:

• Account. Open a free account with Flickr. If you find you're using Flickr a lot, the Pro membership is $24.95 annually. Select the option to make your photos publicly viewable.
• Uploading. Start uploading quality images to Flickr. These can include logos, headshots, travel scenes, and product images.
• Titles. Create strong, keyword-rich, catchy, and descriptive titles for each photo to boost search engine visibility. Think about unique ways to motivate users to click on your image.
• Descriptions. Write careful descriptions for each image. Your local organization may have a killer logo or a great product, but ask yourself why prospects for your business would care about it. Then in the description, tell them something you may not be able to share with them on your corporate website. Give people a reason to connect with you.
• Links. Add hyperlinks in your descriptions to relevant pages on your site -- making sure to use local keywords in the linked text.
• Local place names. Boost your local search engine visibility by using local search keywords for communities you are targeting (for example, Ventura, CA or Camarillo, CA) in your titles, descriptions, tags, and linked text.
• Tags. Tag each photo with descriptive, searchable keywords. Be sure to include place names in the tags to attract qualified searches.
• Profile. Optimize your Flickr profile page and Flickr photo "sets" with search-friendly titles, tags, fun and informative descriptions, and links.
• Flickr Groups. Be social. Get additional exposure for your photos by joining relevant groups and posting your photos there. This is also a great opportunity to connect directly with locals in your area of service.
• Other social media connections. You may want to share your Flickr photo pages on social sites such as Facebook and Delicious, especially if your image or video has viral potential.

Using Flickr for Local PR

In addition to using Flickr to help increase your search engine visibility and enhance your brand, it's also an excellent way to organize, store, and share photo/video content.

• Internal. Flickr is a convenient platform on which to store photo/video content to share with your team internally. (You can choose "private" account settings if you don't want your images made public.)
• Media. If you don't have an online media kit on your website, you can use Flickr to share images with your local media contacts. Send them a link to download your logo, headshots, and product images from your Flickr page in order to save their inbox from huge attachments. They'll thank you for it.

Using Flickr to Serve Your Audience

Remember that Flickr is a social media site, so be creative and remember to focus on providing value by serving, not selling to, your audience.

Like any social media platform, Flickr and its community are not meant to be exploited for commercial purposes.  You don't need to plaster your URL all over your Flickr photos. Spamming Flickr with photos specifically with the intent of advertising your company, products/services will not benefit you, and may even end up getting you banned from the community.

Think strategically in terms of how images on Flickr can help you attract new prospects for your business. Then go ahead and get started. And don't be afraid to get creative. After all, social media is meant to be fun.

Emilia Doerr, B.A., is a lead marketing strategist at Web Marketing Therapy, a full-service marketing firm and online education resource. Emilia provides advisory, management and execution for results-driven strategies that help make small- to mid-size businesses big with the Web. She also teaches Social Media Marketing in Santa Barbara at UCSB Extension.