SEO courseModule 5 of 10: Property ListingsLesson 5.4
Photos, Floorplans and Video
Original photos, floorplans and video that genuinely show the property and the area, described properly so people and search engines know what each one shows.
Why it matters
Photos, floorplans and video are how people decide whether a viewing is worth their time.
Why Google cares
Extra ways to be found, and to be chosen
Do this first
Give every listing photo a short description of what it actually shows.
01What it is
If you’re choosing a bike, a real photo of that exact bike helps far more than a picture of any old bike.
Think of it like
Floorplans
The map at a visitor centre shows how everything fits together far better than any amount of description.
Think of it like
Image descriptions
The label beside a painting in a museum tells you what you're looking at, which matters most to anyone who can't see it.
02Why it matters
To the people searching
Photos, floorplans and video are how people decide whether a viewing is worth their time. Tenants moving from further away often decide from a video alone.
buyers
Want photos, floorplans, 3D tours and video before booking a viewing.
tenants
Want to see every room and its condition before travelling.
sellers
Judge your marketing by the quality of your photos.
landlords
Judge how you'd present their property.
To Google and Bing
Extra ways to be found, and to be chosenOriginal, relevant images and video create extra chances to be found in image search, video results and YouTube, and make pages more useful. Stock photos add nothing. A short text description (alt text) explains each image to people using screen readers and helps Google understand it. Large image files are the most common reason property pages are slow (lesson 3.1).
An agent example
A lettings branch films short phone videos (a walkthrough, a neighbourhood tour and landlord FAQs), puts them on YouTube with clear titles and descriptions, and embeds them on the right pages with a transcript. Tenants relocating from other cities book viewings straight from the video.
03Your turn
Check yours, then fix it
- 1For ten listings, count the photos and check for a floorplan, video or virtual tour.
- 2Compare with the best local agent's listings.
- 1Run a few of your photos through Google Lens (reverse image search) to see whether they're stock or used elsewhere.
- 2Check each listing's photos are actually of that property, and area pages show the real area.
- Screaming Frog's Images tab, filtered by Missing Alt Text, or WAVE on a single page.
Write short, useful alt text for these property photos, describing what each shows (no keyword stuffing): [list or describe the photos].
- 1Professional photography for every instruction, at the right time of day, every room plus the outside.
- 2A floorplan for every property.
- 3Video and 3D tours where they help (Matterport, or a phone and YouTube).
- 4Real photos of the area for neighbourhood pages, and label any illustration as an "artist's impression".
- 1Alt text describes what's shown: "Open-plan kitchen with island and garden doors", not "Manchester estate agents Manchester house".
- 2On WordPress: Media, select the image, Alt Text. Purely decorative images can have empty alt text.
- 3Ask your property software provider whether photo captions can be sent through as alt text.
- Host on YouTube with a clear title and description, then embed it on the relevant page with a transcript underneath.
04Keep it up
Every new instruction, plus a quarterly check of a sample of listings.
That's lesson 5.4
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