Project Overview
Studio Pod is a self-service headshot studio in Houston that offers quick, high-quality photos without needing a photographer. It’s designed for professionals and businesses looking for affordable, consistent headshots with customizable backgrounds and branding options.
Goal
The goal was to improve Studio Pod’s visibility for on-site headshot locations, initially focusing on Texas with one active and three upcoming locations. As the business expanded to Los Angeles, California, they also aimed to rank for local terms there. They also wanted to reach new industries and target markets searching for automated headshot solutions.
Solutions
To achieve Studio Pod’s goals, we implemented a custom SEO strategy focusing on optimizing existing pages, creating new content for future expansion, and targeting specific audience segments. The approach was divided into three key areas:
Local Pages
We optimized the homepage for Houston and created pages for Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth to support future expansion. These pages mentioned upcoming locations while keeping Houston as the main base and targeted search terms like “professional headshots,” “corporate headshots,” “business headshots” + “city name”/”near me.”
When the business expanded to Los Angeles, we implemented a local SEO strategy to rank for local keywords in both regions.
For the Los Angeles area, we took a more ambitious approach. Since the pod location is southeast of downtown LA, we targeted cities within a 45 km radius (about a 30-minute drive). We figured this was a reasonable distance for people looking for easy, affordable headshots that don’t need a photographer and cost half the usual price.
We created pages for nearby cities like Irvine, Santa Ana, and Anaheim, clearly stating the pod’s location and distance in headings and content. This helped raise awareness while keeping things clear for potential customers.
Since the pages targeting Los Angeles area cities are still new, we’re allowing time for them to grow. However, they’ve already shown some positive trends, such as ranking 5th for the keyword Irvine headshots without any link building efforts.
Targeted Landing Pages for Professionals and Businesses
We created landing pages targeting different audiences and services, including:
Building Topical Authority for the “Headshot” Keyword
To gain authority in the headshot space, we developed a structured content silo under the parent topic How to Take a Professional Headshot, supported by child pages covering specific topics such as:
This silo strategy helped strengthen relevance for key industry terms and improved overall search visibility.
Link Building
To support our content strategy and boost visibility, we used link-building tactics like guest posting to earn backlinks from reputable local sites.
For local pages, we reached out to Texas-based photographers, magazines, and publications to share tips on headshot photoshoots and earn backlinks in return.
As a result, we secured 99 backlinks from both local and national websites, with an average DR of 50. These links helped improve the site’s authority and boosted rankings for key search terms.
Results
In just a year, we were able to achieve stable rankings for crucial local keywords and those searched by corporations, different professionals and universities.
Organic traffic increased by 671.49%, growing from 456 to 3,518 monthly visitors through strategic SEO efforts.
The number of keywords ranking in the top 10 positions increased by 1006%, rising from 48 to 531 through focused content optimization.
The website’s Domain Rating increased by 333%, rising from 6 to 26, driven by acquiring 99 high-quality backlinks with an average DR of 50.
