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As a small business owner, you likely know how essential it is to stand out in your market. But, have you ever wondered if SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is worth the time or financial investment for your business?
In this episode of Priority Pursuit, Victoria chats with Arielle Peters, a luxury wedding photographer, about how SEO helped her scale her business, reach her ideal clients, and expand into a competitive market. Read on to check out this SEO case study for small businesses.
Meet Arielle Peters
Arielle Peters has been in the wedding photography industry for 14 years, and in that time, she’s captured over 200 weddings. However, with a busy life as a mom of three and the wife of a pastor, Arielle decided to limit herself to shooting only ten weddings per year. Yet, her business is still able to work with plenty more couples throughout the year thanks to her associate team.
This extra help has allowed Arielle to be pretty firm on where she is price-wise. With her associate team, and the help of SEO, Arielle was able to shift from her past $8,000 to her current $10,000 minimum and an average of $12,000 per wedding she books, with some weddings going as high as $16,000. This dramatic growth didn’t happen overnight—it’s the result of hard work, strategy, and leveraging SEO.
How did SEO play a role in Arielle’s success?
Arielle’s SEO journey started in 2018 when she met Victoria at a workshop. At that time, Arielle was looking to attract more high-end, local weddings so she could spend more time with her family.
She became Victoria’s first SEO coaching student, where she learned the ins and outs of SEO—something she didn’t know much about before. In fact, she’s not even sure she knew what it stood for. The extent of her knowledge came from random conference speakers, and most of that still went over her head. Overall, she didn’t hear about it from others in her industry and mostly believed it to be something that didn’t really pertain to her and her business.
Like many business owners, Arielle initially struggled with SEO changes, particularly when it came to adjusting her website copy to focus on location-based keywords. However, Victoria backed up her recommendations with research, and Arielle trusted the process. In a few months, she saw an increase in website traffic and inquiries, with 80% of her bookings coming from the targeted locations she aimed for.
SEO had a major impact on Arielle’s business as she shifted markets.
In 2023, Arielle’s goals shifted. She wanted to break into the competitive Chicago market and elevate her brand into the luxury wedding space. However, with a growing family, she didn’t have the time to focus on SEO herself. This led her to invest in Victoria’s done-for-you SEO service, which handled everything for her, from keyword research to website optimization.
When Arielle decided to expand into Chicago, she knew it was a daunting task. With thousands of photographers in the area, SEO became her secret weapon. Victoria helped her identify hyper-specific keywords like “Chicago editorial wedding photographer,” which allowed her to stand out and attract her ideal high-end clients.
Working with an SEO expert allowed Arielle to stand out in a competitive market.
There was a little back and forth at the beginning when it came to keywords. When she decided to join the luxury market, Arielle started talking to others in the industry who shared that sometimes using certain words on your website—like blatantly calling yourself a luxury wedding photographer—could be counterproductive. Instead, you should show that’s what you are.
However, as Victoria pointed out during their discussions, Arielle’s larger Chicago market meant she had to be extremely specific in her keywords, otherwise she wouldn’t have a chance of standing out amongst the thousands of photographers in the area. Still on the fence about it, Arielle told herself that if she still didn’t like it in a year, she would change all the copy anyway.
Luckily, there was no need to redo her website. After just a few months of working with Victoria, Arielle started receiving inquiries specifically mentioning the specific keywords Victoria had talked to her about and encouraged her to keep on her website.
Victoria had known that those keywords were prime real estate on Google. There weren’t a lot of other businesses capturing that specific audience, meaning Arielle was able to sweep in, rank well on Google, and book clients.
It only took a few months for Arielle to start seeing results.
Arielle shares that after three months of working with Victoria, she started seeing results. Inquiries came in bit by bit, straight from Google. It was very important to her that these started to reflect where she wanted to go, which was Chicago.
At the beginning of this shift, she had only done one Chicago wedding, which wasn’t enough to drum up interest on its own. With this in mind, when she switched to the done-for-you SEO services, she knew that anybody who was finding her and inquiring about Chicago did so thanks to SEO.
It took about six months to book a wedding, but that one wedding paid her back threefold what she had invested in the SEO services that brought it in. As far as the investment goes, Arielle can’t stress enough how much SEO can be well worth it.
SEO is a long-term investment, not a fleeting fad.
Arielle’s story highlights an important truth about SEO: it’s a long game. Unlike a social media post that loses traction over time, SEO efforts compound, and once you rank well, you can stay there for the long haul. While it may take time to see results, the ROI can be massive.
Arielle emphasizes that SEO has become one of her top three marketing priorities, alongside social media and her website. She’s seen that SEO is not just another marketing tactic—it’s a game changer that’s helped her grow her business and secure her place in a highly competitive market.
SEO can have a major impact on your business & personal goals.
When Arielle decided to shift over to the Chicago market, what was really important to her was to eventually do fewer weddings while still reaching her financial goals. Knowing that Chicago is a bigger city with higher-end weddings, she knew that’s where she wanted to be. Plus, with her end goal of doing more destination weddings, the Chicago area was a much better fit in general.
However, it is an extremely large market and was quite intimidating to Arielle at first, which is why she reached out to Victoria for help. She knew it would take a few years to grow a network and really solidify herself in the area. But, she wanted to get there faster.
After seeing the results she had with SEO in the South Bend market, she knew it could help her again in Chicago. Arielle explains that it’s been so nice to have an expert in her corner helping her maneuver through the backend of her website and not necessarily feel like a small fish in a big pond. It helped the shift to the larger market not feel quite so daunting, giving Arielle the space to explore and grow towards her goals.
It’s time to stop putting off SEO.
If you’ve been putting SEO off or haven’t made it part of your marketing strategy, Arielle’s advice is simple: stop waiting.
Arielle mentioned that a friend once asked her which conferences to attend to grow her business, and without hesitation, Arielle recommended focusing on SEO with Victoria because of its undeniable impact.
According to Arielle, “There just, to me, to this day, hasn’t been something that has been so quick of an ROI. I think SEO is probably one of the only things in my business that has been such a quick and instant, ‘Wow, that actually is showing results pretty quickly’ moment.”
SEO doesn’t work in isolation, and neither do other marketing strategies. Even with great social media and an impressive website, without SEO, you’re not getting in front of the right eyes. In the photography world, Arielle notes that while she only books one of every thirty inquiries, that’s okay because SEO brings enough traffic to ensure plenty of those inquiries lead to booked projects.
Should you invest in SEO coaching or done-for-you services?
Arielle shares that she thinks this decision comes down to what you’re willing or able to invest or what works best for you and your business at the time. For Arielle, the done-for-you SEO services felt like a no-brainer considering if you only booked one wedding from it, it would pay for itself. However, if that’s not the case for your small business, the coaching services may be a great place to start.
Arielle says she enjoyed being coached before doing the done-for-you SEO services because she understood a bit more about the process and what all would need to happen to her website. Regardless of what option you choose, know that the impact of SEO will likely go leaps and bounds beyond the initial investment you make. There is endless potential as you and your business grow and climb the Google rankings.
SEO is essential for small businesses.
If you’ve been putting off SEO or haven’t made it part of your marketing strategy, now is the time to start. As this SEO case study for small businesses and Arielle’s success shows, SEO can help you reach your ideal clients, grow your business, and achieve your long-term goals.
Ready to get started with SEO? Check out Treefrog Marketing’s free guide—“How to Use Keywords to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO”—on how to use keywords to improve your small business’s SEO. Or, if you’re looking for a done-for-you service, explore Treefrog’s offerings and schedule a discovery call.
Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- “How to Use Keywords to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO”
- Treefrog Done-For-You SEO Services
- Receive 30% Off Your First Year of HoneyBook
- Try ShowIt for One Month for Free
- Learn More About Treefrog’s Small Business Marketing Resources & Services
- Join the Priority Pursuit Facebook Community
- Follow or DM Treefrog Marketing on Instagram
- Follow or DM Kelly Rice on Instagram
- Follow or DM Victoria Rayburn on Instagram
The Priority Pursuit Podcast is a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love.
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