Real Results

What Happens When You Stop Using Stock Photos

Five anonymised client outcomes. Different industries, different problems, one consistent result: when your images carry your business identity in their metadata, Google notices.

5/5

Clients saw measurable improvement

≤12 weeks

Average time to first result

9/11

Agency clients gained image pack

$0

Copyright liability after switching

Individual case studies

  1. PlumbingManchester, UK

    Case Study 1: Plumbing Business

    Local pack: #7 → #2

    in 8 weeks

    The Problem

    Using the same 12 stock photos as every other plumber in the city. Google could not distinguish the business from competitors in image search or the local pack.

    The Solution

    Uploaded 24 job-site photos via LinkDaddy Media. EXIF fields populated with business name, GPS coordinates, and copyright. ImageObject JSON-LD generated for each page.

    The Result

    Appeared in Google Image Pack for 'emergency plumber Manchester' within 5 weeks. Local pack ranking moved from position 7 to position 2 over 8 weeks.

    "I had no idea my images were hurting me. After uploading and hardening them through LinkDaddy Media, I started showing up in the image pack and my calls went up noticeably."

    — M.T., Owner
  2. ElectricalAustin, TX

    Case Study 2: Electrical Business

    Copyright risk: eliminated

    in 1 weeks

    The Problem

    Received a $3,200 demand letter from a stock photo enforcement firm for an image downloaded from a 'free' website. Needed a permanent solution to eliminate the risk.

    The Solution

    Replaced all 18 website images with AI-generated images from LinkDaddy Media. Every image is CC0 — no licence to violate, no demand letters possible.

    The Result

    Zero copyright exposure. Images are unique to the business. No further demand letters received in 14 months.

    "After the demand letter I was terrified to use any image I hadn't taken myself. LinkDaddy Media's AI-generated CC0 images solved the problem completely. I know exactly what licence every image is under."

    — D.R., Owner
  3. HVACPhoenix, AZ

    Case Study 3: HVAC Business

    9/11 clients in image pack

    in 12 weeks

    The Problem

    Managing image SEO for 11 HVAC clients. Each client had duplicate images across their sites — some sharing the exact same stock photo. Google treated them as interchangeable.

    The Solution

    Used the Agency plan to generate unique images for each client with client-specific EXIF metadata (business name, city, service type). Author personas assigned to each client.

    The Result

    9 of 11 clients gained image pack appearances within 90 days. Average local pack position improvement: 3.2 positions.

    "The author persona feature is what sold me. Each client's images have a distinct identity in the metadata. Google can tell them apart now, and the rankings reflect that."

    — S.K., Agency Owner
  4. RoofingDenver, CO

    Case Study 4: Roofing Business

    Image search CTR: +40%

    in 6 weeks

    The Problem

    Website images had no EXIF data at all — stripped by the CMS on upload. Google's image analysis found no entity signals connecting the images to the business.

    The Solution

    Uploaded existing job-site photos through LinkDaddy Media. EXIF Artist, Copyright, and GPS fields injected. XMP dc:subject tags added with service keywords.

    The Result

    Google began surfacing the business's images in 'roofing contractor Denver' image searches within 6 weeks. CTR from image search increased by an estimated 40%.

    "My photos were good but invisible. After running them through the EXIF injector they started appearing in searches I had never ranked for before. The metadata really does matter."

    — B.W., Owner
  5. LandscapingPortland, OR

    Case Study 5: Landscaping Business

    Organic traffic: +28%

    in 10 weeks

    The Problem

    Competitor was outranking in image search despite having lower-quality photos. Investigation revealed competitor's images had full EXIF metadata; client's images had none.

    The Solution

    Hardened 30 existing landscape photos with business EXIF data. Generated 10 additional AI images for service pages that lacked original photography.

    The Result

    Overtook the competitor in image search for 3 target keywords within 10 weeks. Organic traffic to service pages increased by 28%.

    "My competitor had worse photos but better metadata. Once I levelled the playing field with LinkDaddy Media, the results spoke for themselves."

    — L.M., Owner

A Note on Methodology

All case studies are anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Business types, locations, and outcomes are accurate; names and identifying details have been changed or omitted. Results reflect individual client experiences and are not guaranteed. SEO outcomes depend on many factors including domain authority, competition, content quality, and technical site health.

The consistent variable across all five cases is the same: images with complete, business-specific EXIF and XMP metadata consistently outperform images without it in Google Image Search and local pack rankings. This is consistent with Google's published guidance on image metadata and the entity disambiguation principles described in our image SEO guide.

Your Business Could Be the Next Case Study

Every business in these case studies started exactly where you are now — using stock photos or unoptimised images. The difference is metadata. Start hardening your images today.

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