SEO for Photography
Anyone starting up a website will probably be asking the question, “What are some effective ways to increase views on my site?” The most effective way to do this is through SEO. SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is the process of getting traffic to your site through free search results on search engines. If you are a photographer with an online presence, the goal would be to get viewers to your website. Having good SEO directly correlates to the number of viewers visiting your site, ultimately creating more business.
About 60-80% of click traffic goes to the top three results that show up in Google. People searching Google are more likely to refine their search than to go to the second page of search results. Obviously, the competition is high for those top three search results or even just a place on the first page of organic results (results that aren’t denoted by “ads”). In order to get your website to the top, SEO is absolutely necessary.
So how can I use SEO?
Some SEO you can control through immediate changes on your website. Some of it, however, will be a result of time, such as off-page links and bonds.
Here are a few different steps of action you can take to increase your SEO on your website.
1. Check Website Appearance in Search Engine Result Pages
The first thing to do is make sure your website appears properly on search engine result pages.
A good appearance of your website link is necessary to attract viewers scrolling through Google. The page title you create for your website as well as your meta description is very important because that’s what people see when they search for your site on Google, Bing, Yahoo! or other search engines.
An easy way to check this is to Google your name. A search for Brett Winter Lemon, for instance, brings up his website as the top result. His page title and meta description are easy to understand.
2. Use Mobile Friendly Sites
Another thing to check is that your website shows up well in a mobile search. Sometimes the highest-ranking websites on a desktop have a lower ranking on a mobile search because their website is not mobile-friendly.
You can check your website’s mobile readiness with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
Also, if your business has a geographical location, then you can get on the Google Maps page by creating a free Google My Business listing at https://www.google.com/business/.
3. Create Links
One really good way to create links back to yourself is to get other websites to feature your photography. For instance, if you feature a photoshoot on a popular site like PetaPixel, FeatureShoot, or the LENS blog, you can create strong backlink traffic. Trade groups and community sites are also great options for creating links to yourself. Make sure if you join a site that it supports backlink traffic so that you will still have SEO benefit.
Also, consider starting a blog. Blogging is an excellent way to create strong SEO because you are constantly creating new content. Content “freshness” is important for a high ranking on search engine result pages. In addition, blogs are also a great way to build specific links back to your website. Most links from external sites will lead back to your homepage, but with a blog, you have the freedom to link to specific galleries and photos on your website.
4. Create a Keyword List
It is important to create a list of keywords and phrases to include on your website and blog. Your list should consist of about 20-50 words, short phrases (1-3 words long), or longer phrases. Having a wider range of terms will attract different viewers based on their different Google searches. Google AdWords Keyword Planner http://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner is a good tool to use when figuring out the terms you want on your list. This site gauges the search volume for any given term.
Keyword lists can be a great organizational tool that helps focus content on SEO optimization. Refer to your list any time you are updating content on your website or creating new content for a blog.
5. Participate in Social Media
Playing a role in the world of social media is crucial for good SEO. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and many more sites are influential for your business and give your business exposure to potential clients. This is an easy way to market to customers because they already have a presence on these sites. Additionally, social media is one of the key factors in SEO and shouldn’t be considered lightly. It is necessary for photographers to have a presence on these social media sites to influence their overall SEO.
In summary, these are several easy steps of action to take to influence SEO. However, before starting these steps of action, set some benchmarks so that you can see the benefits of your endeavors over time. Throughout the process of improving your SEO, you will be able to analyze your progress and see just how effective your works is.
How fast should I expect results?
SEO is a long process and doesn’t happen overnight. Even the best SEO practices only help when combined with sustained effort. Over time though, you will start to see more visible effects and start to generate more traffic which hopefully would mean a lot more business!
