If you’re looking for another skill to add to your business tool box, let it be understanding SEO for photographers. As someone who has built my business from the ground up, I can personally attest to how much SEO has positively impacted my online marketing results. Now I want to help you do the same!
Understanding SEO for photographers can feel overwhelming though. It’s an avenue of digital marketing that comes with unfamiliar vocabulary and complex processes. And while you can quite easily fall down the SEO rabbit hole and feel in over your head, the basics are actually easier than you think! So let’s break it down. Here’s what you need to know to get started plus some easy action steps that will actually make a difference!
First things first, what the heck is SEO?! SEO stands for search engine optimization! Simply put, it is the process of getting traffic to your website organically from search engine results. There are a variety of ways to improve your ranking on search engine results pages (we refer to these as SERPs)! For example, when you search “Places to eat in Boston” the results are relevant and knowledgeable to the user. That’s because the engine sent its web crawlers out into the internet world indexing and organizing information from relevant pages to show you! From the design to the content to the uber technical intricacies of your website, so many factors affect your SEO! But for today, we’re sticking to the basics.
It all starts with a website. Truly anyone can make one these days! There are many website host platforms that you can build your website through. Depending on your experience or budget, you might want to outsource your website. But it’s totally possible to start yourself! Here are some website hosts that I recommend for photographers.
Now that you’ve got a website, you’ll need to purchase a domain. This is just the name of your website (you know, what comes after the www. ). Your domain allows you to have a unique address that is tied to your website only. Search engines need this to recognize your site and allow it to show up in SERPs! I recommend immediately setting up Google Analytics after purchasing your domain! If you are serious about improving your SEO, this tool is invaluable down the road.
Some hosting platforms offer a domain as well!
Website? Check. Domain? Check. It’s time to fill that baby with some content! This is where keywords come into play. Keywords are the specific words or phrases that users type into a search bar. There are short tail keywords that are 1-2 words, while long tail keywords include 3 or more.
Short tail keyword example: wedding photographer
Long tail keyword example: Glacier National Park wedding photographer
Generally speaking, you’ll want to use a mixture of short tail and long tail keywords in the content on your site. These keywords should show up naturally throughout the text. Avoid overstuffing keywords into your site! A good rule is to pick one focus keyword for your entire site (for example: Montana wedding photographer) and then add in other keywords where it makes sense. So where can you put keywords to optimize your site for SEO?
Headlines
Body copy
Alt text on images
Image file names
Metadata
Blog posts (can you spot the one I used in this blog?!)
And more!
So I bet you are thinking, “okay Jenn I get keywords, but where the heck do I find them?!” Fair question!!! And you know I have an answer for you. Start with thinking about what your ideal clients might be typing into search bars. You can use the guided search functions on search bars of Google and Pinterest to give you an idea.
There are also specific online tools to help you find keywords and analyze whether they would be a good target for you! More often than not, you want a keyword with a high search volume and low competition.
Depending on your goals, budget, and experience, different tools might appeal more to you. A great place to start is with UberSuggest as it has a free version to help get you practicing! In case you are ready to take your SEO game to the next level, here are some popular websites for keyword research!
Are you still with me?? I know adding “learn SEO for photographers” on your to-do list might seem daunting. But in the few minutes it took you to read this blog post, you’ve already learned the foundation! Start with the basics, learn little by little, and soon you’ll be ranking on page one of Google! It IS possible.
If you are intrigued by SEO and are looking to uplevel digital marketing for your business, there are endless resources out there to help you get started. But if you are feeling overwhelmed and want another pair of eyes on your marketing strategy, custom advice for your business, or all of your SEO for photographers questions answered, I can help with that! Snag a mentoring call with me here and we can talk through it all!
For a little motivation to get started, I thought I’d share a list of factors that affect your SEO! Some are easy fixes, while others might require a bit of research. But ditch the overwhelm and take action! If I were you, I’d start with this list. Get to know what these mean and how they play into your website’s searchability!
Page load speed
Mobile Optimization
Domain Age and Authority
Backlinks
Internal Links
Readability and use of headlines
Meta descriptions
Title Tags
URL slugs
Content Quality
Let me know if you found this blog post helpful for your business!! Keep an eye out for more educational content for photographers. There’s more coming your way! And if you missed it, check out this blog on the number one online business tool that has changed by business. You’re going to want to read this one!
