Search Engine Optimization, SEO has sprung to the top of everyone’s mind over the past few years. Here are some simple and easy to follow tips that can help improve your rankings.
- I’m blogging this! Get a blog and show your blog some love. Blogging and micro blogging works. Search engines like text. Relevant text even more so. By using words and phrases and names that a bride might use when searching for a photographer you can improve your relevance for those terms. The engines also like changing content and blogs make it easy to add content on a regular basis. Search engines still like good ole HTML. Even though Google is starting to index Flash sites, html still holds an edge and blogs provide content that the engines can slurp up and process easily.
- Monitor the hell out it. Your website that is, if you haven’t already setup some type of analytics on your site. Most hosts will provide a solution but Google Analytics is free, and my personal favorite. Knowing where people are coming from and where they are going on your site will help you improve. Add more content in those areas. Also create and use a Google Webmaster Tools account. The information provided can be invaluable. Know your pagerank and get listed on sites with higher pagerank than yourself.
- Get published. Set aside time to put pen to paper and your fingers to the keys. Write and submit articles to anyone and everyone who will publish them and provide you a linkback. Articles on local venues, articles on style, articles on any wedding related topic. =If you can’t find someone to publish them put them on your own blog or website. WedFog will publish articles from any DWF member and many of our articles have PAGE 1 on Google results.
- A word is worth a thousand pictures. That’s right, words! Words not photos are king for SEO. While pretty pictures are important. The words you use can be even more so when it comes to search engine rankings. Define and refine the keywords you wish to rank higher for. Venues, Cities, States are all good keywords. Use alt image tags and keywords when placing images on your blog or website. Utilize these keywords at a density of 2-3 occurrences per webpage being sure to have at least 300 or so words of copy on a page. Being careful not to overuse a keyword or it could result in penalties.
- Live by the link die by the link. Cross post on your website, blog and microblog URLS. This will help to build incoming links to all of your sites. Incoming links are good as gold in the world of SEO and the more incoming links you have the better you should rank.
- Put yourself out there! If you don’t already have one get a Facebook account and a Twitter account and use them. Head over the DWF twitter account and locate some fellow DWFers via our lists. Then head over to our Facebook accounts and befriend some more DWFers. Linkback to your blog and website and try for the retweets and mentions across the interwebs.
5 Comments at "Photographers Pay Attention SEO Works and it’s FREE"
Another interesting tip I heard is by having your blog a separate domain name than your main website. This way every image/post that links to your portfolio counts as an “inbound link”.
You are right, link, links, links are key!
Great advice, for those photographers that may be interested Photoshelter.com and Adorama provide a free book on SEO, you can find it at: http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/seo-kit-for-photographers
I have to disagree strongly with having multiple domains – in fact, that will potentially have a negative impact. By having two (or more) domains, you are weakening your overall web presence (because you are splitting your content).
You should have one strong website, rather than two weaker ones. Instead of this:
http://www.abcphotos.com & http://www.abcphotosblog.com you should have:
http://www.abcphotos.com & blog.abcophotos.com (or www,abcphotos.com/blog)
This way you are still getting cross links and inbound links BUT, all the content is on the one domain name (ie, you are strengthening your overall seo efforts on that one domain).
For a good example.. Apple Inc. They used to have http://www.apple.com http://www.apple.ca http://www.apple.com.au etc etc Now – they just use http://www.apple.com as their master domain… and then use http://www.apple.com/ca http://www.apple.com/au http://www.apple.com/uk See the difference? Its huge.
Go to http://www.apple.com.au and take close notice of the URL.. it will change to http://www.apple.com/au Why? Because of the same prinicple as i mentioned above. Rather than having multiple sites that give them an OK search engine presence.. they are building up their master domain name.
Yes, Steve’s right. One single domain keeps readers focused in one place. And google too.
Comment Now!