SEO Tips for Photographers

Disclaimer: I’m not by any stretch of the imagination an SEO (search engine optimization) expert. In fact, everything in this post can probably be very easily found with a few quick Google searches for “SEO tips.” I just thought I’d share what little I do know to get folks started.

One of the business items we covered at WPPI was SEO for our websites. A lot of the tips our speaker gave I had heard before, and I’ve been trying to implement most of them for a while now. Still, I thought I’d share what little I know and what additional tips I discovered for SEO for photographers. These days, a lot of brides, grooms, and families find their photographer by searching online, whether they live in Pittsburgh or Dallas, Clarion or Calvert (small towns in PA and TX, respectively…sorry I’m not familiar with small towns elsewhere!). Showing up on the first page of Google organic search results is money (let’s face it, Google owns the search market). So how do you get there?

First things first…these tips are not geared toward any PPC (pay per click) ads either on Google or elsewhere but are intended to help you improve your organic (non-paid) search result listings.

1. Make a List of Keywords: Before you begin stuffing your website with random words, make a list of phrases you’d like your website to appear for in search results. For me, one of my biggest keywords is Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer. Or, similarly, Pittsburgh Wedding Photographers. It’s probably best to start with just a few descriptive phrases than to try for a huge list.

2. Keywords are Good But They Aren’t Everything. Search engines need to have some words to read to describe your website–most of those words are taken from you site’s meta description, often found in the “head” tag of your website. When writing your website description, make sure you include the keywords you want to be found for but don’t go overboard. If Google finds your site is stuffed with keywords in no particular order or sense, they may penalize your efforts.

3. Instead, Links are Everything (kind of): It’s true…the more links you have to your site from high-ranking websites, the better your pagerank and results will be. Unfortunately, getting links to your site are not easy, but there are a couple of simple things that everyone can do. List yourself and your website on local business pages, including online yellow pages and other wedding or portrait specific site conglomerates (weddingwire is one example). Join online forums (like photography-on-the-net for Canon users) and create a signature tag that includes a link to your website. Above all, remember that descriptive links are better than just the name of your website. For example, Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer is better than Birchtree Photography, because I assume folks searching for Birchtree Photography already have some knowledge of who I am. Two tools I recommend for understanding your pagerank and tracking your incoming links are (surprise, surprise–both Google products) Google Toolbar and Google Webmaster Tools. And if you want to see what keywords people are using to find your site, remember to read my post about Google Analytics.

4. Give Your Photos Some “alt” Text: Google and other search engines can’t “see” your photos unless you give them some descriptive text to read–the “alt” text. Now, I’ll admit I’m not really good at this step–it can be time consuming, especially when I’m trying to blog quickly. But, I think it can definitely be helpful, and I aim to get better at this. When describing your photos, again, don’t stuff them with keywords and have the all the same phrases but use sentences and descriptive adjectives. For example, in this photo below, my alt text is: “Bride and groom kiss for photo in the Broderie Room at Phipps Conservatory on their wedding day in Pittsburgh.” The text mostly reads like a sentence and contains several keywords I’d like the photo to be found for. It’s much better than saying “Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer.”

5. Start a Blog and Create Useful Content: Woohoo! I think I’ve managed to implement this step, but I’m always working to be better at it. When you have a blog separate from your website, you are able to share links back and forth between the two sites. For example, my website links to my blog, and I definitely link to my Pittsburgh Wedding Photography website (heh, like the keywords there?). OK, I don’t recommend doing that…the key thing is to remember to write readable content…if it sounds like you’re just trying to stuff your blog posts with keywords, no one will want to read them, and you likely won’t get much traffic. And if you don’t see yourself ever updating your blog much, I’d avoid creating one. I don’t know about you, but when I come across another photographer’s blog that hasn’t been updated since fall 2009, it makes me wonder what they’re doing…are they still in business? Better to just not have a blog than to leave it to die…alone…unloved…in the internet wilderness. Poor blog. BUT, if you do see yourself blogging, then it can be a great tool for SEO. Remember, don’t be afraid to link out (creating links that go elsewhere than your site). Sharing the link love can help you in your own SEO quest.

I know those five tips are rudimentary and barely scratch the surface of the deep subject of SEO. If you do want to get better results, I highly recommend checking out this SEO for Photographers website and buying the book that goes with it. You’ll find a lot more useful tips from someone who is much more knowledgeable about this subject than me. If you do have any questions, feel free to ask me and I’ll try to answer them to the best of my ability. Good luck!