SEO for Photographers

Search Engine Optimization for photographers, known as SEO, is a marketing technique to maximize your Web site’s potential for being among the coveted first page of search engine results for competitive keywords.  For example, people in New York City may be searching for a “wedding photographer in New York City”, “best event photographer New York”, “boudoir photography NYC”. Although the competition for photographers can be fierce, engaging in SEO will help propel your Web site above your competitors.

SEO Tips and Strategies

As the photography industry continues to grow and recover after a tough few years economically, the photography industry is seeing a rise in part-time photographers, according to an industry report by Infotrends.

Now more than ever it’s important to remain competitive. SEO can help with this by optimizing your photography Web site. With anything, it’s important to be wary of shady SEO practices, like social media and blog comment spam, and article marketing, all of which can actually penalize your Web site. Instead, take the time to ensure your SEO practices are done properly.

SEO Tactics

1. Make Every Word Count: Before you begin writing (or editing) your Web site’s content, take some time to consider the keywords that are essential to your business. Put yourself in the customer’s perspective; what will they be typing into Google in order to find you? List out your services (on-location shoots, in-studio shoots), areas of interest (weddings, newborn, portrait), and service areas. Keep in mind that keywords aren’t enough; you need to make sure you’re using them in an organic way. Search engines are able to determine if you’re using the keywords within context or if you’re just throwing them up on the page so that you can be found. You can be penalized for not having great content, so be wary of how you’re using your keywords.

2. Start Blogging: Companies that blog have 434 percent more indexed pages than companies that don’t blog, according to a Hubspot study. The more indexed pages you have, the better, since it gives search engines more information to read through. Make sure your blogs have something interesting to say. Give tips on how to take great pictures at home, or tips on what to wear during a professional shoot, for example. Next, network with other photographers and have your blogs posted on their sites; this will create backlinks that will impact SEO as well.

3. Pictures, Obviously: Clearly your photographic work is going to be the focus of your Web site. Enhance your photos to consider SEO. Do this by being specific in naming the file names, and creating alt tags that allow you to insert a caption for each photos. These are great places to include your keywords, and these are the spots that search engines are reading for SEO.

4. Hire the Best SEO Company: There are many SEO firms competing for the business of a photographer or gallery. How should you choose one? Make sure that the SEO company excels in marketing and writing. Remember that you get what you pay for; some of the less expensive SEO companies outsource their content writing overseas, leaving photographers with confusing profiles, bios and professional descriptions.