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The Photographer's Guide to SEO
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<blockquote data-quote="Browncoat" data-source="post: 198895" data-attributes="member: 1061"><p><span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="color: #ff0000"><strong>On-Site SEO</strong></span></span></p><p></p><p>The #1 reason why you should own your domain name is because it places you firmly in the driver's seat. Having a free site or a subdomain places serious limitations on your SEO efforts. I cannot stress this enough: if you're not in control of your SEO efforts, <u>your site might as well not even exist on the internet</u>. You could be the world's greatest photographer, but if no one can find you, what's the point?</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff8c00"><strong>Site Name</strong></span></p><p></p><p>Resist the urge to call your photography business something catchy, like Photobuzz or Kutsie Kreations. Odds are, you are your only employee, and you are in the business of being and selling YOURSELF. Catchy names may sound neat at first, but you're probably going to run into trademark and branding issues. Not to mention, it's just a lot easier to find YOU on the internet since there is only one YOU. There will of course be site naming issues if you happen to be John Smith.</p><p></p><p><strong>Best bet is to use your name</strong>: FirstnameLastname.com or LastnamePhotography.com. Keep your domain name as short as possible, so if you happen to be Archibald Fitzpatrick, archibaldfitzpatrickphotography.com is not a good option for you. If name options are already taken, consider using initials. </p><p></p><p><strong>Second best bet is to use your location</strong>: Anyville Photography, Bay Area Imagery, Casstown Photo, etc. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff8c00"><strong>The Big Stuff</strong></span></p><p></p><p>Your site's title <span style="font-family: 'courier new'"><H1></span> tag is also vitally important to SEO. This is the clickable link text that shows up in a search listing. Keep your description to 140 characters or less. Your site's meta description tag <span style="font-family: 'courier new'"><META></span> is also very important. This is the descriptive text that appears just below your web link in a search listing.</p><p></p><p>Don't know what to say? Do a search for other photographers. You'll be able to recognize those with good SEO almost instantly.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 9px"><em>(click image for larger view)</em></span></p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]52803[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff8c00"><strong>Keywords and Blogging</strong></span></p><p></p><p>In the earlier days of Google, SEO gurus figured out that lacing their sites with certain relevant words would have lasting effects on search engine rankings. The problem was, everyone started doing it. These days, Google is much smarter and keyword focus is out of date. The main thing to focus on, is <strong>content</strong>. We are building a photography-related site about you, a photographer. So what should the content of your site focus on? If you answered, "recipes for tuna salad", go stand in the corner. </p><p></p><p>You don't have to be a prolific writer. Yes, there are advanced copywriting strategies, but the main thing is to keep your site focused on photography (no pun intended). You can write about other things that interest you, so long as they don't consume your site. It is also important to write regularly because search engines routinely index your site's content, and a stagnant site will be deemed less relevant than an active one. </p><p></p><p>If you're a travel photographer, write about your excursions and the people you meet. If you're a portrait photographer, write about tips for consumers and what to wear to photo shoots. Write equipment reviews. Readers and search engines LOVE lists: <em>10 Ways to Save Money on Wedding Photos, 7 Reasons Why I Shoot Nikon</em>, etc. You don't need to create huge walls of text, either. The main thing is that you write, and do it on a somewhat regular basis (once every 2 weeks or even once a month is enough).</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff8c00"><strong>Naming Your Photos</strong></span></p><p></p><p>Remember earlier, I said that search engines can't read photos? Well, yes they can. Sort of. All images on the web look something like this in HTML:</p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: 'courier new'"><IMG SRC="url of image" ALT="alternative text" TITLE="image title"></span></p><p></p><p>The Catch-22 here is that while you want search engines to know what the image is, you don't really want a bunch of people doing a Google Image search and finding your stuff so they can steal it. However, there are also people out there who may be doing a Google Image search for "wedding photography" who find your website, browse the rest of your portfolio, and book you for a wedding session.</p><p></p><p>The WordPress image interface makes changing ALT and TITLE fields quick and easy, no coding knowledge required.</p><p></p><p><strong>If you want your images to be searchable (recommended)</strong></p><p></p><p>1) Name your files appropriately. If it's a photo of a sunset, name the file Sunset.jpg</p><p>2) Enter "sunset" in the ALT and TITLE fields</p><p></p><p>20130917-XRGb.jpg isn't very descriptive, is it? Search engines won't think so either. Whatever the photo is, be briefly descriptive. If you want your images to be searchable, you'd be wise to watermark them as well. </p><p></p><p><strong>If you don't want your images to be searchable</strong></p><p></p><p>Then don't rename your files or include any ALT and/or TITLE text. However, your photos may still show up in search results anyway.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff8c00"><strong>Other Basics</strong></span></p><p></p><p>In keeping with the <u>content is king</u> and <u>relevance</u> theme, you want the overall flow of your site to be orderly. In other words, if you create a blog post titled <em>"Why I Shoot Nikon"</em>, have a photo attached to that page of a red balloon, then write the following article about Brittany Spears...the Google gods aren't going to be very happy with you. Anything you write should have a title, relevant photo, and relevant text.</p><p></p><p>Site performance and navigation are also key elements. If your site is a low-loading piece of crap, visitors aren't going to hang around and wait for it to load. That leads to a high bounce rate, which means visitors drop by and leave quickly. Search engines translate that as: people aren't finding what they're looking for here. Don't create dead end pages, always have links for visitors to move around your site with ease, so they don't get frustrated and just leave.</p><p></p><p>Create an XML sitemap. I mentioned the WordPress plugin earlier, but if you're not using WordPress, you'll want to have one of these. It's basically a search engine road map and can help your site get indexed faster.</p><p></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Browncoat, post: 198895, member: 1061"] [SIZE=4][COLOR=#ff0000][B]On-Site SEO[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE] The #1 reason why you should own your domain name is because it places you firmly in the driver's seat. Having a free site or a subdomain places serious limitations on your SEO efforts. I cannot stress this enough: if you're not in control of your SEO efforts, [U]your site might as well not even exist on the internet[/U]. You could be the world's greatest photographer, but if no one can find you, what's the point? [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]Site Name[/B][/COLOR] Resist the urge to call your photography business something catchy, like Photobuzz or Kutsie Kreations. Odds are, you are your only employee, and you are in the business of being and selling YOURSELF. Catchy names may sound neat at first, but you're probably going to run into trademark and branding issues. Not to mention, it's just a lot easier to find YOU on the internet since there is only one YOU. There will of course be site naming issues if you happen to be John Smith. [B]Best bet is to use your name[/B]: FirstnameLastname.com or LastnamePhotography.com. Keep your domain name as short as possible, so if you happen to be Archibald Fitzpatrick, archibaldfitzpatrickphotography.com is not a good option for you. If name options are already taken, consider using initials. [B]Second best bet is to use your location[/B]: Anyville Photography, Bay Area Imagery, Casstown Photo, etc. [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]The Big Stuff[/B][/COLOR] Your site's title [FONT=courier new]<H1>[/FONT] tag is also vitally important to SEO. This is the clickable link text that shows up in a search listing. Keep your description to 140 characters or less. Your site's meta description tag [FONT=courier new]<META>[/FONT] is also very important. This is the descriptive text that appears just below your web link in a search listing. Don't know what to say? Do a search for other photographers. You'll be able to recognize those with good SEO almost instantly. [SIZE=1][I](click image for larger view)[/I][/SIZE] [ATTACH=CONFIG]52803._xfImport[/ATTACH] [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]Keywords and Blogging[/B][/COLOR] In the earlier days of Google, SEO gurus figured out that lacing their sites with certain relevant words would have lasting effects on search engine rankings. The problem was, everyone started doing it. These days, Google is much smarter and keyword focus is out of date. The main thing to focus on, is [B]content[/B]. We are building a photography-related site about you, a photographer. So what should the content of your site focus on? If you answered, "recipes for tuna salad", go stand in the corner. You don't have to be a prolific writer. Yes, there are advanced copywriting strategies, but the main thing is to keep your site focused on photography (no pun intended). You can write about other things that interest you, so long as they don't consume your site. It is also important to write regularly because search engines routinely index your site's content, and a stagnant site will be deemed less relevant than an active one. If you're a travel photographer, write about your excursions and the people you meet. If you're a portrait photographer, write about tips for consumers and what to wear to photo shoots. Write equipment reviews. Readers and search engines LOVE lists: [I]10 Ways to Save Money on Wedding Photos, 7 Reasons Why I Shoot Nikon[/I], etc. You don't need to create huge walls of text, either. The main thing is that you write, and do it on a somewhat regular basis (once every 2 weeks or even once a month is enough). [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]Naming Your Photos[/B][/COLOR] Remember earlier, I said that search engines can't read photos? Well, yes they can. Sort of. All images on the web look something like this in HTML: [FONT=courier new]<IMG SRC="url of image" ALT="alternative text" TITLE="image title">[/FONT] The Catch-22 here is that while you want search engines to know what the image is, you don't really want a bunch of people doing a Google Image search and finding your stuff so they can steal it. However, there are also people out there who may be doing a Google Image search for "wedding photography" who find your website, browse the rest of your portfolio, and book you for a wedding session. The WordPress image interface makes changing ALT and TITLE fields quick and easy, no coding knowledge required. [B]If you want your images to be searchable (recommended)[/B] 1) Name your files appropriately. If it's a photo of a sunset, name the file Sunset.jpg 2) Enter "sunset" in the ALT and TITLE fields 20130917-XRGb.jpg isn't very descriptive, is it? Search engines won't think so either. Whatever the photo is, be briefly descriptive. If you want your images to be searchable, you'd be wise to watermark them as well. [B]If you don't want your images to be searchable[/B] Then don't rename your files or include any ALT and/or TITLE text. However, your photos may still show up in search results anyway. [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]Other Basics[/B][/COLOR] In keeping with the [U]content is king[/U] and [U]relevance[/U] theme, you want the overall flow of your site to be orderly. In other words, if you create a blog post titled [I]"Why I Shoot Nikon"[/I], have a photo attached to that page of a red balloon, then write the following article about Brittany Spears...the Google gods aren't going to be very happy with you. Anything you write should have a title, relevant photo, and relevant text. Site performance and navigation are also key elements. If your site is a low-loading piece of crap, visitors aren't going to hang around and wait for it to load. That leads to a high bounce rate, which means visitors drop by and leave quickly. Search engines translate that as: people aren't finding what they're looking for here. Don't create dead end pages, always have links for visitors to move around your site with ease, so they don't get frustrated and just leave. Create an XML sitemap. I mentioned the WordPress plugin earlier, but if you're not using WordPress, you'll want to have one of these. It's basically a search engine road map and can help your site get indexed faster. [/QUOTE]
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