Have you heard about SEO but aren’t sure what it is all about? Do you want to learn more because you are keen to effectively position your website on Google? No problem – read our guide to get to know all you need about SEO, and use your knowledge to effectively position your website and increase your earnings. Enjoy!
SEO for photographers – some basic info
SEO, i.e., Search Engine Optimisation, is a process of optimising a website so that it becomes faster and easier to find on Google, and thus better visible to people using the Internet.
Contrary to what you may think, the SEO process is not only about adding relevant keywords to the content of the page, but also about improving the technical aspects of the website and taking care of how fast it loads and whether it is suitable for displaying on mobile devices. What’s more, it also covers expanding your existing content and links, both external and internal.
What does it really mean? The Internet is full of websites – it is estimated that there are currently around 1.88 billion of them, which makes it physically impossible to go through all of them when searching online. That is why someone came up with search engines. The best known and the most frequently used one is Google – we use it to enter keywords, and in return it gives us a list of pages containing these words.
What can you do to position your website high on the list of those that will be shown by Google to all users looking for, let’s say, a “photographer in Warsaw”? The answer is SEO!
Key benefits of SEO
Thanks to positioning, your website can appear on the first page of Google search results, which significantly increases the chances of it being clicked and visited by a user. Each visit on your website increases the chances of acquiring a real customer, and thus earning money.
So, the conclusion is simple: SEO = better visibility = money. This is why it is worth taking care of it!
SEO for photographers – how to go about it?
Unlike paid ads, SEO is completely free, and you can achieve good results even if you are not an Internet guru but take care of your website on your own. Let’s see how to do it.
1. Identify the right keywords
While SEO is not just about keywords, they are one of the most important aspects of it. The Google search engine is based mainly on them: Google algorithms search for keywords on websites to verify whether a given webpage contains content the user is looking for. This means that if you use the right keywords, Google algorithm will find your page and will display it to people who have just typed the words describing your website. The better the keywords and the better their placement in the text, the higher score your page will get and the better positioning it will gain. The statistics here are merciless – the first three search results on Google get as much as 60-80% of all clicks! The key is to find out what keywords your potential customers are using when they search for the things you offer.
How to do it? Think about your job and about words you would type in if you were looking for services similar to the ones you offer. Create a list of those words. Now use one of the helpful tools, such as the Google Keyword Planner or Answer The Public, to narrow your list down to two / three main words and three additional words.
Next, review your content, including all the texts you have on your website, in terms of those keywords. Check whether they are all included and think where else you can add them. But remember – SEO isn’t about making your text a complication of keywords. Google values originality and readability, so make sure that the density of key phrases is not too high.
2. Become local
If your main keywords are “photography” and “sessions”, think about adding something about your location. After all, there are many photographers in the world, but maybe there are fewer photographers in Chester or fewer children’s sessions organised in Siena? Let yourself be visible as a local and make sure your neighbours know about what you do. Add your business name on Google Maps – an additional benefit is that Google recognises the location of users looking for certain services and provides results located in the immediate vicinity.
3. Take care of details: metadata, titles, and the website map
The devil is in the details. That is why it is worth spending a few moments on optimising your metadata, i.e., the SEO title and description that is displayed on search engine pages. Make sure you include your keywords in the name of your website and always place them first. Also, remember that the title should not be longer than 60 characters, and the description should not contain more than 155-160 characters.
4. Optimise the photos you upload on your website
Your keywords should also appear on the photos you post on the page. Remember to name each photo file appropriately, to compress your photos, as well as to give them an appropriate name and to complete the alt text.
5. Start blogging
Blogging is a powerful tool when it comes to SEO. It allows you to constantly publish new content containing your keywords and to improve your visibility on the web. Writing a blog has its own rules – it is worth publishing regularly and taking care of the quality of posts so that recipients can treat them as a source of knowledge and want to visit them regularly. Different sources give different figures when it comes to the length of an ideal blog post, but they all agree that it shouldn’t be too short – ideally between 1,500-2,500 words. But you don’t need to follow it religiously: long texts can effectively discourage busy readers, and when writing a blog, you should think mainly about them. Therefore, divide the text into subsections and make sure the most important parts are bold so that they can be read faster and better. A good tool, which can help you make your blog entries just perfect, is called SEO Surfer.
6. Texts on website
In all the “SEO madness”, you should never forget about your actual website. It should contain unique content and keywords, some good service descriptions, FAQs, descriptions of photo sessions and information about yourself. You should refresh all your texts regularly to give the browser a chance to notice them over and over again.
7. Take care of your backlinks
Backlinks are links located on other websites which direct users to your website. Google treats them as a further proof that your website is valuable and should be displayed to as many users as possible.
It is worth taking care of where your backlinks appear, because Google promotes those published on pages with high searchability. Post them on thematic forums, sponsored articles or on social media. Social media are extremely valuable as they allow others to share your links, improving your visibility even more!
8. Take care of mobile optimisation and the website’s speed
When you think about your website, don’t forget that most people browse the Internet using their phones. Therefore, it is extremely important that your website is suitable for displaying on smartphones or tablets. Google will always give higher score to those that are mobile-friendly!
Another important aspect is the speed of your website. Users are not very patient, and they tend to abandon sites that take too long to load. This in turn translates into the “rating” that Google gives you!
9. Make use of Google Search Console
A tool worth making friends with at the beginning of your adventure with SEO is Google Search Console. It is a completely free service that allows you to monitor your presence in Google search results (number of views, keywords, etc.), as well as to spot any problems and fix them.
How long does it take to position your website? It’s a marathon, not a sprint!
Kiedy zabieramy się za jakieś konkretne działania, chcemy widzieć ich rezultaty. Jest to naturalne i zrozumiałe, jednak
When we start taking specific actions, we want to see their results. It is natural and understandable, but when it comes to SEO you need to be patient. Building content and getting noticed by Google takes a while. To see the first results of your work you will need to wait approximately two to six months. During this time, you still need to fine-tune your strategy and constantly watch out for what works and what doesn’t!
If you want to learn more about marketing for photographers, check out our blog and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!