Google Optimization Tips for Photography Websites
I’ve successfully helped photographers optimize their websites for Google and want to share an overlooked search engine optimization factor: links. Most beginning websites have optimized keywords and meta data, but few site owners (especially photographers) take the time to build links to their websites, which play a huge role in helping your business shine in the eyes of Google.
Links are Key for Photography Websites
The majority of Google’s ranking process looks at the links coming into your page from other websites. Google ranks sites higher that have quality (and quantity) websites linking to it. There are many other important factors to ranking high in Google search results, including key phrases uses in the page text, but the most important search factor is the quantity and quality of links to your photography website.
You can dramatically improve their search engine position with as little as 10 or 20 quality backlinks. The best links are from related websites and use keywords (that you want to rank for) in the link text. Below are some more ideas for building links to your site.
List in 5-10 Quality Web Directories
Web directories exist that actually seek links to valuable websites like yours. These are like online yellow pages that index photographer and broader topic websites. The submission process to web directories is usually simple – just look for the link called Suggest URL, Submit Site, or Add Link. I suggest that you only spend your time submitting to free directories, and a link back to their site is okay if they require it. Tips:
- setup a unique email account for your directory submissions (expect to get a lot of email as a result of signing up)
- have a well keyword-rich site title and description ready since you will get asked for them
- find directories in your niche, for example ones specific to photographers (or weddings or parties if you do photos for those)
Setup 3-5 Local Business Profiles
Many local business websites appear in map sites and often appear above the regular search results, putting your link at the top of the search page! You can also ask clients for positive user reviews on some of the business profile sites which will build credibility for your business. Start by setting up free profiles for your photography business at Google Local and Yahoo Local.
Link from All Pages of Your Photography Blog
Hopefully you have a photography blog. Make sure you have a link in every blog post that points to your main photographer website. You can vary the text of the link to target different keywords. For example using some of these links in my blog posts can help me rank for a number of similar keyword phrases:
- View more San Diego wedding photos
- Visit my S.D. wedding photography site
- Get the latest wedding images on my photography website
- Check out Zach’s Wedding Photography website
Consider linking from your blogroll as well, which will automatically put a link on all of your blog pages.
Are Link Exchanges Worth It?
Link trades are losing relevance, but relevant and quality links can still be valuable in some circumstances. Ask your partners or related vendors in your area to link to your site. For example you might want to exchange links with non-competing local wedding vendors like a wedding DJ or wedding florist. Links back from those partners may not only generate new business for you, but carry a much higher quality than a link from an unrelated site like a real estate business.
I first link to their site from the bottom of my splash page or homepage, then send them a note through their contact page or email address. I keep their link posted as long as they agree to link to me and maintain that link in good standing. Notice I said to post your link exchange to your splash page or homepage instead of a dedicated links page. Links pages have little to no value because they are buried so deep in sites, and have so many un-related links, that search engines practically ignore them. So the best advice is to carve out a little section of your homepage with 5-10 exchanged links, and seek links from other sites where you can be positioned on their homepages in return. The best link trades are beneficial to you and your customers.
SEO Your Photographer Site Template
For fast and professional search engine results the Photographer’s SEO Book is a must. No technical knowledge needed. Get step-by-step tips on how search engines work, photography-related keywords, blogging for photographers, and google analytics. Great SEO for photo websites including BluDomain templates.
Aim To Rank For Long Tail Keywords
When new bloggers start out writing about their favorite topic, they are excited and just writing away. They then start to investigate why they don’t really have much traffic, and they start learning about search engine optimization (SEO). So, they start targeting their main keyword. Let’s say it’s a blogger writing about his debt, and how he hopes to end his debt through blogging. He starts to target the keywords “debt management.” After doing some SEO basics, and maybe a little bit of link building, he still is frustrated by not being in the top few pages on Google for “debt management” so he starts to give up. Instead of giving up, he should aim for long tail keywords.
His problem was that he was trying to blog about a keyword that many people are competing for. When there’s a lot of competition, it’s harder to rank higher in Google, therefore less visitors from Google. So, how can this problem be solved? By using long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are groups of keywords that are not too common when they are by themselves, but when they are grouped, they will be able to draw more customers to your website. Also, since those groups of keywords aren’t as popular, then it will be a lot easier to rank higher in the search engines. And since you’ll be targeting a fairly specific set of keywords, the people searching for those keywords will be more valuable customers since their search results will be laser targeted.
So how do you find long tail keywords for your site? The first step is to dive into your site statistics. Most statistics programs show you the keywords that were used to find you in the search engine. Start looking at some of the longer phrases that were used to find your site, and then write an article about that topic specifically. Also take a look at where you stand in the search engines already for those phrases. That will give you an idea if you really need to target that phrase with a few pages about that topic, or if one page will do. Make sure that you link to this new page from a couple of your other pages and external pages, using that long tail keyword as your anchor text for the link.
Another way is to use a free online tool from Google. (You can find it at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) You can search for the generic term that you want to use and it will often give a nice long list of popular searches, with a rough estimate of how many searches a month. (To see a more accurate monthly search volume, change the “Match Type” from “Broad” to “Exact”. Try searching the term “debt management” to get an ideas of long tail keywords.
The thing to remember when targeting long tail keywords is the value of small things when multiplied. Sure, it’d be awesome to rank first for a keyword that gets 300 searches a day. But, that will be a little bit harder. If, instead, you focus on 10 long tail keywords with 30 searches a day each, you’ll still get about 300 visitors to your site, but it’ll be a lot easier since you’ll probably rank higher for those keywords since they are long tail, and therefore less competitive.
Top 5 SEO Plugins for Wordpress
When it comes to the top SEO plugins for Wordpress, there are many posts out there that give the author’s list of SEO plugins. Most of those lists are outdated, either not featuring the newest plugins available, or featuring ones that simply don’t help out for SEO. Wordpress on it’s own does a pretty good job at helping you with SEO, but there are a few things that could be changed or better optimized for SEO purposes.
I am going to give you the top 5 SEO plugins for Wordpress, and tell you why they are great to use, and even why some are better than the ones in other lists. All of these SEO plugins are free to download!
1. Platinum SEO Pack – Platinum SEO is a great plugin. Many of you have heard of the All-in-One SEO plugin based on recommendations from other lists. I used to use All-in-One, until I found Platinum SEO. Platinum SEO has all of the features of All-in-One SEO and takes it a step further, allowing you to set many different options for noindex of pages that may cause duplicate content (such as date-based archives, etc). It can also do permanent 301 redirection of any changes to your permalink structure.
One of my favorite features of Platinum SEO allows you to change the Title Tag, META Description, and META Keywords for each individual page and post. This way, each post can have an optimized description for Google to display when that page is searched. It also allows you to have a separate title in the title tag, to help to make your post title catchy for on-site readers, and keyword-optimized for search engine crawling. (Yes, there is another plugin such as Headspace that does this, but why upload and install multiple plugins if you don’t need to, especially if creating many, many niche sites.)
2. Dagon Design Sitemap Generator – This is a great plugin for getting your site fully indexed, and for building internal links to your site. This creates a nice sitemap that can assist your users in finding information fast on your blog. But, it also allows Google to see all of your pages, and to crawl them. Having links to your own internal pages is very important, and this plugin automatically creates them on a niche Sitemap page (see the one on Niche Titans).
3. Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin creates a different kind of sitemap than #2. While #2’s type of sitemap is more for internal link building and user assistance, XML sitemaps are strictly for Google knowing your pages that you want indexed, and how often they are updated so Google can crawl them. This will automatically generate/update a sitemap whenever you write a nice post. If you’ve submitted your xml sitemap to Google through Webmaster Tools, then this plugin will keep it nice and updated whenever you generate new content for your Wordpress blog.
4. No Self Pings – This plugin is great for those who build internal links (linking to one post from another post). Internal linking is great for keeping your visitors on the site, and passing authority to certain pages of your site. But, when you post to another article, Wordpress automatically pings that article, and creates useless pings. This SEO wordpress plugin simply eliminates that behavior.
5. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – If you don’t know by now, I LOVE internal linking. This is another plugin that helps you to build links to other, relevant internal pages. (To see it in action, scroll to the bottom of this post.) It calculates a “score” for everything other post you’ve written, based on the current post (based on an algorithm you specify) and lists a certain number of posts (that you specify) at the bottom of the article. This is great for keeping your users on your site by helping them to find other posts they may be interested. It also helps to spread your authority to other pages on your site.
Are there other plugins out there? Probably. Some of the other Top SEO Plugins for Wordpress lists include some funky plugins, including ones that HURT your SEO. I tried to give you just the top 5 plugins to help your Wordpress SEO, and break each one of them down to show you EXACTLY WHY it helps your SEO.
Enjoy these, and don’t forget to subscribe in case I find anymore that I want to share with you.
