seo for photographers
SEO strategies to apply to every webpage (checklist)
It's not that complicated to have good SEO strategies on your webpages.
The simple truth is you can do some of the most impactful SEO applications in 10 minutes or less. Just follow this checklist below, and you'll be in the green with your SEO strategy, and start seeing TARGETED traffic finding you on Google!
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Before good SEO, I was:
Quick Intro: I’m Dani!
I've been shooting all across the globe for the past 7 years -- from Yosemite, to Hawaii, to Utah, to FRANCE, to Norway, and even Iceland. I'm excited to be teaching about a topic I'm so passionate about -- because it's changed my business inside out!
- Posting to instagram everyday
- Struggling with mental health to keep up
- Wearing all the hats in my business
- BURNT OUT.
After good SEO:
- I didn’t feel pressure to post to social media because I didn’t need to!
- I felt mentally better, confident in my business and skills
- I wasn't worrying about my next paycheck
Adventurous Elopement Photographer
Here's the checklist you should refer to with every webpage on your website:
What we will cover (click to jump):
Keywords
Backlinks
Images
User Friendliness
Research
Research
this is crucial before you create any webpage!
If you don't do the research first, your clients will never find you.
When you sit down to make that webpage on your website, the FIRST thing you need to do is do the research. The reason is it will take you farther than if you just guessed what people are searching on Google. When you do the research, you're sure that what keywords and key phrases you're using throughout your page are so targeted to what you want to be found for -- all because you did the research! When you're researching, make sure that you're 1) Niched down to a specific market, and 2) Location based (they tend to do the best with results!).
Pro tip to getting visible: The best free tool that I like to use is us Google's Keyword Planner Tool. Just make a free account with Google Ads, and use the Keyword Planner Tool to see search volumes, and phrases that you can turn into pages on your website!
Keywords
these are the core of the content you create.
Navigational webpages:
Keywords are THE most important thing to incorporate on to each page of your website. And with this, you want to make sure that your keywords are 1) Targeted towards your specific client that you want to book, and 2) Navigational or Informational What does that mean?
Pro tip: When you're creating your webpage, make sure that your TITLES, HEADINGS, and PARAGRAPH text all include keywords. If they don't, then Google won't know what keywords to crawl for, and what results to place you in. Keywords are crucial to your placement on Google, and that's why it's also important to do the research BEFORE you create a page centered around your keywords and keyphrases.
These pages are people that are looking for a specific business, like "Yosemite Elopement Photographer."
Informational webpages:
These pages include information that people are searching for, like tips and "how to's" like "How to Elope in Yosemite."
Pages with the highest number of total backlinks usually rank best in Google (Backlinko, 2020)
backlinks
build your domain score quickly by linking to other credible websites, and vice versa.
It's true -- backlinks are one of the quickest ways to not only gain credibility with Google (especially if you are linking to other credible websites like National Park websites, or those with high domain scores), but it's also a great way to get to page one. Why? Because you're showing Google that you are trustworthy. Remember: Google is trying to show the BEST answers for each user search, and the way it likes to do that is when it can show websites it trusts. Those that have a high domain score, lots of resources listed (ahem, backlinks), and also show that people are sticking around and clicking on your website. Sidenote, but this is also really important for good SEO as well -- making sure your site is inviting to click, so they can stay and browse.
Pro tip: A GREAT way to make yourself an expert is by increasing your domain authority. The best way to that quickly is to make sure you have backlinks set up within your site -- meaning you are linking to other websites often, and other sites link back to your website as well. Being featured in blogs, having guest writers, and posting to social media really helps boost this! You can also do this easily by linking to other pages withing YOUR OWN website as well -- encouraging people to click around and stay longer!
A great resource to use for this to see which websites are linking to your site, and how your site is doing overall with domain score and backlinks is Ubersuggest. It's a free tool, and definitely worth diving into if you want to know where you rank currently!
Images
show up on google images by using alt text
Don't skip this crucial step to building out your pages. do this with every image.
Applying ALT text to your images on your website is not only SO important, but necessary in your SEO strategy if you want to be showing up in Google Images. Lots of users are searching Google Images for inspiration -- especially if you're a wedding photographer. That's why it is key to use keywords in your ALT text that you put on your images on your website. You can see in the image here how you fill that out on Showit -- and it is very similar for other web platforms like Squarespace and Wordpress. Be sure to look into a website platform that allows you to do this. For blogs using Pic-Time or Narrative, you can also do this easily through their platform. Take the time to fill these out as they are SO important! For more info on how to do this specifically when creating a blog in Pict-Time, head here.
Pro tip: Use your keywords that you're titling your page with as the SEO title of the images. For description, make sure to also use those keywords that you want to be found for like "elopement" and "yosemite" in a short sentence.
user friendliness
Making your site interactive, engaging, and readable is also just as important.
have buttons, fonts that are easy to read, and lots of text with keywords for Google to crawl.
The longer people are staying, clicking, reading, and interacting with your website, the overall better SEO you will have on that webpage. This is because it's telling Google that these users who found your site have found what they are looking for, and are staying a while to learn more. It's kind of crazy that Google can track this, but it's a big part in your overall quality rank for your webpage. That said, make sure you have buttons that take people to other places on your website. Also make sure you have fonts that are easy to read (SO many photographers use script fonts for headings which are hard to read). Instead, I recommend using Serif or Sans Serif fonts instead of Script fonts.
For more help on this, I have a Website Winning Workshop replay (4 hrs long!) available for purchase in the shop. I go through and critique websites with tips on how I think their sites could be better -- with messaging and design. I also go through this in a 26 minute video in the "I Can Get You on Page One" video course series also available in the shop. Check it out if you're interested here!
Quick recap on tips for getting on page one:
- Have a specific SEO TITLE of your page that is EXACTLY what your potential client is searching. And be sure to use Google's Keyword Planner Tool!
- Consider putting keywords in everything - your Titles, Headings, and even in your URL.
- Studies show that the quickest way to get to page one is to make sure you have backlinks set up within your site.
- Study who ranks on page one for keywords you want to be found for, and ask yourself how you can do better with your SEO practices!
- Start applying your SEO strategies to all of your pages to increase your domain score and get on page one for more of your webpages!
