This SEO tips blog post is for photographers with a low or moderate understanding of search engine optimization (SEO). Find more beginner tips in the search book. The fastest and easiest starting point for new (or yet to be optimized) photography websites is to add keyword-rich meta data to your homepage. True meta data is fairly meaningless for SEO now, but the meta description does show in search results and the page title (may be thought by some to be meta data) is extremely important). More critical components of SEO are links (see why photographers need links). Nevertheless, meta information like title, description are painless for you to implement and every little bit of value will help you in your quest to rank high in Google.
Photographer Meta Data Step 1 – Know Your Location
Your location seems easy to understand, but many photographers get it wrong when they optimize their websites. BE SPECIFIC. First, understand that few people search for photographers by a broad area like state or region. It always bothers me when photographers put something like “Southern California Wedding Photographer” as their page title, because nobody wants the results for all of southern California. If a user lives in San Diego, they will search “San Diego”. Another thing to keep in mind – if you are just getting started you probably can’t outrank all the San Diego wedding photographers. So maybe be even more specific on your city, like La Jolla.
CHOOSE ONE location for your meta data. Search engines limit the amount of characters they look at in the meta data, so if you try to fit 5 or 10 cities in your meta data you will never rank for any of them. Start with one and if you are successful in ranking for that one, then you can expand your SEO to include multiple locations.
Photographer Meta Data Step 2 – Define Your Specialty
Users are smart about searches, meaning they use multi-word phrases. They are searching for niches of photographers rather than general ones, so you need to figure out which niche you want to rank for and craft your meta data accordingly. Here are 10 of the most searched photographer specialties according to Google Ad words:
1. Wedding photography
2. Portrait photography
3. Commercial photography
4. Professional photography
5. Baby photography
6. Family photography
7. Child photography
8. Children photography
9. Maternity photography
10. Newborn photography
Don’t worry if your specialty is not shown, they are only there to illustrate that there is a different search demand for each niche and it’s important for you to define up front which one you want to rank for. Some will bring you more web traffic (new business) than others.
Location + Specialty = Meta Data
To fill out your meta data simply use your location, followed by your specialty, then photography related words (like photographer, photos, studio, etc).
If you don’t already know, the title, meta description, and meta keywords are the meta data you should be concerned with. The title should be up to 50 or 60 characters, description up to 150 or 160 characters, and use only 5 or 7 keywords. Below is an example of how these are coded, using my location and specialty as previously mentioned.
<title>San Diego Wedding Photographer</title>
<head>
<meta name=”description” content=”San Diego wedding photographer: Zach’s Wedding Photography does engagement and bridal photography in Escondido”>
</head>
Photographer’s SEO Book
For more how-to-optimize for beginning and intermediate SEO photographers consider purchasing the ebook for $39. It includes some tips that will help you rank much more than meta data ever will!
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