With pay-per-click (PPC) keywords or search engine marketing (SEM) photographers can instantly rank for any keyword. That’s right, you can rank in Google for any keyword you want in the photography industry in a matter of minutes. That is what I recommend every photographer have at least a minimal PPC campaign with Google Adwords. If it were that cut and dried everyone would already be doing this, hence my blog post here to fill you in on the details and a bit of how-to and get you started with some ideas on photo related keyword campaigns to give you a cheap and affordable presence in search while you build up your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts with the Photographers SEO Book.
You Want to Appear on the Right Side of Google
You’ve seen the sponsored results on the right side of Google? That is what I am talking about. These are paid results that you can buy cheaply for any keyword search result that you want. These will appear in addition to anything you have going for free down the center of Google with your great SEO work.
Sponsored results appear on the right side of Google
The Downside of Non-Paid Keywords (SEO)
Free keywords obviously are the best answer. They get far more clicks than the sponsored search results, cost you nothing, and will send you traffic far beyond you stopped trying to rank for those words. The downside with the free search results:
- It takes time, sometimes a long time
- Results are often difficult to achieve
- You might be able to rank well for a few words, but there are hundreds of other keywords you would like to rank for
- SEO requires a lot of time and energy, even if you have shortcuts and tips from the Photographers SEO Book
- Even if you do rank well, there are still those people that will click the paid links, so if you aren’t there you are missing traffic
Should you still do all that SEO stuff? YES. You can just be doing SEM (the paid stuff) at the same time so at least you can get traffic to your site now while you wait for the SEO juice to start flowing.
Keyword Ideas
For paid search the rules are very different than organic/free search. You want a large number of keywords that are very specific. Since nobody or very few people are buying the phrase “awesome San Diego kids photographer” you can buy it very cheaply (like 5 cents per click). Even if only 1 user clicks you ad per month, if you have a hundred of these terms, then you will quickly add up a hundred new visitors to your website each month for only 5 bucks. An easy way to get keyword ideas is to list out 4 columns. One column has adjectives like awesome or affordable. Another column has your photography niches – maybe you specialize in weddings and portraits. The third column is variations of the word photography that a user might type into search. And the last column are locations that you are trying to target. Put together combinations of these 4 keyword columns to come up with your keyword list. For example one key phrase might be “La Jolla pregnant photographer prices”. It may seem odd or obscure, but users type this stuff in to search! I’ve started a list below for you with some non-traditional ideas because I assume you can think of the straightforward ones on your own.
| adjectives | niche | photo | location |
| awesome | kids | photo | san diego |
| affordable | headshot | photographer | san diego, ca |
| prices | pregnant | photography | la jolla |
| studios | natural light | pictures | southern california |
| best | modeling | portrait | california |
| top | pet | headshot | |
| unique | dog | ||
| urban | natural light | ||
| in home | outdoor | ||
| organic | black and white | ||
| professional | childrens | ||
| location |
General Tips for SEM
Use your Google Analytics or web stats tool to see what keywords already sent you traffic. If your stats report under keywords shows “best san diego weddings” then users are typing that into Google and clicking your search result. Those are words I would also pay for and increase my exposure for that term. Your keyword report in your web stats will typically have 50+ niche key phrases that you can plug into adwords and buy very cheaply so that you will now appear in 2 places (free in the middle and sponsored on the right).
Create different campaigns for different keywords. Don’t have a list of 100+ keywords and they all have the same message to the user and they all point to your homepage. Make your wedding photography keywords have a message about weddings and link it to a wedding gallery. Not only will the user be more likely to do business with you, but Google recognizes that the landing page text is similar to the user message and it matches the keyword you are purchasing. It assigns a quality score for this and gives you a discount on your price!
