Let’s talk about SEO for photographers:
Everybody wants that juicy organic growth and hundreds of visits to their websites. Unfortunately, few photographers understand how to attract and retain their audience. We all know that SEO is the best way to make our site visible for the audience. However, terms such as Bounce Rate, Meta-Tags, and Analytics make photographers afraid of this subject. In this post, I will provide a brief overview of what I have learned after completing my SEO certification.
Understanding the best SEO practices:
SEO in itself can be an overwhelming topic, SEO for photographers is just a nightmare. The nature of Photographers webpages – with few text and tons of images – goes straight against all the SEO tips we find on the web. I spent a few months trying to understand SEO concepts by reading blog posts, but I quickly realized this approach would not work. That was the moment I decided to spend time and money to understand the best SEO practices. After finishing my certification at Blue Array Academy, I quickly realized that I would not be able to apply many of the topics covered in that courses directly into my photography webpage (especially if you are running the show alone). However, this expensive and long SEO course was a great way to learn all the current best practices, and it provided a perfect starting point for my SEO journey.
A map showing my website structure.
The best SEO practices for photographers:
After a few sleepless nights fueled by buckets of coffee, I found a vast array of highly relevant SEO material for photographers (PDF, Webpages, Videos). After reading a few of those books, I got a clear picture of how photographers can apply SEO to their pages, and why we should pay attention and follow the modern SEO practices – to gain organic traffic. First, it’s fundamental to understand the 3 main SEO sub-categories (Techincal, On-page, and Off-page):
1 – Technical SEO:
The technical portion is related to structural aspects such as website speed, duplicate contents, redirects, and page status. This topic can be very overwhelming, especially if you don’t have a basic knowledge of HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. The good news is that you can learn all of these topics for free at Free Code Camp. The material on this website is just fantastic and will make you understand all the technical aspects of your website.
2 – On-page SEO:
The on-page portion relates to how you structure your posts and use keywords and meta-tags to let google know about the content in your post. Have you noticed I divided this post into several sub-heading? That I have sprinkled the word SEO for photographers across the text? That I am adding an in-bound link to my portfolio? That I’m linking other pages?
All of these steps are required for creating the perfect and balanced on-page SEO. You need to use this “formula” to engage your audience and make it clear for google that you are writing an authoritative post. So, remember to use the on-page SEO next time you start writing your blog post.
3 – Off-page SEO:
The Off-page SEO depends on how many people will actually “like” your page by sharing your content on their webpage. Since we are all photographers here, let’s use an Instagram analogy: Getting people to insert links to your webpage is similar to getting likes, comments, and followers on Instagram (by the way – you can find my on Instagram here). The more recognition (links) you get, the cooler you are on the Googlebot eyes.
An image showing the latest 3 posts on my IG profile
Final Considerations:
If you are interested in learning more about SEO for photographers make sure to visit Fuel Your Photos, Foreground Web, and Yoast. These websites provide a ton of valuable SEO information for FREE.
Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay creative.