It’s time to bring you more customers. How do we do that? Improve ranking in major search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. Your goal should be to get your site on the first page of Google. Those 10 results are most likely to be clicked when people search for photographers.
My goal is to help you improve your website ranking and consequently attract more customers to your business. Therefore, please read the suggestions and use some or all of the information at your discretion.
Back-linking with article writing
In order for search engines to see that your site is active and should be listed, it is advantageous to have websites linking to your website. As many as possible. To do that, you need to write small, informative articles with embedded links that take the reader to your website. You can write these articles for online magazines, or even for some of the online article stores. If your content is good and well written, you can submit the same article to many of these article databases. It’s completely free, but it takes some time to write and submit.
To find them, simply enter something like “article submission” into the search engine of your choice. If they start asking you to pay… pass them by and keep looking. Just be sure to include a link to your website with each submission.
blog
Your website has galleries, a contact page, and perhaps some other important content. Now let’s get your potential customers interested in what you have to say on a daily basis by creating a blog. Get a feel for good and bad writing. Try to replicate the good stuff by posting valuable information every day, or at least on a regular basis.
This will help your ranking by telling digital bots surfing the internet that your site is worth their attention. This excites them and consequently your site gets closer to that magical first page of search results.
search engine submission
You have put up a new website. Awesome. Now tell the search engines that you exist by going to Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. and submitting the URL of your site. You can also try a new browser like DuckDuckGo.
Follow the instructions for your site and rest assured that your site will be indexed. Of course, making sure your metadata is fully populated and search engine friendly will help.
Youtube videos
YouTube is a huge search engine that ranks third behind Google and Facebook. This means that you should use it to attract viewers to your business. Combining entertaining and educational 2-3 minute videos with a clear call to action and links to your page within the description is great for building your customer base. Have you learned a new technique that makes your portraits stand out? Are you the only photographer in your area who photographs cats and dogs? There’s a video opportunity there.
First of all, consider who your potential customer is and design a video that will appeal to them. Be sure to use your potential search terms in your video title. “Outdoor Dog Portraits”, for example if you photograph dogs… that’s how they’ll see your 3 minute portrait session. (Speak to the viewer in a clear voice and use good lighting.)
These videos are transcribed by YouTube. Consequently, search engines use transcripts to find content. Be sure to mention the company name several times and the website address.
Do this often and you will drive visitors who are interested in your type of work to your website.
facebook fan page
As Facebook continues to attract such a large customer base, it would be wise to have a fan page where you can talk about your work, your blog, new galleries, etc. Get people excited, drive them to your website. Use their comfort on Facebook to your advantage.
You might want to try these guys when you’re thinking about creating a fan page for your photography business: Lujure (dot) com
Guest blog posts
By writing engaging posts on blogs similar to yours, you gain credibility with a whole new audience. You may want to start up your own blog first and brush up on your writing skills before approaching other bloggers. Look for blogs that are associated in some way with your type of photography. Read through the posts and judge if your potential content would be a good fit. Your content must attract the audience. Tactfully introduce yourself to the blogger and suggest a guest post. Break the ice and see what happens.
forum posts
Visit online forums that discuss topics that may be of interest to your audience. Are you a wedding photographer? Look for wedding forums, event forums, catering forums, travel forums, etc. Any type of forum that might have a connection to the wedding photography business. Any forum that might be frequented by a prospective bride, mother of the bride, wedding MC, DJ, etc. Ask questions and post answers. Involve. Do not try to sell your services. Just get involved in the online community. Once members get used to seeing your name and trust your feedback, you’ll be free to talk about what you do for a living.
Then you can talk about your photography work and your website. This will get curious members to click on the link you have provided in a couple of your posts and go to your website. Breaking down that initial barrier is a huge hurdle in getting these forum members to accept you and potentially spend their money on your services.
Frequent text-based updates
Search engines need to know that your website is active. By posting frequent updates, such as in your blog section, you are telling Google etc. that your site is live and has something of value to offer Google users. Doing so keeps my site in the eyes of the search engines and I can tell from my statistics that it is working. Since I started the blog, my ranking has improved in over 1.4 million places. In less than 2 months.
effective metadata
Although Google does NOT use meta keywords and meta descriptions in its ranking algorithm, you should still fill out these sections because other search engines may use them. You should also limit them to 10 or more keywords/keyword phrases so that no triggers appear. spam filters. And only use words that appear on your page. Meta descriptions are important as they often appear as a snippet just below the title in search engine results.
A well-written meta description can increase your click-through rate. Google is more likely to show your meta description as the snippet if it contains all the keywords for the user’s search phrase because they want to be able to bold ALL the keywords in the snippet.
Here’s a cool tool to help you with your metadata. Give it a try and see what you think.
add me (dot) com
These tips may or may not work for you. You may find that a combination of tips will work better than just one. It will take time. So be patient and keep it up.
You may want to know where your site is in the ranks. I find it helpful to know that my position in the grand scheme of things is improving or diminishing. Either way, the data is important to the health of the blog.
I’m using a rating tool provided by Alexa.com. You can too. It works with the Mozilla Firefox browser and is a permanent addition to your browser. When I go to any website, I see the ranking in the bottom right corner of the browser. Go to alexa (dot) com.
Click “toolbar” at the top and then click “install toolbar” in the green box. When you restart your Firefox browser, you will have access to statistics for any website you visit. Even your own.
What? Don’t have Firefox? Take a trip to Firefox and download it for free. http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ It’s a great alternative to Internet Explorer, and it’s my browser of choice… on my PC netbook and Apple iMac.
That’s all. 9 suggestions that I think will help you improve the positioning of your website. If I find out anything else I’ll post it. Know of any cool tips to improve your site’s ranking? Feel free to share in the “community news” section. MOUNTAIN