SEO for Photographers: 10 Helpful Hacks

seo for photographers

SEO for photographers can be a boon for business, but it’s a complex world to understand.

SEO or search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing your website’s content, link structure and backend to appear higher in search engines.

To make SEO more complex, Google can make up to 600 changes to its algorithm every year.

How can you stay on top of this changing world?

Read on for the 10 SEO hacks to boost your photography business.

Why SEO for Photographers Matters

You might think that you don’t need SEO because your business runs by referrals. Guess what? Your referrals will look to the web to find out more about you before calling.

Imagine they search for your business name and you’re nowhere to be found in search results. Your credibility might be shot in the mind of a potential customer before your first conversation.

Do you want to grow your business? SEO is a great way to generate more leads and you have a higher likelihood to turn those leads into customers.

Take a look at these statistics:

Now, do you believe that SEO for photographers is important? Here’s how you can stand out from your competition.

1. Local SEO Rules

Most searches are done by people looking for local services.

You’ll want to be sure that your website includes areas that your business serves.

It’s also important to update your listings on Google, Yelp, Yahoo and Bing to make sure that your basic contact information matches what’s on your website.

2. Set Up Your Google My Business Listing

Out of all of the search engines, Google is the most important. You’re going to want to set up a Google My Business listing for your business.

Make sure the description is accurate, includes keywords, and the address, and phone number matches your website.

You can also add photos of your business. You can use photos of your studio or of yourself at a shoot to give people a general idea of how you work.

3. Who’s Your Target Customer

Successful SEO for photographers depends on understanding the customer. You’ll have to think beyond basic demographics.

You have to think of the main problem they are trying to solve. Are they luxury real estate agents looking to show off their listings? Are they nervous brides to be who want their day to be perfect?

Once you understand the problem they need to solve, you can understand how they’ll search for you. That leads to the next step.

4. Use Long Tail Keywords

Do a search for wedding photographers. It seems like all of your competitors are there, right?

If you did your homework on your customer, you’ll discover the phrases they use like “finding the right wedding photographer” or “questions to ask a wedding photographer.”

You’ll need to do additional research to find the right keywords. You’ll want to use a keyword tool to get started.

5. Mobile Matters for SEO

Photographers have an interesting challenge because they want to show off their work on their websites. That means using a lot of images which can slow a website down.

Not only that, more people are searching using mobile devices. The good news is that mobile conversion rates are also 64% higher than desktop searches.

The potentially bad news is that your website may not be responsive or very slow.

When you test your website, try it on different devices and note how it looks and how long it takes to load.

6. Utilize Internal & External Links

Another way to improve SEO for photographers is to use internal and external links. Internal links are pages that link to each other and external links are links that go to outside sources.

You want to be sure that your links are relevant as is anchor text that’s used to create the link.

7. Optimize Images on Your Website

Great SEO for photographers hinges on how you optimize the images on your website.

The first thing you want to do is compress the images without losing quality. They’ll still look sharp, but they’ll load faster.

Google can’t tell what you’re your images are about, but you can by using “alt-text.” Just describe your image using one line, such as “Wedding photograph of groom standing with parents.”

8. Get Quality Backlinks

In Google’s eyes, you need to prove that your website has valuable content. The way you can do that is by having other sites link to you.

In the case of backlinks, quality matters much more than quantity. Links should be from higher authority sites.

9. Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console

These are important tools that will help you track where your traffic is coming from. Google Analytics is great to see where your traffic is coming from, how they use your site. You can also see the location of your website’s visitors.

Search Console will allow you to go a little deeper into your website. You can see how your site appears in search results, search traffic, and backlinks to your site.

10. Choose URLs That Are Search Friendly

You want to make sure that your website’s URL structure is set up properly.

If you use WordPress for your website, you might find that pages automatically name themselves wwww.yourdomain.com/?p=123.

That is not going to help your website get found. Ideally, you’ll want a URL that has a keyword you’d like to rank for. To do that, you’ll have to change your permalinks to Post Name instead of the default settings.

A great example is Evermore Photography. Note that the main page includes the name and where they serve.

SEO for Photographers Can Boost Business

Photography is a competitive and at times cut-throat business. There are many marketing tips and tricks you can use to boost your business.

Yet, SEO stands out from other marketing tactics for its ability to convert prospects who are already interested in your services.

By using the tips in this article, you can turn your website into a revenue machine.

Need more hacks? Read our blog for the most up to date SEO tips to rank your photography website.