News

As a wedding photography business owner with an online presence, understanding how search engine optimization (SEO) for photographers works is a crucial part of your success. If done correctly, it can entice the right audience to look up your digital content and encourage them to access your website and blog. If, however, your SEO strategies are poorly planned, you run the risk of missing out on attracting your target clientele. Because SEO rules keep changing and could often be complicated, it is important that you implement the right techniques to go beyond the basics without spending all your time on it. And to help you with that, we’ve got hosts of SEO tips that could assist you in boosting your SEO ranking!

SEO FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

Here at ShootDotEdit, we specialize in wedding photo editing, and our mission is to empower professional wedding photographers like you. That’s why we keep updating our knowledge pool about all things wedding photography and even partner with industry leaders and experts to bring you valuable information and insights on topics that can help you grow your wedding photography business. In this blog, we cover tips on SEO for photographers with help from the experiences of experts.

So if you’re looking to up your SEO game, this post is your comprehensive guide on SEO for wedding photographers that could help grow your photography business. Also, we dive into important questions your photography website bio should answer. Plus, we discuss critical mistakes you can’t make with photography SEO. We speak about the best photography keywords and the top SEO tips for photographers. Let’s begin!

BE AN AUTHORITY ON SEO

To become an authority on the topic and reach clients you want to book, you will have to go into the details of the ‘why’ behind SEO, and we will help you do just that through this blog. Here we’ve shared 6 of the best SEO photography tips just for you.

1. KNOW THE BASICS OF SEO

As more wedding photographers advance their SEO strategies and techniques, only covering the basics might not be enough. However, the basics of SEO for wedding photographers are required for you to know so that you can understand and utilize more advanced strategies later.

The SEO basics you must know include:

• Smart keyword usage based on research
• Great titles, meta descriptions, and URLs
• Optimizing images for performance, and descriptive alt text on your images
• Local SEO – Google My Business, Citations, NAP (name, address, and phone), etc.
• Great reviews
• Backlinks (getting featured and mentioned online)
• Active social media profiles
• Regular blogging or creation of new, useful content

2. DO YOUR RESEARCH

One of the first places to start utilizing the best SEO for photographers' practices is to perform research on the advice and topics that are most helpful for your clients. Start by making a list of every challenge your wedding client might face during their planning process. Include questions they might have about your service or topics related to weddings in general, such as “What is the best time of the year to get married in this area?” or “Which venue is the best to book in this area?” Because when you provide potential clients with a personalized experience, they are more likely to book you as their wedding photographer.

Also, write down possible concerns and fears clients might face. If you can address these issues and clear any doubts your clients might have, they are more likely to put their trust in you. And when clients have confidence in you, it is going to be extremely valuable for you as a wedding photographer. When you are focused on answering these questions from prospective customers, you will know which questions to add to your list, and this will help you with your keyword research. The more you know your ideal client, the easier it will be to research and anticipate the frequently asked questions clients might come up with.

The key to good SEO for photography websites is found in the strategic use of keywords for photography. In today’s searches, keywords are often a series of words or short phrases that sum up the content on your page, rather than just a single word. When choosing the best keywords for photographers, it is important to be specific. Though it can be necessary to include the best SEO keywords for photographers, be sure to also focus on your niche. Use a photography keywords list that helps set you apart from other wedding photographers.

3. SHARE YOUR AUTHORITY BY BLOGGING

After you make a list and do your research to improve your SEO, the next step is to demonstrate that you are an authority on the topics you chose by creating compelling and informative blog posts. Blogging is a key way to grab Google’s attention, and it can also help you showcase your knowledge and expertise to ideal clients. With all the research you do on topics that are relevant to clients, also think about what you already know, especially because you are an expert in all things wedding photography. Try to include your own experiences and points of expertise to answer your clients' questions.

When we interacted with photographer and SEO expert Corey Potter, who helps small local businesses with websites and SEO through his business Fuel Your Photos, he told us about one of his blogs where he used research to create a valuable post (for both his clients and his business). He had created a blog compiling his favorite wedding venues.

“It was a simple post - I didn’t have to do a lot of research. I picked the 7 venues I liked most and I had images from. I optimized it for the words people are searching and this post by itself brings 500-1,000 people to my website every month. From those, I’m getting 3-4 inquiries every month from that post alone,” Potter elaborated.

4. BE THOROUGH & ANSWER IN DETAIL

When it comes to blogging, keep in mind that you want to be thorough and answer every question your clients may have. Know that long-form content ranks better and gets more shares in many situations, so work on adding in a few longer posts to encourage more interaction. The more you write about the topic in which you are an expert in, the more authority you will demonstrate.

Another way to achieve the goal of sharing your authority is to interview other experts to borrow their knowledge and educate your clients. You can create videos with them or have the interview written out (or you can do both - add the video to your post and transcribe the text). In addition, get interviewed by others to share more about what you know. This is one way to showcase your authority and work on getting more backlinks to your website. Other ideas are to write guest blog posts or to be involved with a podcast.

One final way to demonstrate you are an authority as a wedding photographer is to speak at community or industry events. It does not need to be a sales pitch, just a way for you to give back. For example, you can speak at a charity event on how wedding photography changes lives or write posts about your experience working in the community. Keep in mind, that you do not need to speak directly to your clients; you can speak to other wedding photographers (which also demonstrates you are a thought leader).

5. CREATE A CONTENT SHARING WORKFLOW

Once you have done adequate research on valuable topics your clients want to read about, and you have established your authority, it is now time to turn it into a part of your wedding photography workflow you can use for every blog post. “Workflow is key. A good workflow is half the work done,” says wedding photographer and ShootDotEdit customer, Brandi Salerno of Brandi Allyse Photo.

A. WRITE THE BLOG POST

Whether you write the blog or outsource it to a company like Fotoskribe, use your extensive knowledge to create a topic that provides value. Incorporate photography keywords your clients search for regularly. Also, be sure to add in a strong call-to-action to encourage clients to interact in the way you desire. The CTA will differ depending on the goal of the post, but each should be a way for clients to learn more about you and your services so they can book you for their wedding day. For example, create a quick post including 20-30 shots, previewing the wedding day a few days after it’s over. The idea behind this post is to create excitement for your clients about their wedding images. Need help ranking on Google through your blog posts? Find out how Fotoskribe, a ShootDotEdit company and the leading expert in blogging-as-a-service for photographers, can help!

B. SHARE WITH CLIENTS

Once your blog post is live, share it with your clients. Send them a quick email and let them know you wanted to give them a sneak peek of the images you took recently. Because you let them know immediately, your clients will be more likely to share the blog and your images with their family and friends, expanding your reach further. This in turn will be helpful for your search engine rankings.

C. POST TO SOCIAL MEDIA

After you’ve shared your post with your clients via email, upload the blog or any other content that you’ve created on social media. Share your website link on your posts to ensure your social media audience visits your website. This will not only improve your SEO but also give you more leads. To make this step more impactful, use the platform(s) where you have more and a quality audience.

Related Read: Does SEO Even Matter For Your Social Media Reach?

D. REACH OUT TO VENDORS

To gain additional traction, reach out to vendors who are featured in the post. Ask them to share the post with their audience. This way, you will not only expand your business network but also increase your brand presence. And both are extremely crucial to your business. The more shares your blog post receives, the easier it will become to grab the attention of search engines.

E. SUBMIT FOR PUBLICATION

You can submit each of your blog posts for publication. Have a bucket list of publications you’d like to get featured on and that are harder to get to. Then, have a list of ones that are more reachable for you and get your work published. This will continue to expand your reach, increase your visibility, and showcase your authority on all platforms catering to wedding photography.

6. TRACK YOUR RESULTS

With your consistent workflow in place and the right SEO strategies and techniques used, it is also essential to track your results. There are some valuable tools available to help you do this. They are:

• Google Analytics / Tag Manager
• Google Search Console
• Social Analytics
• Facebook Pixel
• Built-in Analytics
• Third-Party
• Instagram apps
• Likealizer
• SharedCount
• Heatmaps

METRICS TO TRACK

Additionally, the important SEO metrics to track with these tools are:

• Visits to your site
• Number of clicks from search or social
• Number of queries
• Engagement
• Likes/comments
• Shares
• Inquiries/conversions

When building SEO for photographers, whether by creating keywords for photography strategy or building links by sharing on social media, it is imperative to track your progress. As soon as the Analytics account is linked to your site, it starts collecting data. The data collected can give you invaluable insight into your photography website and the people who visit it. Based on this and the other metrics you track, you can make adjustments that help you benefit the most from your SEO strategies. When it comes to your blog posts, perfect and replicate them for the win. Keep in mind that not every post will be a winner. So, you can re-post the content that is successful periodically, since clients could have missed it or forgotten about it.

BECOME MORE FINDABLE

Now, after you’ve established authority, the next SEO basic for wedding photographers is to become more findable to clients who are perfect for them and their photography business. Here are the five things you can do for your website to become findable.

1. GOOGLE ESSENTIALS

Connecting your website to Google Search Central and creating a profile for your photography business will ensure Google can find your website. In theory, Google references billions of websites found on the internet on a daily basis. So, even if you do nothing, eventually, you will be found. But why leave it up to chance? Visit Google Search Central to verify your website and begin search engine optimization on it. This will help you become more findable to your target audience.

You can also better your keyword researching skills to become more visible to clients on search engines and also keep improving your content with the help of tracked metrics and analytics so that you can be better found and drive more traffic to your website.

2. OUTSOURCE YOUR SEO

Just as you may outsource wedding photo editing, you can also outsource your SEO to an SEO consultant for photographers. The truth is SEO has a lot of moving parts, so partnering with a dedicated specialist can help tremendously. It can make the difference between being on page 3 or on page 1 of a given Google Search. And that could make a HUGE difference when you’re trying to increase your website’s searchability. Since many internet searchers might not click beyond the first page, increasing your SEO could help you gain a coveted spot on page 1, allowing you to become more findable and, as a result, increase your potential client base drastically.

CREATE A STRONG WEBSITE BIO/ABOUT PAGE

When searching for a wedding photographer online, a potential client will come across your website and review the services you offer. After reviewing what you have to offer, the client will want to know more about you. It is essential to have a bio or about page because this will help the client get to know you on a personal level and see what makes you unique. As a part of SEO, your bio is also the best way to showcase your skills, experience, and specialty to clients who have not met you before. If not done right, it can lead to a higher bounce rate for your website and lower visibility of your brand to your audience. So, when you are writing your bio, there are 5 must-have questions to consider.

Related Read: Tips To Write An Amazing Photographer 'about Me' Page

1. WHO ARE YOU?

Introducing yourself to potential clients is one of the most important steps in creating a bio. A short, detailed explanation about who you are will send a message to clients about who they will be working with. Add a few fun facts that not many people know about you. Though you are a professional, including personality quirks can increase the chances of the client booking you because you are relatable. Remember to add a picture of yourself to complete this section of your bio. For example, check out this amazing About page by our customers Heather and Terrence Huie of Apollo Fields.

2. HOW CAN YOU HELP ME?

This question is crucial, as people who buy a product or service want to know what they will get in return. What can you offer the client that another photography business cannot? Will your advanced knowledge of wedding photography ensure a smooth and quick process that will leave the client stress-free? Clients want to know exactly what benefits they will receive when working with you.

3. HOW DID YOU GET HERE?

Think of when you are looking for a new doctor. You learn about their credentials and experiences to make sure that doctor is the perfect fit to take care of you. The same can be said for a client who is looking for a photographer. A wedding is one of the most important events in a person’s life, and they what to capture the special moments into memorable images. So provide information about your experience and background to ensure the client will be satisfied with your services.

4. WHY SHOULD CLIENTS TRUST YOU?

Like we said, weddings are major milestones in people’s lives, and clients want to know everything will be taken care of once they book you. After all, you are responsible for documenting every aspect of the most important day of their lives. You must give clients a reason to trust you with something so meaningful. That means you should offer your services and use testimonials from previous clients to ensure your potential clients know your business is trustworthy.

5. WHAT DO YOU SHARE IN COMMON?

In your bio, have a way for clients to identify with you. Express the types of things you enjoy about wedding photography, as there could be many clients who share your sentiments. Share experiences that clients relate to as well as talk about your specific photography style. And to give it a personal flavor, we’d recommend you also include some hobbies or activities you have outside of photography in your bio. Clients like to know you are similar to them. Once you’ve answered these five important questions through your bio or About page, visitors to your site could feel more comfortable knowing you took the effort to create a page that is personable and relatable to them. For example, take a look at the ‘Meet us’ page of our customers Dana & Nate of Lovers of Love.

Suggested Read: The 4 Most Important Pages Of Your Website

CREATE A SUCCESSFUL SEO PLAN

Since SEO for photographers has many moving parts and can often change, it is important to create and implement a plan for your efforts. Having a plan will help you maintain consistency and ensure that you have SEO as a part of your workflow. Below, we have some strategies to help you create a successful photography SEO plan.

1. OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGES

As a photographer, you might have many beautiful images to display on your website, but do not forget to optimize them for resolution and size. Uploading the images in their original sizes to your website would make it heavy and difficult to load when someone visits your website. What’s the point of posting those gorgeous images there if your potential clients can’t see them? So, this is one thing you must keep in mind. 

2. REDIRECT OR REMOVE OLD CONTENT FROM YOUR WEBSITE

Imagine a prospective client visits your page looking for relevant content and is left utterly disappointed by all the outdated information it provides! Disastrous, right? Now, that could happen if you don’t update or revamp your content to keep it evergreen. Think of old studio address, defunct contact details, or pricing lists from a decade ago. You absolutely need to get rid of those! Keep adding fresh and unique content to your website but also weed out outdated and irrelevant information from your website. Also, check your website for extensions or unused plug-ins and remove them. These can slow your website down and might even put your website’s security at risk. Running frequent checks for this will help improve your website’s SEO.

3. REFINE TITLES & DESCRIPTIONS

Your content titles and descriptions are crucial to your website’s SEO. Through your titles and descriptions, the search engine knows what your content is all about and that’s how it makes your content visible when people search for the same or similar topics. Meta titles are one of the most important factors when it comes to ranking and descriptions, increasing your click-through rates.

4. BUILD BACKLINKS

Backlinks are links that bring a user or visitor to your website from another website and you can gain them by making a good use of your network in the industry. Be it fellow photographers or other vendors, you can get quality backlinks from them by building a relationship with them and also returning the favor sometime. You can also get them by writing guest posts for other websites. However, remember to focus on quality (websites with higher domain authority) rather than the number of backlinks. 

5. GET THE RIGHT HOST FOR YOUR WEBSITE

It’s important to get a good hosting provider for your website so that you don’t have to struggle with a slow website, site downtime, and bad customer service. Pick a provider that uses the latest technologies, has the latest PHP versions, and uses SSDs on their servers. Some hosting providers could be affordable for you but not reliable. So, when it comes to choosing a hosting provider, do not base your decision only on costs.

6. GET AN SSL CERTIFICATE

As a photographer, you could be collecting personal information from your website visitors through your contact forms or lead magnets. To ensure that the details are encrypted and stored securely on your website, you should get and implement an SSL certificate. Without it, your website visitors could see a warning sign on their browsers, which would tell them that the website they are going to visit is without HTTPS and not secure. HTTPS is also an SEO ranking factor, so ensure that you have the certification.

7. USE SEO PLUG-INS

Website plug-ins like Yoast SEO would help you add meta titles, meta descriptions, and keywords to all the pages on your website. All in One SEO is another great SEO plug-in that also provides you with social sharing options. Besides these, here’s a list of WordPress Plug-ins for photographers to build strong websites.

8. IMPROVE THE URL STRUCTURE

A URL or a permalink is something that provides structure and allows you to declutter your website page links. A well-defined URL also helps search engines to find your content easily and put it before searchers. WordPress allows you to structure your URLs easily and you can use topic names or keywords to improve them.

9. USE INTERNAL LINKING

If you are looking forward to improving your website’s authority and decreasing the bounce rate, then internal linking is a great way. By linking more of your content to a particular blog, you can increase the chances of a visitor staying longer on your website, thus improving your rankings on search engines.

10. LOCAL SEO

If your audience is local and you want to target them, then you can use local keywords to attract them. Research on topics that are relevant in that area and put out the content accordingly. Also, you can register on local directories and review platforms such as Yelp to help you get recognition and visibility in that area. Geographical tagging on social media would also help you.

11. MAKE YOUR WEBSITE MOBILE-FRIENDLY

A large number of internet users use their mobile devices to access websites and content. Thus, Google has already switched to mobile-first indexing and ranks websites based on their mobile versions. So, having a mobile-friendly, responsive website is crucial these days if you want to rank high on search engines. Whenever you launch a new website, add a page to your website or post some new content, ensure that you check its appearance on different devices so that your website visitors do not have a bad experience.

Related Read: The Reasons Your Photography Website Needs To Be Mobile-Friendly (And How To Do It!)

12. SUBMIT YOUR SITEMAP

Google and other search engines have web crawlers that visit websites and index the content. They index addition, subtraction, or any other changes to the website or the content inside it to present it on their search result pages. However, you don’t have to sit and wait and can quicken this process for your website. For this, you will have to generate a sitemap with the help of your Yoast SEO plug-in and then submit it via Google Search Console so that the indexing happens faster.

13. MULTI-LANGUAGE SEO

If you have a multi-language website, avoid doing both languages on the same page. Get two different pages done for them and be careful with the structure of your website links. For better SEO, don’t miss out on linking pages to their equivalent in another language. Now, the good news is that WordPress allows you to create subdomains and subfolders and also lets you configure separate domains for different language versions even while using the same shared database. This helps you manage your multi-language website better and if you make any changes to the design or any other element on one of the versions of your website, you will see the changes applied to both language versions.

14. CHECK SITE SPEED FREQUENTLY

This is one of the most important parameters for SEO for photographers. Even if you have implemented all the other SEO tactics but you recently changed your hosting provider and got a website update after which there are issues such as bugs or the JavaScript loading differently, your website speed can go for a toss. To keep this in control, run speed checks for your website from time to time. Google Pagespeed Insights is one platform where you can check this to avoid disappointed website visitors and low search engine ranking for your website.

15. OPTIMIZE FOR RICH SNIPPETS

Those detailed and well-structured descriptions with titles when you search for a topic on Google are rich snippets. They do not directly impact SEO but optimizing your website pages for rich snippets can help Google understand your content better and present it to searchers in this form which encourages them to click on it and read. The more structured your data is, the more will be the chances of Google listing it as a rich snippet leading to more organic traffic for your website.

AVOID CRITICAL SEO MISTAKES

Now, you know what you should be doing to ace your SEO. But do you know what you should not be doing? As a photographer and business owner, you have a website, blog, and social media platforms that represent your overall brand message. Incorporating the right SEO techniques to help you reach more of your ideal clients is necessary for you to continue growing your business, and there are many practices in place to use SEO properly to attract ideal clients. However, there are still mistakes that sometimes go unnoticed. If not corrected, these mistakes can hurt your business and derail you from your overall goals. Here are 4 critical mistakes you should avoid making in SEO.

1. DUPLICATING CONTENT ON YOUR BLOG

Search engines scan through your website and blogs to search for relevant content matching a person’s search, so, it is important to maintain unique content throughout. Search engines can tell whether you used certain content in the past, especially on your blog. If you are repeating keywords or sentences in your blog posts, the search engines might not feature your newer content. Because you will probably feature similar keywords in your posts. So, keep experimenting with new approaches and mix up the way your blogs are written while still keeping them in line with your brand voice and tone. Also, keep track of what keywords you use in each blog post to ensure you avoid using them in the same context for too many posts in a row.

Since every wedding you shoot would have diverse images, it can become simple for you to avoid duplicating the written content for your blog posts. Even if you shoot three outdoor mountain weddings, each would have a different essence or a funny story to tell your readers. If you run into issues with writing for your blog, utilize resources such as the Thesaurus to help you find additional words to use.

2. USING FORCED KEYWORDS IN CONTENT

Although photography keywords are necessary for your blog posts, and on your images, they should appear natural. Search engines can tell whether you are forcing keywords in your content to encourage clicks. This is less tricky when it comes to images, as you can name your images with keywords that relate to your business. It becomes complicated when you are featuring the best SEO keywords for photographers in your blog posts. As you write in your keywords, whether they are “wedding photographer” or “wedding photography,” make sure they flow with the sentence you are writing. Also, try using different words from your photography keywords list so you can avoid discrepancies with any search engines you would like to rank high on (especially Google).

3. FEATURING ANY BROKEN LINKS

Including statistics or social proof on your website and blog can be helpful to boost your brand. This is especially true if you find relevant information which speaks directly to your target market. Featuring such details on your website and blog would require you to include links to other sites, such as vendors or fellow wedding photographers. Additionally, your blog should feature links that direct readers to your other pieces of content (internal linking). 

If your website or blog links out to any other sites, whether they are your sites or you are linking out to other resources, the links must work. When visitors to your website or blog click on a link that is broken, two things can happen. One negative outcome is visitors may lose trust in your brand because you did not notice the link was broken. A second negative outcome is Google will make note of this and will not contribute to the rise of your ranking.

Quick Tip: Always check the nature of your sources. If you find statistics or quotes from a reputable website, there is less of a chance the links will be broken over time.

4. MISSING ALT TAGS ON IMAGES

As a wedding photographer, your images are what help you connect with clients. Featuring compelling content is helpful, but your images speak directly to your ideal clients. Once your images are color-corrected by a wedding photography post-processing company (and you have added your artistic style to them), they are ready to be shared on your blog. When you upload images onto your computer, they should be named properly so clients who are searching can find them. If your images are named something vague which is attributed to the wedding day, how will potential clients know to search for them? Even if the wedding you shot was “Lisa and Danny’s Wedding,” your naming convention cannot only include the bride and groom’s names.

For search engines to take notice of your images, include an alt tag that features “Wedding Photographer” or “Wedding Photography”. Couples who are looking for a wedding photographer search for those photography keywords. Including proper alt tags on your images will help them rank high on search engines. That way, your images will have higher chances of showing up for clients searching for a wedding photographer.

Further Read: How To Create Killer Wedding Photography Websites

When you use SEO for photographers properly on your website and blog, your brand can be more visible to clients who are ideal for you. So, by following our tips, understanding the nuances, and avoiding mistakes in SEO you are more likely to be in good standings with the top search engines, such as Google. SEO will empower your photography website as well as your business, and if you’re hungry for more when it comes to growing your wedding photography business, we’re here to help!

At ShootDotEdit, we love helping wedding photographers run their photography businesses successfully. We share tips, tricks, ideas, inspirations, features, and even humor for you through our blogs. We interact and collaborate with experts to bring you the best photography content - but that’s not it! We also share your post-production workload by providing you with professional photo editing services. Our services allow you to save lots of time for business tasks that need only you to handle them. They also help you find time for some personal chores and relaxation. To learn how we do it for you, you can take a look at our pricing plans.