SEO for Photographers: Boost Your Traffic and Bookings

Search engine optimization is the act of making sure that your website is search-engine friendly. In other words, it’s a process of modifying or updating a website in such a way that it will be able to rank higher in the search engines for certain keywords.

I worked with a photographer from Passau to improve the SEO of his website. We made an amazing success and here I want to share this experience with you.

The first step to optimizing a website is to identify keywords that are most relevant to your business and match those with pages on your site. This makes it easier for search engines to categorize your site and rank it accordingly. It also gives you more control over what kind of traffic you want coming through your site by directing them to different landing pages on the site that may cater better to their needs.

How to Boost Your Authority in Google Search Results with External Content

Professionals in photography are always looking for some form of authority or credibility for their business. They tend to employ many different methods to build credibility such as printing big and prominent images of themselves.

In the realm of SEO (search engine optimization), a photographer should implement strategies that will result in gaining the highest rankings possible in Google search results, constantly looking for ways to improve its chances.

How Can a Photographer Improve SEO on their Website?

Photographers can improve their SEO in a variety of ways.

In the realm of SEO (search engine optimization), a photographer should implement strategies that will result in gaining the highest rankings possible in Google search results, constantly looking for ways to improve its chances.

Tips for Photographers to improve SEO on their Website:

1. Create More Content a Start Blogging

Blogging is a great place to position yourself as a credible expert in your field, which is beneficial both to you and your business. It also improves SEO, so Google will rank your site higher.

You don’t need to write much. A paragraph with lots of pictures works perfectly well. You can describe the session and the experience you or your clients had.

Upload behind-the-scene shots and professional insights or review the best locations for wedding photoshoots in the city. Start a blog and stay consistent. Marketing is a promise and makes sure you don’t promise what you can’t deliver.

By writing relevant blog posts, I was able to climb the Google ranking ladder from page six to page one in four months. It was a really satisfying feeling to see my hard work pay off!

If you’re unsure about your writing skills or the tone you should set for your writing I would like to read my previous article on how to write for SEO.

2. Build And Maintain Online Authority And Trustworthiness

Photographers should be upfront and honest with what a client is getting. This should be spelled out on your website. To cover your own livelihood, you should do this via email. Why?

We want the records on our own servers. If Facebook goes down, or Instagram goes down, or our accounts get banned or deleted for some odd reason, we need records of everything. It can prevent possible lawsuits. But we also combine this with transparent and honest communication.

To show more transparency you can take multiple photos of one scene, take close-ups only, and take “behind the scenes” type photos to give some insight into your photoshoot.

You, as photographers, need to do a lot of educating around this because it’s a service that people don’t understand. Clients think that you’re just pressing a button. But you have to spell it out so that they know. And this goes into so many complicated territories.

The more transparent you are and the better you present yourself in less simple and repetitive questions from your clients and the better your authority and trustworthy rating are.

3. Invest In Well Optimized CMS And Website Design

Photographers often don’t have the time to build their own websites from scratch. If that’s the case then hire a professional and do it right!

If you, let’s say, hire me to take care of your website and technical SEO you still have a lot to do.

The best way to do it right and consistently or regular basis is to implement in your process rules such as proper nomenclature, keywords, listing photography style, registering social media profiles, using images correctly, and more.

There are many CMS solutions available to help a photographer with their website, but WordPress is by far the best choice of CMS for photographers. WordPress itself isn’t a panacea but a platform on top of which you can build up.

Photographers deserve a website optimized for their needs, a website that implements these SEO techniques from scratch. If everything is done right it will have the constant but not the fastest growth of traffic that brings leads and sales.

Hire me to build and maintain your blog and support you on your way to success.

4. Implement structured data properly

Structured data plays an essential role in SEO since it makes it easier for Google to understand what your website and your pages are.

In the space of search engines and local businesses, your goal is to make your presentation stand out in Google Search Results. Using structured data markup you can get shown in Google search results in form of rich results.

Here are some structured data types you can implement for your photography website:

• Local Business
• ImageObject
• VideoObject
• BlogPosting
• FAQ
• How-To
• Q&A

5. How to Become a Successful Photographer?

Set the process for yourself

For photographers is necessary to set the process for what they do when they don’t do photography.

Give, give, give, get

By maintaining a website and giving back by producing content consistently you grow your reputation and acquire customers.

Maintain the business side

I know that managing the business side of one photographer isn’t as fun and artistic as photography is. Quite the opposite, those are boring, bureaucratic, and repetitive tasks that artists hate. Eat that frog!

How to Get Booked as a Photographer (SEO Tactics)

People might be searching for everything from a new camera to potential design trends and they are most likely looking to educate themselves on what’s around them. If a photographer’s content is not ranking well on search engines, their business will have a hard time growing.

SEO Tactics For Photographers

• Write a blog post about the best locations (local) for events such as weddings, concerts, parties, and team events.
• Write a blog post about different ideas for shots for events such as weddings, concerts, parties, and team events.
• Research and write about the best funny shots photographers can make while doing regular events.
• Use structured data to boost your SEO and improve your CTR
• Image Rights Metadata in Google Images

I remember a couple of weeks ago, a couple of friends and I booked a bubble soccer appointment at a local sports center. We overestimated our physical capabilities but the guy who worked there and who helped us with the equipment took a step further.

He realized that we can’t play bubble soccer whole the time and that we will waste the time we paid for. He prepared some other physically easier games for us to entertain us. That’s something I call added value and should be part of the arsenal of every professional.

Conclusion: Start Optimizing your Photography Website TODAY!

Here’s what to focus on if you want to get your photography website optimized better.

• Publish new content with curated keywords. Blogs can never go out of style, the oped article is a solid choice as well, and so are whitepapers and infographics
• Use social media channels, such as Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook for visual posts including photo collages or simply interesting articles
• Invest in responsive design for future visitors (as most internet users visit websites using their smartphones these days)
• Always keep the designer handy! You might need help redesigning your website to attract mobile visitors and search engines

Key takeaway: The main thing that needs to be optimized on a photography website is the keywords and content. With this, it will better rank in the data engines and mention pictures more often.