SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”, which is essentially the process of increasing the visibility of a website when searched by others. The higher the SEO rankings, the more likely you are to get visitors to your website.

If you’re wondering why some competitors show up whenever you type in: “best wedding photographers in Detroit”, it’s because they’ve made a conscious effort to ‘crack the code’ on SEO, and built their website in a way that ensures a high rank.   SEO is important for websites as you want to make sure your name comes up on page 1 when someone searches photographers in your area.  For some photographers, they’ve been able to increase the number of inquiries they get exponentially by making the effort to improve their SEO.  It’s that powerful!

There are 2 ways to approach improving SEO: DIY or hire someone. It’s a little tricky to DIY as the rules of the game change frequently and if it’s not something that’s a high priority, you’re going to fall behind pretty quickly.  That said, it’s beneficial to understand the basics.

There are many independent SEO consultants that won’t cost too much and would love to help you.  At Zookbinders, we outsource to a team that lives and breathe SEO, and do a great job of optimizing our site.

It’s critical to understand how keywords and keyphrases work, as they are the energizer bunnies of SEO.  The goal is to build these into your website so that your company ranks high when someone searches: “best female wedding photographers in Portland” or “top boudoir photographers in LA”

All of the major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo have their own algorithms. This algorithm helps them to rank a particular website or webpage based on what is the most relevant for the users.

To get started, let’s break it down into 2 phases of  SEO Tips For Photographers

Phase I is “discovery”, which is understanding the “current state” of how your website ranks, and beginning your improvement plan which generally includes some repair work.

Phase 2 is about improving your rankings.  You get rewarded by search engines when you update your site and create new content that is meaningful.  If you use videos, be sure they’re on YouTube as this channel is owned by Google and they share info.   Keep in mind that it will take months before you see any meaningful results as it takes time for Google to recognize your site.

Here are some SEO tools that can you some insight as to how your website is currently performing:

1. Quicksprout.com can show you how your website currently ranks – you want to have at least a “B” as your SEO Score
2. Google Webmaster Tools: Provides you with detailed reports about your pages visibility on Google.
3. Google Analytics: Generates detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales. It’s the most widely used website statistics service.
4. Google Adwords Keyword Planner: AdWords is a free tool that helps you build Search Network campaigns by finding keyword ideas and estimating how they may perform.

There are plenty of free resources on the internet for you to understand the basics of SEO. Learning the basics is achievable, but if you really want to use SEO as a competitive advantage, you may need to hire someone who does this for a living, which is what we do at Zookbinders.   Today’s Digital Marketing is less about Marketing…and more about learning a whole new craft, which seems like more science than art – enjoy!