How to optimize your website SEO?

Do you want to appear on the first page of Google when someone searches for a professional photographer in your city?

Here are the 7 key steps you must follow to optimize the SEO of your photography site and become the reference in your geographical area.

Do an SEO audit

In the case of a photography website, you will need to know:

  • How much traffic do you receive? In other words, how many visits do you receive each month?
  • For which keywords is it positioned? This information is provided by Google Search Console, another very useful tool for SEO. You will know which ones are bringing you this traffic and if there is a page on your website that you should optimize. Otherwise use an SEO tool to evaluate the metrics
  • Is the navigation comfortable? It’s about finding the errors that may be detrimental to the user experience. You will therefore need to fix them as soon as possible to avoid undermining your SEO.
  • Are the images optimized? It is normal that you want to show the photos of your work with good quality, but very large images (more than 150 kb or so) will slow down your website and hurt your SEO.

Doing this analysis can take some time, but it is essential to do it to establish a good SEO strategy.

Do keyword research for your photographer site

Keywords are the terms that your customers search for in Google to meet a need.

For example, a person who searches for a “Paris wedding photographer” is looking for a professional who works in this field.

In this context, the choice of the right keywords is essential to attract qualified traffic to your website.

By “qualified traffic”, we mean users who have similar profiles and are a perfect match for your business, and who may therefore be interested in your services as a photographer.

To find them, you will need, among other things:

  • Make a list of the terms related to your business: both those that describe you as a professional and the people likely to interest your ideal client. That’s why it’s so important that you know who they are and what their specific needs are.
  • Check search volumes: Once you got a good list, it’s time to check the number of searches for these terms. For this, you can use a tool like Google Ads Keyword Planner or a paid tool like Semrush or Seobserver for example.

This is just a summary to show you the basics of keyword research.

Use these keywords strategically

The next step is to convert keywords into “parts” that will form the structure of your website.

The next step is to organize these keywords according to their search intent.

That is to say, depending on whether they are or not:

  • Informative: the user wishes to deepen his knowledge on a subject.
  • Transaction: what a person is looking for when they want to use services like yours. For example, “fashion photographer”.

It is essential to make this distinction because otherwise, your website will never rank as highly as it should.

Be on Google Maps

For this, register your business on Google My Business.

Log on to Google My Business, create your business page and confirm that you are the owner, either by receiving a phone call on the landline you provided or by entering a code that will be sent to you by your mail id.

If you want to be promoted with Google My Business, you will need, among other things:

  • Fill in as many fields as possible (including photos) and make sure that the information you add is correct (opening hours, address, telephone number…).
  • Use the description to add that keyword you want to rank for so badly. Use the description to add that keyword you want to rank for so badly.
  • Ask your customers to leave reviews as this can make difference.

Bring blog to life

Do you know that Google loves new content? And if it’s regular, it’s even better. So it would be better to go for content planning.

Write blog posts about your favorite jobs and workplaces for example

Here 4 advantages than you can imagine:

  • You make search engines notice you.
  • You add additional photos that have been overlooked in your portfolio or other public galleries.
  • In addition to taking care of the SEO of your images, you must also include the geographical keyword in the text
  • You inspire your future clients by showing them your past work.

It is not in vain that the blog is one of the 5 essential sections that a professional photography site must-have.

Show Presence on social networks

Whether we’re talking about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

Make it easy to locate and don’t forget to segment your ad campaigns based on location.

The more specific the audience you target with your messages and ads, the more successful your marketing campaigns will be. In other words, you will increase conversions.

Define your client well: age, profession, family situation, tastes, hobbies, etc, and where he lives!

Also, having a clear idea of ​​who you want to attract is the best way to differentiate yourself and combat worker intrusion.

Optimize the SEO of your photos

Introduce the location, both in the file name and in the title or description of your web photos.

It doesn’t matter if they’re in your portfolio, in public galleries, or in blog posts. Apply your location as a keyword to rank on Google Images.