If you’re a wedding photographer just getting back to business then it’s a good time to be considering the best ways to get your name out there and close to the top of the rankings.
We are all well aware of SEO and how important it is for photographers in all genres. Fundamentally it’s the practice of consciously including key terms on your website that your potential customer might be using to find your services on search engines. We’re all fully aware that wedding photography is a saturated market and in some parts of India it’s challenging to rank well in search engines. However, the good news is that it’s never too late to start applying an SEO strategy to your website and, if you’re savvy and intentional, then you could get ahead of your competitors by following our tips
Build Your SEO Foundations
Every single website has a meta title and meta description and search engines use this to decide if your page should appear for a particular term. So, first of all decide on the most important search term you wish to be found for. For me, I’m currently targeting my local area so I want to be found for Wedding Photographer Brighton and, if you search for that term, you should find me on page one of Google, which is where I want to be. I’ve devoted my Meta Title to this term and I also repeat it in the Meta Description. My website is on WordPress, so this is easy to do using a plugin such as Yoast or All in One SEO. Just make sure that you don’t go over the recommended characters for either – that’s 70 for your title and 160 for your description (including spaces).
Aim to Stand Out
When writing your Title and Meta Description use this digital space to put across your personality. My site title is Wedding Photographer and Kochi, Kerala and my description is Hi, I’m Jacob Anthony, a wedding photographer in Kochi, Kerala. I love an alternative, creative, natural or relaxed wedding. I also love beer. I want to start relationship building right from the very first point of contact. So, although I include the key term for Google, I then aim to make it conversational and hopefully amusing for the couples so that I stand out.
The ‘People Also Ask’ Questions
For most search terms, Google will also suggest related searches with a section called People Also Ask. They could be questions like ‘How much does a wedding photographer cost? Is four hours enough for wedding photography?’ These are valuable insights into what people are putting into search engines and can inspire you to create content.
Aim to Rank in the Google Image Search
It’s easy to think that improving your SEO is all about words and copy but don’t forget the Image Search option too. Your potential customer is highly likely to search images for decor ideas, style inspiration or to see images of venues set up for weddings. Chances are you could have those images either already on your website or lurking on a hard drive. Rename your images with a chosen search term in mind, like Grand-Hyatt-Kochi-Wedding-001. Repeat this phrase in the metadata keyword list then export them resized for the web.
Work on Getting Quality Backlinks
It’s important in Google’s eyes that other sites link across to you, and backlinks get rated by search engines, so the higher quality the site that links to you, the better it is. In our industry, wedding blogs could be a great place to have a link, so keep submitting your work to them. Also keep an eye on their socials for image requests. Wedding directories can also be a good place to have a link, and some are pretty cost effective or even free as are some of the business listing sites. Similarly, if a venue or a supplier asks for images from me, I always say yes as long as they agree to link back to my site.
You Have To EAT
Another important factor in your ranking was revealed by Google as EAT – Expertise, Authoritativeness + Trustworthiness. It wants you to prove your worth, so filling out your author bio when you create a blog post is good practice. Authoritativeness is going to come from your backlinks and Trustworthiness could be improved with some online reviews.
Have a Speedy Site
Search engines will give priority to sites that load quickly. You can test yours out by using Google’s Speed Test Tool, https://developers.google.com/ speed/pagespeed/insights. Good practice means never loading up images that haven’t been optimised for the web, and I do this with an action in Photoshop and I also use a plugin on my site that ensures all of the images being used are compressed. I never load videos directly onto my site, and instead they’re hosted in Vimeo and embedded via links.
Create Interesting Content
Think of content that marks you out as an expert in wedding photography and is helpful to your potential couples. Your blog is your chance to show off your personality and connect to your ideal customers, and it’s also a showcase for your lovely images and demonstrates your full range of photographic skills. Don’t feel that this has to be a dry place; try to have fun with writing blog posts.
Get Ahead of the Pack
Almost every photographer I’ve mentored wants to rank well as a wedding photographer in their area. All fine, of course, but I want people to also discover me when they’re searching around for venues. I figure this might give me an edge over my competitors since venues are nowhere near as competitive a market as wedding photography, and so it’s easier to rank well in searches.
Make Some Cornerstone Content
Search Engines love a wordy page or post: the more text the better. Creating a post that has around 1000 words will bring you lots of ‘Google Juice’. Fortunately you only need a handful of these kinds of posts to make a big difference, and this is exactly why I created a post that lists Wedding Photographers in Kochi. This is a cornerstone piece of content that will hopefully appear early on in the wedding planning journey for my future couples and will get me onto their radar. Hopefully this has given you some useful tips and ideas for improving your SEO.