Getting Started

[ShootTokyo]

Hi

I am new to SEO and just getting started here with MOZ.  I am a photographer and blogger and primarily interested in improving my sites traffic.   My site gets reasonable amount of traffic but I want to do better.  For example I am page 3 for Photography Blog but I want to be page one.

I am a little overwhlemed and not sure where to focus?  In Moz?   With Backlink building?  Does anyone have a methodology on how to approach looking at my site they recommend they are willing to share?

I am also looking for someone to help me with the technical parts of ensuring my Wordpress site is up to speed.    Any recommendations?

Thanks

Dave

[matbennett]

It took me a while to come back, but I made it.

Link building is all about leveraging your assets.  You have a great blog with great images, so this opens up a number of strategies that you can follow to maximise the links that come back your way.  The ones that interest me in your case do involve giving a little something away, and that can be uncomfortable at first as it can feel like devaluing your work. However quality links have value, so there is a return to be had.

I'd be tempted to start by thinking about what you might be prepared to give away for the right credit.  For instance would you be happy for people to use smaller versions of your images on their website if they linked back to you?  How about if that only applied to some images?  Would you let "the right website" use a full sized image in exchange for a credit?

Consider what you are comfortable with and then communicate that.  Having a link to "use this image on your website" that explained the rules would encourage more to do it. You could even upload specific images to Flickr as creative commons with the required attribution being a credit link.

On a smaller scale you could target high quality sites that have poor imagery and just offer them the use of a relevant image in exchange for a credit.  That can be a very effective way of getting some very high quality links.  My photos are rubbish, but I've done this successfully for even related things in the past.

If you are not doing so already I'd also look at something like imageraider.  Imageraider will monitor the web for places where your images are used and alert you.  This can be equally useful for protecting your IP as it is for link building.

[SamuelScott]

For any business -- and that includes a website -- it's crucial to have a good integrated strategy in place from the beginning. What I will summarize below, I explain more in this detailed essay of mine on Moz -- feel free to let me know if you have any thoughts!

Basically, answer these questions:

1. What is the goal of your website? For some, it might be getting B2B business leads, mobile app downloads, B2C product sales, or something else. Secondary goals might include getting more social followers and whatnot. I don't know your website (it doesn't seem to be listed in the question), so I cannot tell. But basically, what goal do you want your website to achieve, in the end? In this hypothetical example, I'll use the goal of selling photos.

2. Who is your target audience (or customer)? Be as specific as possible. If you specialize in, say, sports photos, then you would want to target people who love sports A, B, and C.

3. What is your messaging and positioning? There are tons of photography websites and blogs out there. What truly makes you different and standout? What is your "unique product quality" and "unique value proposition"? Say that you love baseball and the New York Yankees. Then, you could brand yourself, say, as the top photographer of the New York Yankees. The "messaging" that you come up with can be applied to the text on your website, the sales text on the images themselves, your social media profiles, and countless other places.

4. Where is your target audience? Are they on Facebook, online message boards, reading certain publications? In my New York Yankees example, you would create a list of all the online communities, websites, and message boards that are used by Yankees fans. You'd also want to research and create a list of the biggest influencers and bloggers among Yankees fans (and more).

5. Create the content. What this entails would depend greatly on what is determined in the prior steps. In my hypothetical example, you might create graphics, infographics, e-books, and more that would all delight and interest Yankees fans enough to encourage them to spread your website's stuff naturally.

Obviously, this is a basic, short example -- this process can become very complicated. But I just hope it will get you started thinking in the right, strategic direction! Good luck!

[ShootTokyo]

Great advice.   Thanks for taking the time to give me a thoughtful response.  I didn't think of searching for photography sites.    I think what I am looking to do is hiring someone to do a technical review of my site and coach me through my SEO process.  I don't have a lot of free time for this so I want to be as productive as possible and avoid any pitfalls.   I'll make a separate post mentioning that I am looking for someone.

Thanks

[ShootTokyo]

Thanks for the thoughtful response Alan.   Don't worry I am not looking for quick or easy fixes.  I am just looking to make sure I am on the right track and not wasting time.   I have read the beginners guide and I'll read it again.   Thanks for the advice.

[EGOL]

You can get a lot of great help from Moz Q&A.

The best way to accomplish that is the same as pulling in traffic to a website.   That is to start with relevant titles on your questions and then giving a generous description of what type of assistance you need and what you hope to accomplish.

For example, you are looking for help with the technical aspects of wordpress.  If you use "Need technical help with wordpress" or  "Need an SEO check on my wordpress site" as the title of your question, that will attract people who know about wordpress to read it.  Then, in that question give generous information about the current state of your site and what you have done to enhance wordpress so far.  Are you using categories, tags, etc.  The best would be to share the URL so people can actually see what you are doing.  If you are looking for paid assistance, state that.  If you just want people to provide opinions, state that.

Keep in mind that Q&A can bring your experienced advice from highly qualified people but it can also bring unqualified kibitzing.   Its up to you to decide what advice is best suited for you.

Q&A always works best for specific questions, rather than a broad, dig into my website and write me a thesis on how to improve it.  People here might spend 10, 20, 30 minutes looking at your site and giving you a reply.  That can be perfect for specific questions, but can be fatally shallow for a deep evaluation.  So be as specific as you can for best results.  The deep evaluations are best done by someone you have paid for their time.

You mention that you have a photography site.  If you search Q&A you will certainly find that there are hundreds of questions asked by people who own photography sites.   You might benefit a lot by reading them, seeing their questions and reading what type of advice was given.  Photography sites are some of the most frequently discussed types of sites in Q&A.

Good luck to you.

[AlanBleiweiss]

David,

Welcome to the intriguing, daunting, sometimes overwhelming world of SEO!

I applaud you for wanting to now be proactive in your site's success.  However I caution you to be careful in hoping to find easy, quick answers. While many people may be able to offer valid suggestions, many others could just as easily offer what "appear" to be valid suggestions, yet where those might be overly-simplified, or even downright incorrect.

This happens often in our industry. Sometimes its unintentional. People mean well, yet they themselves don't have the level of experience necessary to be directing others in unique situations.  And sadly, sometimes it's myopic - some people just get full of themselves and offer guidance as if they're experts when they have other motives.

So - what's a site owner to do?

First and best recommendation I can make is to start with the Moz Beginners Guide to SEO.  It's a brilliantly crafted and well laid out resource that I encourage all newcomers to read, re-read and truly absorb.

From there, you can ask more nuanced questions here in the Moz Q&A forum. Pay attention to who's providing answers - are they themselves new / green? Or are they at least a regular contributor here?

Beyond that, there are many other resources to consider, however these are excellent first steps.

[ShootTokyo]

That's a very nice response Mat.  Appreciate it and any advice and direction you can give me.  I am reaching out to people for guest posts, portfolio submissions and photographer interviews.  Let me know if you have other ideas of links I can try to acquire.

[matbennett]

No time to answer properly now (mostly because I just got really sucked into your blog!).  Great site and amazing photos though.  Acquiring links shouldn't be too hard to a site like that.

I'm sure you'll get some great answers, but I'll check back later and post some thoughts if you haven't.  I just wanted to pass on the appreciation of a great site first.