Photography Site ranking!

[Springnik]

Hi

I am working on a photography site: www.daffodilwaves.co.uk now there isn't many pages nor is the that much text. However you will see that they have a blog (poorly designed one which we are addressing)

Now blog posts I feel can be really good as there is generally alot of naturally written text which I don't feel I need to influence. Also generally people will comment so I also believe that is good for rankings too.

However I find that the blog ranks higher than the actual website and I dont want that to occur the website is the one that generates the bookings.

So can you give me some ideas to transfer the ranking from the blog to the website?  I was thinking that within the article I could simply link back to the homepage - would you think that is a good idea?

If so would you suggest I use particular anchor text? such as "Wedding Photographer" or "Comtemporary wedding Photographer"

Thanks

[Springnik]

I see you point Egol and thanks for your input.

[EGOL]

Without maybe using numbers after i.e Bride & Groom at The Alter, Bride & Groom At The Alter 2.

These people have names, were married on a specific date, the photo is at a specific venue, taken with a certain type of camera, could be that filters were used, who was photographer.

This photographer should know these two important facts....

- every picture tells a story

- every picture is worth a thousand words

If photographer wants to be lazy and not put text on the page then don't expect the benefit.  There is a lot of search for people by name, lots of search for venues, lots of search for different types of stories.

Most people dont want to read the text especially when looking at a large number of images they just want to browse the images.

This is an assumption.  I think that it is wrong.  I bet lots of people would read lots of the words on these pages.  Mothers, friends, and others are interested in these people.

[Springnik]

Hi R.Kent

When you say put some of my favourite testimonials and link to my testimonial page can you let me know how this is improving my site?  Is it SEO or is it in terms of user experience?

Regarding my award I understand Im just struggling on visualising how I woulc accomplish this whilst not making the site look crowded or unattractive any suugestions?

Thanks

[Springnik]

Again thank you for your repsonse EGOL

The best way to think of my site is like a photo album and if you think most photo albums dont have any text in them at all.

Most people dont want to read the text especially when looking at a large number of images they just want to browse the images.

However I see the point you are making I guess I need to find the correct balance so I can get the most from my site.

I was thinking maybe to have a title section where I title the image however the problem I see is that many iamges are similar and it can be hard to differentiate them.

Without maybe using numbers after i.e Bride & Groom at The Alter, Bride & Groom At The Alter 2.

Do you think this would be a good idea? and maybe have the title tag for the page change according to the image too?

Thanks for the ideas.....I will try and make the blog better so people click back to my main site.

Thanks again!

[RyanKent]

Your blog already has sidebar navigation which offers links to your Home, About Me and Gallery pages. You can add Testimonials, Press, Pricing and Contact Me to that navigation and then you will be max'd out in terms of links.

You do have opportunities to improve your main site.

• pick a couple of your favorite testimonials and add them to your home page, with a link to your testimonial page.

• you won an award this year @ Miami Fashion Week, and have coverage in Vogue! Don't bury that info on your Press page. Highlight it on your home page with links to the Press page.

• your many photographs in the gallery can be supplemented with a bit of text. You can talk about the black and white photographs you show and how b&w photos sometimes are preferable to color photos. For each picture tell a compelling story of how your photography enhances the wedding experience and helps couples remember the best day of their lives. Be creative!

[EGOL]

Content is very limited on a gallery / images.

I would find a way to get more content.  People want to know what they are looking at.  The photographer can communicate type of camera, filters, image processing, etc.

there isn't a way of funneling the "link juice" from the blog to more appropiate pages of the site?

Add a ton of links to every blog page hitting other pages on the site that are outside of the blog.  And, limit the number of links on all pages of the site that hit pages within the blog.

However, if this was my site I would not try to strangle the pagerank out of the blog.  The blog is working so I would be feeding it and figuring out how to get traffic onto other pages of the site.  This is a design problem where you need interesting thumbnails and descriptions that click to the main site.

Capitalize on the blog.  I would put more effort into it if this was my site.

[Springnik]

Thank you for your response

Content is very limited on a gallery / images.

I am working on more links but basically you are saying there isn't a way of funneling the "link juice" from the blog to more appropiate pages of the site?

[EGOL]

However I find that the blog ranks higher than the actual website and I dont want that to occur the website is the one that generates the bookings.

Google is being good to the blog.... you should be rejoicing!  Yay!

I would get to work improving the other parts of the site if you want them to rank better.  Improve content, sharpen optimization, get more links.