Photographer home page seo
-
I have a question about the best way to optimize a photographer's homepage for SEO. It's a simple answer if you specialize in one or two things but in my experience many beginner (and even seasoned photographers) will shoot whatever they can get their hands on. Perhaps you mainly shoot weddings and engagement sessions but you also shoot newborns from time to time, family photos, high school seniors and generic head shots. Granted the short answer may be to simply suggest that they specialize however coming from the photography world that isn't always feasible. Of course we'd suggest that they should create a page for each specialty to optimize for that specific keyword, but I'm talking mainly about the home page.
Dallas Wedding Engagement Family Newborn headshot photographer looks pretty spammy and I'm sure Google won't like that either.
In some cases you can definitely group things together, like family, senior portrait and new born could feasibly be grouped into "Dallas family portrait photographer" etc, but in other instances where you shoot everything not so much.
So with that being said, in terms of optimizing both the title tag and content on the page (easier to separate out) what would your advice be?
-
Julie,
Love, love, love this perspective/way of saying to people they should niche down.
The other aspect of niching is that you then automatically tell the prospective client what you will do for the them because you are addressing their problems.
Bingo!
-- Jewel
-
I agree with Jewel - trying to be all things to all people is a recipe for disaster.
I am teaching a social media class to realtors on Wednesday and I know (from experience) that when I ask who is your target market, they'll say anyone who wants to buy or sell a home. I'm going to try out this response on them.
When you say anyone who wants to buy or sell a home, you say that I am only important to you in the money you can make from me. Do you think that will make me like or trust you. Instead you say your target market is people who like the arts and dogs. Now you are saying that my interests are important to you. If you say your target market is people who like traditional performing arts (ballet, opera and old-fashioned musicals) and dachshunds, you are saying I am important to you. And then you'll be important to me.
Your photographer is telling prospects that he/she just wants to make a buck. The home page should inspire the real prospect to believe that there could be no other photographer in the area that understands me better.
-
My first piece of advice would be to niche the client as much as you can.
First, why? Because it will make it a lot easier for you to use distinct keywords that will bring to the photographer their target market, the people who would actually buy their services. They need to know their target market, and not throw spaghetti against the wall by being everything to everyone.
Second, if the client does not understand their own business, then they need to hold off on SEO. I know the tendency for small businesses is to try to do everything, but that isn't possible. SEO may not be for them.
Next, the "how". This article sums it up pretty well. https://www.risingtidesociety.com/how-to-find-your-niche/
Layer 1: Suzie is a Photographer
Layer 2: Suzie is a Portrait Photographer
Layer 3: Suzie is a Portrait Photographer Specializing in Children between the ages of 2 and 10
Alright…not bad…but were not at the “special sauce” yet.
Layer 4: Suzie is a portrait photographer who specializes in special needs children between the ages of 2-10.
BAM. _That _layer, my friends, is where the magic happens.
Next, if you haven't yet, ask your client to answer, "I am in the business of ...." and see what they say. That will help you to determine what words to use on the home page. I also like to ask about values/mission, such as: "I am committed to _______ first and foremost, followed by ____________ and then ___________." This helps me to understand the brand better and determine what to emphasize when I have questions about keywords.
As regards your question on what terms or phrases to use...I would start with location and then discuss their "major" services. You can niche for the other "minor" services on the actual pages.
To answer your question, though, as for an example, here is an anonymized adaptation of SEO I provided for an interior designer in a major metro area. You could adapt this to your client, and tweak for better character length than the anonymized example. She got into the 3-pack.
Dallas County Photography >> Company Name
Dallas County Photography >> City1, City2 & City3, State | Weddings, Engagements, Events, Family, Newborn, and headshots photographer.[But for all that is Holy, convince your client to niche, no matter how scary. They really will do better.]
If you haven't checked him out, this guy might also have some advice. http://www.foregroundweb.com/blog/seo-guide-for-photographers/
Good luck, and let me know if I can help again.
-- Jewel
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Need advice w/ keywords & content to get started with SEO on my own website
I am a real estate agent, marketing properties to Germans moving to / buying an overseas home in my country. I inquired with a few different SEO agencies and I cannot afford their services, $3000+ a month and my market is not huge as you will see in the search data below. So I will have to go ahead and do SEO on my own and will obviously need some help. The space is not competitive which is awesome. That's how the volume and competition look for the most popular (& broadest) search term is "immobilien countryname" (property countryname), according to Ubersuggest - attachment 1 (translation for reference): property countryname 1300 property in countryname 480 buy property countryname 260 property countryname seaview 170 buy property countryname 110 Here is an example of the top 10 searches for houses by volume. (Attachment 2 is a screenshot of the competition) 1. haus in countryname kaufen 720 $0.14
Keyword Research | | dnlpwrsellr
(house in countryname buy)
2. countryname haus kaufen 590 $0.36
(countryname house buy)
3. einfamilienhaus countryname haus kaufen 210 $0.45
(single family countryname house buy)
4. häuser in countryname kaufen 170 $0.29
(houses in countryname buy)
5. haus countryname kaufen 170 $0.46
(house countryname buy)
6. günstige häuser in countryname 110 $0.10
(cheap houses in countryname)
7. häuser kaufen in countryname location1 110 $0.22
(houses buy in countryname location1)
8. haus kaufen countryname meerblick 90 $0.20
(house buy countryname sea-view)
9. haus in countryname location2 kaufen 70 $0.03
(house in countryname location2 buy)
10. countryname haus am meer kaufen 70 $0.05
(countryname house near the sea buy) the first 5 results are taken by big portals, just the top one has done any optimization at all as you can see the competition is pretty lame, just some of them are doing any SEO, pretty badly (including spammy links), still rank. The way it seems, there are 4 main categories to optimize for: Properties Houses Apartments 'Move to countryname' information Should I optimize my homepage for a 'property' term, 3 other pages for 'house', 'apartment, and 'info' terms? How do I pick keywords to optimize for, esp. considering that they are basically the same e.g.: house in countryname buy countryname house buy house countryname buy or property countryname countryname property property in countryname ...and should I pick just one? What sort of content could I include in a "buy a house in countryname" type of page and how do I write around such keywords? I am having an issue finding examples to follow as there is no competition to emulate and the other markets/countries are dominated by large portals which also seemingly get ranked based on size / authority. Beyond that there is virtually no interest in the country = no traffic, besides general bs such as the language, the weather and such where there are a bunch of huge websites on the first page - so I am not sure what content could I use to drive traffic. I will come up with something, but there are no obvious ones.. My domain name is 1 year old, I have no links yet. Moz reports Page Authority 5, Domain Authority 2 for my domain. I reckon that's enough for starters... Any input and ideas are more than welcome! Thank you. Qy2gat6.png tG93AJt.png0 -
On-page optimization for closely related keywords or acronyms of keywords
We are in the process of on-page optimization for a site that sells one kind of software. We are trying to optimize each page for a target keyword and variations of the keyword, however we have more pages than keyword variation types, so I'm looking for feedback on whether the below plan would be keyword cannibalization. Examples: URL: www.domain.com/product
Keyword Research | | seo_1234b
Tarket Keyword: device imaging software
Title Tag: Device Imaging Software | Company Name URL: www.domain.com/solutions
Target Keyword: device imaging solutions
Title Tag: Device Imaging Solutions | Company Name URL: www.domain.com/products/product-name
Target Keyword: dis (acronym)
Title Tag: DIS Software | Product Name | Company Name My question is are these keyword too closely related for each of the pages? Will they be considered duplicate title tags? Keyword cannibalization? etc. Thanks!0 -
Different landing page "stole" keyword.
Hi everyone. So I optimized and used the on-page grader for landing page A. I got it down from 15 to 9 on its ranking. Weirdly, that keyword and landing page A tanked to 60 on its ranking, seemingly overnight. While this was all happening, landing page B, which was never optimized for this keyword, effectively "stole" the keyword and it now has a ranking of 9 for this keyword. As I see it, this keyword and landing page B don't match as well as the keyword and landing page A, but I don't want to lose the increased organic traffic I now receive. Does anyone have insight to this or direct me to an already answered question regarding this? Thanks a ton, -Josh
Keyword Research | | SpectraCal0 -
Using Adwords to determine effective SEO keywords
Hello, My name is Mitchell and I'm new to the MOZ community and to the SEO field. I just recently launched an e-commerce website that sells refurbished laptops and computers and I have been researching ways to bring traffic and sales to our website. I understand that the first step to building an effective SEO campaign is to determine effective keywords to build from: targeted traffic + good volume.I've used several online tools to find relevant keywords and it appears that most of the relevant keywords are already Highly competitive and the first 2 Google pages are usually taken over by big name brands.I understand that I need to find low competition long tail keywords and start my way up from there.Assuming that I find 5-10 long tail keywords with low competition and decent search volume, here are my questions:- Should I test these long tail keywords with Google Adwords to find out if they convert well BEFORE I optimize my website for them?- Since I will be having several different long tail keywords, do I need to have a separate webpage on my site for each? (I believe that it's suggested to have one page per keyword, maximum 2)- If yes, does that mean that each long tail keyword needs to have it's own back links to bring in traffic?- Should I optimize my homepage for a long tail keyword as well? or should I optimize it for the more broader keywords and create sub-pages for the long tail keywords?- One of my site's main products is a very popular item and has high competition and search volume. Would it make sense to purchase a domain name that spells out the item (ej. HP-Pavillion-DV6.com) and publish reviews, specs and information about the item there (using a blogging service like Tumbler or Wordpress)? Or redirect the domain name to a page on my site with that information? Or just create a page on my site with that information and create back-links to it? Thanks in advance for your taking the time to respond and for your invaluable feedback. Respectfully, Mitchell.
Keyword Research | | Wasabii0 -
Penalty for on-page optimizing too many pages?
Hey in the process of building a new site in the fitness niche - targeting keywords such as: <colgroup><col width="387"></colgroup>
Keyword Research | | monster99
| how to get a flat stomach |
| how to get rid of belly fat fast |
| how to get rid of belly fat for women |
| how to get rid of love handles fast |
| how to get skinny |
| how to have more energy |
| how to loose weight fast |
| how to lose love handles |
| how to lose love handles fast |
| how to lose lower belly fat | All these keywords get decent search volume. My question, alot of the content for these keywords would be similar for example - "how to get a flat stomach", "how to lose love handles" and "how to get skinny" would pretty much have similar content. I could build a single page for all these keywords but i loose all the ranking benefits from doing on-page optimization such as creating a page for each of these keywords and optimizing it for each of these keywords (e.g. putting the keyword in the URL and Title) But if i build individual pages, to me it doesn't look natural optimizing multiple pages for the keyword terms, plus i loose the benefits of building a single page (e.g. less costly, not as much outreach activity required, etc) You could argue however that if you create individual pages for each of these keywords you are addressing the query directly as theres a slight difference between "how to lose love handles and how to get a flat stomach. But i guess thats up to google to decide. So how would you approach this? Cheers, Chris0 -
Duplicate Page Title Recommendation (For pretty much identical products)
Hi, I'm currently writing the meta data for the launch of a new ecommerce site for our company & the way the site is set out means that each product has it's own landing page. The issue with this is that we have a lot of products that either do the same thing or are only a very slight variation of another product. This is causing a bit of a problem writing the page titles because as you can imagine in order to keep it relevant I'm having to pretty much copy other page titles. For example Product A 3/4 Length | Keywords | Company Product A Full Length | Keywords | Company Also as you can imagine it's a bit of an issue for the on-page text due to the only variation being the length (in this example) with only a slight bit of changed content to accomodate. I was wondering if anyone had come across similar problems to this and if so how did they resolve the issue? I don't really want to be penalised by Google for multiple duplicate content/metadata across the site. Should I just target the keyword for one of these products and then target a still relevant keyword, but one that has next to no searches for the other, similar product do you reckon? Cheers
Keyword Research | | TalarMade0 -
Pages with similar keywords and similar rankings and redirects
I have several pages that rank high on google with very similar content should I redirect one of these pages to the other? Example www.vanceautogroup.com/ford-inventory/ www.vanceautogroup.com/dealers-in-oklahoma-city/ford-dealer-in-oklahoma-city Should I use a 301 Redirect?
Keyword Research | | NICK_PATE0 -
How do I conduct organic SEO for a company with 2 locations?
Hi, I'm currently working on improving rankings for a web design company. I think i'm possibly getting a bit hung up on this but I'm a bit stuck! The company has offices in 2 locations in the UK - in both Leicester and London. Do I need to include the 2 different locations in my keywords to improve ranking for both locations, say someone searching in Leicester searching for say 'web design Leicester'? ie one of my page titles (with keywords) is currently: Web design agency, Graphic design, Branding, Leicester & London Am I going about this in the right way? Hope this makes sense!
Keyword Research | | CWseo0