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Hi

I am new to SEO.  I am the photographer and blogger behind the photography blog ShootTokyo.   I am looking to make sure my site is optimized the best it can be for SEO.  My site is a hobby for me but has really grown.  I am looking make sure I have best practices implemented. I am not looking for quick fixes or try to cheat the system but to make sure I have a good solid foundation in place for SEO.

I don't have a lot of experience nor a lot of free time so I want to make sure whatever free time I spend on this is really productive.  I am looking to initially hire someone to do a technical assessment of my site and identify any fundamental issues I should address first.   Once I have the assessment I am looking for advice on putting together a work plan on what I need to do and the best way to approach it.   How can I best use the tools Moz is offering me?  Which things are higher value that I should work on first, specific to my site?  For more technical things I might hire this person to implement them or teach me how to implement them.

If this is your business can you please let me know what your qualifications, experience, a link to your site and give me a range of what you might charge for something like this (you can email me details if you don't want to post here).  If this isn't your business but have a recommendation I would love one.

I am Tokyo based so ideally someone either in Asia, Europe or West Coast of US as it makes it easier to connect live if needed.

Thanks

Dave

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

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.

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.

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

Great advice.   Thanks Gianluca.  I'll try that plugin.    How do I make my photos embeddable?  Is there something specific I need to do to them.   I have tried reverse image search but you need to load one photo at a time.  Is there anyway for batching checking?

Hi Matthew

My question was what % of traffic do people typically get from organic traffic.  It is probably 10-20% now.

My social media approach is to focus on few networks and be active and engaging.

I try to only do a few posts a day of my own content.   I make sure I respond to comments when people interactive on my content.  I think you need to be genuine with people else it comes through.   I often read the blogs of my fans/followers.

I am very generous in sharing others content.   I use Feedly to read blogs and I constantly share others content and I always make sure to @ them.  Often you will get retweets from them and pick up followers from them.   I am very careful to spread out my posts throughout the day.  I use Buffer so when I am reading blogs and news I add them to my Buffer to be send out later in the day.   I do similar with Do Share for Google+.

For me Newsletter have grown the list through giving away an eBook and a pop up for sign ups.    I put a pop up on my site a two months ago and I get 400 sign ups a month now and only had 2 people comment about it (not even complain).

For services like Feedly, Flipboard and Google Currents I simply emailed them and asked them to list me.   It was surprisingly easy and they said Yes.   Flipboard even ran a splash page for me.    Never hurts to ask.

How much does organic traffic make up of your overall traffic?   I have typically been driving my traffic through social channels and trying to get a feeling for how much of my traffic I should expect through SEO over time.  For my blog www.shoottokyo.com I promote it through Google+, Facebook, and Tweeter.   I also 'distribute' it through Feedburner, Google Currents, Feedly and a Newsletter.  There isn't one way to promote but rather target actions through multiple channels.

Google+: 1,500,000+ have me in circles

Facebook: 3,000+ friends, fans and followers

Twitter: 2,700+ followers

Feedburner: 2,300+ subscribers

Google Currents: 36,000+ subscribers

Feedly: 1,000+ subscribers

My newsletter: 2,900 subscribers

Each of these are good sources of traffic.  Are there others you would recommend considering?   How much guest posting do you typically do?

I have been updating my site a lot and some of the updates are showing up in Google and some are not.  Is there a best practice in getting your site fully recrawled by Google?

Great responses guys.

Tom - Thanks for the very complete answer.  What I am looking to do is drive exposure for my blog.  I am not really interested in commercial work as a photographer but want to continue to drive a lot of traffic to my blog.   Great article on your site by the way.

Great advice.   Thanks Gianluca.  I'll try that plugin.    How do I make my photos embeddable?  Is there something specific I need to do to them.   I have tried reverse image search but you need to load one photo at a time.  Is there anyway for batching checking?