Here's What You Can Do to Make Your Website Rank Better on Google

When you jump into doing photography professionally as a business, you quickly learn that your website’s search engine results are an essential part of making your business successful. Here’s how to improve your visibility on Google.

Search engine optimization, better known as SEO, can be a time-consuming and ultimately frustrating process. Because the rules of SEO are always evolving and changing, it can be hard to stay on top of the best practices that will ultimately help your business gain more visibility and strengthen your marketing strategies. Because of the evolving playing field of Search Engine Optimization, another problem that photographers face when trying to improve their SEO is they find themselves using outdated methods that can harm their ranking results in the long run. 

The fact that SEO is always growing and changing is the main reason for frustration amongst business owners. But at the same time, the reason SEO is always growing and changing is because companies like Google are ultimately trying to make the internet a better place, and instead of viewing SEO as a game that can be manipulated, SEO has become an integral strategy that businesses find themselves having to incorporate into their marketing to be successful. Photographers can no longer “game” the system by only using keywords in strategic places or by finding valuable links that point back to their websites. Nowadays, successful SEO is dependent upon great content. As a search engine, Google is continuously looking for ways to give their website visitors more value. They do this by finding websites that offer better content and ranking them higher than websites that do not provide useful content.

So what does this mean for photographers? It means that if we want our websites to rank above our competition, in addition to utilizing better keywords, we need to be offering better content to our website visitors. Here are a few ways you can help your website rank higher in search engine results.

More Content Equals Better Ranking (Sort Of)

If there is one thing I’d want you to take away from this article, it’s that content really is king. Because content is the reigning master when it comes to aspects that help a website rank higher, it’s important for photographers to focus much of their marketing efforts on creating and offering great content. However, creating content solely for the sake of creating content will get you nowhere. 

The content you create should be beneficial to your website visitors. It should cater to your ideal audience. For example, as a wedding photographer in Las Vegas, I might create an article all about tips on how a bride can travel with her wedding dress. This is valuable content that my brides can benefit from, and it’s also a topic that brides traveling to Las Vegas to get married are probably searching for online.

If you’re not regularly adding valuable content that caters to your ideal audience and new website visitors, you need to start incorporating this as a best-practice for your business.

Use Multiple Types of Media In Your Blog Posts

Speaking of creating valuable content for your website visitors, a great way to make your content more interesting is by using multiple types of media in your blog posts. Not only does adding photos and videos make your content more digestible, but Google loves when websites utilize its partner websites like YouTube to offer great content. Try embedding relevant videos within your blog posts for an extra SEO boost.

When adding photos to your blog posts, make sure you’re also adding Alt Tags. This helps Google understand what is in the picture, and helps your photos show up in the “Images” section of Google. 

Don’t Forget About Pinterest

When Pinterest first hit the Internet scene, it was all the rage. Pinterest was the first place you’d go to look for fresh ideas and inspiration. Then all the hype died down. People weren’t hearing so much about Pinterest because Instagram hype had taken over. However, in recent months Pinterest is making quite the resurgence, and plenty of people are still using Pinterest as a primary source to find new content.

When you publish a blog post, consider also posting a link to your blog post to Pinterest, and make it a habit to do this every time you publish something new on your blog. This will help your blog gain even more visibility, which Google loves to see because this is a cue to Google that your website is offering content that people want to see.

SEO is a long process, but remembering to focus on churning out valuable content will help you rise through the ranks for more people to find your photography business over your competitors. Start incorporating these few tips into your marketing strategy today, and you’ll start seeing better results down the line. Don’t give up, have patience, and all your hard work will pay off.

Lead Image by Caio Resende via Pexels.