How to Get More Traffic to Your Wedding Photography Blog

One of the most effective ways for wedding photographers to advertise for free is by blogging their work. There’s an old saying that goes something like “you can’t sell what you can’t show,” and it can’t be more true when it comes to our services. If we don’t blog, or show our work, how would a potential client find us? And guess what the best part is? Blogging is absolutely free!

There are many different strategies out there. Some will focus solely on SEO (search engine optimization), while some believe in buying Google ads. You can find a ton of different sources online on the topic of SEO. That’s not the focus of this article. I wanted to share how I maximize web traffic to my blog posts after a wedding or engagement session has been posted.

For my business, I believe getting your work seen by as many people as possible is the most important way to advertise and getting your brand out there. When I blog, I absolutely love it when my clients share their blog posts. It shows me that they loved their session so much that they wanted all of their friends and family to see their images. More hits to the blog post equals higher Google ranking based on the key terms. It's a win-win for everyone. So exactly what do you do? How do you maximize traffic to your blog posts after you post a session? Here are the five things you can do right now to drive more traffic to your blog.

1. Timing

Clients are the most excited about their photos immediately after the shoot. The longer you wait, the more the excitement wears off. So timing is everything. If your schedule allows you to blog a session, blog as soon as possible. I send my clients an email immediately after the session that explains the process to my clients, and gets them excited about the blog post.

2. Centralize

I see a lot of photographers have two or three different websites; one for their portfolio, one for their blog, and another for their online gallery. Maybe they will have a Facebook fan page on top of that, too. All of these are competing traffic for each other. Centralize and focus web traffic to one location. For me, that is my blog. I post only one image on Facebook, and my clients will have to share my blog post and not the Facebook fan page. My website doesn’t get any SEO juice if my clients share a Facebook gallery over my website. I also don’t provide my clients with a separate "best of" online gallery to share. If they are going to share images from the shoot, it will be from my blog post.

3. Incentivize

Our clients really don’t have to help us with our SEO. It’s nice when they do, but they don’t have to. In order to thank my clients for doing so, I provide them with some sweet incentives. There are a lot of things you can thank your clients with. The incentives are covered in my email templates for wedding photographers. And because I install an array of social media plugins, when my clients or their friends comment on the blog, it shows up on their own networks’ newsfeed.

4. Don’t forget the vendors!

Don’t forget about all the vendors that worked hard on the wedding or the session with you. Wedding planners, floral, hair/makeup artists, etc; We all work together as a team to create the best results for our clients. They are just as excited about the session as you are. I send all the vendors an immediate email after the wedding or shoot, thanking them for their talent and involvement with the shoot. I also typically credit all the vendors that are involved in the shoot. The template emails I send to my vendor friends specify where and how they should share the images that will be mutually beneficial to everybody.

5. Be Social

Make sure your blog post and images are readily shareable. That means installing a Facebook “like” plugin, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest “pin it” buttons, and so on. When a viewer interacts with your blog post — commenting, liking it, pinning it — you want to make it easy for that interaction to show up on their social media network.

So those are my top 5 tips of getting more web traffic to your blog! The implementation of these strategies are all covered in my new email templates for wedding photographers. If you follow my email system, you will notice an immediate jump in your web traffic as well! If you have any other tip, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to share it in the comments section below. Fstoppers readers will receive 10% off their purchase by using the code "fstoppers".

Guest Contributor Jeremy Chou is a fine-art luxury wedding photographer based in Southern California. He has shot weddings internationally and also taught workshops in both United States and Asia. He has a bachelor’s degree in architecture and worked in an architect’s office for almost 10 years before switching to wedding photography full-time. He currently lives in Rancho Cucamonga with his wife and two daughters.