How to Bring in Inquiries Through a Long-Term SEO Strategy
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Are you done with the days of having to post on Instagram to receive inquiries? Are you tired of feeling like your marketing channels are running in more of a short-term kind of way? Then SEO strategy for photographers is the way to go. It’s such a powerful strategy you can start implementing now for more of those long-term effects.
I love speaking about SEO and I teach it in-depth inside of my mentorship program, Book It, and it’s truly been one of my favorite ways to see my business grow without needing to constantly be present.
However, without it just being me talking about these things, I brought Rachelle Gyetvai from Photography Workflows to speak with us about how to implement SEO in your photography business. Rachelle helps photographers build sustainable businesses. With a rich background in visual communications, over a decade as a corporate marketing consultant, and a former photographer, she brings a unique blend of expertise to the industry.
During our conversation, we talk about the first 3 things Rachelle recommends doing to optimize your website for SEO. We also discuss keywords, how to know what keywords to rank for, blogging and Pinterest, and how SEO helps you to build more of a sustainable business.
Rachelle’s journey from communications to photographer to SEO strategist
To truly understand Rachelle’s journey, you have to go back to when she was a child. Growing up in the 90s and not having a computer in the home, she had to find ways to be creative. She got her first digital camera when she was 12. Once she got a computer, she discovered Photoshop and she instantly became obsessed. Rachelle would spend hours learning the program.
Fast forward – She shot her first wedding at 17 years old and majored in visual communications technology in college. It covered everything from photography to videography to web design and marketing.
Rachelle knew she wanted to help businesses in some way, but didn’t know what capacity she wanted to do that in. She decided to do some freelance work, including photography and building websites for local businesses. She also took on a full-time marketing job.
Everything changed when she had her son. Rachelle felt like God was leading her to be home with him. That’s when she focused on growing her own business by editing photos for wedding photographers. However, she was maxed out and didn’t have enough clients to leave her 9-5.
She eventually discovered Dubsado, which gave her the opportunity to be strategic in creating workflows and systems. Other photographers started asking her to help them with their workflows, and this allowed her to finally leave her 9-5. Rachelle has also always been drawn to SEO, so she also helps with SEO, blogging, and Pinterest.
The first 3 things you should be doing to optimize your website for SEO for photographers
Rachelle prefaces this question by saying that SEO is a slow-burn marketing strategy. You won’t get instant gratification. However, it’s really powerful once you have it in place and it will serve you for years to come.
The first thing you need to do is make sure your homepage clearly states your location and the services you offer above the fold. This means that when someone goes to your website, they don’t have to scroll to find out what you do. Whatever they see at the top is considered above the fold.
The next thing is to make sure that this is set up as an H1 header. It’s something on the backend that the viewer cannot see, but it tells Google and other search engines what that specific page is all about. So, making it clear where you’re at and what you’re offering is incredibly important.
Last, Rachelle suggests talking about your location and the type of photography you offer throughout the entire page. She challenges you to have at least 500 words on that page, but if you go up to 1,000, that’s fantastic! Having a lot of content on the page helps Google to understand what that page is all about so it knows where you rank.
The best platforms for keyword research
The most user-friendly SEO tool Rachelle has found is Uber Suggest. You can research keywords for your website and your blogs, as well as the search density to see how competitive it is. You can also see the keywords you’re currently ranking for on your website and then see what your organic monthly traffic is.
Another platform to use is Google Search Console. It is completely free and it connects to your website. Just like Uber Suggest, you can see how often you’re showing up in the searches, but you can also see how often you’re showing up in the searches for those different keywords. So, it will show you both clicks and impressions. Impressions is the amount of times you showed up on Google for that specific keyword. Clicks is the amount of time someone clicked on a specific link of yours and headed to your website.
How to prioritize looking for keywords to actually rank for
You want to get into the mind of your potential client and think through what they are looking for and what you can help them with. One of the first things couples tend to do is look for their venue, so if you can have a piece of content that shares all of your favorite wedding venues, not only are you helping that couple explore different venues, but then they can also happen to land on your website.
Should blogging and Pinterest be part of your SEO strategy?
Blogging should definitely be part of your SEO strategy, and Pinterest is an extra bonus. To break it down, SEO is optimizing your online space to show up in the search engines. The algorithm for Google and other search engines is based on words, so it’s really important to have a lot of words to offer Google. This way, they know what your website is about, who you serve, where you serve, and what you offer.
We do this through blogging. With the main pages on your website, you can only rank for so many keywords. Blogging offers the opportunity to rank for additional keywords that might not make sense on the main page of your website.
Pinterest is super powerful, but it’s not essential for your SEO strategy. However, it does give you the opportunity to take all of those blogs you’ve created and push them on a different platform your potential clients are using.
How often should a new photographer be SEO blogging?
The great thing about blogging is you don’t have to be as active as you need to be on social media. Rachelle recommends trying to create a piece of content at least once a month. It’s different from social media because once you create that piece of content, it has a much longer shelf-life.
Other SEO strategies for Photographers Rachelle recommends
A lot of websites tend to have a service page that lists all of the services on their website. If you offer elopements and engagements, instead of having those services on the same page, break those up and give each of those services their own page to shine.
The reason for this is you can only really target one specific main keyword per page. It’s going to be really hard to rank as an elopement photographer on the same page as an engagement photographer. Having those separate pages will give you a chance to target each specific service.
How many pins to create per blog post
With Pinterest, you do need to be consistent. Even if you’re only able to do 1 pin per day, it’s really important to commit to whatever it is you can commit to and stick to that. When Rachelle pins for her clients, she pins between 3 and 5 pins a day. There is keyword research you can do there as well. It’s called Pin Inspector which has a one-time payment to purchase the software. You can find a lot of different keywords that people are using, but you can also just go to the search bar on Pinterest and see what drops down to know what’s being searched for there.
How SEO allows photographers to build sustainable businesses
Rachelle likes to think of our websites as our digital homesteads. It’s something you own. It’s your online home where you can show off your amazing work and where people can learn more about you and the services you offer.
However, just because you have this beautiful digital homestead, it doesn’t automatically mean potential clients and search engines even know you exist. What we’re doing with SEO is essentially turning on this super bright porch light so people and search engines can find you. The cool thing about SEO is the quality of leads it brings in and the longer shelf-life it gives to the content that you’re spending your time creating.
Let’s compare an Instagram post to a blog post. With the carousel post, you have to spend time writing the caption, writing the content for the carousel itself, and creating the graphics. There’s a lot of time you’re spending creating that post, and it maybe lasts for 48 hours. Then, you have to create more content and continue to do that.
With blogging, you spend time writing the post, doing the keyword research, and adding your photos. It does take a decent amount of time, but once it’s out there, it’s going to continue to serve you for years to come. The shelf-life is insanely longer than an Instagram post.
The other thing you need to think of is the quality. Instagram is a place for passive discovery. A lot of people who go to social media are there to scroll and be entertained. So, while they may come across your beautiful work, they may not even be engaged or just not at that part of their planning process. Maybe they will save for later, but they could forget about you.
When people go to Google or Pinterest, they are there to actually look for something, so the quality of those leads will be much higher.
Ways to work with Rachelle
If you’re interested in working with Rachelle, she has a free SEO audit workshop for those who are brand new at SEO. You’ll learn more about keywords, figure out what keywords you’re currently ranking for, and it will check to see what the H1 headers are on your website.
You can also get $50 off her SEO Refresh simply by mentioning All Angles in the inquiry form. Rachelle will go through and optimize 4 pages on your website. She’ll also do a custom keyword research strategy for you to figure out the best keywords specific to you, and then optimize 2 of your existing blogs. This will give you a great foundation to hit the ground running with SEO!
In this episode, we cover:
- Rachelle’s journey from communications to photographer to SEO strategist
- The first 3 things you should be doing to optimize your website for SEO
- The best platforms for keyword research
- How to prioritize looking for keywords to actually rank for
- Should blogging and Pinterest be part of your SEO strategy?
- How often new photographers should be blogging and how many pins should be posted per day
- Other SEO strategies Rachelle recommends
- How SEO allows photographers to build sustainable businesses
- Ways to work with Rachelle
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Connect with Rachelle
$50 off an SEO refresh – Mention All Angles in the inquiry form
Follow Claire:
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