3 SEO No-Nos for Photographers - By Jenna Christina
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) used to make me feel quite overwhelmed. But as the introvert that I am, with practically zero connections in my local area, I was determined to climb the Google ranks in order to get found by my ideal clients.
While there are a ton of things you can do to increase your SEO, there are also some practices we have that may hinder your Google search climb.
Let's take a look at 3 SEO No-nos so you can stay in the Google Game:
1. Do not keep changing your domain name
The longer your website domain's history is, the better – it’s kind of like building up your credit! Google wants to give priority to quality sites that have been up longer – the “new guy” will have to prove their worth by sticking around.
Changing your website domain also takes away the SEO juice from links out there that are directed towards your old website.
2. Do not link to your top level pages
Top level pages – pages that the top navigation menu has links to – should not be continuously linked to in your content. These are typically your home page, about page, contact page, portfolio etc. It is SO TEMPTING to add something along the lines of “Book your session here!” with a link to your contact page at the end of every blog post, but Google doesn’t like piling on links that people can already find at the top.
Instead, focus on linking back to relevant blog posts you’ve written previously that make sense with the subject matter you are writing about. For example I might blog a client Fresh 48 session, and add “Check out this article on what a documentary Fresh 48 session is” at the bottom of the blog post.
3. Do not write like a robot
Everything you write should sound natural to humans - don’t force a jumble of keywords into your first blog post paragraph.
Instead, think of what is relevant for the client to know, write your heart out, and then go back and evaluate if you can add some keywords in there in natural ways (and whole sentences). I like to hit the location as well as what type of session it is. You could have “Gaby's newborn session in San Jose” as the post title and start off your post with “Gaby’s parents wanted an infant session while she was still in a sleepy snuggly stage, so I headed over to their home one sunny San Jose morning”. Google has gotten good at making connections between synonyms, and will know that newborn and infant refer to the same thing.
That’s all I have for you today!
Join me and fellow documentary family photographers for the 4 week mentored workshop Play The Google Game starting October 4th, to kick some serious SEO butt!
San Jose based newborn and family photographer Jenna Christina will guide you through multiple steps that help you climb that Google search ladder so that you can get steady local traffic to your site – without paying for marketing. In the last week Seattle based family photographer Rachel Haynes will show you how keeping track of your analytics will help you really kick your google game into high gear.