How Photographers can Increase their Web Presence and SEO

How Photographers Can Increase their Web Exposure and

Get Noticed

by Scott Morvay; CEO of Vi Vante

In this blog post I’m going to share with you the techniques that have worked for me. It is important to remember there are no shortcuts to success;  if it was easy everyone would do it. 

The SEO File Name Method

First, what is  SEO?? It’s an acronym for search engine optimization. It sounds like black magic but it really isn’t! There are multiple steps you can take to increase your web presence as a photographer.  I’m going to get into details in this article. I have learned what works and what doesn’t, don’t get me wrong some of it is luck of the draw, but luck always favors the prepared. Constantly taking these steps will get your blog and images ranking higher. 

First and foremost;  Start with the Image Filename

For Example:

• Your name

• Subject Matter

• Location

• Camera used

• Lens name

For example if you photographed a race car at Daytona Speedway, list it in this manner: 

Scott Morvay Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Daytona Speedway Rolex 24 Leica M10.jpg

Another Example:

Vi Vante Matador Noir Braided Black Leather Camera Strap Leica M9.jpg

This way when people are searching those subjects, locations, cameras, and/or lenses, your images would come up leading them to your blog site. The more hits, the higher the search engines will rank your content. 

The Spider Web Method

Think of the internet as an intricately woven spider web that connects in a complicated pattern. Spreading yourself throughout this web is sure to get more traffic and exposure. Granted, certain social media platforms are more effective then others, but much like any successful stock portfolio you need to diversify. So what if you think Pinterest isn’t cool, 250 Million users a month think otherwise, you get the drift.

The key point to this method is;

ALL ROADS LEAD to ONE! 

This is where you ultimately want to send your traffic and that’s your website or blog. Always back linking and hyper linking to your website to raise it’s web ranking. If your web content is good and the traffic stays on there longer, then you will rank higher. 

Recommended Social Media Mediums for posting:

• Instagram

• Facebook

• Wordpress

• Pinterest

• Twitter

• Youtube

When using mediums that utilize hash tags you want to not only use the maximum allowed but research the appropriate ones.

You may be saying, this is a lot of work, well it is, and it is not for the faint of heart. It’s a constant effort that needs consistency. High Quality content is extremely important in driving traffic. As a photographer, you have to do your best to self edit and be brutally honest. If the photos are worth the post, hit that post button. Remember, once you do this, the photos are out there in cyber space.

Backlinking

Writing stories on your blog or website that can be shared by other websites is great! When they link back to you, that’s called Backlinking. It’s another great tool in increasing your web prevalence.If a blog backlinks to you, backlink to them.

Blog Post and Web Link Addresses

These addresses should make it clear what the person is looking at, think of it as another filename. It content that is applicable to the terms it ranks higher in search engines.

for example www.vi-vante.com/news/how-photographers-can-increase-seo

The Take 2

On your website or blogs you can replace the same photos with the enhanced file names we spoke about. Do this only if the other ones are not ranking at all or not coming up in google image search. 

Image Size 

It is my belief that it is more important to resize your images for faster loading, and to discourage them from being used for reasons other then you intended.

Please comment on what method works best for you and let’s share as a community. 

Negativity Free Zone, No keyboard bandits allowed.