15 Handy SEO Tips for Photographers

Search engines are all about text input and text or media – or that is the common perception. As you can see, the very basic contradiction here is text vs media. Photographers are media geniuses who capture pictures and make their site to showcase their talent in photography. But the thing is, your potential clients search on the web by means of queries which are in the form of text. Any search engines Google or Bing or others, love text input and also search for relevant text to show the results.

So how are you, as a photographer who has loads of image based content going to optimize your site for search engines?

Here are 15 handy SEO tips for your photography site:

1) Title tag is vital

Your home page title tag should speak for you and this will be your number one boost for winning higher rank in search results. Example: <Title> San Jose, CA photographer expert in wedding and children photography</Title>

2) Text your site for on-page SEO

Research for keywords related to your photography niche and build text based content on every page. Keyword rich text footer is one such great idea.

3) Landing page is a big hit

Create keyword optimized landing pages for your specialities such as children, portrait, wedding photography, etc.

4) Alt tag your pictures

It is highly recommended that you include “Alt Tag” for photos on your website, at-least one tag per page. This is the “Alternate Text” for search engines to interpret your images.

5) Rename your pictures

Though this is tedious, renaming your pictures to describe the image or with keywords would be highly effective. When it comes to search engines, text.jpg is way better than number.jpg.

6) Local search is the best for photography

Photography is a local business as against global. It is therefore important to learn and imply local search optimization techniques. You can begin by claiming your Google plus local listing.

7) Write as many posts as possible

This doesn’t mean you need to blog on daily basis but doing it frequently will help build content related to photography and your chances of showing up on search results increases. One best way to choose topics could be answering your customers questions in the form of blog posts.

8) Image bookmarking sites

Submit your photographs and pictures to image bookmarking sites like Flickr, Fotki, Deviantart, etc.

9) Build your online network

Social media is growing to be very powerful. Make your presence felt on image based social networking sites like Pinterest, Instagram, etc.

10) Leverage Google Plus

Building your circles, growing your fan base and communicating with prospects on Google plus can be advantageous. Anything that you post on G+ will get indexed quickly and also shows up in search results quickly.

11) Submit your website/blog to reputed directories

Submit your site to directories under photography category and photo blog directories for link building as well as exposure.

12) Get exposed, show up on YouTube

YouTube is known to be one of the largest search engine in itself. Upload a lot of photos and video blog some interesting facts about your photos. This will definitely improve your online presence as well as rank.

13) Go mobile and turn responsive

The world is going mobile with smart phones and tablets. People are accessing sites on handheld devices specifically talking about photography sites since it’s fun and engaging. Make your site fit for all screen sizes with responsive website design.

14) Claim your Authorship

Getting your headshot shown in search results with Google Authorship improves your authority with Google and also your credibility with prospects and helps improve click through rates.

15) Google maps plays a huge role

Think local and show up in Google maps. It is vital for any local business like photography.

Remember, search engines understand text and not image. Be creative and include text related to your photos in your website and photography blog.

Resources & Further Reading

Here are some additional reading material on SEO for photographers.

1. SEO Tips for Photographers from FStoppers

2. Video Tutorials on SEO for Photography websites from Udemy

3. How to do Image Optimization

4. SEO Optimization Advanced