3 Mistakes Photographers Make that Hurt SEO (And How to Avoid Them!)

Want to know the 3 most common SEO mistakes photographers make that hurt SEO? Then this blog post is for you!

Here’s a little bit of back story…

When I first started my business, people I knew didn’t even want my FREE pictures. So how in the world did I start booking actual paying clients?!

Three letters: SEO (search engine optimization).

Optimizing your website for SEO to rank better in Google is really important. To this day, Google is my #1 referral source. The majority of my brides arrive to my site from a simple Google search.

Many photographers don’t realize that they are making the following SEO mistakes that can affect their ranking.

1. Not properly optimizing blog post titles

The title of a blog post is really important and should be strategically crafted. Here’s a quick tip: use your main keyword at the beginning of your title, not at the end.

For example, if you’re blogging a wedding you shot at Sorella Farms, your title should look like this: Venue Name + Wedding + Couple’s Names.

DO THIS: Sorella Farms Wedding: Alyssa+Chris

NOT THIS: Alyssa and Chris’ Wedding Day

This way, you have higher chances of someone who is looking into the Sorella Farms venue to land on your website, fall in love with your work, and book your services.

2. Losing link juice

Quality links are still one of the most important things that can help your website rank higher. The more websites you have linking back to your site, the better. However, the quality of those links is what matters the most. For example, having a major website link to your site once, helps you more than having 5 links from smaller websites.

In the same way that having others link to your website helps you, if you link to other sites (for example, crediting all the wedding vendors from a wedding at the end of a blog post and posting links to their websites) helps them more than it helps you! You are actually losing link juice. If your website is well established, linking to other vendors won’t necessarily harm your website very much, but as a rule of thumb, you should make sure that for each link that you give out, you have 4-5 links pointing back to your site.

3. Not including alt text to images

Alt text (alternative text) is used within an image’s HTML code to describe the content of that picture. Google can’t read photos but it can read words. Think about how many potential brides search for the name of a venue in Google and look at the pictures that appear in their search. Probably most of them do. This is a great opportunity for you to get in front of potential clients… and the alt text helps you do just that!

Okay, Alina, I get it, but how do I know what words to use?

The best way I heard alt text explained was to think about the way you would describe an image to a blind person. For example, if you share a ceremony picture of the bride and groom, have your alt text say something like “summer outdoor ceremony at Sorella Farms” instead of “ceremony picture”. Make sure to keep the alt text short (preferably under 10-12 words) while providing ample details.

These are the 3 most common SEO mistakes photographers make. I see it time and time again. Do you find yourself making any of these SEO mistakes? Leave a comment in the comment box below and let me know.

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