The Photographer's Guide to SEO
Professional Photography|Issue 22

Discover how to get your photography website high in Google’s rankings

Tom May​​​​​​​
The Photographer's Guide to SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is both an art and science. It’s about ensuring that when people search for a relevant term online (for example, ‘portrait photographer Leigh-on-sea’), your website appears high up the results page in Google, Bing and other search engines, in a way that grabs attention and encourages click-throughs. And so for a lot of photographers, SEO is a key element in attracting new customers. “Nothing will ever beat building great relationships and gaining referrals through those and your existing clients,” says wedding photographer Mike Garrard. “But beyond that, SEO is the next most important thing for my business.”

Unfortunately, with everyone trying to do the same thing, and Google being pretty secretive about the algorithm they use to rank web pages, that’s by no means easy. So what do you need to know?

We’ll start by pointing out what SEO is not, or at least not any more. There once was a time when SEO was a dark art involving tricks like ‘keyword stuffing’, which meant visitors were often greeted by the mindless repetition of a phrase like ‘wedding photographer’ throughout a site.

Thankfully, in 2018, Google and other search engines are more sophisticated, and so nowadays the most fundamental building block of SEO is, broadly speaking, to create regular, high quality content that people will love.

“Strong, quality content that keeps visitors engaged, especially content informed by an up-to date keyword strategy, will help you move higher in search results,” says Eric Johnson, director of experience design at Chicago-based creative agency 50,000feet. “Think of the winning formula as Visitor Time Spent + High-Quality Content + Keywords.”

This story is from the Issue 22 edition of Professional Photography.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the Issue 22 edition of Professional Photography.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHYView All
Beauty And The Banal
Professional Photography

Beauty And The Banal

Head of photographs Phil Prodger explains how William Eggleston used colour experimentally as the National Portrait Gallery opens the largest display of his portrait photography ever seen.

time-read
5 mins  |
Issue 11, August 2016
The Art Of The Incomplete
Professional Photography

The Art Of The Incomplete

Amélie Labourdette’s work documents eerie, grey skeletons of unfinished buildings. Her images are a comment on how we inhabit the world, but they’ve also become pieces of art in their own right – and a hint at what might happen to us all in the future.

time-read
3 mins  |
Issue 11, August 2016
Something Really Wonderful Is Going On
Professional Photography

Something Really Wonderful Is Going On

A seagull is suspended, sunlit and spread-winged against a lowering sky. Men unknown to each other march together as if advancing on an unseen enemy. A woman with polished shoes searches through a large, pale handbag. Young girls in matching dresses look to be fleeing impending disaster. Eamonn Doyle shows us fragments of moments in a world of uncertainty and human frailty, with a unique and potentially devastating voice. A relative newcomer to the world of photobooks and photography galleries, he has become a powerful force in the art photography world since 2012.

time-read
6 mins  |
March/April 2017
Share Your Photography, Support A Charity
Professional Photography

Share Your Photography, Support A Charity

A new photography competition for positive social change.

time-read
2 mins  |
March/April 2017
Modern-day Daguerreotypes
Professional Photography

Modern-day Daguerreotypes

Jerry Spagnoli has resurrected one of the oldest mediums in photography and adapted it to suit a contemporary clientele. Now museums are starting to pay attention

time-read
6 mins  |
Issue 12, September 2016
“With no whipped cream available, we ended up using mentholated shaving foam. Oh, does that sting the eyes!”
Professional Photography

“With no whipped cream available, we ended up using mentholated shaving foam. Oh, does that sting the eyes!”

“With no whipped cream available, we ended up using mentholated shaving foam. Oh, does that sting the eyes!”

time-read
2 mins  |
November/December 2016
“Everything about his body language just reeked of Capote”
Professional Photography

“Everything about his body language just reeked of Capote”

Richard Corman recalls how he summoned the spirit of Avedon to shoot Philip Seymour Hoffman for the Capote poster

time-read
4 mins  |
November/December 2016
FujiFilm X-T2
Professional Photography

FujiFilm X-T2

The Fuji X-T1 brought real class and style to the mirrorless camera market, and now the X-T2 adds speed and resolution.

time-read
5 mins  |
November/December 2016
Stephen Shore's Non-Peak Moments
Professional Photography

Stephen Shore's Non-Peak Moments

It is exactly one week after the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States of America. And from his New York home, Stephen Shore is looking down his computer at me, via the Skype feed that links us, deliberating over the words to express his reaction to the news. “This is going to be a very slow recovery, I think. All over the world it’s been a shock.” The sprightly, silver-haired Shore, who turns 70 this year, pauses for a moment and then neatly diverts the political headline to a subject still relevant to the discussion but of greater concern to him personally.

time-read
10+ mins  |
January/February 2017
Carolina Mizrahi
Professional Photography

Carolina Mizrahi

Meet the Brazilian photographer whose work draws on her fashion background and questions how women are represented in today’s society.

time-read
3 mins  |
January/February 2017