SEPTEMBER 2011
for photographers
SEO
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Hello, Photographers. I’m Chris.
Youth High School Photograp
hy
St. Louis, MOLadue Horton Watkins
OneLouderPhoto.comPhotoShelter.com
5
32
CollegeWashington University
(in St. Louis!)
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What We’ll Cover Today...
(1)What’s the Goal of Search Engine Optimization?(2)What is SEO?(3)Why should you care?(4)What SEO looks like in 2011(5)The Factors that effect SEO(6) Just Do It - Step-by-step practical SEO
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There once was a man...
• Googled “cowboy boots”
• Clicked justinboots.com• Found a nice pair• Ordered online• Tried them on• Much happiness
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MAD LIB: DeconstructionA __________ needed some ______________, but didn’t know much about them. So he Googled for ______________, and clicked on one of the top search results. The website, _______________, was information-rich, and he was able to learn more about ________________ without having to pick up the phone or send an e-mail.
guy
cowboy bootsjustinboots.com
cowboy boots
cowboy boots
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MAD LIB: Making it clickA _______________ needed a _____________ , but didn’t know much about it. So he Googled for ________________, and clicked on one of the top search results. The website, __________________, was information-rich, and he was able to learn more about _____________________ without having to pick up the phone or send an e-mail.
magazine editor
concert image
Elton John Photosonelouderphoto.com
concert photography
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The ones that got away
• Caiman Crocodile Belly• $1,295.00• Page 12 of Google
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Searching for your own name and finding your own website is not
SEO.The goal is unsolicited web traffic.
(1) The Goal of SEO
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(2) So what is SEO?
• missouri photojournalist• central west end portrait photographer• best st.louis wedding photographer• stl botanical garden stock photos• frontenac family photographer
Good SEO anticipates what your customers are searching for
How do you rank for the terms you need as a photographer?
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“I don’t care about all that SEO stuff. I just want my website to
look good.”
(3) Why should I care about SEO?
• 48.4 million daily newspaperAudit Bureau of Circulation
• 285 million watch TV monthlyNielsen A2/M2 Three Screen Report
• 28 billion searches monthlyofficial stated figures Google
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We Asked Photo Buyers
http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/research/
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Internet Search Engines?
Part of their image buying routine.
61%
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“This ain’t your uncles AOL.com”
(4) What SEO Looks like in 2011
• Universal Search and the SERP• Local Search• Google Images• Social Media• “Long Tail” Search
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Universal search & SERP
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Local search is huge
google.com/places
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Google Places Page
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Google images
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A tree falling in the forest
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OMG. Good news for photographers?
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The “Long Tail” matters
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SEO doesn’t exist without good content
• On-page factors only account for 14% of SEO, but without content, there’s nothing to index
• Unique page titles with relevant text!• Descriptive pages with unique content• Longer pages seem to rank better
“So what is good content?”
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(5) Factors affecting SEO
SEOMoz, 2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors
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On-page: Title and meta description
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On-page: Title and meta description
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On-page: Title and meta description
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On-page: Title and meta description
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On-page: Relevant text
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What we see
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What Skynet Google sees
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Every link is an endorsement or vote.
You must build links
• Link to yourself:• Build a blog• Join trade and community sites
• Get others to link to you:• Guest write articles on other sites• Shoot something interesting• Use social media• Get influential sites to link to you
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Anchor text matters
• POORLY OPTIMIZED
Grover took some shots of the Empire State Building.
• STILL POORLY OPTIMIZED
Grover took some photos of the Empire State Building.• OPTIMIZED
Grover took the best photos of the Empire State Building.
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Socialize
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Step-by-step to practical SEO
(6) Just do it!
• Create a keyword hitlist of 20-50 words that you want to rank for
• Compare this to the Adwords Keyword Tool to refine the list
• Run searches against the terms in your list to assess the competition
• Run a backlink analysis so that you can understand which terms are attainable
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Sanity check your keywords
google “adwords keyword tool”
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Assess your online competition
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Backlink analysis
majesticseo.com
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Monitor your results
• Google Analytics can tell you if SEO is working.
• % of traffic from search engine.
• # of keywords driving search traffic.
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Don’t be the needle in the haystack
• Increase your online footprint• Publish more pages of content• Publish on more websites• Make it easier for people to find you on the
places where they hang out
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I’m not making this up
• If your website and marketing efforts don’t include SEO, you’re missing free traffic
• Effective SEO results in real sales and revenue• SEO is a long-term commitment, so start today!
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Get more info
photoshelter.com/mkt/research
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Connect with PhotoShelter
• blog.photoshelter.com• facebook.com/photoshelter• @photoshelter• vimeo.com/photoshelter
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