SEO for Photographers by Fuel Your Photos

Our first interview episode of the podcast is live now, and it may be the best episode yet!

In this episode, we talk to Nina Larsen Reed about her success with SEO, and specifically dig into her thinking about cornerstone content.

We talk about her venue guides, and not only the significant traffic that they drive, but how she used them to build real-life relationships with venue directors (and ended up on several preferred vendor lists).

If you want to get a real look at how SEO pairs with smart business... this episode is for you!

Nina's website: https://larsenphoto.co/ Her Boulder wedding venues guide: https://larsenphoto.co/boulder-wedding-venues/ More of her resources: https://larsenphoto.co/resources/

We break down different strategies for both improving your image search traffic and leveraging images to improve your web search rankings.

We talk about improving performance for your photography website. What metrics to look at, which to disregard, and what tools to use. Testing Tools Mentioned: GT Metrix https://gtmetrix.com/ Pingdom http://tools.pingdom.com/

Pagespeed Insights https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ Webpagetest https://www.webpagetest.org/ Links Mentioned: WP Speed Fix (pagespeed improvement services)https://www.fuelyourphotos.com/wpspeedfix

Wordpress Hosting Recommendationshttps://www.fuelyourphotos.com/hosting

Perf Matters (Wordpress plugin) https://www.fuelyourphotos.com/perfmatters

Short Pixel (Image Compression Tool +plugin) https://www.fuelyourphotos.com/sp

WP Rocket (Wordpress caching plugin) https://www.fuelyourphotos.com/wprocket

Today we answer three of the most asked questions from our Facebook Group. Should I buy an exact match domain? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E98J6r9Zq0I What is the difference between a Page and a Post? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdiAHIkpwj0 What are these Blue Links and how do I get them? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40aVZ2h2Bok Don't forget to join our free 7 day SEO challenge: https://www.fuelyourphotos.com/challenge/

We talk about the major website platforms used by photographers. Our theory is that the most beneficial information isn't what is possible on each platform, but what isn't.

If you know the cons for each platform, you'll know if you can live without those features.. or what workarounds you'll need to find. We review:

• Squarespace
• Wordpress
• Wix
• Photobiz
• Good Gallery
• Pixieset

If we missed a platform, let us know in the comments!

We talk about the regular tasks we do on our own SEO projects and how we organize those. Rank Tracking Analytics Content Creation Link Building and more.

This episode details the best situations for hiring out your blog content or other copywriting. It also covers our suggestions on when to not hire out this writing. We show examples of content that was written by different levels of copywriter, from $5-20 articles to $500+ content pieces. It should help you make the decision on how to best grow your organic traffic through great content. Tools Mentioned:

https://www.ineedarticles.com/

https://www.spinmenot.io/ https://www.copyscape.com/

Examples:

https://dylanmhowell.com/big-sur-elopement/

https://www.ablazephoto.com/wedding-planners-in-columbia-sc/

SEO Course: https://www.fuelyourphotos.com/seo-course/

We talk about the differences in generic SEO advice and techniques and the specific situations and platforms photographers are typically in.

Backlinks are the force multiplier in SEO. We show 30 different links to our photography sites and talk about what steps we took to attain them. Stay until the end for a "bonus" backlink technique that we haven't really talked about publicly.

We talk about more advanced strategies to start trying out once you've implemented the basic optimizations on your site.