As a photographer and a creative director, one thing has become abundantly clear… Google doesn’t know if your picture sucks- only if it’s relevant!
Our in-house digital marketing team at Influx understands how overwhelming SEO can be even if you work with it everyday! We all know it is important, but where do you start and how do you know if you’re doing it right? Does SEO even matter for photography and visual content? How do you know if it is even making a positive impact on your business?
The good news is HelloInflux.com is here to help with 4 practical tips on photography SEO to get you started. These are some of the best practices we use on a daily basis when generating original content for our Marketing & SEO clients.
Make sure to optimize your blog post content
A popular question we encounter is how to write SEO blog posts for your business. While we can’t teach you how to write relevant, engaging content that resonates with your audience, we can say that one thing you should understand is that without the right SEO keywords for your business in the text of your blog posts, you won’t be doing yourself or your search engine ranking any favors.
The Google search engine has a difficult time understanding what is depicted in the photos on your website, so by using plain text descriptions and alt tags to effectively describe what is in your images in your posts, you’ll give Google a greater chance to translate what you’re showing in that beautiful header image and be more relevant to those searching for content or a business like yours. It is also helpful to mention the most important SEO keywords you are trying to target should appear in the first 100 words.
Optimize your images before uploading them
Repeat after me. OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGES BEFORE UPLOADING THEM. If you are uploading huge image files to your site that are not optimized, you are doing a disservice to the user experience of your site and your business overall.
It is important to understand that the heavier your website gets, the slower it loads for your users. Your visitors and potential clients will not wait 30 seconds for your homepage to load. It is especially important to remember that most users will visit your site from a mobile device. If it is taking too long to load, it will only eat away at their mobile data. They will get frustrated and exit your site for good before that stunning 4k UHD, HDR video loads with tons of text animation you paid your nephew to make because he is in art school learning motion graphics.
Use descriptive file names
It seems easy to miss this step, but by simply exporting and uploading an image from your smartphone or camera which uses a default naming convention, you will end up with a generic file name like IMG_7696420.JPG that is irrelevant to Google and ultimately your customer searching for your restaurant or business online.
Always rename your image files accordingly, accurately, and make them descriptive. But it is important to Keep them short and it is alright to use sequences if you have lots of similar images when you have a gallery with multiple images that are similar or of the same subject.
Place your most important images at the top of the page
Whenever possible, make sure to place the most important and relevant images close to the top of your page. If you have lots of images with the same alt tags or similar file name, it is very likely Google isn’t going to rank them all. That’s why it is important to put the most important and relevant images that match the SEO keywords you are ranking for near the top of a page and be mindful to limit the total number of images you are displaying on each page.
Applying practical SEO for the photography content on your website is crucial to stay relevant, improve conversions, and stay ahead of your competitors.
These SEO photography tips are a great place to start and will help get you moving in the right direction, although they are just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re trying to build an online presence for your business, regardless of the industry, we always recommend partnering with a professional marketing firm like HelloInflux.com that can create a well rounded and omni- channel marketing strategy to help your business rank on Google, and ultimately put you in front of the eyes of your target audience.
