In April, we released a SEO Cookbook for Photographers so that the average photographer could understand how to plan and execute changes to his/her website that would lead to better Search Engine Optimization. The step-by-step guide was chock full of practical information and help “do this, not this” examples.

Then a few weeks later, we started to hear success stories about how people were starting to see the pages and images in their websites start to creep up in the search engine rankings. The photographers who had installed Google Analytics started to see an increase in search-engine based traffic — so the goal of generating essentially free marketing from an entirely new audience was starting to be met.

SEO is a fluid discipline because search engines change all the time. Microsoft even released a new beta search engine called Bing this week, which underscores how search is still in its infancy. Smart photographers recognize how important search engines can be in promoting their products and services, and want to stay on top of new trends.

With that in mind, we have just released a 14-page supplement to our SEO Cookbook. If you’re already a PhotoShelter member, you can download it here from the Photographer Area. Otherwise, you can download it from our SEO for Photographers and Photography Websites resource page.

Among the various topics, my personal favorite is how to use Google Analytics to measure whether your SEO efforts are actually working. With limited time and money, we’re all interested in getting the best return-on-investment of our marketing activities.

Get optimized!