Why SEO Matters to Photographers

It’s a common misconception amongst photographers that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means that when you type in your name into Google, your own website comes up at the top of the results. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The goal of SEO is to increase unsolicited traffic to your website.

Why?

Because you don’t have enough marketing dollars to push all the traffic you need to grow your business continually. The web provides us with a FREE source of visitors if we are smart about how we attract potential customers.

Too many photographers tell me “I don’t care about that stuff. I’m trying to attract top notch photo editors.” Oh really? What a load of crap. You cannot control who is visiting your website. And it would be foolish to limit your visitors to a handful of photo editors.

The classic marketing funnel shows us that conversion percentages don’t really change much. That is, the % of people that enter the Gap and try a shirt on, and the % of people that end up purchasing that shirt doesn’t really vary. So the funnel tells us that we need the largest number of absolute visitors as possible.

A photographer website is no different. If you’re a professional photographer, then increasing your revenues is your number goal. Anyone who thinks differently is either crazy or has a trust fund. Search Engine Optimization combined with analytics provides photographers with the most powerful feedback loop for free.

In this video webinar, I’ll show you how photographers can use free tools like Google Analytics and Google AdWords in conjunction with a PhotoShelter website to enhance their SEO.

Photographer Websites: SEO and Why it Matters from PhotoShelter.com on Vimeo.

We’ll have more SEO and analytics-related webinars for you in the near future. So check back soon!