In this quick lesson, we’re going to take a look at keyword research for your blog (which you can also apply equally well to your website).
Many of the key details on keyword research have already been covered on the main blog, but here are the top factors you should bear in mind when thinking about the keywords you want to target for your photography blog.
But first, something that I think you’ll be very happy about and will make your life a LOT easier!
[color=”blue”]You do NOT have to stress out over keywords for all of your blog posts! In fact, you only need to be concerned with SEO in general and keywords, specifically, on your blog resource pages and landing pages.[/box]
Things To Consider For Your Blog Pages (Not Posts)
Your potential photography clients have a problem – they’re trying to find a photographer for their portraits, wedding, or commercial job, but they can’t find you in the search engine results if you don’t use the right photography keywords as part of your website SEO strategy.
It’s a fact that prospects who have had a chance to read the posts and articles on your photography blog will be far more likely to know, like and trust you than people who have never encountered you before.
I see and hear the end result of this problem every day!
For example, “Google hates me!” is something I hear often from photographers who come seeking help with their websites, usually with the burning question:
“Why is it that when people want to find a photographer they can’t find me in the search engines? I thought I had the right photography keywords in place but it’s not working!”
They’re not alone with this problem, and I’m sure you’ve asked yourself the same thing on more than one occasion.
But the fact is, it doesn’t matter what type of photography you’re selling, Google is the great equalizer, and everyone is subject to the same golden rule:No one can hire you, or buy from you, if they can’t find you…
If you want your clients to come to your blog when they go to Google to find a photographer, then you not only need the right photography keywords, you also need to know where to place them. In this section, I’ll show you how to make sure you choose the photography keywords that will help your prospects find a photographer you know they’ll be thrilled with – you.
And it’s much easier than you might think…
Find A Photographer Made Easy
For some reason, SEO is something many professional photographers assume is too difficult or technical to do for themselves, but the simple truth is that anyone can do enough SEO to make a big difference to their photography business.
Helping your clients in their search to find a photographer is actually a lot easier than most people think it is – as long as you follow a few basic steps.
One of the reasons so many people struggle so much with SEO is that they’re trying to answer the wrong question:
“What is it that I’m trying to sell?”
Instead, you should ask yourself:
“When thinking about hiring a photographer, what are people actually struggling with and looking for, and what keywords can I use to target those topics?”
Answering that question will lead to a more natural approach to SEO that will attract more of your ideal clients to your blog and identify those prospects who are ready to buy from you.
We can break up our quest for the proper photography keywords into four separate phases:
- First, set your goals…
- Narrow down the field…
- Learn to think like your client…
- The actual keyword research…
Phase 1: Set Goals
Before you begin the physical task of finding the right photography keywords to help your clients find a photographer, you should seriously consider the SEO strategies you plan to use, and you should have some idea of what you want to achieve.
For example:
- Book more family portrait sessions…
- Sell more of your nature photography…
- Attract buyers who enjoy fine-art…
- Encourage new prospects to sign up to your mailing list…
- Find new clients for commercial photography projects…
- Increase the readership of your photography blog…
For your blog pages, there’s also an additional consideration:
- What can I educate my prospects about to help them make a more informed choice of photographer?
Once you’ve identified your objectives, you can begin to think about how to attract the right prospects. It’s okay to have multiple goals, by the way – just tackle each one in turn and don’t stir up the waters too much by combining them all into one big task.
Phase 2: Refinement
With your goals in mind, you can now get more specific with your photography keywords choice. The more targeted you can make this, the better things will be in the long term. You may not be able to reach as large an audience, but the people you do connect with when they’re looking to find a photographer will be much more likely to do business with you.
For example, suppose you specialize in pet photography in Tampa, Florida, and you want to work with people who love their pets so much they want portraits of them on the wall, but they have some concerns you may need to address first (especially if this is the first time they’ve done this).
In that case, there’s not much point in optimizing purely for the photography keywords phrase “pet photography” or even “Florida pet photography“. Those phrases are too broad and would target too many potential searches. Your target market are more likely to be searching for keywords like “pet photographer in Tampa”, which you can target on specific pages on your main website.
But, for blog resource pages, you might want to have articles that talk about how to keep pets calm during portrait sessions (something that some pet owners may worry about), so keywords around that topic could be quite valuable to you.
So, for each specific SEO goal that you identified for your blog pages, you should now have a list of very well-targeted photography keywords.
Phase 3: Think Like Your Client
Next, you should start thinking more like your ideal clients, and especially how they think when they’re trying to find a photographer. This is not always as easy as it sounds, but it is worth the effort.
Make a list of the photography keywords your prospects could use to search for the style of photography you want to sell. Include as many variations as possible, including plurals and local colloquialisms.
Then ask everyone you know, including your friends, family, and existing clients what photography keywords they might search for to find a photographer.
You can also go into your Google Analytics reports to find some of the photography keywords already being used to find you, including some of those less commonly known.
Finally, pick the very best ones that you feel are the most relevant and targeted, and especially those where someone using that phrase could be in a buying mode.
Phase 4: Photography Keywords Research
With all the intelligence and information you’ve gathered so far, it’s time to do some online photography keywords research to identify which ones will be the best ones for you to target.
There are many ways to do keyword research, but the one I like most is the free Google Keyword Planner, which is part of Google AdWords. This tool allows you to type in search phrases to get data on how often that keyword is searched for, plus some ideas for alternatives you may not have thought of.
At this point, I thought it would be more useful for you if I demonstrated this with the aid of a video.
After you complete this stage, you should have a good set of photography keywords you can use via your blog resource and landing pages.
