Blog on Photoblogs

This is the first post in a series about using SEO to improve traffic to your photoblog.

I think that I am making a fair statement when I say that the majority of traffic that arrives at most photoblogs is from comments made on other photoblogs. While this is a proven method of generating traffic, wouldn’t your time be better spent processing new images or actually behind the camera?

It’s time to focus your photoblog
The days of the general photoblog are gone. The combination of shorter attentions spans and the number of destinations available means that if your photoblog isn’t focused on a niche then you are less likely to attract true fans to your photoblog. I would argue that the creation of a solid base of true fans is when your photoblog becomes more than a vehicle for personal expression and moves in the direction of a business venture. Moving forward your goal should be to attract visitors who are interesting in your particular photography niche.

Start with Keywords
So you may be wondering how you can attract more targeted visitors. The key is in keyword phrases. Keyword phrases are combinations of 2 (or more) keywords. So for example, let’s say you want to attract visitors to your photoblog who are interested in landscape photography. “Landscape photography” would be the keyword phrase that you would target in your pages. Spend some time brainstorming keyword phrases that relate to the type of photography you are presenting on your photoblog and write them down.

Rank your Keywords
All keyword phrases are not created equal. You’ll quickly realize that not everyone thinks like you, and that some phrases you would use to find your site people just don’t use. Here’s a quick overview on how to gauge the quality of your keyword phrases.

There is a ton of information based around grading keywords (and keyword phrases), but since photographers typically are on tight budgets I like to rely on the information provided by the search engines themselves. Since Google currently controls most of the search traffic on the Internet I tend to gravitate towards their tools. My favourite is something called Google Insights for Search.

So go ahead and type in the keyword phrases that you’ve come up with and see how they compare to all other searches on Google. You won’t get actual search numbers from this tool, but Google provides you with a number (on a scale of 0-100) so you can compare your keyword phrases.

You’re going to get to peer into the minds of other searchers by scrolling down below the search volume graph.  Google provides information about related searches so make sure you look at these and see if you can work some of them into your work as well.

Probably my favourite feature in Google Insight is the “Rising searches” section.  Here’s Google letting you looking into the crystal ball of search at what could possibly be future trends.  Make sure that you consider each of these search terms and use them where appropriate.

Now get writing!
I’ve talked about the importance of writing on your photoblog in an earlier post, and I want to reinforce that again here. If you’re only posting images it’s going to make it harder for people to find you. So work your favourite keywords into the text that goes along with your images and start monitoring the results.

Watch for the next in to photoblog SEO series soon.

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