6 Top Blogging Tips for Photographers
If you’re a photographer, chances are that you have a website to showcase your services and portfolio. Maybe you’ve started a blog or maybe you’re on the fence.
Just to be clear - no, blogging is not dead ;)
Blogging for photographers is an effective way to increase the number of people coming to your website when you incorporate SEO, or search engine optimization.
Basically, publishing posts to your website with SEO in mind gives you the chance to include keywords that people are searching for in Google. When you blog on a single topic (or closely aligned topics), you’ll improve your website's ranking in Google SERPs (search engine results page).
Blogging is how I’ve become an authority in my niche and rank for more than 200 keywords on page 1, including #1 for “Squarespace SEO expert.”
It’s also how I help my clients increase their lead generation through their website on autopilot, 24/7. There’s many more benefits of blogging, which you can read about here.
Not sure what to write about? In this post, I’m breaking down my top blogging tips for photographers.
Let’s dive in!
1. Write About Common Questions You Get
When you write information about frequently asked questions, you answer people's inquiries while also educating them.
If you frequently receive queries from potential clients, this is the perfect opportunity to format them into a blog post and link to it inside of a welcome packet or email autoresponder.
Not only will this impress your clients, but it will also cut down the time you spend responding to individual emails or even eliminate the number of emails you receive on a given subject.
Feel free to include questions any general photographer might get, but also write about the kind of photography that you do. Be sure to tailor some blog posts to your niche.
With simple keyword research, you can identify the exact questions people are searching for to increase your chances of showing up on page 1. This takes out the guesswork.
2. Showcase Clients Sessions
Your portfolio page is a great place to showcase the work you’ve done, but you can go even further on your blog.
And it’s highly recommended.
This is where you have an opportunity to not just share your incredible images, but also tell a story about your clients. Not only does it help to give backstory to your clients, but it also shows that you took the time to get to know them.
People want to connect with people, especially someone who might be capturing their big day or their family.
Telling stories is an extremely powerful marketing strategy when it comes to blogging for photographers. Of course, you want to get permission from your clients first before sharing any personal details.
Here’s a couple ideas of what to include:
Wedding photography client:
How the couple met
More details about the first look
A special moment from the wedding
Any special photo requests
Client testimonial
Family photography client:
Some background on the couple
Why the couple wants family photos and what it means to them
A special moment from the session
Client testimonial
3. Optimize all your images
Image optimization is all about shrinking your photographs' file sizes as much as possible without sacrificing quality. That is, you must strike the ideal balance between the smallest possible file size and acceptable image quality.
Photos containing a lot of memory data can cause your page to load slowly, which can negatively impact your SEO.
To avoid being caught up in this, keep your image files under 500KB to make your posts load faster and bounce rate is reduced.
My favorite tools are JPEGmini and tinypng.com since they reduce file size without impacting quality.
You’ll also want to rename your images so Google can understand what it is.
For example, let’s say you’re writing a post about couples doing a first look on their wedding day. Instead of uploading a photo of a bride holding a bouquet with the file name “IMG_578493,” you’d want to rename it with the primary keyword from the blog post. In this case, it could be something like “wedding first look photos - bride holding bouquet.”
Be sure to add alt text as well so that people who are visually impaired still understand the image. Alt text is slightly different from file names because you want me to be more descriptive in identifying what the image is about.
4. Enable AMP for Fast Loading
AMP, or Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages, is designed to ensure that content loads quickly across all devices.
Since photographers typically upload a lot of images to their website, it’s important to have this feature enabled.
5. Link to your services
This may seem silly and you might be wondering “why would I need to link to my services if they’re already on my website and it’s obvious I’m a photographer?”
Well, the truth is that it’s not always that obvious.
And the goal when it comes to blogging for photographers is to easily bridge the gap between your content and your services. So it’s natural to mention the kind of photography you do, the city you’re located in, and include a link to your services page.
For example, it makes perfect sense to mention here that I offer website design and SEO strategy for creatives, like photographers and floral wedding designers. And hey, there’s a natural link to my services page. You didn’t have to look for it - it’s presented right in front of you.
See how easy that is? ;)
6. Don’t Keyword Stuff
Keyword stuffing arises when you overuse a popular keyword on a webpage, and it’s one mistake you don’t want to make.
Think of it as abusing SEO. It becomes very clear for a user when a paragraph or section of a website reads like a robot with variations of one word being used again and again.
Read more: 6 Examples of Spammy SEO Tactics to Stay Away From
This is why blogging for photographers is so powerful because it gives you the opportunity to mention a lot more keywords through all your posts instead of increasing the number of keywords on just the main pages of your website.
Keywords should be used in target areas and where they naturally fit in with strong blog material. Your keywords should occur in the title of your content, the introduction, throughout the post itself, URL and image file names.
A general rule of thumb is typically 3-5% keyword density, meaning you mention the keyword 3-5 times for every 100 words.
To be honest, I would say it depends on the keyword. Always read your blog post out loud to identify any areas where it sounds robotic or unnatural.
The focus is first and foremost on the user, not Google. If a user can’t make it through the whole post because the keyword is mentioned at an annoying rate, then they will close out and most likely not come back to your website.
Bottom Line
Blogging for photographers is highly recommended in helping you rank high on Google and bringing clients to you on autopilot without having to chase them down. I hope you enjoyed these tips specifically for photographers.
If you’re looking for an SEO strategist to do the heavy lifting of optimizing your website and identifying a bank of keywords for blog post ideas, I’m your gal! Click below to learn more information about my SEO packages.
Looking for more Squarespace SEO tips? Check out these blog posts: