Common SEO Keywords for Photographers and Best Practices
If you are a photographer looking for more information about common SEO keywords you should be using on your website, you’re in the right place!
As an SEO strategist for coaches and creatives, I love breaking down this aspect of digital marketing in an easy-to-understand way.
I see so many photographers that are implementing SEO incorrectly in a way that can cause Google to penalize their website so I’m excited to dive into some best practices to be aware of.
So first off…
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s the process of ranking your website on search engines like Google.
There are dozens of factors that contribute to a page 1 ranking for any website, but in this post I’m talking all about keywords.
What is a keyword and why is it important for SEO?
A keyword is a word or phrase you want your website to rank for on Google. It can be one word or a string of words, such as a long-tail keyword that is at least 3 words.
For small business owners like photographers, it’s best to focus on long-tail keywords for your website and blog posts.
Keywords are important to use because you want to ensure that you’re using the exact words and phrases on your website that people are searching for. Think of it as validating the work you’re doing.
For example, I once had a client whose work was so niched that I couldn't find any keywords for her to use so I had to turn her down as an SEO strategy client.
Typically, this doesn’t happen for photographers unless you’re trying to rank for photography-related keywords in a very small town.
So how do you find the best keywords? You can use SEO keyword research tools to find not only the keywords, but also these helpful metrics:
Search volume - number of times that keyword is searched each month
Search difficulty (or competition) - how hard it is to rank a page for that keyword
CPC (cost per click) - helpful to see common keywords people are using for ads
Common keyword formats
Chances are that if you’re looking for keywords relating to photography, you’ll find at least one of these:
Photographer in [location]
Photography in [location]
[Location] photographer
[Location] photography
Here are real-life examples of SEO keywords for photographers:
wedding photographer in dallas (1,300 searches/month)
wedding photography in dallas (170 searches/month)
dallas wedding photographer (1,300 searches/month)
dallas wedding photography (140 searches/month)
These are great keywords to be used for the main pages of your website, like your home, about, services, or portfolio pages.
Note: each page of your website should target a specific keyword and should be unique compared to another page. I dive into this a little more below!
Specifically, I think it’s best to use “photographer” keywords for something like your about page and “photography” keywords for your portfolio.
Other great keywords
Commonly asked questions
Identifying question-related keywords is a great way to build helpful content. Many keyword research tools allow you to filter keywords by questions.
You can also use the “People Also Ask” box on the Google Search Results Page. Here, you’ll see a list of questions, which expands the more you toggle the arrow to view the answers.
You can create blog posts directly from these questions.
Information people are searching for
These are other keywords that you can write content for, like tips and advice.
This could be something like “find a wedding photographer” or “wedding photographer styles.”
Keyword tips and best practices
There are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to incorporating keywords on your website.
Assign a single keyword to a page on your website or your blog post
Each main page of your website should have a primary keyword associated with it.
This keyword should be used in your title tag, meta description (if sounds natural), image file names, and copy.
If you have two pages that are targeting the same keyword, they will compete against each other and Google will only choose one. That’s why it’s best that each page has a unique keyword that is only mentioned once.
Don’t keyword stuff
This is a common mistake I see from photographer websites. There’s a lot of misinformation shared online, especially in the photography space.
I’ve seen endless websites with a lot of keyword stuffing, which is a spammy tactic.
Keyword stuffing is a tactic in which you repeat the same keyword or close variations of it within a small amount of text.
Read more: 6 Examples of Spammy SEO Tactics to Stay Away From
Engaging in this black-hat tactic will most likely cause you to be penalized by Google. Or worse yet - it will completely turn off ideal clients reading your website since it reads more like a robot than a human.
So while you may gain some momentum from Google, you will miss out on income. The purpose of your website copy and blog post content is always to engage the reader, not trick Google.
So with that being said, you always want to include keywords naturally. If the target keyword for your about page is “Boston wedding photographer,” there’s a chance you won’t need to add that keyword more than 2-3 times in the copy. Your reader will understand that you are a wedding photographer and indeed, you are located in Boston.
I hope you found this post helpful!
Are you a photographer looking for SEO support? Click below to learn more about how I can help you rank on page 1 of Google.
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