SEO & Why It Matters
1 like315 views
The document discusses search engine optimization (SEO) for photography websites. It provides a checklist of SEO best practices, including registering a relevant domain name, optimizing on-page factors like page titles and image captions, building backlinks through a blog and link exchanges, using analytics to measure results, and regularly updating content. The key factors for SEO success are said to be domain authority, page-level link popularity, anchor text, and on-page keyword usage.
SEO & Why It Matters
- 1. SEO & WHY IT MATTERS Why taking good pictures isn’t enough to succeed in the 21st century 1 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 2. THERE ONCE WAS A MAN... • Googled “toilet seats” • Clicked Kohler.com • Found a “quiet close” seat • Ordered online • Installed it • Much happiness 2 2 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 3. MAD LIB DECONSTRUCTION 4 3 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 4. MAD LIB: RAISING THE BAR BY LOWERING THE SEAT guy toilet seat A __________ needed a __________, but didn’t know much about it. So he Googled for toilet seat and ________, clicked on one of the top search results. The website, kohler.com was information-rich, and he was able to ________, toilet seats learn more about ___________ without having to pick up the phone or send an e-mail. Because the website had e-commerce, he was able to toilet seat purchase the _________ online at night from the toilet seat comfort of his own home. The __________ arrived a days few __________ later, and the customer was very _________, and made a mad lib about his experience. happy 5 4 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 5. MAD LIB: THINGS ARE STARTING TO CLICK magazine editor travel image A _____________ needed a __________, but didn’t waikiki photo know much about it. So he Googled for __________, and clicked on one of the top search results. The website, hawaiipics.com was information-rich, and he ____________, beach photos was able to learn more about ___________ without having to pick up the phone or send an e-mail. Because the website had e-commerce, he was able to image purchase the _________ online at night from the image comfort of his own home. The __________ arrived a seconds few __________ later, and the customer was very relieved _________, and made a mad lib about his experience. 6 5 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 6. THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY 7 6 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 7. Searching for your name and finding your own website isn’t SEO. The goal is unsolicited web traffic. PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITES: SEO & WHY IT MATTERS | PHOTOSHELTER RESEARCH 2009 | 7 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 8. WHERE’S YOUR WEBSITE? When a user searches for: – austin wedding photographer – perla’s photo – commercial photographers houston – jerry jones portrait 8 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 9. 9 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 10. 10 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 11. 11 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 12. 12 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 13. GOLDEN TRIANGLE • In eye-tracking and mouse-tracking studies, most clicking occurs in the top 3 positions • Drops dramatically “below fold” • SEO is about being on page 1 13 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 14. WHAT FACTORS AFFECT SEO? Usage 13 Domain On-Page 30 15 Links 44 Source: Rand Fishkin/SEOMoz.org Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 15. WHAT FACTORS AFFECT SEO? Usage 13 Links & Anchor Text Domain On-Page 30 15 • Inbound Links • Distance from Trusted Domain • PageRank • Anchor Text The most Links important factors 44 15 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 16. WHAT FACTORS AFFECT SEO? Usage 13 On-Page Factors On-Page Domain 15 30 • Page Titles • Meta Desc • Descriptive URL • ALT data You can do it! Links 44 16 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 17. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) 17 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 18. DOMAIN: REGISTER A DOMAIN • Register a domain • Be geographically aware • Register for a few years 18 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 19. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories 19 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 20. google.com/local/add ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/ Free $299/year 20 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 21. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles 21 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 22. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 23. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 24. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 25. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 26. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 27. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION • Page title is the most important on-page factor • Create unique page titles and meta descriptions • The order of keywords in titles correlates strongly with SEO ranking • Title: 70 char; Desc: 140 char • Put your name at the end of the title • Description should be considered as “ad copy” for your SERP 27 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 28. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images 28 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 29. Search Engine and “SEO” to-do list Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 30. ON-PAGE: KEYWORDS & CAPTIONS • Search engines cannot read embedded meta data (yet) • Your website needs to redisplay this data next to your images • Create a keyword “hit list” to determine which keywords you’re trying to optimize against 30 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 31. GOOGLE ADWORDS ADWORDS.GOOGLE.COM Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 32. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag 32 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 33. ON-PAGE: ALT ATTRIBUTE 33 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 34. ON-PAGE: ALT ATTRIBUTE 34 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 35. ON-PAGE: ALT ATTRIBUTE 35 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 36. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag – Avoid FLASH 36 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 37. BEWARE OF FLASH WEBSITES 37 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 38. “Most SEO experts would recommend not using Flash.” “Flash pages attract far fewer links than their HTML brethren” – Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz 38 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 39. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag – Avoid FLASH • Build Links! – Photograph compelling material 39 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 40. 40 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 41. 41 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 42. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag – Avoid FLASH • Build Links! – Photograph compelling material – Update frequently 42 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 43. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag – Avoid FLASH • Build Links! – Photograph compelling material – Update frequently – Consider a blog 43 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 44. • Not an online journal • An SEO machine • Don’t forget anchor text • Create compelling content regularly • Beneficial even if no one is reading 44 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 45. ANCHOR TEXT MATTERS POORLY OPTIMIZED Grover took some shots of the Empire State Building. STILL POORLY OPTIMIZED Grover took some photos of the Empire State Building. OPTIMIZED Grover took the best photos of the Empire State Building. 45 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 46. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag – Avoid FLASH • Build Links! – Photograph compelling material – Update frequently – Consider a blog – Trade links (do not buy them) 46 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 47. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag – Avoid FLASH • Build Links! – Photograph compelling material – Update frequently – Consider a blog – Trade links (do not buy them) • Measure & Analyze – Install analytics and webmaster 47 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 48. If you cannot measure, you cannot progress. PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITES: SEO & WHY IT MATTERS | PHOTOSHELTER RESEARCH 2009 | 48 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 49. GOOGLE ANALYTICS WWW.GOOGLE.COM/ANALYTICS Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 50. TRAFFIC SOURCES IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 51. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag – Avoid FLASH • Build Links! – Photograph compelling material – Update frequently – Consider a blog – Trade links (do not buy them) • Measure & Analyze – Install analytics and webmaster – Track the # of indexed pages and backlinks 51 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 52. SEOMOZ.COM BACKLINK ANCHOR TEXT ANALYSIS TOOL 52 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 53. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag – Avoid FLASH • Build Links! – Photograph compelling material – Update frequently – Consider a blog – Trade links (do not buy them) • Measure & Analyze – Install analytics and webmaster – Track the # of indexed pages and backlinks – Track the # of keywords and pages getting traffic from search engines 53 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 54. VISITS REFERRED BY KEYWORDS Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 55. DISTINCT PAGES RECEIVING VISITS Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 56. SEO CHECKLIST • Domain – Register a domain (in your own country) – Add it to business directories, trade organization directories • On-Page Factors – Create unique page titles – Caption & keyword your images – Use the ALT attribute in your IMG tag – Avoid FLASH • Build Links! – Photograph compelling material – Update frequently – Consider a blog – Trade links (do not buy them) • Measure & Analyze – Install analytics and webmaster – Track the # of indexed pages and backlinks – Track the # of keywords and pages getting traffic from search engines 56 Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 57. The Google algorithm changed more than 450 times last year alone. Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 58. Trust /authority of the domain, link popularity of the specific page, anchor text of external links, and on page keyword usage are the four most important factors. Thursday, March 18, 2010
- 59. ABOUT PHOTOSHELTER Why photographers are using PhotoShelter •Instant portfolio •Websites Sales tools •Website features that buyers demand •Image delivery options that fit your workflow •Viral marketing tools •Search engine optimization & guidance •Secure and redundant hosting •Scalability Thursday, March 18, 2010