Seo for photographers 2015

12 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SEO

1 Make sure your website appears properly in search engine result pages (SERP)

2 Use a Mobile-Ready Website

3 Drop Your Flash Website

4 Create a Free Google My Business Listing

5 Link to Yourself

6 Publish Content Frequently

7 Create a Keyword List

8 Assess the Online Competition

9 Participate in Social Media

10 Get Others to Link to You

11 Perform a Backlink Analysis

12 Analyze

CONCLUSION amp SEO RESOURCES

TABLE of CONTENTS

copy 2015 PhotoShelter IncNo part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording scanning or otherwise without the prior written consent of PhotoShelter Inc The logos of the companies described are the trademarks of their respective owners No endorsement is implied

PhotoShelter Inc makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation

OVERVIEW

Search Engine 101

Why Bother with SEO

How Does Search Work

What factors influence SEO

Common Terminology

How Fast Can I Expect Results

What You See Isnrsquot What Others See

UNDERSTANDING GOOGLE BASICS

Universal Search vs Image Search

PHOTOSHELTER amp SEO

4

9

11

12

22

4

5

5

6

7

7

7

9

13

14

15

15

16

17

18

19

19

20

20

21

PART I

PART V

PART III

PART IV

PART II

BASIC

BASIC

BASIC

BASIC

BASIC

BASIC

INTERMEDIATE

INTERMEDIATE

INTERMEDIATE

EXPERT

EXPERT

EXPERT

3THE SEO GUIDE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS 3THE PHOTOGRAPHERrsquoS GUIDE TO TWITTER

Get 20 off PhotoShelterBuild a stronger photo business with a PhotoShelter website

With PhotoShelter you also get powerful features and resources to

market your photos such as SEO and social sharing capabilities in

addition to the most options for licensing photography selling prints

online and pro-strength file delivery tools to please your clients

GET STARTED WITH 14 DAYS FREE + 20 OFF YOUR FIRST YEARLearn more amp join PhotoShelter todayOr visit photosheltercomsignup and enter

Questions Contact us anytime at 212-206-0808 or supportphotosheltercom

Offer valid for new PhotoShelter users Get 20 off a monthly Standard account

for the first year only

SPECIAL OFFER

SEO2015

4THE SEO GUIDE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

SEARCH ENGINE 101ou probably used a search engine today Maybe you searched for a camera or a restaurant or a DIY video on how to carve a chicken You

might have searched from your phone tablet or laptop No matter the search your experience was the same You searched found a set of results clicked on one of the top results and were on your way In the informa-tion age search engines are an invaluable tool for sorting through the morass of data

PART I

Intro The websites that appear on the first page of results for nearly any search arenrsquot there by chance In most cases the website owner worked on their Search Engine Op-timization (SEO) to ensure that they occupied a top position and the reason is simple Empirically we know that 60-80 of the click traffic goes to the top three search results And behaviorally people are more likely to refine a search than to go to page 2 if they donrsquot find what theyrsquore looking for


II

III

IV

V

I In other words having good SEO directly translates into more visitors to your site which in turn can mean more business Although word of mouth represents the stron-gest endorsement of a business more and more photographers are being found through organic searches Need a wedding photographer in Bozeman A photojournalist in Liberia A corporate photographer in Dallas

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a technique that helps your website rank higher in searches on Google and other major search engines The better your ranking for specific keywords the more likely you are to drive traffic to your website which leads to more potential new business

This guide is designed to familiarize you with the inner workings of search engines and give you a systematic approach to improving your SEO Although the major search engines have had numerous modifications to their ranking algorithms since we first released this guide in 2009 much of the fundamentals that govern SEO success have remained unchanged And since SEO is a long term play itrsquos important to get started as soon as possible For the purposes of this guide we focus mostly on Google which serves 676 of search engine market share But even though each major search engine has slight differences in the way they determine and display search results most experts agree that the foundational signals (eg links domain social) are common

WHY BOTHER WITH SEOSearch engines are helpful to you and me and they continue to evolve because they make lots of money for companies like Google Simply stated they provide page inven-tory against which ads can be placed As sophisticated as Googlersquos machinations were in the late 90s it was only once they figured out that they could pair an ad for shoes with a search for shoes that they became the juggernaut of the web

But if you remember the early days of the Internet in the mid 90s search engines are a fickle thing Without a constant evolution and without the ability to provide results that meet the expectation of the searcher search engines fall out of favor with users Who can remember AltaVista Dogpile or even Yahoorsquos search engines

Meeting the expectation of the user necessarily means that constant refinements need to be made to search Google used to only provide text results but now their universal search incorporates images video news maps and more The improvements are an ef-fort to placate the searcher so that they donrsquot go to another search engine which would significantly impact Googlersquos revenue

So instead of thinking of SEO as a game created by a maniacal clockmaker consider the realities of how doubling (or halving) your website traffic would impact your busi-ness and livelihood There is no doubt that the changing algorithms are frustrating but itrsquos the price we pay for constant innovation

HOW DOES SEARCH WORKIn 2013 Google reportedly indexed over 30 trillion webpages to try to bring you the best results Herersquos how they do it

gt CRAWL Google web crawlers are pieces of software that scour the Internet for pages to consider including in its index Google uses a combination of previous crawls domain registrations and user supplied sitemaps as a starting point for its crawl Then it traverses links that it finds on these webpages to increase its knowl-edge of the Web Itrsquos important to note that sitemaps donrsquot affect page ranking itrsquos merely a way to let search engines know where content exists on your website

A search for ldquooscarsrdquo the day after the Academy Awards illustrates Googlersquos universal search results which incorporates news video answer box and organic search results


gt INDEX All the pages and page data are thrown into a massive Index that is the basis for searching

gt RANK An algorithm helps determine 1) what the user is searching for and 2) which pages are relevant to a search Googlersquos algorithm consists of over 200 signals or ldquofactorsrdquo to help provide a set of results that it believes matches the userrsquos intent

Google is constantly tweaking its algorithm to provide better results The larger chang-es get project names and you might have heard of some of them

gt GOOGLE PANDA (c 2011) This change lowered the rank of low quality sites (often referred to as content farms) like Aboutcom in search results

gt GOOGLE PENGUIN (c 2012) Broken out into 6 releases Penguin sought to decrease the search rankings of sites that violated the blackhat technique of manipulating the number of links to a pagemdashone of the major algorithmic signals for ranking

gt GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD (c 2013) Hummingbird was less about ranking and more about understanding the context of a userrsquos search Natural language search techniques help Google parse a search query more intelligently and provide better search results

WHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE SEOOver 200 signals are believed to influence where your webpage comes up for a particu-lar search Although the signals fall into broad groups (eg content on your website) the large number of signals also means that no one signal is likely to significantly affect your SEO

Search Engine Land created a Periodic Table to help better understand all the differ-ent factors

Source Search Engine Land

In this table the factors are divided into two major categories subdivided into seven subsections

ON-PAGE FACTORS

ContentHTMLArchitecture

OFF-PAGE FACTORS

LinksTrustSocialPersonal

You have the ability to directly influence the on-page factors by the selection of your website tool and the content you create on your website By contrast the off-page fac-tors are influenced over time by the links and bonds you help build and cultivate For example if you want people to link to your website you need to have compelling con-tent and as well as a marketing effort that lets people know the content exists

Simply having good on-page factors will not lead to good SEO You must engage in link building participate in social media and publish content frequently to improve your SEO

The on-page factors are things you can change immediately By contrast off-page factors take time to build and more time for those factors to be considered by the search engines

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III

IV

V

I


COMMON TERMINOLOGYThe world of Search Engine Optimization is filled with acronyms and technical jargon Here are few common terms you should be familiar with

gt SERP The ldquoSearch Engine Result Pagerdquo is what you see when you search Google Bing Yahoo or other search engines

gt ORGANIC SEARCH The text results that arenrsquot denoted by ldquoAdrdquo in a Google search are referred to as organic search results You want your website to ap-pear as organic search results on the first SERP because its free unsolicited traffic to your website

gt PAGE TITLE One of many on-page factors influencing SEO The Page Title is also the main link in a SERP for a given site

gt META DESCRIPTION One of many on-page factors influencing SEO Since many photography websites donrsquot have much text the meta description is very important to provide textual data to search engines

gt SITEMAP The sitemap is a technical document that can be submitted to Google and other search engines that lists all the webpages on your website This can be important as it doesnrsquot require the search engine to ldquofindrdquo all the pages within a site during the crawl phase

HOW FAST CAN I EXPECT RESULTSWersquove seen significant changes reflected in a few weeks but most SEO experts agree that stabilization of SEO rankings occurs after about 3 months from when the time a change has been made Still given that most pages and websites are not optimized you might be surprised how quickly your website will start to rank for the more niche terms yoursquore targeting

WHAT YOU SEE ISNrsquoT WHAT OTHERS SEEFor a decade Google has sought to provide personalized results based on what you search for and where you go on the Web With the release of Google+ Google started pulling in ldquosocial searchrdquo results into the personalized results (eg friends with Joe Mc-Nally on G+ You might find him popping up in more search results)

The head-and-shoulders icon indicates personalization of search results aka Search Plus Your World In this example the personalized result has the PhotoShelter podcast as the 2nd organic result

In the non-personalized result the 2nd organic result is the PhotoShelter Twitter account

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I


Googlersquos Search Plus Your World the defaulted mode Google searches under might give you more pertinent results but it also makes it difficult to tell what other people see when they execute a search You can toggle the feature on and off by clicking the ldquoworldrdquo icon in the upper right of a search result

Alternately you can use non-tracking modes like Google Chromersquos ldquoIncognito Win-dowrdquo or Safarirsquos ldquoPrivate Windowrdquo to get non-personalized results

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V

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UNIVERSAL SEARCH VS IMAGE SEARCHhen you search on Google the resulting search engine result page (SERP) returns a list of webpages in the Universal Search format De-

pending on what you search for Google tries to present a myriad of different types of information to best meet your expectation

Universal Search results can includebull Answer boxbull Carouselbull Newsbull Mapsbull Imagesbull Shoppingbull Ads

Here are some examples of these different search result types

ANSWER BOX

If you search for ldquoEbolardquo you might get the ldquoAnswer Boxrdquo at the top of the page Google sources information for the Answer Box from well-known repositories like Wikipedia YouTube Google Widgets etc and with the intent of directly answering a question Some stud-ies suggest that 17 of searches yield an Answer Box

CAROUSEL

If you search for ldquomuseums in nycrdquo you will get a car-ousel of ldquoanswersrdquo from Googlersquos Knowledge Graph which is a knowledge base with semantic-search capa-bilities In other words itrsquos a database of interconnected information that understands natural language

PART II

Understanding Google Basics


MAPS

If you search for the restaurant ldquoShake Shackrdquo you might get a ldquoMap Packrdquo of 3-6 ad-dresses plus a Google Map showing you geographically close locations

IMAGE SEARCH

When you go to imagesgooglecom you are executing a Google Images search which returns up to 1000 thumbnails in an ldquoinfinite scrollrdquo (a concept that originated with the search engine Bingcom)

Different engineering teams are responsible for these respective search engines and while there is a lot of overlap in the signals that affect the SEO success in one doesnrsquot necessarily equate to success in another

For example we have observed a correlation between filename and SEO success in Google Image search When you search for ldquoempire state buildingrdquo almost all the top results have an image filename that includes those keywords (eg empire-state-build-ingjpg) However this isnrsquot so much the case with universal search

Itrsquos also important to understand that while more and more people are using Google Images to find photos it usually represents a very small percentage of traffic to photog-raphy websites once again underscoring the value of good on-page text

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III

IV

V

I


s yoursquove learned good SEO isnrsquot the result of a single activity but a culmination of efforts that include everything from your website to your

participation in social media That said your choice of website provider can help your efforts This is how Pho-toShelter websites help

FLASH FREE PhotoShelter websites are created with the industry-standard HTML5 which means they can be displayed on any web browser

MOBILE READY Our responsive websites are opti-mized for mobile devices which means they will continue to rank well when users search from their phones and tablets

CUSTOMIZABLE PAGE TITLES Our websites also allow you to custom edit the Page Title which is generally considered the most important on-page factor Use this field to fine-tune your keywords

CUSTOMIZABLE METADATA Many photo websites lack significant textual information that is usually the basis for indexability PhotoShelter allows you to customize the metadata field which means even web-pages with no text can still be seen by search engines

PART III

PhotoShelter amp SEO

AUTO-EXTRACT IPTC DESCRIPTION Search engines donrsquot read the IPTC captions from your images but descrip-tions of images on a webpage help SEO PhotoShelter archive images automatically extract IPTC Description and insert this information into the image ldquoALTrdquo attri-bute which specifically indicates to search engines what the image depicts

SITEMAP CREATION PhotoShelter automatically cre-ates a sitemap of all your public galleries and images using the sitemaps protocol We formally submitted sitemaps to Google explicitly but now list sitemaps in a robotstxt file This decreases our reliance on 3rd party APIs (eg Googlersquos ever-changing API) and instead makes our site more search-engine friendly to all services

ldquoBUT ONLY A HANDFUL OF MY PAGES AND IMAGES ARE

SHOWING UP IN GOOGLErdquo

There is a misconception that simply submitting a sitemap to a search engine will result in a full index-ing of your site A sitemap makes it easier for search engines to crawl your site but your SEO will determine how many pages are indexed and where they rank If you havenrsquot built a large number of backlinks and the images on your site have common keywords you wonrsquot rank well (or possibly even be indexed) Use social media and blogs to start building your SEO and your search en-gine visibility will inevitably rise

Photoshelter websites are created with the

industry-standard HTML5 and can be displayed on

any web browser


EO success doesnrsquot happen overnight You need a sustained effort for content building combined with best SEO practices to start ap-

pearing on the first results page But the advantages in doing so are clear you will generate significantly more organic (aka free) traffic to your website which could mean a lot more business

Ahead are 12 ways to improve your SEO ranging from basic to expert levels

PART IV

12 Ways to Improve Your SEO


The appearance of your website in a search result can influence whether people click on it or not as well as affect the indexability of a given page

To checkSearch for your name in Google

The page title and meta description are used in the search engine results Not properly filling this information can lead to unexpected results

A search for photographer Amanda Jasnowski accurately pulls up her website but if yoursquore not familiar with Jasnowski it raises a few questions Is Amanda Jas really Amanda Jasnowski What are all those weird letters and numbers Is this a spamphishing site

This is an example of a website where the photographer either hasnrsquot populated meta de-scription and page title or the site doesnrsquot support it Because there is also no text on the page Google is forced to index the only text it can find which are the obfuscated file names

BASIC

1 MAKE SURE YOUR WEBSITE APPEARS PROPERLY IN SEARCH ENGINE RESULT PAGES (SERP)

With PhotoShelter updating the page title and meta description can be done directly in the Site Builder Google will usually re-crawl and re-index your site within a few weeks

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PhotoShelter websites allow you to control many on-page factors affecting SEO including page title and meta description

More and more people are using search engines on mobile devices (phone and tablets) and the trend line suggests that this will continue for some time Google loves a good user experience and when a user searches via a mobile device Google biases its results toward mobile-friendly websites In other words even if yoursquore 1 for a search term from a desktop you wonrsquot necessarily be 1 when searching from a phone

Your photography website must be mobile-friendly to be competitive and retain visitors

BASIC

2 USE A MOBILE-READY WEBSITE

ldquoResponsiverdquo websites optimize page design based on the device that is used to view the content For example on the desktop itrsquos common to have 2-3 columns of information On a phone a single column is preferred PhotoShelter websites are responsive and mobile-ready

You can check your websitersquos mo-bile readiness with Googlersquos Mobile-Friendly Test

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A large percentage of searches are geographic-specific like ldquonew york commercial pho-tographerrdquo ldquohonolulu wedding photographerrdquo ldquobelize scuba photosrdquo When Google returns results that have a geographic component they often supercede the standard results with the Google Maps ldquopackrdquo These are a set of results plotted on a clickable map How do you get onto the map Create a free Google My Business listing at httpswwwgooglecombusiness

BASIC

4 CREATE A FREE ldquoGOOGLE MY BUSINESSrdquo LISTING

Flash is a proprietary programming language from Adobe that gained popularity at the turn of the millenium for its fancy display capabilities and interactivity which resonated with many photographers Nowadays javascript can provide the same capa-bilities and more

Although Google has the ability to index Flash code they recommend that ldquoyou use rich-media technologies like Flash primarily for decorative purposes and instead use HTML for content and navigationrdquo Many Flash developers have built ldquoshadowrdquo HTML sites behind the Flash front-ends to improve SEO but Google frowns upon this type of hackery because it looks like yoursquore trying to game the search results And since 2014 Google has been indicating sites using Flash that may not display properly on the browsing device

BASIC

3 DROP YOUR FLASH WEBSITE

Finally Flash isnrsquot supported on most mobile devices which means yoursquore potentially losing a larger and larger share of your audience

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I

Googles indication that a site is using Flash


Joining trade groups or community sites is an easy way of linking back to yourself Many photo trade organizations have profile pages for their members and from these pages you can easily link to yourself Because these trade sites typically have good domain strength and are authoritative within photography they are great backlinks to have (this includes the PhotoShelter public member directory) Similarly social media sites like Twitter Facebook and Instagram allow you to insert links to wherever you want

BASIC

5 LINK TO YOURSELF But not all sites will have a positive impact For example mediumcom uses a ldquonofol-lowrdquo tag which tells search engines to not give any backlink weight Writing a post on mediumcom and linking back to yourself will not give you any SEO benefit

Secondly consider writing a blog Blogs give you a very easy way to self-publish You control the content and the keywords used to describe your photos and you can link back to specific images or galleries within your website This level of specificity is crucial in building overall SEO because having links to only your homepage will have limited effect in building SEO against a very large corpus of related terms That said you need to have content of high quality Your domain can be penalized by search engines if the content appears spammy deceptive etc

There are several schools of thought regarding whether a blog should reside on the same domain or sub-domain as your photography website (eg examplecomblog or blogex-amplecom) Traditionally the answer was yes because the goal was to build up as much ldquodomain strengthrdquo by generating as many pages of content as possible

However the search engines limit the number of results from a specific domain on a single SERP Therefore some SEO experts recommend having content on multiple domains (eg exampleblogcom) This also gives you a publishing platform on a separate domain from which you can build good textual content and backlinks

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Itrsquos very common for photographers to spend significant time assembling the perfect online portfolio on their website and then not pay attention to it for months if not years But Google will often factor in ldquofreshnessrdquo of content in ranking search results Google biases certain search results using the concept of Quality Deserves Freshness Have photos of presidential contenders in a gallery from 2012 That probably wonrsquot rank well as we approach the next election

Make sure to regularly add content to your website Not only does it help to enlarge your online footprint it also gives you a freshness advantage in the eyes of the search engines

BASIC

6 PUBLISH CONTENT FREQUENTLY

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INTERMEDIATE

Optimizing your website for specific keywords and phrases shouldnrsquot be approached willy-nilly Create a list of keywords and phrases that you want your website to rank for This list should contain 20-50 words and phrases and should range from the general to the more specific

You should have a combination of ldquohead termsrdquo (phrases of 3 or fewer keywords) and ldquolong tail termsrdquo For example letrsquos say yoursquore a wedding photographer in Philadelphia The following words might appear on your list

bull philadelphia wedding photographerbull philly wedding photographerbull wedding photographer in phillybull ambler wedding photographerbull wedding photographers near temple universitybull cheap wedding photographers in phillybull best philadelphia wedding photographer

Using colloquial terms like ldquophillyrdquo and more specific terms like ldquoamblerrdquo (a Philadel-phia suburb) is likely to drive more relevant traffic to your website Having a good mix of long tail terms will also make it 1) easier for you to build SEO on less competitive terms and 2) drive qualified traffic to your website Certain terms can imply different intent For example ldquophilly wedding photographer pricerdquo is more indicative of someone ready to hire a photographer and thus a more qualified customer than someone who searches for ldquowedding photography ideasrdquo

Your keyword list not only represents what terms you want to be found for but also a guess at what terms people will search for to find you But how do you really know You can use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to see approximate search volumes for each term The Keyword Planner was developed for advertisers who wanted to gauge how much search volume existed for a given term (eg plasma tv) before spending money to place an ad

7 CREATE A KEYWORD LIST

We can use the same tool to get the general search volume for a given term The tool also gives you suggestions for similar phrases that might generate more search volume Use the tool to sanity check your list For example you might have ldquowedding photog-rapher in phillyrdquo on your list but the tool reveals that ldquophilly wedding photographerrdquo is the higher search volume term

This doesnrsquot mean that you shouldnrsquot have ldquowedding photographer in phillyrdquo on your listmdashafter all SEO isnrsquot only about winning for specific terms over time you should dominate for the corpus of terms that is related to your products and services The tool allows you to refine your list by adding a few variations or removing lower volume terms

Once yoursquove created your keyword list use that list to inform any copy you write on your website or blog For example your homepage title might be ldquoPhiladelphia Wed-ding Photographerrdquo and your ldquoAboutrdquo page might begin ldquoI am a wedding photogra-pher based in Philadelphia and serving suburbs like Amblerrdquo The keyword list is an organizational tool that will help you focus your SEO text efforts

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V

I

Google AdWords


INTERMEDIATE INTERMEDIATE

If you are a youth sports photographer then yoursquore probably keenly aware of who your competition is because you probably stand next to them on the sidelines each week You might be surprised to find that your online competition is a completely different set of people Search for each term on your keyword list in Google and take note of who is coming up in the top ten results Are you surprised There are probably a num-ber of names yoursquove never even heard of But in many ways these people are the more crucial competition because of the way people search for information

The list of results for your keyword list can help you gauge the competitiveness of your niche and give you a quantitative guide to displacing them in the future

Every year the braniacs at MOZ (one of the leading resources for SEO) survey the top SEO experts to assess what factors are driving SEO Of all the many signals that drive SEO social media continues to play a crucial role When you think about the explosion of Facebook Twitter and Google+ it really shouldnrsquot be a surprise that the search engines are looking at these services as a barometer of what is important and influential on the Web

8 ASSESS THE ONLINE COMPETITION 9 PARTICIPATE IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Itrsquos imperative for photographers to participate in social media not only for the obvi-ous marketing reasons (eg their customers are hanging out on these sites and there-fore go to where your customers are) but also because the search engines are keying into these signals which affects search engine results Google+ and Facebook are rec-ommended but a recent deal between Google and Twitter suggests that Twitter might have increasing influence in the future

You can even use YouTube to influence local search results by geotagging and embed-ding the video in your Google My Business listing

Surf photographer Zak Noyle maintains an active presence on Instagram Facebook and Twitter which all link back to his website where he sells photos and merchandise

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I


EXPERT EXPERT

The best way to get others to link to you is to shoot something interesting then use your PR skills to let other sites know about it Sites like PetaPixel FeatureShoot the LENS blog and the PhotoShelter blog feature photographerrsquos work regularly and this is a great way to build links Plus when your work is featured on a popular site it inevitably creates a cascade of links from other sites

Creating backlinks (links from other websites to your website) is of crucial impor-tance to good SEO Itrsquos also often a very easy way to understand how competitive your competition really is In order to understand the feasibility of displacing our online competition we can use a backlink analysis tool like Majestic

10 GET OTHERS TO LINK TO YOU 11 PERFORM A BACKLINK ANALYSIS

From your list of on-line competition simply search for their domain on Majestic and you can see unique backlinks and unique domains Gener-ally the more backlinks from the more diverse do-mains it has the harder it will be to displace

The backlink analysis helps you determine whether you can feasibly displace the

James Estrinrsquos profile of Bangladeshi photographer Shehab Ud-din included a backlink from the powerful nytimescom domain to shehabuddincom

Controversial topical or hu-morous articles can generate strong backlink traffic And although ldquolinkbaitrdquo has a negative connotation com-pelling topics can generate significant clicks whether itrsquos a review of the newest cam-era or a set of aerial photos over New York City

competition If they have 1000 backlinks itrsquos probably unlikely but if they have 50 a concerted effort can clearly help you move ahead in the rankings Sheer number of links isnrsquot the only barometer Look at the number and quality of unique domains as well If you have a low number of links and poor SEO a single link from nytimescom could give you a significant boost

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EXPERT

Before you embark on heavy SEO activity you may want to put some benchmarks in place to measure the effectiveness of your efforts Options here can be simplemdashlike doing searches to see where you rank today vs after you apply our tactics Or they can be more elaborate like employing Google Analytics to gauge your progress more analytically

Here are some metrics to trackbull Number of visitors (total) From Google Analytics view the Dashboard for

total traffic If you have a PhotoShelter website this can be viewed right from your Member Homepage

bull Number of visitors via search From Google Analytics go to ldquoTraffic Sources -----------gt Searchrdquo

bull Number of keywords driving search traffic From Google Analytics go to ldquoTraffic Sources -----------gt Search ------------gt Organicrdquo

bull Number of indexed pages From googlecom type ldquosite[your domain name]rdquobull Number of indexed images From imagesgooglecom type ldquosite[your domain

name]rdquobull Number of backlinks From majesticseocom type your domain name into the

query box Take note of the number of backlinks and domains

Google Webmaster Tools offers a different set of reports that can help you analyze your SEO efforts including Search Queries which shows the average position of keywords sending traffic to your site

12 ANALYZE

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I


lthough the process of building good SEO can often seem mundane and technical the benefits are tangible and measurable Building a large online footprint along with strong SEO can generate free unsolicited traffic SEO is a cornerstone of many online marketing efforts and photographers who persevere can more easily build

their online (and offline) audiences

SEO RESOURCESSome people devote their professional lives to Search Engine Optimization (thankfully) Here are some of our favorite resources if you want to delve deeper

bull Google publishes a Search Engine Optimization Starter Guidebull MOZ provides a Beginnerrsquos Guide to SEO with a technical explanation on the subtleties of SEObull Search Engine Land provides daily coverage of SEO-related newsbull The Official Google Webmaster Central blog publishes up-to-date changes from the search team bull Majestic and ahrefs are free backlink analysis servicesbull HubSpotrsquos Marketing Grader combines SEO with other inbound marketing factors to generate an easy-to-

understand grade for your websitebull Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools are indispensable for analyzing your SEO progressbull Certified PhotoShelter Consultant Alex Vita published an SEO Guide for Photographersbull Googlersquos Mobile-Friendly Test tool

PART V

Conclusion amp SEO Resources

CHECK OUT PHOTOSHELTERS library of free photo business and marketing guides

Get them all wwwPhotoSheltercomresources

wwwvimeocomPhotoShelter

PhotoShelter

wwwfacebookcomPhotoShelter

PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom

wwwinstagramcomPhotoShelter

FIND PHOTOSHELTER online

3THE SEO GUIDE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS 3THE PHOTOGRAPHERrsquoS GUIDE TO TWITTER

Get 20 off PhotoShelterBuild a stronger photo business with a PhotoShelter website

With PhotoShelter you also get powerful features and resources to

market your photos such as SEO and social sharing capabilities in

addition to the most options for licensing photography selling prints

online and pro-strength file delivery tools to please your clients

GET STARTED WITH 14 DAYS FREE + 20 OFF YOUR FIRST YEARLearn more amp join PhotoShelter todayOr visit photosheltercomsignup and enter

Questions Contact us anytime at 212-206-0808 or supportphotosheltercom

Offer valid for new PhotoShelter users Get 20 off a monthly Standard account

for the first year only

SPECIAL OFFER

SEO2015




PART I



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ON-PAGE FACTORS


OFF-PAGE FACTORS





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ANSWER BOX


CAROUSEL


PART II



MAPS


IMAGE SEARCH





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V

I








PART III









any web browser





PART IV








BASIC



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BASIC




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BASIC




BASIC



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BASIC





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BASIC


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INTERMEDIATE










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III

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Google AdWords










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EXPERT EXPERT









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EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

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I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom






PART I



II

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V






















ON-PAGE FACTORS


OFF-PAGE FACTORS





II

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V

I












II

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V

I




II

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IV

V

I






ANSWER BOX


CAROUSEL


PART II



MAPS


IMAGE SEARCH





II

III

IV

V

I








PART III









any web browser





PART IV








BASIC



II

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IV

V

I





BASIC




II

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IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

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IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom




II

III

IV

V






















ON-PAGE FACTORS


OFF-PAGE FACTORS





II

III

IV

V

I












II

III

IV

V

I




II

III

IV

V

I






ANSWER BOX


CAROUSEL


PART II



MAPS


IMAGE SEARCH





II

III

IV

V

I








PART III









any web browser





PART IV








BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I





BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom














ON-PAGE FACTORS


OFF-PAGE FACTORS





II

III

IV

V

I












II

III

IV

V

I




II

III

IV

V

I






ANSWER BOX


CAROUSEL


PART II



MAPS


IMAGE SEARCH





II

III

IV

V

I








PART III









any web browser





PART IV








BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I





BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom














II

III

IV

V

I




II

III

IV

V

I






ANSWER BOX


CAROUSEL


PART II



MAPS


IMAGE SEARCH





II

III

IV

V

I








PART III









any web browser





PART IV








BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I





BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom






II

III

IV

V

I






ANSWER BOX


CAROUSEL


PART II



MAPS


IMAGE SEARCH





II

III

IV

V

I








PART III









any web browser





PART IV








BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I





BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom








ANSWER BOX


CAROUSEL


PART II



MAPS


IMAGE SEARCH





II

III

IV

V

I








PART III









any web browser





PART IV








BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I





BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom




MAPS


IMAGE SEARCH





II

III

IV

V

I








PART III









any web browser





PART IV








BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I





BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom










PART III









any web browser





PART IV








BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I





BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom







PART IV








BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I





BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom









BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I





BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom







BASIC




II

III

IV

V

I



BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom





BASIC




BASIC



II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom





BASIC





II

III

IV

V

I




BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom






BASIC


II

III

IV

V

I


INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom




INTERMEDIATE










II

III

IV

V

I

Google AdWords










II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom












II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom




EXPERT EXPERT









II

III

IV

V

I


EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom




EXPERT










12 ANALYZE

II

III

IV

V

I







PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom









PART V





PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom






PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom




PhotoShelter


PhotoShelter guides

wwwPhotoSheltercom



Documents

Seo for photographers 2015