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.

1. SEO & WHY
IT MATTERS
Why taking good pictures isn’t
enough to succeed in the 21st
century
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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
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3. MAD LIB
DECONSTRUCTION
4
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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
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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.
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6. THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
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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 |
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8. WHERE’S YOUR WEBSITE?
When a user searches for:
– austin wedding photographer
– perla’s photo
– commercial photographers houston
– jerry jones portrait
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9. 9
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10. 10
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11. 11
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12. 12
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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
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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
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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
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17. SEO CHECKLIST
• Domain
– Register a domain (in your own country)
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18. DOMAIN: REGISTER A DOMAIN
• Register a domain
• Be geographically
aware
• Register for a few
years
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19. SEO CHECKLIST
• Domain
– Register a domain (in your own country)
– Add it to business directories, trade organization directories
19
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20. google.com/local/add ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/
Free $299/year
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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
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22. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION
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23. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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33. ON-PAGE: ALT ATTRIBUTE
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34. ON-PAGE: ALT ATTRIBUTE
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35. ON-PAGE: ALT ATTRIBUTE
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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
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37. BEWARE OF FLASH WEBSITES
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38. “Most SEO experts would recommend
not using Flash.”
“Flash pages attract far fewer links
than their HTML brethren”
– Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz
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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
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40. 40
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41. 41
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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
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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
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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.
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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 |
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49. GOOGLE ANALYTICS
WWW.GOOGLE.COM/ANALYTICS
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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
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52. SEOMOZ.COM BACKLINK ANCHOR TEXT ANALYSIS TOOL
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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
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54. VISITS REFERRED BY KEYWORDS
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55. DISTINCT PAGES RECEIVING VISITS
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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
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57. The Google algorithm
changed more than
450 times last year alone.
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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

60. http://pa.photoshelter.com/mkt/seo-kit-for-photographers
Thursday, March 18, 2010