PhotoShelter CEO, Allen Murabayashi, presents the latest on SEO for photographers at the Telluride Photo Festival 2010.

1. SEO & WHY
IT MATTERS
Why taking good pictures isn’t
enough to succeed in the 21st
century
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

2. Hello, World. I’m Allen
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Youth
Honolulu, HI College
Yale University
Penthouse Internet
hotjobs.com
PhotoShelter.com
Thursday, September 23, 2010

3. 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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4. MAD LIB
DECONSTRUCTION
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5. 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
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

6. 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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7. THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
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8. photoshelter.com/survey
We asked
photo
buyers
Thursday, September 23, 2010

9. Internet Search Engines?
Part of their
image buying
routine.
61%
Thursday, September 23, 2010

10. 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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Thursday, September 23, 2010

11. WHERE’S YOUR WEBSITE?
When a user searches for:
– telluride adventure photographer
– pepsi center aerial photo
– commercial photographers denver
– tim tebow portrait
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

12. “I don’t care about all that
SEO stuff. I just want my
website to look good.”
48.4 million daily newspaper
Audit Bureau of Circulation
285 million watch TV monthly
Nielsen A2/M2 Three Screen Report
14 billion core search monthly
comScore Media Metrix
PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITES: SEO & WHY IT MATTERS | PHOTOSHELTER RESEARCH 2009 |
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

13. Two types of photographers
PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITES: SEO & WHY IT MATTERS | PHOTOSHELTER RESEARCH 2009 |
Thursday, September 23, 2010

14. Two types of photographers
Share with family & friends only Seek a wider audience
PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITES: SEO & WHY IT MATTERS | PHOTOSHELTER RESEARCH 2009 |
Thursday, September 23, 2010

15. Seek a wider audience
• Sell prints & products
• Licence stock images
• Sign-up for newsletter
SEO can help extend
your potential audience
by generating unsolicted
visitors
PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITES: SEO & WHY IT MATTERS | PHOTOSHELTER RESEARCH 2009 |
Thursday, September 23, 2010

16. THE MANY FACES OF GOOGLE
• Universal & Instant Search
• 10-pack & Google Places
• Google Images
• Blog, News, Shopping, etc
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17. UNIVERSAL SEARCH & INSTANT SEARCH
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18. THE GOOGLE “PACKS”
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19. GET IN THE 10-PACK
http://www.google.com/places
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20. GOOGLE IMAGES
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21. GOLDEN TRIANGLE
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22. WHAT FACTORS AFFECT SEO?
Usage
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Domain
On-Page
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Links
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Source: Rand Fishkin/SEOMoz.org
Thursday, September 23, 2010

23. WHAT FACTORS AFFECT SEO?
Usage
13
Domain Trust/Authority
On-Page 30 of the Domain &
15 Registration Info
• Trust
• Domain Age
• TLD
• IP Address
Links
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

24. 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
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

25. 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
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

26. WHAT FACTORS AFFECT SEO?
Usage
13
Usage & Social
Domain
On-Page
30
15 • Time on site
• Bounce rate
• Historical
clicks
• “Social Graph”
Probably of
Links increasing
44 importance
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

27. SEO CHECKLIST
• Domain
– Register a domain (in your own country)
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

28. DOMAIN: REGISTER A DOMAIN
• Register a domain
• Be geographically
aware
• Register for a few
years
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

29. SEO CHECKLIST
• Domain
– Register a domain (in your own country)
– Add it to business directories, trade organization directories
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

30. google.com/places ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/
Free $299/year
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31. 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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Thursday, September 23, 2010

32. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION
Thursday, September 23, 2010

33. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION
Thursday, September 23, 2010

34. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION
Thursday, September 23, 2010

35. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION
Thursday, September 23, 2010

36. ON-PAGE: TITLE & META DESCRIPTION
Thursday, September 23, 2010

37. PAGE TITLES & META DESCRIPTION
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38. 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, September 23, 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
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

40. Search Engine and “SEO” to-do list
Thursday, September 23, 2010

41. 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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Thursday, September 23, 2010

42. ON-PAGE: ALT ATTRIBUTE
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43. ON-PAGE: ALT ATTRIBUTE
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44. 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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Thursday, September 23, 2010

45. BEWARE OF FLASH WEBSITES
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

46. “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, September 23, 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
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48. 48
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49. CELLULAR OBSCURA
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50. 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
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Thursday, September 23, 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
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

52. • 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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Thursday, September 23, 2010

53. 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, September 23, 2010

54. CONTENT MATTERS
• Create a keyword hitlist of 20-50 words that you want
to rank for
• Compare this to the Adwords Keyword Tool to refine
the list
• Run searches against the terms in your list to assess
the competition
• Run a backlink analysis so that you can understand
which terms are attainable
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55. ADWORDS KEYWORD TOOL
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
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56. SEARCH YOUR KEYWORDS
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57. MAJESTIC SEO
The #1 result has 483 backlinks
from 137 domains.
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58. 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)
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

59. 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
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

60. If you don’t measure,
how can you track progress?
PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITES: SEO & WHY IT MATTERS | PHOTOSHELTER RESEARCH 2009 |
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

61. GOOGLE ANALYTICS
WWW.GOOGLE.COM/ANALYTICS
Thursday, September 23, 2010

62. TRAFFIC SOURCES IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Thursday, September 23, 2010

63. 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
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

64. 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 keywords and pages getting traffic from search engines
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

65. VISITS REFERRED BY KEYWORDS
Thursday, September 23, 2010

66. DISTINCT PAGES RECEIVING VISITS
Thursday, September 23, 2010

67. 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
• Create a Massive Online Footprint
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

68. DON’T BE THE NEEDLE IN THE HAYSTACK
• Increase your online footprint
• Publish more pages of content
• Publish on more websites
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69. BIG FOOTPRINT HELPS BRAND MANAGEMENT
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70. SEO IS REAL
• If your website and marketing efforts don’t include
SEO, you’re missing free traffic
• Effective SEO results in real sales and revenue
• SEO is a long-term commitment, so start today!
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

71. GET THE KIT
photoshelter.com/mkt/research
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

72. WHAT’S PHOTOSHELTER?
• Websites and tools for serious photographers
• Automates many of the on-page SEO factors
• Easily integrate Google Analytics
• E-commerce, high-res downloads, private galleries,
and much more
• Used by over 65,000 photographers worldwide
Try it for $1 for 14 days!
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Thursday, September 23, 2010