SEO for Wedding Photographers
There are truly countless ways to get clients as a wedding photographer, but with the internet, it really has never been easier. Networking can be done simply by commenting or liking comments on Social Media. You can even build trust by getting in front of your prospective clients through the entire buying journey. Although it is now easier than ever to connect with clients, it is still crucial that you focus on doing so if you expect to grow your wedding photography business.
A strong marketing plan for wedding photographers includes multiple strategies. One for Social Media, another strategy for SEO, and even a strategy for wedding directories since many consumers are now using them. In this post I’ll go over the characteristics of a strong SEO strategy for wedding photographers.
SEO vs. Social Media
Social Media is great to promote content but in order to stay front and center of your ideal client when they need your service, SEO is really the only solution. Social media is crucial to a full fledged marketing plan, but ranking on search engines for keywords such as “wedding photographer (in your city)” will bring leads that are ready to buy at that specific moment. That’s the difference between the two platforms.
The Buyers Journey
Take a second to think about your buyers journey.
They begin by of coarse proposing or being proposed to, and becoming engaged. Then they move to the begging stages of wedding preparation.
At this point most people would begin talking to friends and family about any immediate recommendations. And of course, we all know the best type of client is a referral, but it’s crucial you understand that there are more people that you don’t know than there are people that you do know.
So, if your potential client’s relatives don’t have a wedding photographer to refer, they most likely turn to google to look for your service.
The most common search term a buyer would type into google would be along the lines of “City + Wedding Photographer”. Optimizing your website for this search term is crucial, but there are literally thousands of search terms to optimize your website for.
When a potential client is searching for a wedding photographer on google they are far down in the sales funnel and are ready to talk to a service provider like you. So getting on the first page will put your brand in front of them, along with 9 other competitors, when they look for your service.
Since 92% of website traffic goes to the first page of google, getting traffic from any page other than the first is highly unlikely.
So how do you optimize your website?
1. Keyword Research
Start by going to a keyword research tool such as long tail pro and begin hunting for keywords. You want to find keywords that have enough search volume but aren’t too competitive. Generally speaking, you can expect that most consumers would search for variations of “city + wedding photographer”. Here’s a quick example of the top keywords for wedding photographers in San Diego from ahrefs:
2. Competitor Analysis
Once you have your list of keywords begin performing the search on google and analyze who is ranking for those keywords. If there are big brands ranking for that search term forget it. If the SERP, search engine results page, includes at least 50% of small businesses in your local area, go for it.
You then want to analyze their website and try to steal ideas from them. Are they putting a list of previous wedding photos on the home page? Are they niche to a specific demographic? All of this will help you make your website better and deliver what the customer is ultimately looking for. In other words you will increase the customer experience when they land on your website.
3. Optimization
Optimizing your website isn’t done overnight, but there are a few google ranking factors to look out for.
4. Produce quality content, regularly
Simple, produce quality content, regularly. To take it one step further, try to understand the search intent behind the keyword and write an article
In its simplest form, that is how you can do SEO as a Wedding Photographer.
If you get stuck along the way I’d love to help. Feel free to reach out to us.
If you’re interested our pricing take a look at our small business SEO packages.
