Book More Clients Photography Podcast - How to Start a Photography Business, Marketing Strategy, How Photographers Make Money

Ep. 33 | SEO Strategy with Melissa McGraw

October 31, 2019 Brooke Jefferson Episode 33
Book More Clients Photography Podcast - How to Start a Photography Business, Marketing Strategy, How Photographers Make Money
Ep. 33 | SEO Strategy with Melissa McGraw
Show Notes Transcript

Are you wanting to get your business found on google but you’re afraid of SEO? It’s not as scary as it sounds!

Today I am interviewing Melissa McGraw and she is giving us some awesome insight into the world of SEO (search engine optimization). Now, before you roll your eyes, hear me out. This episode is pure GOLD. Melissa is the owner of The Creative Potential. She helps fellow entrepreneurs like you, get your business found online and, boy, is she is handing out amazing, tangible tips to implement in your SEO today!

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spk_1:   0:08
Welcome to the brain your way. Photography podcast. I'm your host, Bert Jefferson. I'm a wife, Mama to two and full time photographer in business. I created this podcast with the inspiring photographer in mine to bring you inspired stories. Strategies to help you go from zero to mostly figures and tips and tricks to get one step closer to work. Life harmony. Are you ready to bring your way to your dream career? Let's

spk_0:   0:37
dive in. All right. Well, I'm so excited. I'm here with Melissa McGraw, and she is going to bring us some gold today in the area of S E O. And before you try toe, turn this podcast episode off. I promise you, this is probably not the normal spiel you've heard on S E O, which is what makes me so excited. And so I'm gonna let Melissa introduce yourself to you guys.

spk_1:   1:05
Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm, like, super excited to be here and talk about s CEO. And for those of you that probably heard, it's called search engine optimization a k a. Get your site found on Google s O. I am Melissa McGraw on the owner of the creative potential. Who and who am I helping? I'm helping fellow entrepreneurs like yourselves, whether your service based business or product based business Get your business found on lying. So I do that through organic search as well as pay per click. May have known that as a Google ads eso I help clients and a lot of photographer clients get found for what they want to get found. Four. A lot of people forget about this when creating their website as well as get found in local search. Because if you're looking for local clients really important to be found locally,

spk_0:   2:02
well, my nerdy self is so ready to dive into the topic of S e O. I know for probably almost every listener, they're getting a sense of an overwhelms feeling and they're not feeling very comfortable talking about it for several reasons. One, they've tried it before. It doesn't work, too. They looked into it before and just gave out because there's so much information or three, they're using it, but they know it could be better. So I'm really excited. Thio just dive into this topic and I'm gonna let you just start us off with where you need to start us off that. Okay,

spk_1:   2:37
great. Well, the tub of S e o. It's a necessary evil for your business. I like to phrase it like that. It's kind of like accounting, doing your taxes. That's the last thing you want to talk about and probably listen to anything. Maybe legal. It's a little over your head. And then there's the topic of S E. O. So these three main topics, that's where I find that people kind of cringe at. I have a lot of clients that tell me that s e O makes them want to vomit. Uh, but they know they have to do it eyes, but it's incredibly important. If you're gonna do it yourself or you're gonna have someone else do it for you like myself and optimize your website because just because you had a launch party for your website last week doesn't mean Google knows it exists. It really, really doesn't. And we spend so much time making her website look really, really pretty, spending lots of time and perhaps a lot of money again, making it look really, really pretty. But we forgot about how people are going to find us online, and I'm gonna tell you, at least 95% of my clients forgot that step even ranking for their own name, their names nowhere in their sight. If it's not the euro, it's not gonna be found that Google not know your full name if it's nowhere on your website. So it's little steps like that that you can do on your own to help you get ranked in organic search. Now, when it comes to organic search, we're thinking of the you type something into Google and you see a search engine Result page of what Google's giving back to you based on your search, says say, photographers in Oklahoma. OK, so it will show you some results. And I'm going to say at least 75% of people do not scroll past the first page of search engine results these days. Maybe go to page two, maybe, but I'm 75% of people do not, so you have to think about again. Writing. These key words are coming up with a key word strategy for your business, and key words are for key phrases or what people are looking for to find your business on line, so I'll use this example again. If your photographer in Oklahoma on what type of photographer are you branding? Photographer in Oklahoma professional photographer in Oklahoma, Oklahoma professional photographers? Where can I find a professional photographer in Oklahoma? And that even seems a little wordy, but people are searching very, very specifically now. In Google, for example, my topic S E O. That's really broad. There's a lot of competition for the word three letters S C o. How can I get my sight found online? Very, very specific. It might have a little lower search volume compared to S ee. Oh, but I'll probably ranks higher for help me get my sight phone online rather than ASIO, which has a lot of competition to it. So it's having those variations off key words throughout your websites Really, really important because that's how people are searching. It's kind of coming up with that key word strategy, and they're free tools that you can utilize to do that. Ah, for example, one of them is a Google chrome extension browser keywords everywhere that you can use if you just go gold. Freaky word tool There's a lot of them out there that you can just start incorporating your keywords into and finding key words for your business. You can even find keywords based on your topic of your business in Google. If you were just to put photographers in Oklahoma without hitting the return or enter button, you'll see some suggestions that are popping up right underneath those air additional key birds that you can utilize in your sight. If you were to hit enter, you could go to the school to the bottom of the results page. And this is similar searches or related searches. Those are also additional key words that people are searching for phrases so you can utilize them into your site because that's what people are also searching for. Pinterest is a great tool to use if you're not using Pinterest already, interest is a search engine. It's not just social media, so you can type in your topic into Pinterest, and all these key words were also come up to you. So that's what people are searching on. Pick trice. A great way to bring traffic back to your website specially for your photographer is very visual. That's what people are looking for. Her special. If you're looking for lifestyle branding, photography, I'm looking for Brandon photos for their businesses are entrepreneurs and need branding photos for Instagram. Don't like taking selfies so they need Photo was taken, so that is just another great tool to use and it's free.

spk_0:   8:11
This is great to questions that popped up when you were talking about having our website found on Google. I have heard it takes time to establish credibility to become a first page results. So that's question number one and then question number two just to use a tangible example. And I'll just use myself as the example if I'm wanting to be found, um, not necessarily in the entire state of Oklahoma, but in the Southwest area, as a family photographer and then even more specifically as a lifestyle family photographer. What kind of key words could I use? And then where should I be putting this on the back end of my website as well? Those are my two questions.

spk_1:   8:53
I'm in order to get ranked on the first page of Google. Google is taking a look at a lot. I call it the periodic table of F c o. Remember that, like from chemistry class. So you must always talk about again. Uh uh, But there's a lot of different elements that go into S CEO and Google's taking a look at who is linking to your site, meaning how many it's called back links. How many sites are linking to yours? Because the more sites, more credible sites, I should say that our linking to yours, it shows that, hey, Google's like, Okay on Well, this is credible people really digging this content. They're sharing this content I'm going to give them was called more domain authority kind of rise them up a little bit. Like, for example, Pinterest has a domain authority of 100 because Amazon is 100. So the closer you are to that score of 100 the more credible in Google's mind that it's giving you that domain authority and pushing you up in the ranks for that particular keyword. So it's back links its value, its content. It's optimization. It's also is your website slow? No one's ever said. I love a slow website, especially if it's very image. Heavy photographer sites are very image heavy. It can't be a slow website. I'm Google does not like it has to load under two seconds or less. I'm or people, I think I think I was reading. Over 70% of people will leave that site and also tell others that that sites not great. I'm so there's a lot of different components when it comes to s ee. Oh, sounds just keyword optimization, which is very, very important. But there's all different types of elements, like even the speed of the site on testing the speed of the site.

spk_0:   11:09
Awesome. So Okay, great. Well, that answers that. And I just wanna dig in Just another thing that came to mind as you were saying that. So should it be our goal to starts, I'm going to assume that if credible sites are linking back to ours, this means this could happen through a multitude of ways. In just a couple off the top of my head, being featured in someone else's blawg being featured on a submission blogged for photographers. Another podcast. Is that right? So we should definitely be making an effort to be collaborating and hopefully submitting our work. That's correct.

spk_1:   11:47
Absolutely. You're writing all that log content, So why shouldn't it be shared? I'm so and also educating others on what you d'oh so reaching out to others. You could even do it via instagram, for example, and connecting with them that way. And it's all about collaboration doing a Facebook live in someone's group, doing any it block post etcetera, drawing traffic back to your site, and Google will start to recognize that for sure.

spk_0:   12:19
That is amazing. So we're just jump back just a little bit. But I think the majority of us listening. I know there's a handful of us in Oklahoma just because I know they're listening. And then we've got some other photographers that are actually all around the United States, which I'm just honored that they're even listening. I think that's awesome. The majority of my audience is not yet traveling, you know, they're not that travel destination photographer, so they're not necessarily trying to get worldwide hits but more for a local area. So how can we utilize our local areas to start showing up on Google when people are searching for us?

spk_1:   13:00
The easiest way to do this and it's completely free right now it's called Google my business and it you just Google Google my business or my even shorten it. Now it's Google business, and it is a complete snapshot of your business before anyone goes to your website. So perhaps you put a restaurant into Google and you saw something come up on the right hand side of the search results page. It kind of looks like an ad, but it's not an ad that is Google my business listing so you can have all of your image is your whole portfolio. If you really want to upload it there, your website, your business address, your hours of people. You want to schedule people for a complimentary session to talk to them, etcetera. You could have your calendar link and people could schedule a session with you There, you could have your block posts. You can have your events. You can have testimonials from your clients. You can invite them too, right? A testimonial on your Google, my business page. So it's a like many snapshot into your business without people even going to your website find trying to find you. So this comes and this helps you come up on what we call the local map pack in Google when someone searching, for example, photographer in Oklahoma. So start to you'll start to see that on a map. The more traffic that's coming your way to the Google, my business listing. Ah, lot of my client's gonna lot traffic back, people clicking through searching around and it goes right back to their website. It's a great tool to use and other local directories, uh, utilize the Google my business listing like, for example, being places for business. Now Google comprises over 93% of organic search. Then there's being well, yeah, so there are being places for business, which you can utilize as well. It's the same concept as Google, my business listing. It actually even uses the data from Google, my business listing increase of being places for business listing. So if your competitors are doing it, why not utilize it again? Helps you get found in from what we call the local s CEO local directories. What you're doing is creating citations. That's your listings about your business, especially if you're looking for a local clients on Second to Google. My business is probably yelp. I know not everyone loves yelp. I'm from a platform perspective, but from a local search perspective, it's really important. So it's something to think about on Anders. There's probably and I that's what I do with clients. I submit them Thio. Probably at least 60 to 70 local directories on that. You kind of forgot about, like foursquare citysearch. Map Quest. Yes, people are still utilizing them. Even the Yellow Pages people are so utilizing them on. So there is a lot of opportunity to be found in local search, and it doesn't have to cost anything.

spk_0:   16:27
So confession. I've actually been using Google my business for quite a while now. I would like to say a year because someone talked about it. I want to say that a year I do get search results from it. I get a little report to my email every month. Yeah, the problem is, I didn't realize I could do all of that with I mean, I did update my pick stirs and there's accurate information there. But now that I know I can link my booking wink, yeah, I'm going to redo it. Give it a makeover, see if it doesn't help. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm going to assume that's probably not gonna be free forever. But right now, so we might as well utilise it.

spk_1:   17:05
Yes, they were trying to charge, I think, this past February it didn't go into fruition, but I know it's coming.

spk_0:   17:12
Okay, well, then I'm glad I jumped on the bandwagon early, at least to get, you know, some search results. Another area that I kind of wanna dive into just because I think it's going to be really helpful for the majority of my listeners. We are all blogging to some capacity and two ext Splain. A typical search result that either get from Google or Pinterest is I will type in, for instance, family fall photo outfits or something, and I will see a bunch of different results and I'll click on it. And it will take me back to a photographer's blogged, where they've uploaded every single image from the session. And there's like a three sentence blurb about where it was, who it was with its very usually keyword driven, sometimes words all. So what actually makes a successful blawg for a photographer? Can you tell us the important elements were not doing well? You

spk_1:   18:09
got a debt and working with photographer clients, and they're doing a great job of adding photos to their website. Okay, like that's the hands down. That's great. Very image heavy, which does help in search. It does. It can help you get ranked faster sometimes, then just plain content. I'm because it's just a different search. And But when you are uploading your photos on, no matter what platform you're using, show it Shopify, squarespace, WordPress, Wicks weekly. Whatever it ISS, you're naming our most likely. You're naming the photos with your client's name, okay? And so a lot of the photos are named the same, which is an issue for Google because it shouldn't be named the same same title. Here's a chance to name those photos for the key words that you want to get found for a professional photographer. Oklahoma Professional photographer, Oklahoma City lifestyle photographer Oklahoma. You see where I'm going with that and name instead of naming it clients named up of J peg or dot PNG. That doesn't help you. Ah, insert what you want is to change those, especially those items those file names to those keywords and you want to put a hyphen between each each on word, so professional hyphen or slash the hyphen. Professional hyphen, photographer hyphen. Oklahoma dot j paige dot PNG and upload the file that way. Now a certain platforms. You can change the file names already so you don't have to re upload. I know show it's a little bit more difficult. Re upload those photos. I'm square space. You can change them shop if I can change them. WordPress. There's a plug in that you can utilize. Um, it's called media file Rename Er, and you can change the titles of your images without having to re upload them. I'm also it's called All techs Alternative text for those images. Fill out that field. You see that in certain websites, bill it out really, really important of other key words that you want to utilize. It doesn't have to be the same as a title. It has to pertain. Hat has to pertain to your business and to the block post, probably on what to wear to a branding photo shoot session. You know, that's where people are searching for, and these keyword tools will give you some ideas of what people are searching for I'm Also there is a free tool called answer the public dot com, where it provides the question some of the questions that people are searching for on your topic. So those air keywords as well, because that's what people are searching for with a block post is it's important to have, and I'm glad most of you listening are Have a block phone of your website. And that's great because Google sees as fresh content and needs fresh content in order to come back to your website really, really important. However, Google also likes at least 1000 words or more on a block post. Um, and that's where we all and myself included struggle with because it needs some content there in addition to the images. So when I see with a lot of photographers, there's just like two sentences and then 65 photos, right? So if you can add some content, where was that photo shoot? Who it was with? What were you trying to create? What was it for? I'm Is it for like, a brand? Is it for Instagram any type of like concerns that they had etcetera a thinking of what type of other content you could utilize in that block post is really important because that just adds more key words for what people are searching for.

spk_0:   22:52
Yeah, that. Okay, So I've always heard that 300 is like the magic count. Because even my Yost Place yes is like, yea, you have 300 words. Men like Oh, my gosh, I barely made it, You know, um, now for the word count, let me ask you this. Is that so specifically just the text we Britain? Or are they also including text Be Britain to the images like any of that, all textures, it's strictly just text in the blood

spk_1:   23:22
is strictly the text it is. It's a content on and it's looking at okay, 300 characters or C C. 300 words or more. Google likes to see it because the more words that you have, the more the better the chances of it being shared and becoming more viral. Also ranking form or keywords. So really Google loves it from 1000 to 3000 words. Incentive rating. 5 300 word posts per week or per month. You cut that down and create longer, longer posts.

spk_0:   24:07
Koch s. So I think one strategy that I will start using is I may still offer the 300 heard blog's Thio just for the clients benefit, right? A lot of times that they're wanting to share it with, and we know it's already gonna be shared because they're so excited to share their pictures. So that's kind of good thing. Whoever I think once a month, twice a month I will commit thio producing 1000 word, maybe really educational toe. One topic block and beat Found for that All

spk_1:   24:40
right, like tips of what to wear to tips. How to pose for an indoor branding photography session that is, that's educational. And that can create a lot of content rather than more of a client gallery posts. And but those are important to you because it's images as well, and people will stay on your site longer. It's what we call the balance rate ill reduced the balance right there. They're looking, they're scrolling through the images and kind of staying or I'm looking at the images rather than okay, they're coming to content. They might not have time and they have to bounce, I believe and come back later on. So it's creating those that variation type of content video is also extremely important to have on your website. I can't stress it enough. It will help you rank higher 50 times higher in organic search than more than images. More than just content because Google owns you to not everyone utilizes video, so why not embed that into your blawg? So if you have, you can put a video into your block. Perfect. If you need some content, you can even have that video transcribed. It creates content. You could put that right underneath your video. Ah, anything Testimonials, for example, on your website also creates fresh content. If you're constantly getting testimonials from your clients, don't forget. Ask them for testimonials. Asked him the see if you can put this on your website, etcetera. It creates fresh content.

spk_0:   26:26
I love it. Okay, so I'm gonna get a little technical here just because I'm not new to the website world on dip my tone It long enough that some of these questions might be over some people's heads, but eventually you'll get here and you'll want this question answer to so behind the scenes when I'm noticing my pages and what pops up so made a description lugs this type of thing. What tips can you give me to make those more searchable? Because one thing I want to point out is I have works in the blogging area as a V a prior with other clients. And so one thing I noticed was when a blogger would publish something. The title is one thing. The slug is another like it's not even the same. But it's another way to search for the same content. So it was not actually a good strategy or a not good stress. It

spk_1:   27:23
is definitely a good strategy. I'm the title of your block post really has to be under 70 characters or less. And if you're utilizing WordPress, it will tell you that your title and you're using Joost it will tell you your title was too long. It will show you I'm and that's you want to make sure that your titles aren't getting cut off, because I know sometimes we get a little wordy, and that's what happens. Also, the made a description. The major description is telling Google, Hey, this is what this page or post is all about, and it's got to be under 155 characters or less. Google has played around with it. At one point. I think it was last year, you know, Mid Lasher. It was 320 characters. Now it's 155 characters or less, and you can utilize some key words in there. But you want to make sure it's a call to action. Like click here to learn more, keep scrolling through the gallery and see this this couple's amazing day. You know it's Sea Scroll here. See what we created with this branding photo shoot because you're seeing the title. It's coming up in search engine results, but it's that little blurb of text underneath that people are reading in. That's encouraging them to click because it's grabbing their attention and like, Yeah, I wanna learn more. I'm gonna go right here.

spk_0:   28:55
Okay, that's really good. I don't use cold actions and my maid of descriptions. A lot of times I'm copying and pasting something I've already said in the blogged, Um and so I have been thinking of it like a summary, which I guess it kind of maybe you just need a cold action. Hey, here's what you do with this information. Why you should click on my link right here said that that is really helpful for me. When I go back to write more block post, I'm about to get way more consistent. And there's another question, too. I'm sure people are wondering. Is there a certain timeframe we should be having fresh content put out? Does Google deem like, um, you know, a monthly amounts to be relevant? Is there a relevant number? I'm eight

spk_1:   29:43
system. The more content, the better. So it's not saying, Hey, you didn't block You know of five times this week, we're going to penalize you for it. It's just the more content you have, the better on, and so it can come back to your site and start indexing your sight.

spk_0:   30:03
Perfect. And then one question that I'm just there. I'm thinking through all the categories I am going to be blogging, and one thing that I haven't been blogging about but is coming soon is a recap of all of my podcast episodes. This is why I'm having my website redone this week is because the podcast needed a home that didn't have a home on the worldwide Web except for you know, where I upload them and there's not a whole lot of text that goes with that. So when I am blogging my podcast, am I trying to hit the 1000 words, or am I trying to transcript the whole thing? Because clearly we don't want to give it all away, but I guess for others that may want to read it and can't listen. For whatever reason. What kind information should I be? Including in my podcast blog's

spk_1:   30:56
and I am working reclines. I have podcasts and they put the little you know Blur is they can listen to the podcast, but it it should be a summary. But I know how hard it is to get the 1000 words. You know, you don't want to give everything away, but you want to give the key takeaways from the episode again. It's all about that call to action, why people would need to click on that blood post or go to subscribe. Go and go toe to go find your podcasts, et cetera. I'm but you also want to make sure that your internally linking so Google it's called creating that circle for Google. I'm so you're linking if there's a key word and you had another post your excuse me another podcast episode on a block post that you may have been talking about your linking to that so Google can kind of, like follow the circle as well as externally linking anything if you had a guest like example myself linking to my site. So that's important to Google. Likes to see the external legs. I'm I know you don't want to give everything away in that. So it's more about the call to action, the key takeaways and then also utilizing some of those keywords in there.

spk_0:   32:16
Yeah, so does that Give me credibility by linking other external sites? Or do I need to ask them to return the favor?

spk_1:   32:24
Well, I'm And if Google needs to see some external links to, uh, it's a little bit of everything, especially the internal lengths, because it's following the circle. So, for example, if you wrote you wrote a blog's Siris on what to wear to a photo shoot and different, you know, maybe it was different clients or whatever. You wanna link thio each block post. So Google can all of the circle on as well as others reading your block posts and they can read and stay longer on your site. And Google takes a look at that. If people are leaving the site immediately or staying longer and reading it so they know. Okay, the sights more credible. I'm going again. That's all about that domain authority. And then also sharing the loves, so to speak of ex externally linking you're creating a back link for somebody else.

spk_0:   33:22
Okay, awesome. Well, this was full of gold. So much so I hope people listen to this two or three times to go back and take notes because it truly was full of valuable information. There's a lot of changes in tangible action steps I'm going to be taking. And before we let you go, I want you to let us know how we can connect with you on Social Media website. What's coming up in the future for you? How can we connect with you?

spk_1:   33:52
Well, you can find me at my Web sites that create potential dot com. I have a free s CEO sessions, 30 minutes, you can sign up and you can chat with me about the S c e o of your sight. I have a done for you. Service called s E o my sight now and you can go to S ee Oh, my sight now dot com Or you can find it on my Web site, that creative potential. And again, it's a done for your service. I go behind the scenes, I do all the optimization So you don't have thio. I create keyword research strategy for you for your business. We kind of really comb through your site as well as we look at your competitors to see what they're doing organically and also who is linking to their site because they're linking to your competitors. So I like that they like to yours. So you have all that data you can reach out to them via social media, For example, start that collaboration process like we talked about earlier. You can find me on instagram the creative potential. I also have a Facebook group that would just start. It's called getting Found online with Melissa McGraw. It's very S e o focused getting found online. So I'm in there every single Wednesday. Giving wasn't there this past Wednesday. But I will say I am there. Every single ones I try to be and giving a live video, just giving you some chunks of information. Not too tacky. And so, what kind of work together and the getting found online process.

spk_0:   35:24
Well, Melissa, thank you so much for your time and expertise. This is going down as one of my favorite tangible podcast episodes. Thank you. You're welcome. And I really hope that even if someone's feeling overwhelmed, that can come back to this episode and just implement one little nugget at a time until we get there. Because the goal, especially this month of why I brought on all of you wonderful experts, is so that in our off season we can work on the back end of our business So that 2020 it will truly be the year. Best year in business. More clients, more leads rolling in. And so again, thank you so much for being

spk_1:   36:05
here. Oh, thank you so much for having me had so much fun. Thank you.