Comments on: How to land the first spot on Google in six months or less

By: Erika Sneeringer

Erika Sneeringer — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 17:35:44 +0000

In reply to Stephanie Horton. This sounds great. Often times Facebook posts don't see a lot of eyes. What FB groups are you a part of?

By: Erika Sneeringer

Erika Sneeringer — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 17:33:56 +0000

I wanted to let you know that this article has been so extremely helpful! I went from being now where on Google to now being found as number 1 with certain searches and number 3 with other searches – all relating to mini sessions. Still hoping for that number 1 spot with a more vague search such as my city and photographer – but baby steps. I booked my first client that found me through a Google search and was shocked when more followed! AND this is only after 2 months of blogging and sharing my blog posts! I’m actually going to be publishing my own blog post about my journey in improving my SEO, much of the credit goes to starting with reading this article. Thank you, thank you for these awesome tips!

By: Stephanie Horton

Stephanie Horton — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 19:54:11 +0000

In reply to Michelle Valantine.

Hi Michelle,
I’m so sorry for the late reply! SEO can be complicated, but it doesn’t always have to be! I would definitely encourage blogging a lot of your sessions for the best SEO. As far as keywords go, every photographer will have different keywords. Keep in mind things like your location and what kind of genre you specialize in. You don’t want to use keywords like “baby” or “newborn” if you don’t like to shoot newborn photography. Because I specialize in Family, Birth and Newborns, I try and focus on keywords pertaining to those genres. Hope this helps!

By: Stephanie Horton

Stephanie Horton — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 19:51:27 +0000

In reply to Hannah. Hi Hannah, I do think it is more beneficial for myself to have it all in one spot, but I also know a lot of photographers that are successful having a separate blog. For me personally, when visitors and potential clients visit my blog, they will also see the header and the footer of my main website so they can easily click around. I don't know who your website provider is or who your blog is through, but I would definitely think you should try and combine the two to be in one spot. I think this would really help with SEO as well!

By: Stephanie Horton

Stephanie Horton — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 19:49:15 +0000

In reply to Julie Picardi. Hi Julie! yes, blogging is so important! I do share all of my blog links on my Facebook page, although depending on the day, and how Facebook is feeling, they don't always get a lot of attention. I am a part of several photography groups that we do "Blog Days" where we post links to recent blogs that way we can get more comments and attention on our blogs to better SEO. Hope that helps!

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 16:04:38 +0000

I have a blog through a third party site that I just have a link to on my website. Would it be more beneficial to have my blog and site all in one? I’m not sure I know how to create a blog through my website but I can find out if that will get more flow directly to my site!

By: Julie Picardi

Julie Picardi — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 23:49:26 +0000

Stephanie, I greatly enjoyed your article on finding one’s way through SEO. I am a new professional with great aspirations and will take to heart all your advice. I had not given blogging such value but you have changed my perspective. I have a question however. Do you post your blog links on your Facebook page? Are there other ways to publicize your composition? Thank you ever so much for your insight into the mysterious world of recognition.

By: Michelle Valantine

Michelle Valantine — Tue, 10 May 2016 16:20:22 +0000

Thank you, Stephanie! SEO feels like such a steep learning curve, but your post makes it easy to understand and DO! I was just thinking today that I need to write another blog post for my past sessions, and this gives me the motivation and INTENTION for doing it!

If you have any advice on keywords, would you be willing to share that with us, too? Maybe give an example?

Thank you! Thank you!

By: Stephanie Horton

Stephanie Horton — Mon, 09 May 2016 03:13:26 +0000

In reply to Claudia. Thank you, Claudia! You're right about Facebook, although I do have a love/hate with my business page I too was one of those that heavily relied on it in the beginning stages of my business. It can be useful in many ways but I think focusing on getting yourself in front of your target market (those searching for your keywords on Google) is the way to go! I'm glad you liked the article!

By: Claudia

Claudia — Mon, 02 May 2016 18:00:31 +0000

Excellent post, Stephanie! I have to admit I’ve been very lazy about blogging, even though I’m an excellent writer! I have all these ideas for posts. I just need to sit down and organize them so they can come to fruition so I can add a blog to my website (which is currently undergoing a major renovation). And of course I have lovely photos to go along with them.

Facebook really isn’t the best tool for advertising. I will start using it more as a gateway to my blog & website. So glad you touched on that because too many businesses rely heavily on Facebook as the sole way to get their name out there, most likely because it’s “free.” But does limited post engagement and being required to boost a post to get more likes and shares worth “free”? Definitely not!

Thanks again for the great post!