I found an interesting article by Carrie Swaills that I'd like to share. It covers the topic of hyper-linking or getting links to your website from other professionals pages. Enjoy!
5 WAYS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS TO GET LINKS (MARKETING)
It sounds crazy, but the number one way to market for free is to get other websites to link back to your website. It’s all…. about the link backs my friends.
It does have to do a lot with SEO (search engine rank) in that every time someone links to you Google analyzes it and “scores” your website and the more people that link to your website from their websites the higher you will show up in searches for photography in your area. What does being higher in a search mean? Excuse my “SEO for dummies” explanation. It means that when people are searching for a photographer they see you first, and it’s free! It is, of course, hard work behind the scenes, but it’s worth it in the end.
Here are a few ways you can get some link backs of your own. Thanks for being so patient for this blog post. I was intending on putting it up last Thursday or Friday, but I was in Vail and out of town for a wedding so I just took a couple days off from the blogosphere.
1. Wedding Websites – if you’re a wedding photographer registering on websites like weddingwire.com, theknot.com, and all those other ones will usually allow you to put a link to your website. A lot of these wedding websites have a system set up where you can pay to be listed in their system, just stick with the free options. All you really want to get out of this is a link back to your website. There are literally hundreds of these types of websites, and some of them are owned by the same company. When you list on one you might find that listing on a few other sites you didn’t sign up for, but that’s okay. Google “wedding websites” and just start going at it!
2. Yellow Pages – Any websites like yellow pages allow you to have a business listing for free and will let you put your website up. There are several and these can be hugely helpful to bring your search engine rank higher.
3. Wedding Blogs – Having a wedding or photoshoot featured on a wedding blog is a great way to be linked to and show off your work. There are other websites and newborn blogs you could potentially submit a session to be published on.
4. Photography Websites – Guest blog for someone looking for writers and you’ll be linked to.
5. Connect with other Vendors – If you are a wedding photographer connecting with local wedding planners, wedding venues, florists, DJs, etc. is a great way to be linked to. Offering them the use of your photos in exchange to a link on their website is a great way to make friends in the business and get linked to. When you give wedding vendors the use of your photos they are usually incredibly grateful and will help refer clients to you too. If you do newborn or family photography you can connect with midwives, birthing centers and hospitals to provide them photos for their websites and get a link back in exchange.
In other words, wedding photographers should have a vast network of bloggers and wedding experts online, so that they will be easily known by their prospective clients. It's also required to make an online portfolio filled with samples from past weddings in order for clients to see how their samples of beautiful shots. They can create one through their blog site or their social media page.
ReplyDeleteDarcy Kammerer
“Connect with other Vendors” – Yes, connecting with other vendors, especially with those who already have an established reputation, can help you gain notice and traffic for your own site. There might be a lot of visitors that will see a certain popular site for a day, and being part of that site’s homepage can bring a nice share of traffic for you. But having an organized and captivating site is a way to gain more than traffic and real customers as well.
ReplyDeleteNorbert Floth