In the year 2017, we find that websites are to marketing what business card were 20-30 years ago. Most photographers know and understand why they need a website but far too many are missing out on an important feature of their website: the blog. In today’s article we will tell you why EVERY photographer needs a photography blog!
So you spent hours, days weeks even picking out the right photos and crafting the perfect text for your website. Whether you used an elaborate template or a custom designer, you knew that your website would be VERY important to your business, as a photographer. Good job!
But a website, is only HALF the battle in the digital world of advertising (if that).
Creepy right? But they do! These spiders “crawl” your website with frequency and rank it according to its popularity but ALSO according to how often you have NEW content on your site.
Here’s a secret: Google spiders don’t like stale sites.
If you are regularly adding or updating content (meaning text) on your site this makes the spiders HAPPY! If, like many photographers, your site has been sitting there, unaltered or changed for even 6 months (heaven forbid a year or longer) you are unintentionally harming your website.
But WHY is a photography blog so important?
Think about it this way. Let’s say that Google spiders crawl your site this week. They come back next week and there is nothing new. So the week after they SKIP your site and pick another photographer’s site because it has fresh content. The week after, there is again, no new content so NOW the spiders may or may not even come back for 3-4 weeks as they assume that your site has gone stagnant! THAT is a problem because in the meantime, all the 400 other photographers in your area may be crawling UP the rankings and bumping YOU down!
The good news is, there is an EASY fix!
MANY website templates are now built off the powerful and versatile WordPress platform. If yours is such a site, then you are just a few clicks away from adding a blog to your site. For a great tutorial on adding a blog to your WordPress template click here.
So I added a photography blog to my site, but what now?
After adding the mechanics of your blog to your website, it is time to create a marketing calendar for your blog. While the obvious things to post on your blog would be client photos (with model releases of course), but you should think outside of the “client photo” box. Give your clients a REASON to come back to your blog other than to borrow the photos for Facebook.
Here are some great blog post starter ideas:
- Client Photos
- Inspirational Quotes
- Industry News
- Birthday, Anniversary and Well Wishes for Clients
- How To’s for better smart phone/ at home snapshots
- Dressing for your session… feature several types of sessions and what to wear.
- Behind the scenes with the photographer
- Local events that might be interesting to your clients
- Feature Partnerships or Sponsorships
- Show off any community service you are involved in
- New or current Product features
Expanding your social media reach with your photography blog.
To make your website blog even MORE powerful, be sure to share your blog postings on your social media channels. This will help to build organic reach on social channels and will help not only your website SEO but social media platforms’ opinions of your pages.
As you can see a blog is very important to having a well-rounded online marketing approach. The blogs need not be wordy but DO need to contain valuable, sharable content that resonates with your clients. In doing so you will find both your website and social media marketing in better rankings and positions!
Are you a photographer who has found great success with your blog and have tips? Be sure to share below!