When it comes to the business of branding, going hand in hand with having a cohesive brand, is findablity. It’s kind of a “if a tree falls in the forest” thing. No matter how awesome that tree is, if no one hears it, it’s just not good for business.
Photographers have always been on the forefront of the findability (or SEO) game. Blogging, Twittering, Facebooking. But are these social media efforts increasing your ranking as separate entities or are they all pointing to one domain? It is important to consolidate and maximize your online marketing.
A WordPress site can concentrate your web presence and according to
Matt Cutts, Head of Webspam at Google (pretty much THE authority on
SEO), “WordPress takes care of 80-90% of (the mechanics of)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”
Matt gives a fantastically funny talk at last year’s WordCamp about why WordPress is ideal for Google:
The mechanics of Search Engine Optimization involve making your
website as visible to the search engines as possible. If your portfolio site is in Flash it can hide valuable content, like ALT attribute information about your images, decreasing your findability. WordPress is a great choice, because it takes care of most of your on-page issues right out of the box. Combine that with a plethora of available (free) plug-ins and settings and it is the most powerful platform for photographers available.
Some of the best SEO plugins available are the following:
The first one is the famous All in One SEO Pack, the most downloaded of all WordPress plugins. It is very powerful and incredibly easy-to-use. Follow the link to find out more.
The second is SEO Friendly Images, a great plugin that adds ‘alt’ attributes to each image in your blog posts, all behind the scenes, just install and let it work.
The third was designed for photographers, and created by our developers at Photography BlogSites called SEO Image Galleries. It is an alternative to flash based image galleries, using 100% CSS and HTML and loads every image with SEO information.
Now that you have your WordPress site and you’ve done your keyword searches (see the brilliant article by Wade Holloway on the Pictage Blog here), make sure you continue to blog. Be interesting. Be relevant. Send a consistent branded message and make sure it is heard. It will not only help increase your search engine ranking, but it will keep your audience coming back for more. And that is good for business.
Written by Ellen Petty
Ellen Petty is the Head Brandslinger at Identity Kitchen, a marketing and design studio specializing in photographers. She and her business partner Marty Thornley just launched a new line of affordable all-in-one WordPress portfolio sites designed specifically for professional photographers at PhotographyBlogSites.com.
More posts by Ellen Petty on the Pictage Blog:
The Business of Branding: Why We Use Letterpress
The Business of Branding: 9 Things to Know Before Designing Your Logo