Rangefinder - September 2014

1ADD LOCATION TEXT TO YOUR WEBSITE

Sometimes when I visit a photographer’s website, it’s like searching for Carmen Sandiego: I have no clue where in the world they’re located. Ironically, photographers who are dying to be found by people in a desired city don’t have their location listed anywhere! I can understand some of the excuses: you work from home, or you really want to book jobs in the next town over. But it’s still essential to list—at the very least—the region or town you are servicing or the area in which your business is physically located.

Search engines can’t see videos or images;

they only see the text that’s associated with those videos or images. So adding text—in this case, location text—is vital! (You can choose not to show your home address if you work from home.)

Add your location, the kind of photography
you do and which regions you serve to at
least three pages of your website. For exam-
ple: “Feuza Reis is a Myrtle Beach Wedding
and Maternity Photographer serving Horry
County and Charleston, South Carolina. She
is also available for destination weddings.”
This kind of text should be on your
homepage, your About page and your Con-
tact page, if your site has all three.

Add your location information to the
page titles and descriptions of your website
and blog as well. Page titles is that text you
see above someone’s URL, and description
is the summary of someone’s site when you
Google something and URL results appear.

Your main page title should have your location text on your website and your blog, but vary the wording, otherwise your own pages will start to compete with each other.

To change your page title in WordPress:

A. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings, then General.

B. Make sure there is no text in the Tagline area.

C. Add text to your site title with separate
keywords using the vertical bar or pipe
symbol (“|”). For example: “New York
Wedding Photographer | NYC Bride.”
This text should not be more than 70

characters and should be entered as a phrase, not a complete sentence.

Bonus Tip: Don’t spam your blog posts with anything like “Myrtle Beach Wedding Photographer” for every post, as Google can consider this keyword stuffing. Instead, use variations on the location wording. Where are you shooting? Is it an engagement session downtown? Is it by the shore? Is it in a specific venue? Don’t forget to share these specific locations; think more like a client and less like a photographer.

2 ADD YOUR PHONE NUMBER WITH THE AREA CODE

Before the Internet was developed, there was this book called the Yellow Pages, a big, printed directory for businesses.

When you wanted to find a plumber, for example, you would go to the plumber section and look up phone numbers.

You could get a free listing with just your phone number in the Yellow Pages, or pay for a larger, more eye-catching ad like what you’d see in a newspaper.

Because you were paying for that listing in order to attract new clients to your business, it was extremely important to have your name, phone number and address listed correctly.

Today we have access to many online listings, which serve as our virtual Yellow Pages directory, often for free. When looking at your online presence ( websites, blog listings), Google looks closely at your NAP (Name, Address and Phone number). By seeing the area code, Google knows which region you are affiliated with, and the phone number reinforces it.