A website is a very important marketing tool – not just for photographers – but for all businesses. It’s pretty easy to get a website up and running quickly these days, which is awesome. But, in the midst of going live quickly, important steps get neglected which results in your website getting lost during Google searches. If you’re wondering how to improve your photography website for Google, this post shares some important steps that you need to take.

This post contains affiliate links. Read the affiliate disclosure.

How To Make Your Photography Website Show Up On Google

I’m a professional food photographer and when I was first setting up my business website, I found a template that I liked, added my images and hit publish. It was oh-so-easy and my website, overall, looked really nice.

But, unfortunately, my website wasn’t a very powerful marketing tool for me in the beginning. It looked good and I could update it easily, but my website wasn’t showing up in Google searches. And, that is a huge missed opportunity when it comes to connecting with potential clients. After doing some research and taking some much needed actionable steps, my website is now my number one marketing tool… meaning, my website pretty much does my ‘hustling’ for me now.

So, let’s talk about how I did it.

1. Set Up Google Analytics (GA4)

First things first, you need to set up Google Analytics (GA4) on your website. This is a super important step, because GA4 helps you track your website traffic. You can learn things like how many people are visiting your website, where they are located, what landing pages are they coming to, where are they leaving your website from, how long are they hanging out on your website, etc. When you know more about these details, you can make much more informed decisions about how to improve your website so it ranks even higher in Google searches.

If you’re not familiar with Google Analytics, it can seem a little overwhelming at first. But, I found a great online tutorial that will help you get up and running.

2. Get An SSL Certificate

Next, you need to get an SSL Certificate for your website. SSL stands for “secure sockets layer” and is a level of security that websites need to safely send information over the Internet. SSL Certificate sounds like a more technical step, but your hosting provider should be able to set this up for you since it comes with a lot of hosting packages now.

But, how do you know if your website has the SSL Certificate or not? You can check this by looking at your main URL in the search bar. Does it start with HTTPS or HTTP?

If your website starts with HTTPS, you are good to go and there’s nothing you need to do.

If your website does not have an SSL Certificate, it will start with HTTP and an alert is sent from Google saying that your site is “NOT SECURE.”

The cons to not having an SSL certificate include:

1. Your website won’t be able to get ranked in searches
2. People get scared to browse your site due to the “not secure” alert
3. Your website will look unprofessional
4. Your website will seem out-of-date

The benefits of having an SSL certificate include:

1. Protects data sent and received (this includes protecting people’s email if they contact you through a form)
2. Better search engine ranking
3. No intimidating “this website is not secure” alerts
4. Google loves SSL certificates

Getting an SSL Certificate set up is super easy, because it’s something that your hosting provide does for you. Contact your hosting company to get it set up. It’s a very quick fix on the backend and can be built into your annual hosting fee. It’s worth it to keep your site safe, secure and search-friendly.

3. Add SEO-Friendly Keywords

Next, you need to learn a little bit about SEO and add keywords to your website. This means you need to add more specific copy. As a photographer, I didn’t have very much copy on my website at first and I knew absolutely nothing about SEO or keywords. The only copy I included was my name and an easy way to contact me. I figured my images could do all the “talking” for me, but unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Google likes keywords.

WHAT ARE KEYWORDS?

Keywords are the words people use when they’re searching for something online and they help Google connect people to what they’re searching for. When you use keywords specific to your business on your website, Google likes this and will rank your website higher when people are searching for your business.

But, the tricky part is that you can’t just add words that you think are good keywords. You need to add words that you know are good keywords.

HOW TO FIND GOOD KEYWORDS

Figuring out what keywords to use should not be a guessing game. There are keyword programs out there that can help you discover what keywords will be helpful for your business. I use a tool called KeySearch to help me and it’s $17 per month. Totally worth it!

However, there are also some free options for you to start experimenting with. I recommend checking out UberSuggests and Google’s Keyword Planner to get started.

WHERE TO ADD KEYWORDS

You’ll want to add keywords to specific areas of your website, including:

1. HEADING TAGS (H1, H2, H3)
2. PAGE TITLES
3. META DESCRIPTIONS
4. YOUR BRAND STATEMENT
5. ABOUT PAGE
6. YOUR BLOG

READ MORE ABOUT: HOW TO FIND GREAT KEYWORDS FOR YOUR WEBSITE TO BOOST YOUR SEO

4. Add More Copy

Next, in order to add more keywords to your website, you need to add more copy. A lot of photographers don’t include much (if any) copy on their website, which is a big mistake from an SEO perspective.

There are two forms of copy: short-form copy and long-form copy. When to use one or the other really depends on the user intent. Why are people coming to your site? What are they looking for?

For me, people are either coming to my site to hire a food photographer (potential clients) or they’re coming to my site to learn more about food photography and courses (potential students). I use short form copy on the pages my potential clients are landing on (my homepage/portfolio/about page) and long form copy for the pages my students or readers are landing on (blog posts).

SHORT FORM COPY

Short-form copy is meant to be simple and direct. When you do a search, what words are you using to find what you’re looking for? You’re usually very specific so you are guided to the right content. This type of copy could live on your Home Page, About Page and in a brand statement.

BENEFITS OF SHORT FORM COPY

• Short form copy is direct and to the point
• People can quickly learn what you do and how you can help them

LONG FORM COPY

Long-form copy is exactly what you would expect – more lengthy, detailed copy. And, here’s something you may not know… Google LOVES long-form copy. So, before you rule it out for your website, check out the benefits of adding it.

BENEFITS OF LONG FORM COPY

• Long-form copy makes it easier to use a variety of SEO-friendly keywords that are relevant to your business.
• Your website will rank higher in searches because Google sees long-form content as incredibly valuable.
• Long-form copy also makes it easier to get people to stick around your site for a longer period of time. And, if the information is actually helpful, it will get shared, which means you’ll get even more traffic to your website. The longer people are on your website is a really good thing in Google’s eyes.

5. Start A Blog

Ok, so you’ve learned that Google loves long form copy, but how do you add this to your business website? My advice is to add a blog to your website.

First of all, you are an expert at your craft and a blog helps emphasize this, because you’re not just showing beautiful images, you’re talking about how you created them.

Second, when you have a blog, not only does Google love it, but brands love it too! You have an opportunity to make money from your blog with affiliate links, ads and sponsored posts. Additional income? Yes, please!

For example, I am a food photographer and I blog about food photography tips, equipment ideas and business advice. Because food photography is my job and I have a lot of experience with it, I can talk about all sorts of “food photography topics” that people are searching for right within my blog. And, since my blog is an extension of my website, this helps my website rank higher in food photography searches.

One of my most popular posts is The Best Overhead Setup for Food Photography. I posted it in 2019 and it still brings a ton of traffic to my website because it’s a very popular topic that is commonly searched online. And, because I have relevant affiliate links to the equipment that I use for my overhead setup, I actually earn money on this post every month. Pretty cool, right?

Once your blog posts are published, they have the opportunity to literally “work for you” for years to come. Adding a blog to your website makes you look like an expert, increases website traffic, gets you higher up in search rankings and gives you the ability to make some extra money. All win-wins, if you ask me.

So, if anyone ever tells you that “blogging is dead,” they are totally wrong. 😉

6. Build Backlinks

Another great way to bring more traffic to your website is to build backlinks. A backlink is a link from another reputable website that links back to your website. When another website links back to your website, Google likes this a lot. Just be sure the website linking back to you is reputable.

One way to increase backlinks to your site is to ask your clients link back to your website when they are using your images online. A lot of my clients will credit me when using my images on reputable websites by adding “Photo by Regan Baroni” which links back to my website. This is a great way to help you boost traffic, so make sure your clients are giving you credit with a link to your site when using your images.

Another way to build backlinks is to write a guest post on another blog. For example, if you’re a fan of ProFoto lights, you could write a lighting-specific post for their blog that gets linked back to you. Not only do you get the backlink, but you also get your name, voice and work in front of their audience.

You can also get backlinks if you have a blog, because if you are sharing valuable information, it will most likely be shared by people.

7. Tonic Site Shop Templates

We’ve covered quite a bit of actionable steps that you can take to improve your photography website and show up in Google searches. And, depending on what template and hosting provider you choose to use, these steps will either be really easy for you or really confusing figure out.

For me, it was a total pain at first, because I didn’t have a template or hosting company that made these steps easy.

That’s when I decided to switch to Tonic Site Shop and ShowIt. Not only are their templates absolutely beautiful, the hosting platform made it SO easy for me to work through all the steps I mentioned in this post. All of their templates come with a blog built in, so if I’ve peaked your interest in adding a blog to your site, the framework will already be there.

If you love one of the Tonic templates, use my code for 15% off your purchase: REGANSENTME

Switching to Tonic & ShowIt helped me work through all of the steps I mentioned above with ease.

1. Add your Google Analytics code easily for accurate website insights and tracking
2. An SLL Certificate automatically comes with your hosting package
3. The “drag and drop” platform makes it really easy to update your heading tags, page titles, meta descriptions, brand statement, images, copy, colors, fonts, etc. with no coding knowledge or needing to hire a developer.
4. All the templates come with a blog (through WordPress), so you can start your blog at any time. And, if you already have a blog, the hosting company will migrate everything from your old blog into your new one for you.
5. Tonic also loves to feature their customers new websites on their own website, so that’s an immediate backlink right there! And, with as reputable as they have become, it’s a very helpful backlink for your website to have.

Like I said earlier, my website is my number one marketing tool. If you can’t say the same for your website, it’s time to change that. It’s a really nice thing to have your website do a lot of your hustling for you.

Seriously, making these updates to my website has been one of the best business decisions I’ve ever made and switching to Tonic made making these changes so much easier. I can confidently say it will be the same experience for you. Best of luck with your website and reach out with questions anytime!

This post contains affiliate links which means if you click or make a purchase through my site, I might make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only promote products that I actually use and support. 

All images ©Regan Baroni 2021.