How to diy SEO?

[dazwalsh]

Hi guys, im helping a good friend of mine get his photography business off the ground. His website is up and running and suitable for his needs, but with zero SEO or exposure on google.

Social media is all setup on facebook, twitter and instagram

Is it as simple as meta tags and publishing his business on the google directory thingy to get started?

His website is structured by a content page calling for a header and footer php file, so all the SEO guff would just be located in the header file am i right? Anything that can be added to each content page as well? He has a custom wordpress blog integrated into his site and ive gone in and implemented a coupe of plugins for that too.

Typically how long would it take for the google bots to do their thing and for his site to start appearing on google searches?

Thanks for your help in advance

Darren

Edited by dazwalsh on Tuesday 21st August 13:05

[Craikeybaby]

Google have some good guides on their webmaster tools area.

[akirk]

as above - Google give good advice...

however...

he needs to work out what he is aiming to do... a lot of businesses seek 'good SEO' without understanding why / what they are trying to achieve..
if you want lots of people to hit the website - that is one exercise
if you want relevant people to hit the website - that is a different exercise
if you want lots of relevant people to hit the website - that is an expensive exercise!

and when they get there, is the website going to actually convert them? i.e. - if the purpose of the website is to get them to call by email / phone, then how does it encourage the punter to a) confirm that the company can provide what is wanted and b) get in contact - anything else is simply a distraction...

ultimately, getting to the top of Google is not always the answer - yes, if you sell something very generic (car insurance / widgets / etc.) then it can be vital - but for the vast majority of businesses (esp. small businesses where the name is not recognised) then other routes can be more productive... For example, in the car world (to make it relevant), a number of businesses get their customers because they are 'known' on a forum / facebook / etc. - because they are helpful - no need for expensive time or work on seo - they are getting relevant and pre-qualified customers directly from elsewhere... It may be that articles in a magazine / newspaper will direct a lot of custom etc.

SEO is often the chosen route because there is a degree of expecting lots for not very much - the business doesn't want to put the time or money into it, so SEO is seen as the cheap magic cure - however there is little alternative for most businesses than to invest time / money into marketing - and SEO is likely to be a minor part of that... when you consider that Google with thousands of very clever employees spends their time and money trying to make sure that what you do can't game the system, then generally SEO is a dangerous game to play - use it as a tool alongside other things, but invest time and money into activity focused on bringing in revenue by targetting the customer

[Insurancejon]

for photography hammer Instagram......good photography gets a lot of followers with consistently good photos with relevant hashtags.

This then generates the visitors

[Frimley111R]

Completely agree with akirk.

I'd look at PPC on google but don't DIY it. Also try Facebook but your business is one which is really a search business, i.e. people don't see your advert and think they'd like to have some photography, they do it the other way around.

And, as said, make sure you website has strong call to actions. No good driving traffic to it and then no-one likes your site or can work out how to contact you.

[Undercover Agent]

I'll also add - having been through this, photography is EXTREMELY hard to get paid work in.
Everyone thinks they are a photographer, everyone wants something for nothing, you get people trying to get you to work for free on the false promise of "exposure", which even if you get any will lead to more promises of exposure in exchange for free work......

A VERY strong and specialised portfolio is the only way to get noticed, otherwise you are just another person with a camera.

[markcoznottz]

Translates as.....how do I get my cheap website high on google search for naff all, and get loads of work. That's what every small business wants including me. Bit of a mine field out there,

[akirk]

Undercover Agent said:

I'll also add - having been through this, photography is EXTREMELY hard to get paid work in.
Everyone thinks they are a photographer, everyone wants something for nothing, you get people trying to get you to work for free on the false promise of "exposure", which even if you get any will lead to more promises of exposure in exchange for free work......

A VERY strong and specialised portfolio is the only way to get noticed, otherwise you are just another person with a camera.

Having been a professional photographer for decades, and having mentored and trained professionals world-wide, the simple truth in photography is that those who are businessmen / women can run successful businesses - those who are not, don't A big problem in the photography world is that there are far too many amateurs who believe that owning a reasonable camera makes it a business - in the wedding world they are the ones selling wedding photography for £500 including a disk of photos, in the motorsport world they might be the one doing it to gain access to events, etc. They a) are not running a business and b) they damage the sector for others who are competing on a more grown-up basis... (charge for all their time including prep / etc. / allow for camera and kit depreciation / have proper liability insurance / etc.)

Those who are succeeding are very business focused - they retain the copyright on their images / they licence / they understand that they need to show a client how their photos will help build the client's business / transform the wedding experience / make the trackday-driver look like Ayrton Senna / etc. I know a number of full time pros making a very comfortable living - including those selling prints at £2k+ a pop - but like any other business, just knowing the skill doesn't a business make...

[ReverendCounter]

dazwalsh said:

...Typically how long would it take for the google bots to do their thing and for his site to start appearing on google searches?...

If this is your main goal, I've got a simple WP site built on a paid for template (Landkit), integrating the Yoast SEO plug in. It's more or less a landing/info site, with no ecommerce or purchase facility, but it does have an amazon link button.

Over the last couple of months I've been experimenting with Adwords Express on a sub-£100 budget and now I'm on the first page of a particular search term, 5th from top, with the results above being the likes of likes of Bloomberg, Amazon and Kickstarter.

Can your friend sell his prints on Amazon and create a page there and link it to his site? Should help quite a bit, as well as spending a little with Adwords.

Edited by ReverendCounter on Sunday 26th August 14:38

[Frimley111R]

dazwalsh said:

Typically how long would it take for the google bots to do their thing and for his site to start appearing on google searches?

Edited by dazwalsh on Tuesday 21st August 13:05

I think it can be a number of months but as said, you really want to forget SEO as even when you do appear you'll be nowhere near most of the leading pages.

At a fundamental level search engines want to see lots of relevant (to the search terms put in) information on a site and they want to see it is up to date and high quality (defined as how long people stay on a page). For a small start up site you'll barely meet any of these criteria.

[hsnrentals]

Might be worth having your friend's website redesigned with SEO from the ground up.

I currently manage www.it-shield.co.uk and www.sara6aras.co.uk (and others)

Website cost is £200 one off and hosting is £50/year running on SiteGround.