As business owners, we hear that we need our website to have good SEO, sustained by a healthy blog. But do we even understand what SEO is, and is blogging still as relevant as it once was?

According to Moz, a website that offers excellent tools and insight on this subject, the term SEO (or search engine optimization) is defined this way: “the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.” The higher your content’s quality (and the most searchable according to an engine like Google’s terms), the more traffic you will receive.

When we started focusing on things that we could control to grow our business, we knew that we needed to come up with a good SEO strategy. It took time and effort to put into place, but because of this, we saw an increase in leads and bookings tremendously from our home base in Virginia. SEO cannot be ignored in this digital age. With that, here are four ways to better implement SEO today.

1. Content

It really is king. As I studied some of our most popular posts, I found that the content was bringing the pageviews.

First, let’s talk about the blog. As photographers, it is easy to rely heavily on our images. Having visuals is fine, however, if we’re going to rank higher according to what search engines are looking for, we need more than just pictures. We need words. When you’re writing a blog post, be as descriptive as possible. I enjoy writing, so most of the time this is not difficult for me to do. Writing isn’t for everyone though, so we created an SEO Masterclass to help you develop a strong SEO content strategy.

Next, your homepage. One mistake we realized that we were making was that our website’s welcome page had a beautiful picture, a header and a footer, but it lacked any real content. That was really hurting us in the SEO game. Add content to your homepage, peppering in some keywords that can help target clients to your website (for us, those include “Virginia Wedding Photographer,” “Richmond Wedding” and “Hamptons Road”). Think of your homepage like a summary of your brand. From there, each of the other pages can go into more detail, outlining who you are and what you offer. Each page on your website has an opportunity to rank.

2. Alt-Text

Alt-Text comprises the descriptions you use for your images. Having alt-text will help web-crawlers understand what your picture is and help index that image properly when they search for it. Adding these descriptions to your photos is very simple and extremely important, so make sure you take the time to add them, no matter what website platform you’re using. We use WordPress.

3. Yoast

If you use WordPress, you can install a plugin called Yoast. It’s a powerful tool and has helped me optimize each post that I put out into the web world. Within this plugin, you can put in a keyword that you are targeting for the post, and Yoast will then analyze your content and give you a score on how well your SEO is for that particular post. I love that they use a stoplight symbol for this. Red means your post is not optimized, yellow means you have some work to do, and green means go. The plugin also breaks down where, specifically, you need help. It will let you know if your images do not have the keywords in the alt-text, if the title is too long, or even if you have enough words in your post. I cannot say enough about this tool and all it does. Yoast has a basic plugin that is free, or you have the option to buy a more in-depth analysis.

4. Internal Linking

A lot of us know that external linking is a great way to build trust with Google. If those links come from a reputable site, that is a great thing. But let’s not forget internal linking as well. This type connects one page to another page or post in your website. Internal linking also helps web-crawlers navigate your site more easily and index your new content quicker. However, the most beneficial reason for internal linking is creating a valuable experience to the user. Linking to other posts or pages will feed all of the content a user wants from your site continuously, as well as keeping your reader on your site for a more extended period. That’s amazing for your SEO, and a win-win for everyone!

If this seems like an overwhelming amount of information, just take it one step at a time. Dedicate a week or two to start implementing one new change. Then the next week, you can move onto the next. This makes the whole process less scary, and it’ll become more of a habit for you than a chore. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time, patience and perseverance. Keep at it and it will pay off!

 Ashley Beasley and her husband, Luke, are a photo duo based in Virginia who run their own education platform called Luke & Ashley Education. Each month, Ashley is breaking down the stepping stones to becoming a six-figure photographer. She last wrote about making your website a true reflection of your brand’s spirit.

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