SEO is perhaps the most popular topic when it comes to websites and businesses. “I need good SEO” is a common phrase we’ve heard through calls with customers and seen on tons of forums and online groups. But what does good SEO mean? There are many biased points of view that get shared as people work to educate others about SEO. A lot of the discussion revolves around what website platform is best for SEO, some “educational articles” are in fact well veiled sales pitches.

But really, what is the best website platform for SEO? The platform is only one part of SEO. The platform by itself does not result in you having good SEO. You should however make sure that your website platform has tools for you to implement and edit the hidden data, like metadata, titles, and descriptions. 

You read that right. No website platform is the best for SEO, nor is one truly better than the other for SEO. How well your website performs with search engines, comes down to the effort you put into it. What’s that? I have to do work to get my website to rank? This may shock you, but optimizing your website pages with metadata is only a small portion of what will help with your website’s ranking.

SEO requires good backend and frontend content. Both help with your website's ranking. Let’s break down the type of data that is good for you to focus on:

• Content
• Backlinks
• Keywords

When you focus on these elements you can help your search ranking. Unfortunately, people put a lot of time and effort into keywords and metadata. These are NOT the only thing to make your pages rank. They are only one part of the SEO game.

When creating an SEO strategy, keywords and your meta description are a great starting point. 

Keywords are wonderful. They help create search engine directories (think about old Yellow Pages listings). 

It’s a good idea to research keywords and make a list of the ones you want to be found for as part of developing your SEO strategy. This should include words that describe the services you offer or products you sell, plus where you are located, such as your town or region. Think about how you search online, you don’t always know the name of a business when you start searching. You might search for “Your business type in XYZ location.” 

Keyword strategy is important to help your business get found. How people search continues to change, so your strategy may change over time as well. For example, fewer keywords are recommended in your metadata today compared to 20 years ago, and proximity search is more valuable (e.g., photographer near me). 

It is important that your SEO strategy stays in line with current best practices. Some people rely on tactics from the start of the web, like keyword stuffing, or even hiding keywords on pages. That stuff is now harmful to your business. Google and other search engines are smart. And I don't mean they are programmed, I mean they are intelligent and getting smarter, using AI machine learning. They know when keywords are forced, they can find them hiding on a page, and in turn, they determine what to show or hide from search results.

While researching and developing your keyword strategy should be the first step to helping you grow your rankings online, it should only be one part of your SEO strategy. These keywords will play into the content that you create.

Your website content really matters. Yes shocking I know, but having good and engaging content is really what keeps people coming to your website and staying once they get there. Honestly, do you think someone visited your page, stayed, and booked with you because your SEO was so good? No, it’s about the whole experience from your search listings to the content on your website. There are a number of valuable pieces of content you should focus on to enrich the pages of your website and SEO:

• Website text on each page
• Blogs
• Social media content that pushes people to your website
• Newsletters that drive people back to your website

The main thing is to make the content on your website appealing, focused, and user-friendly. Well-written content that integrates your keywords in an organic way makes your pages engaging. People talk about the importance of humanizing your brand. Well, there is some truth to that, and it also applies to search engines. Google and other search engine AI are looking for fresh, well-written content to share with other users on their platforms. They want to show off the best content, and they are looking for content that doesn’t sound like a robot. What do I mean by sounding like a robot? Well, something like this is what you do NOT want to do:

“Hi and welcome to John Doe Senior Photography in Greensboro, North Carolina. We have been doing senior photos for over 15 years in the Greensboro, High Point, Winston Salem, Burlington, Mebane, Raleigh, and Charlotte areas of North Carolina. I love doing senior photography in North Carolina from the Asheville mountains to the Wilmington Beach Area …”

People don’t talk like that. Website content written like that is trying to game the SEO system and in the process creates a disconnect with the people who visit the website. People that do this think, “If I list all the places I serve I’ll rank for that!” Actually, you probably won’t, at least not this way. A better intro would be:

“For more than 15 years, John Doe Senior Photography has been doing senior and family photography in the Greenboro, North Carolina and surrounding areas.”

This feels less heavy-handed and more organic or natural. There is no reason to keep harping on where you’re located and what products or services you offer. Instead, showcase your images and talk about how your work can enrich a customer's life. Then present calls to action to encourage visitors to view more of the content on your pages or connect with you.

Create targeted pages on your website to showcase the different services or products that you offer rather than trying to cram all the keywords into one paragraph on your home or about page. As you refine and streamline the content on your website, it is also a good idea to publish your site map to encourage search engines to review your updated content. 

Next, you should focus on blogging for SEO.

“But I can’t write.” Well, writing doesn’t have to be a huge obstacle. You can and should write one to two blog posts a month that are about 300 words. Each blog post should feature a few pictures and have a clear call to action with a button to drive people deeper into your website. 

Blog posts are also great content for you to share on your social media channels and drive people to your website. 

Newsletters are another great content tool to get people to your website. They offer a way to keep your contacts updated with new and evolving information on your website. The more people engage with your website, the more growth you’ll see which in return means better rankings, but it requires effort from you. Sadly, there is no magic bullet solution for SEO.

Backlinks are a great way to establish credibility for you and your business. A backlink is a link to a source of information. Think back to when you were in school writing papers and having to cite your sources. The reference list or footnotes built up the credibility of the information you provided as a result of it being from a legitimate source. The same can be said for backlinks. 

When you link to other websites as a source of information, you help build their credibility. When they link to your website, they help build your credibility. When you both link to each other, you build each other up.

These can be links in blog posts or pages within your website. The most important thing is to make sure you cite sources if you are referencing content specifically in your blog content. Just like in your school days, plagiarism is still a huge red flag and it is important to give credit by linking to content sources.

To brainstorm backlink ideas, think of businesses you’re affiliated with or collaborate with. See if you can partner up and provide shared backlinks to one another to help build your own network. For example, if you photograph weddings see if the event venues, event planners, florists, caterers, and more will put a link to you on their website as one of their preferred vendors, and consider offering to do the same on yours. If you take pictures of an event at a specific venue, write a blog post about the event and include a link to the venue’s website. 

Look I wish there was a cheat code to make your site rank better in search results. SEO is a long game, and you have to keep playing to win. There is a correlation between the effort you put in and the results you get out. 

SEO is not about the platform your website is built on, but the effort you put in. 

SEO can take a lot of experimentation, and your strategies will need to change over time, but the results can really empower your business to grow and connect with new customers.

If you want help creating an SEO strategy, PhotoBiz can help! Our SEO Go service connects you with our in-house Google-certified experts who set up a strategy for your website and optimize your metadata so you can be found online. It doesn’t stop there, after they work with you to optimize your website, you can continue to meet monthly to review and adjust your game plan to help you continue to grow.

Want to learn more about SEO Go? Give our Support team a call at 866.463.7620 or log in and chat with us.