Time to read: 7 minutes

Photographer Local SEO Strategies That Can Help You Get More Customers

Running a successful photography business means keeping your calendar booked with plenty of shoots, so you need marketing tactics to make that happen. Digital marketing, including search engine optimization, is one of your best options because it allows you to target individuals looking for your exact services while tracking key metrics.

Sixth City Marketing has helped photography companies and other diverse businesses to improve their online presence and acquire more leads. Here are some key tips we recommend for shoring up your site.

Our SEO Recommendations for Photographers That Pack a Punch

Below are our main pieces of advice for photography businesses to expand their local reach and get more clients:

1. Take Advantage of Local SEO

There are different forms of SEO, and local SEO is one of the most prominent ones. In essence, local SEO allows businesses that operate in a specific area – a city, a county, a state, or a region of the country – to build up their presence in such places and attract relevant clients.

For instance, if your photography business is Cleveland-centric, you wouldn’t want to compete for clicks from customers in Dallas if you have no intention of traveling there.

Some key local SEO tactics include:

  • Creating and fully optimizing a Google Business Profile for any physical location you have in the area (if you have more than one)
  • Filling out your Google Business Profile with your complete company information, plenty of photos, info on your services, and key categories
  • Some recommended categories: photographer, commercial photographer, corporate event photographer, wedding photographer, portrait studio, aerial photographer, photo lab
  • Getting as many strong reviews as possible on your GBP while staying within Google’s review guidelines, as these reviews contribute to rankings
  • Creating pages on your website targeted to a specific region and service, such as having a “Boston wedding photographer” page and a “New England headshot photographer” page
  • Acquiring local links from area directories, chambers of commerce, citation pages, news organizations, and other local sites, as all of these can impact rankings as well

2. Take Local Steps Nationally

As outlined above, local SEO refers to SEO focused on a specific region, and since so many photographers operate out of a centralized area, this approach is ideal.

But what if your service area encompasses an entire state or you’re willing to travel nationwide for certain jobs? In such cases, local SEO can be “expanded” to incorporate any regions you serve.

  • If you have multiple studios, you will want to create Google Business Profiles for each location. For instance, if you have an Ohio focus, your studios in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and anywhere else should have profiles so you can reap the rewards for each. Be sure to fill out each profile completely with information specific to that location.
  • You can also turn your listing into a local service area business, which will allow you to not list an address but rather show the address of the areas you serve. Note that it’s recommended you don’t go further than 2 hours from where your listing was created.
  • If you don’t have any other physical locations, however, you won’t be able to create Google Business Profiles beyond your core one. This is to prevent spam on Google Maps, as your listings will need to be approved. Fraudulent listings will be removed.
  • But don’t worry! Even if you’re a roaming photographer, you can benefit from an expanded local approach. Try creating services pages with a location focus in any area you plan on serving. For instance, you could have pages for “Cleveland corporate event photographer,” “Chicago corporate event photographer,” “Pittsburgh corporate event photographer,” and much more. This will greatly expand your reach!

3. Create a Blog

Content is the name of the game online, and a great way to boost your site’s web presence and increase your photography SEO efforts is to add a blog to your site. Regularly writing blog posts will give you fresh content that can get noticed by search engines and potential customers alike, and it can also be a way to showcase your expertise within your field.

Some strong blog strategies include writing the following:

  • Overviews of changes happening within the world of photography
    • Ex: “Why Cinematographic Photoshoots Are On the Rise”
  • Reviews of key pieces of equipment and why you favor some over others in your work
    • Ex: “I Tested Five Different Telephoto Lenses; Here is Which One Came Out on Top”
  • Roundup posts that feature examples of your work
    • Ex: “Eight Great Spots Around [City] for Graduation Photos”
  • How-to articles addressing ways people can prepare for a photoshoot, or how they can get the best material out of their homegrown efforts
    • Ex: “Here is Everything You Should Take to Your Engagement Shoot”
  • Travelogues that showcase places you’ve been and the amazing photographs you’ve taken there
    • Ex: “Looking Back on My Trip to [Place]: 5 Must-Stops for Great Photos”

The sky’s the limit in terms of what you can put on your blog, but each piece of content gives you more ways for prospective customers to find you and engage with your work.

4. Emphasize Visuals

Since your future customers want to see great examples of your work, be sure to give them as many opportunities to do so as possible! Best yet, not only will this help from a sales standpoint, but it will also greatly improve your photography SEO efforts. This is because it’s not just written content that search engines prize – pictures and videos are also incredibly valuable, and each can be optimized for SEO in a variety of ways.

Some best practices include:

  • Populating your site with plenty of pictures, slideshows, and videos by including these elements everywhere, from blog posts to service pages
  • Adding pictures and videos to any Google Business Profiles you oversee
  • Posting pictures and videos on your social media profiles, especially Instagram, with regularity
  • Adding videos to YouTube, TikTok, and other video platforms and optimizing them with SEO keywords, tags, and more

Pro-tip: Having a lot of photos or videos on a site can dramatically impact its load time, which can deter users from visiting your site. Be sure to use a plugin or add-on that can optimize your image files to help your page speeds!

5. Engage in Technical SEO

To round out your photographer SEO approach, you’ll want to implement technical SEO adjustments. Many times, when websites are created, designers don’t take into account SEO best practices. Other times, sites may simply be outdated and now feature sluggish load times, poor navigation, broken pages, and more.

Technical SEO work addresses these problems, refining key aspects of your website to ensure it’s in the best position possible. In some cases, though, a full website redesign might be the best course. Ultimately, improving your website will be a boon to your SEO efforts because having a clean, fast, and easily navigable site is a major aspect of strong search engine rankings.

Need Help with Photography SEO?

If you need assistance implementing some of the strategies we’ve outlined above, or you simply don’t have time to do them yourself while running your business, our team of experts is ready to help. We can provide:

Any of these services can work in conjunction with the others to improve your site and get it in front of the people looking for your skilled eye and professional photographs.

Contact Us!

The Sixth City team has extensive experience helping everyone from small startups to major corporations to improve their online presence and get the leads and sales they’ve been seeking. Reach out to us today to begin a conversation!

About the Author

Linton Lewis

Linton Lewis is our Content Editor where he contributes as an SEO writer for clients, while also overseeing all the editing for client writing. He has been at our agency for over 10 years and also holds an MFA in creative writing, as well as a BS in video production, both of which help our collective marketing efforts.