Do you follow us on Instagram? It’s a place where we share most of our content, drop news, showcase our clients work or even give away cameras ( you can win a Sony Alpha a7iii here ), but now we’re giving you another reason to be there. We’re in love with Insta Stories, it’s a feature we use a lot in different ways, and our latest idea is to let some industry leaders, specialist and interesting people to take over our account and answer all your questions. We’ve just done the first take over, and the topic was something that every photographer ( or videographer ) should be interested in knowing as much as possible. The infamous SEO. We’ve invited Tom Robak, the industry leader in SEO optimisation, who’s also a great photographer. He’s spent couple of hours answering your questions, and below are a few examples ( and tips ) of what you’ve been asking about.
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Should I focus on one simple keyword per blog post or 1-2 long-tail keywords.
Of course you can use more keywords but more keywords = more complicated optimisation.
What has the most positive effect on websites seo?
All critical factors like: Content that targets user search queries, Uniqueness of content, Speed, Responsive Website, Freshness and Quality of Links.
What has the most negative effect on websites seo?
Not all factors are positive. Negative factors listed below are absolute trouble and will have negative effect: Spam, Manipulative Links, Thin Content, Robots.txt blocking, Hidden text or links, Privacy Notices, Rich Snippet Spam, Overly long urls, Slow Speed, False / Misleading / Offensive / Porn / Explicit Content (usually from Malware), Sneaky Redirects, Bad Domain History. As you can see list is long… I picked the most important negative factors.
How can I increase my seo for free?
Easy! First learn a bit from Google our YouTube or books or even my FB group “Not As Usual”. Then: optimise website (speed, technical factors). When you sort that next step will be a bit time consuming but it’s gold! Blog, write, deliver relevant content (use your creativity, your work, or do research to see what brides are talking about these days and make some blogs with advice, tips, wedding planning etc – mainly for wedding photographers).
How do you create an seo strategy?
That’s a bit more complicated. All depend on your market, area and competitors…. and of course your goal and skills.
Does submitting to online blogs for real wedding features affect my seo in positive way?
Sure. If online blog created a good link to your blog/website then it will help you with exposure in Google. Simply their authority will stand by you + you will get more people who admire your work via that blog… more marketing not purely seo… 
Are there any quick and positive seo hacks?
In SEO it’s complicated when go ahead with shortcuts. Too risky. But what you could do is to spread homepage link authority. Getting more pages ranking is better rather than having one superstar homepage. Second hack – publish content with at least 1800 words (pick some good topic!). Another hack – if you are using wordpress install Broken Link Checker and get rid of all dead links! Last safe hack – update, upgrade and republish old blog posts (that will boost your seo!) oh… quick might be also stealing your competitors best keywords… 
Is a blog still useful for your seo as wedding photographer? Or are there any better ways?
Blog is the winner – always. The best place to deliver content, show your work and finally convert visitors to clients. Bunch of targeted landing pages might be better than blog – but it’s also focused on google client only… so no matter what – BLOG!
Name 5 most important wordpress plugins.
1. Yoast or SEO Press + Google XML Sitemaps (to replace yoast sitemaps)
2. WP-Rocket or Litespeed (or some free set of plugins as alternative)
3. Something to protect against spam (I use free Akismet Anti-Spam)
4. Something to backup website (I use UpdraftPlus)
5. Post SMPT (or anything to force website communication via email)
Of course you will need also contact form plugin, something to analytics (I use CAOS for Analytics), something for redirections, and something for fine tweaks 5 is mentioned… in total I have 26 active plugins and they are must have on my website.
Does it matter if text comes first or images first in the blogpost?
NO.
Quality links = those links you “earned” on high authority/popular websites. Ideally in the same industry.
How important is speed of the website for ranking. Is 1.3s quick?
1.3s is an amazing result. Of course this is homepage loading time. Would be good to check other pages and blog posts loading time. And yes… faster website is a winner. Even for the visitors experience, if they have to wait 8-10s to see each page more likely they will leave…
Is creating multiple pages on the website for different locations, venues etc a good technique?
Yes it is very popular way to get more visitors. Just remember unique content and relevant pages.
How do I test the speed of my website and how do I improve it?
Start with tools.pingdom.com. How to improve it? Well, depend what suggestions you will get on this speed test.
What % or your weddings are booked through SEO and google?
Approx 40%. Just need better filters for the rest and all will be from Google. However if you ask about number of enquiries – it’s approx 80% from Google and 20% referral and wedding planners. So those 40% through Google is pretty good amount. However 20% enquiries from wedding planners were a bit more expensive and 100% hit.
Does Google My Business have any impact on SEO?
Of course – verifying your business in Google is important. Better exposure + trust.
What do you think of those using Squarespace. Is WP better for SEO?
For SEO yes, WordPress is flexible. Squarespace is out of the box product. And somehow you will be limited, but it’s still a good product to use.
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Thank you very much to everyone who took part and to Tom for sharing his knowledge. If you have a person you’d like to see on our story just drop us an email.
