I was asked recently to speak on SEO for photographers by Focus on Women. Their mission is to build a community for all female-identifying creatives in the photography industry. My initial reaction when asked to speak was that I’m a web designer and not an SEO expert, but the founder said I came highly recommended, so I agreed to talk.

As I was having the conversation with this group of women, it was a reminder that sometimes we don’t realize how much we know on a topic and how much others might benefit from sharing this knowledge.

I thought I’d share a few question and answers from the conversation.

How can photographers optimize their portfolios for search engines?

The most important part of optimizing a portfolio is making sure images are sized properly. If your images are too large, they will load slowly, slow down the website, and get penalized on Google for speed. I typically recommend sizing at 2500 pixels on the long edge and running images through an online tool like Smush or Tinyjpg.

Next is to be sure to include Alt Text on each image. Alt Text is meant to be an accessibility tool but it helps with SEO as well. The thing to keep in mind though is that it’s true purpose is to describe the image for those that can not see it. Therefore your Alt Text should be read Atlanta Food Photographer, but instead say something like “slice of decadent chocolate cake taken by Atlanta food photographer”.

The third part is your image name. This is the smallest contributor to SEO rankings so not 100% necessary but if you are renaming them anyway, then it makes sense. In the example above, this photographer might name the images in the series on cake, Atlanta_food_photographer_chocolate_cake_slice_1.jpg.

What is an SSL certificate and why is it important?

An SSL certificate is what gives that little padlock icon in your web browser when you visit a site. A few years back Google started penalizing websites that don’t use SSL. Most hosts include it now. You may just have to ask to have it activated. Some hosts do still charge for it. Besides being necessary for good SEO, if you don’t have one visitors may get that “this site is not safe” warning message, so this is definitely a must do.

Does social media affect SEO?

Not directly. Links on social media to your website are good but beyond that social media is another way to bring people to your website. I think of social media and SEO as working together more than affecting each other. If social media is bringing people to your website that stay on your website, that could help SEO because search engines don’t like it when people arrive and quickly leave.

How can photographers gain visibility in certain regions? Is location an important part of SEO?

I suggest your main location be a part of your keywords on your homepage and in other pages throughout your website. If you are targeting more than one location, you can use different pages to gain SEO for each location, just make sure the content is related. If you use the page title “NYC photographer” the page should talk about NYC and photography, as well as have related images.

Each page and blog post on your website is an opportunity for SEO rankings, and each should be targeted slightly different than each other. One page may target NYC real estate photography and another may target NY’s Hudson Valley editorial photos. Each page is an opportunity to be found, as not everyone is going to start on your homepage.

Questions? I’m happy to continue the conversation on Instagram @jessiemaryco.