f ō t ō r a c l e | the oracle of photography

Last month I decided to dive headfirst into one of the hottest topics  in the world of business and photography this year — Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short.  The concept behind SEO is to strategically create an online presence that  places your website higher in search engine rankings, namely Google’s, in an effort to increase traffic to your website.  I decided to invest my time and energy into SEO because I believe that ranking high on search engine results pages is the best way to market my wedding photography business online.  Before attempting any search engine optimization, the highest search result I had on Google for the phrase ”Santa Clarita wedding photographer” was page 10.  The only way I was able to appear on a higher search results page was by paying for Google Ad Words.  I’m happy to say this is no longer the case.  Keep reading to find out where I appear on search results now.

In September I had the pleasure of learning everything I could about SEO from three different sources:

• an intensive live workshop
• an intensive online webinar
• a downloadable  book

The results I’ve had with the information I learned from these three resources are impressive.  More on that later.  Keep in mind that I have a in-depth background in information technology and web engineering, so my experience may be different than yours.

Tofurious SEO Workshop

First, I attended Lawrence Chan’s Tofurious Workshop in Orange County, California this past Labor Day, September the 7th.  Lawrence’s workshop is very popular, and deservingly so.  Lawrence (aka Tofurious) is a smart, funny, laid-back, and easily likable guy.  He’s also a marketing genius and I’m sure he has a lot more to teach the professional photography community about marketing than just SEO.  Spend some time on his blog and you’ll see for yourself.  His SEO workshop in Orange County was packed to capacity with some of the most popular wedding photographers in L.A. and the O.C.  I saw many familiar faces, including my friends and fellow members of  the L.A. SmugMug Users Group, Henry Wang and Joel Llacar, as well some of the great speakers we’ve had at the LA SMUG in the past, including Jeff Jochum, Robert Evans, Shaun Austin, and Candice Cunningham.

Lawrence covered SEO from the very basics to the advanced.  Some of the topics he covered were:

• Google Page Ranks and Tools
• Metadata
• Blogging
• Link building
• SEO for SmugMug

He provided all attendees with a a workbook so that we could follow along with his presentation and participate in the several exercises he challenged us with.  Lawrence also took plenty of time to answer questions and interact with the attendees.  In addition to the workshop and workbook, all attendees also received the following

• A cool Tofurious t-shirt
• Membership in the exclusive Tofu-House online group where other workshop attendees network and share information with each other and where Lawrence personally answers your SEO questions
• A soon to be released workshop DVD produced by none other than The Bui Brothers.

The Tofurious Workshop really gave me a true sense of understanding what SEO’s all about at it’s core, and how it’s more than just a technical endeavor.  I began implementing what I learned and started seeing results immediately.

SmugSchool SEO Webinar

On September 16, about a week after the Tofurious Workshop,  I attended the SmugSchool SEO Webinar.  SmugSchool is an online school with classes taught by web engineer and designer David Wolf of WolfSnap Designs.  Because this was a webinar and not an in-person workshop, I was able to participate  without leaving the comfort of my cushy office chair.  David covered many of the same basic and advanced SEO concepts that I had previously learned, plus spent a lot of time discussing the following technical marketing concepts that were fresh to me:

• Advanced SEO for SmugMug
• URL shortening
• Online forms

These topics added a unique perspective to the SmugSchool Webinar and made me realize there’s more than just one angle to SEO.

Photographers SEO Book

After attending the Tofurious SEO Workshop and the SmugSchool SEO Webinar, someone recommended I read the Photographer’s SEO Book.  This book covers almost all the same topics I had already learned and puts them all together in one thorough and low-cost PDF book.  The Photographer’s SEO Book is divided into three separate books:

• Photographers SEO Book
• Google Analytics
• Blogs

The Photographer’s SEO Book covers the following topics for photographers thoroughly:

• Google
• SmugMug
• WordPress
• Link building

After having read the Photographer’s SEO Book and attending the Tofurious SEO Workshop and SmugSchool SEO Webinar, I know I have a very well-rounded understanding of SEO for photographers.  I learned that SEO is not an exact science, but an ever evolving practice that requires technical knowledge, effective communication skills, and interaction with people ranging from our clients, our vendors, and our peers.  I’m convinced that each SEO training resource I utilized taught me something unique, something that one resource had that the others didn’t.  From Lawrence, I learned many things that only he had a perspective on, and from David I learned many things that only he shared a perspective on, and the same goes for the Photographer’s SEO Book.  Each one of these resources filled a piece to the puzzle that is SEO.

And my results?  See for yourself.  My blog now appears on page one of Google when searching for “Santa Clarita wedding photographer” as well as many other search phrases.  I have similar results on Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.  I’m still amazed at these results.

I especially want to thank Lawrence, David, and Zach for teaching me so much about SEO and helping me to connect with people through Google.

“Teaching is the greatest act of optimism” – Colleen Wilcox