How to Improve on Your Organic Results

Blake from www.theblakeimage.com.au in Brisbane got in touch with me today, looking for some direction on how he could improve on his organic search results. He’s trying to target “Product Photography”,”Commercial photography”, “Advertising photography”.

Here’s my reply…

Hi Blake

Thanks for the enquiry…

It’s interesting that when I do a search for
product photography
on Google… I do NOT see your site in the first 600 (6×100/page) results shown.

It seems that Google decides that since my IP address is closer to Sydney, it initially serves up Sydney based results…

Thankfully I haven’t recently carried out a similar search, or it would have dished up an entirely DIFFERENT set of results based on my previous search history!

So – If I was interested in your Brisbane services, I have to search for
product photography brisbane
and then I see your result:
www.theblakeimage.com.au/commercial-photography/
which is currently at number 6 on the organic listings in my browser…

It appears AFTER
1. 4 Adwords advertisements
2. 2 Google Places listings and Map
3. 2 Google Shop product listings (on RHS)

So the question is, how can you “play” with SEO to boost your organic result a little higher?

Well… apart from paying for Adwords…

You could firstly try to ADD A PLACE to Google Places.

Click the MORE PLACES link at the bottom of the map listings, then the ADD A MISSING PLACE link at the bottom of the next lot of listings. Go through their process to “Claim this business” and include a link to your website!

Using a SPECIFIC street address here is BETTER than using a PO Box, after all, it is a MAP resource 🙂

Next up…

What can you do ON-SITE to boost your organic SEO for the relevant keywords?

What changes/additions etc can you make to your EXISTING website and content?

I’d be looking at creating a few NEW pages for these things:
– Commercial Photography
– Product Photography
– Food & Beverage Photography
– Advertising Photography
– Portrait Photography
that are all listed on your “Services” page… and LINKING to them from that page as well.

Yes, I know you already have some of these pages… but these are to a super LARGE gallery of piccies in each case, and when I click on them it only opens ALL the pics in a lightbox.

I’d be looking at creating a swag of new “pages” for each of the models/examples and including more of a story about what is going on 🙂 Naturally, each URL used would be SEO optimised… i.e. /portrait-photography/bianca/ etc

Similarly for the product photography… /commercial-photography/protein-pantry/ (or probably think about trying an alt-URL path for /product-photography/protein-pantry/) etc…

There’s a whole HEAP of new nicely SEO optimised pages possible just with the content you already have!

Next up…
and the LAST update done here was way back in February 2015…

What happened to your BLOG POSTS?

These are still an extremely effective mechanism for adding new, relevant content to ANY website, and encouraging Dr G to revisit your website regularly! Yet things have been very quiet for almost two years! Naughty 🙂

When I do a search for
commercial photography brisbane
you simply don’t appear until THIS tagged blog post around #106…
http://www.theblakeimage.com.au/tag/commercial-photography-brisbane/

This keyword combo seems to be a lot more competitive! But hey… the blog post from 2014 made it (sort of)!

So maybe it’s time for a few more keyword-targeted posts???

I’m sure as you complete projects, they can all be promoted in a blog post… and that post can be shared madly on social media (see next section)!

Speaking of blog posts and other “articles” as such…

That brings me to OFF-SITE SEO

You know… that stuff you do EVERYWHERE ELSE on the web, which links back to your website.

I’ve got a small business website which is screaming out for USEFUL articles about ANYTHING relevant to small business operators. In fact, I am about to do a complete revamp in the new year to really bring it up to date for 2017, so I will be looking for fresh, new content to include there!

So please get writing and send me some relevant articles!

BUT… it seems that people simply cannot find the time (or something) to be “bothered” with this type of thing anymore!

But think about it…

  1. you write a USEFUL article, guide, resource (whatever) on something to do with Product Photography
  2. get it (or them if you write more than one) published in several RELEVANT places online
  3. include LINKS BACK to a page on your website which is optimised for the key terms used

and all of sudden, you might become an “authority” on the topic, and the big “G” could reward you with higher organic results.

Yep… I am talking stuff that seems to have gone of out favour over the years, but when done properly, it STILL WORKS and works very well!!! Even now!

One of my “biggest” problems since I started online as a web designer (way back in 1995) has been any client who has product… and the product shots they provide. Most of the time they are below par.

So here is an IDEAL opportunity for you to rave about the importance of great images for people who are trying to sell products online! Heck… I know I’ll publish that sort of useful info if I have it!!!

For a slight variation on that…

Create some short VIDEOS using those articles… then post them to that Youtube channel you don’t yet have!

Speaking of social media…

I just had a look at some of your pics on Flickr (do people still use that ??? and what’s your opinion on Pinterest?)

Looking for blog post ideas, and I see the Chrissie lights you’ve got there! Awesome and for this time of year, what a great idea for a new blog post!

Or a NEW Facebook post! 🙂

I’ve got a couple of photographer friends I follow on Facebook. Their pages get a LOT of action because they are constantly posting and also cross-promoting their “clients”. Just a thought…

Finally, for now, I’ll make a comment about listing your business / site on directories.

And as you are probably aware, Google “warns” about listing your website on “poor quality” directories / link farms. Unfortunately, they do NOT provide any indication of what they really mean by “poor” quality 🙂

IMHO, the type of directory they are referring to are those that provide bugger all content on each listing page… i.e. they may have simply scraped a phone book and provide little more than a business name, address and phone number, and maybe with a link to the business website if they could find one, and then they fill the page with lots of advertisements.

They use this as “filler” content and encourage you to add your listing (for free or a fee) to make it look a little more genuine.

Before adding your business to these places… Ask yourself:

Does the listing provide any REAL VALUE to the casual user? Or is it obviously just fluff and filler?

As far as Come On Aussie is concerned…

We have been providing business directory listings (in various forms and on multiple websites) since 1997. I’d hope that we are “recognised” (in Australia at least) as providing a worthwhile service. We certainly don’t scrape other people’s stuff and make people “claim” listings that don’t really exist LOL

In our case, we provide a centralised registration and user updatable listing, which is then “shared” on appropriate sites across our own network, providing multiple, relevant “citations” for each business listed with us.

The major search engines regularly visit our listings looking for new content, and several of the major SEO “reporters” like our links. We also have a good selection of SEO companies who list their client sites with us… so we must be doing something right!

We’re working on some things right now (for the new year) to give participating businesses the opportunity to stay at the “top” of ANY of the relevant/matching pages across our network of websites! More on that soon when the promotion is finalised.

Anyway… I hope all of that gives you some “food for thought”.

There’s LOTS you can work on right now… and lots more to include in your online marketing plan for 2017.

Regards
Stephen Spry

P.S. You’ll notice I included a few relevant keyword links to Blake’s site in the article above. Hopefully they will help a little!

By Stephen Spry · Filed Under Marketing 

« | Home | »

One response to “How to Improve on Your Organic Results”

  1. Blake Robertson says:
    December 1, 2016 at 10:10 am

    Thanks for the great advice Stephen 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *