Blog Traffic and SEO Rankings

For lack of a better term, it needs to appear (and thus, generally, be) "organic." Meaning, highly sophisticated search engines like Google can generally tell the difference between what appears to be you sprinking links around, and other people actually linking to your stuff because they actually want others to see something there. Directories and lists aren't nearly as helpful, SEO-wise, as contempory (recent), properly contextualized links made by sites that are, themselves, highly credible.

That's why mutual link societies aren't generally as constructive as those hustling them would like you to think. Better to cultivate actual traffic. It's why sites like the Strobist are highly ranked: because people routinely creating real, new content (like genuine posts on this here very visible and credible PN, and not blog-flogging spammers) routinely point to it.

mmh, an SEO ranking thread. Interesting. Just what I was waiting for.

I'll throw something out here. I decided to upload some of my photos of my local town (New Braunfels, Texas) to my Facebook page as an album titled..."New Braunfels sites and scenes by Tim Lookingbill" instead of uploading directly to my PN gallery. I have chosen "Public" on Facebook so it can be seen by everyone. Unfortunately entering that album title into google gets nothing.

Would I have been better off doing this through Photo.Net's Facebook page since they always seem to have much better google rankings entering words that are associated with almost any topic having to do with photography including my name?

Tried to search for Facebook's "Search" settings prefs and can only find "Privacy" settings which doesn't include this option. All this is so damn complicated it gives me a headache just thinking about devising any kind of SEO strategy.

Better, Tim, to take advantage of something like cheap hosting at GoDaddy (really, less than the cost of some pizza every month), and set up a site that isn't swamped in Facebook-edness. Use your Facebook exposure and your PN exposure (via a link on your profile page) to drive traffic to that site. Facebook isn't really where you want to send the general public as a destination (though it's a great place to send other Facebook members).

Thanks, Matt. I kind of suspected what you have iterated so well.

Matt, thanks for the invaluable advice.

Don't want to do the GoDaddy route. Too much trouble and I'm not really doing this for the money so I don't want to spend any money. Casting a line out and seeing what bites.

Wanting the local businesses and Chamber of Commerce to find these images when they do searches to check our local town's google rankings or when hunting up images of our town. There's so many bad "touristy" P&S type images and so I want the business folks in my town to contact me by stumbling upon my images, not the other way around, if you know what I mean. I call my technique "Awe Shucks! Benevolent Marketing"™.

People in my town are really funny about by what they perceive as "pro photographer" images which they seem to turn their nose at going by the fact very few use them for their business. They think they can do it with their iPhone.

If they stumble upon my images, it puts them in control as their own art director for lack of a better term. If I approach these folks as a "pro" the expectations and attitudes get unrealistically way out of balance and can soon become a turn off if the approach is perceived as too aggressive or assumptive. I know, I live in Mayberry... "Got to nip it! Nip it in the bud".

Wonder if Google rankings would improve uploading the folder of those images to my Photo.net gallery.

Wonder if Google rankings would improve uploading the folder of those images to my Photo.net gallery.

Your Google rankings will only improve organically (without paying for placement) as Matt pointed out by getting people to link to your photo site, by updating your pages frequently and by having good content that uses the keywords that people will actually search on. Just putting them anywhere, even photo.net, isn't going to improve your ranking enough that people will actually find you in a casual search. It's not the field of dreams, where if you build it they will come. It's more like the field of constant attention to your dreams, where if you build it, and update it a lot, and have something interesting enough that people will link to you...then they will come.


Now if I were you Tim, and I didn't want to spend any money for my rankings, and I wanted my home town muckety-mucks to see my photos, I would start a fan page for your hometown in Facebook. I would name it using the actual name of your home town and I would post my photos there. Then I would find every other business, government, church, softball team, etc from your home town and "Like" them. Many times they will "Like" you back, especially if you have beautiful photos of their home town. I would post new photos often and leave comments on all of the sites that you "Like". I think you'd be more visible to your townies that way than by uploading them to Photo.net.

If there is already a fan page for the city (search for one before you start another) you can do a group, like "The Great Things about New Braunfels Texas" group or "The New Braunfels Texas Countryside Pictorial" or"The Great Architecture of New Braunfels Texas." Get my drift? Anyone searching for New Braunfels, Texas will find you. For what your goals are, I wouldn't worry so much about SEO and page rank. I'd just go after some cheap & easy eyeballs. Good luck.

Wow! That was very helpful information. Thank you, Christine. You really thoroughly explained how Facebook and social networking works in a way that's understandable.

Guess I better get busy "Liking". All this time I took that word too literally and personal in order not to mislead people on the meaning since I thought Facebook was strictly a social endeavor and not a way to make business transactions or contacts directly. Now I see it's setup to seamlessly combine both but just wasn't able to connect the dots on how from a strategic aspect. I never was good at social networking even before the internet.

Just wondering if it's an issue for folks when and how to know whether "Like" means business or friendship.

My lack of understanding of the core concept of Facebook is one of the reasons I don't hang out there. I'm probably reading too much into it.

Just wondering if it's an issue for folks when and how to know whether "Like" means business or friendship.

Context is everything. So if my daughter posts something and I "Like" it, maybe I'm just acknowledging that she put something up there. If I "Like" it and write a comment about it, I am engaging her and inviting conversation because what she posted was funny or sad or important. These "Likes" are personal to my network of friends.

On the other hand, if my neighbor owns Bubba's Snack Shop, I might "Like" Bubba's Snack Shop just to support him in his efforts to spread the word about his snack shop. I might not even like what he sells, but I will certainly try to support his efforts.

And if my city government gets a FB page, I will "Like" that page to show support for my city. I don't have to support every policy that comes through city hall to like my city page. I "Like" photo.net so their presence gets spread to my social network and people find it through me, and so I get updates on what's happening on photo.net. So like I said, context is everything. "Like" is a social hand holding or approval, but it's also a gesture of support, and it's also acknowledging something you find funny, or something you agree with whole-heartedly. Be generous with your "Likes" for your target audience (businesses in your city) and people with respond and reciprocate and find you.

ps. Once you find them, and "Like" them, if you don't care to see what they are saying all the time, you can also "Hide" them forever while still "Liking" them. It's a neat arrangement.

Christine: you might want to talk to Josh about authoring a quick Facebook For People Who Don't Think They'll Like Facebook article for PN. Seriously. Not a comprehensive "Social Media For Photographers" (which is a book you should sell), but just something that spells out the fundamental FB vocabulary and concepts in the context of users here and the demographic that probably has the most push-back in that area. You get it, and have knack for explaining it. Something to consider!