Setting up a Wedding Photo Website and SEO !

Worth taking a look at Bigfolio dot com.

I like Livebooks.

Big Folio.

They did my custom site, and their SEO is fantastic.

Jeff

In all honestly I think you might be relying too much on SEO, and not enough on word of mouth, or using your blog to build community and create mindshare to drive traffic to your site. In my experience the critical traffic I needed on my site did not come from SEO at all.

On the other hand, if you go with any of the big template vendors, SEO is going to be a challenge because they are heavily dependent on using Flash. If your main goal is Page Rank and Keywording then you will end up paying a lot of money to optimize Flash with deep linking and friendly page titles, or pay a fraction of that implementing the same thing with HTML and JavaScript, or a hybrid Flash/HTML site. The challenges of SEO and Flash websites are not new. Some claim to have figured it out (through what's called "cloaking") but is it worth the risk of being blacklisted? There are some still emerging techniques that can get you waht you want, but at what price are you willing to pay to keep Flash if your main goal is driving business through SEO?

The best performing sites (SEO or otherwise) I know of use HTML/JavaScript, or Flash/HTML. They are not exclusively Flash. Not to mention, SEO is an ongoing process, not a one time event. So better to take on that responsibility yourself or hire an SEO consultant than to trust some template vendor to do it for you. They have no motivation to want you to succeed more than the next customer, who pays the same price as you do for their services.

Just putting my 2 cents.

"The best performing sites (SEO or otherwise) I know of use HTML/JavaScript, or Flash/HTML. They are not exclusively Flash."

That's not NECESSARILY true.. Also, you would have a hard time finding an exclusively flash site. There is almost always some HTML wrapped around them. I use Livebooks, which you might call exclusively flash based, but I have metatags filled in, as well as text sections that search engines honor. There is no need to feed "Bio" or "Gallery" to Google. Just the vital statistics.

Ed: I won't argue with you, so believe what you want to believe.

http://www.google-secrets.com

:)

Well, its funny you guys talking about blogs. I notice quite a few successful wedding photogs are using Blogger exclusively. Some have no personal sites at all, or just a simple price and about me page.

Great SEO is easy - write a great site that reads well to humans. Content Content Content secondly get into the head of a visitor. Forget marketing for "wedding photographer" it isnt going to happen market for "wedding photograher in barbados" (or similar) Ask a group of people with the same demographics as your customer to do some google searches in front of you.. understand HOW people search. Dont use keywords, use key phrases Use the H1 tag, and makesure you get your keyphrases in your text, headings and meta information Make each page work in its own right - target different users searches with different pages. Be really specific with this This is not hard.. Target phrase: digital wedding photographer - Page: Why we shoot digital and sometimes use film Target phrase: DVD copyright - Page(s) copyright in relation to weddings, and archiving your DVD You see what I mean.. you can target a phrase by also giving out great info, that will make your site visible and a pleasure to read So you got a great site with SEO - that doesnt mean a thing.. you need INBOUND LINKS - quality ones. Approach other vendors - dress shops, cake makers, venues - and swap links Take care Richard king Freelance webdesigner and wedding photographer

SEO is overrated! You are paid in $$$ not google clicks or what your ranking is. It is actual people picking up the phone or writing you an email that really counts. You can be on page 1, but if your site is not effective with humans, it will do nothing for you

Richard,
I agree that SEO is sometimes overly thought about and under implemented in most cases. But I still believe that having a great reading site is nothing without exposure. At the very least a well exposed site that is on page one of Google will have more chances for someone to hire you. It is all a numbers game.

As far as the main question goes: If you have no experience in HTML, use a blog or have someone build you a site. You can find inexpensive designers on Craigslist or E-Lance.

I think it's more important to have something that you can hand a business card to someone and they can view your work at a professional sounding website like "yourname.com"