What is SEO?

3 words that are so important to your business: Search Engine Optimization. 

Having a healthy understanding of the power of SEO can be a game changer to your success.

[For those that are well versed in the subject then this article is definitely not for you.]

This article is for photography / small business owners like myself that maybe just don’t know what SEO is or its power. Or maybe you know what the 3 letters stand for but don’t really understand why you should care or what to do. Or you are a tiny bit afraid of adding one more thing to your already overflowing todo list. 

It’s not a very sexy set of letters. In fact, the whole thing sounds boring and very “techy”. And believe you me, I might be good at a lot of things but no one would ever accuse me of being tech savvy. 

The sky is the limit once you realize the power of SEO.

Maybe I should have titled this article “Do you want more people to find your website?” or “Do you want more revenue? More clients?” “Do you want to keep your creative business going forever and ever and not return to that awful 9-5 job you left behind?”

Some of you might be saying “I’m a creative, a floral designer, photographer, graphic designer, a painter, I’m an artist, why on earth do I need to worry about this SEO thing? 

Maybe you are concerned that you will be overwhelmed having to learn one more thing.  I know, wearing 17 hats as a solopreneur is continuously overwhelming. In fact, if you are like me then you are constantly adding more to your plate and there always seems like there is something else to learn. 

Let’s really simplify this. 

SEO boils down to How do potential clients find you?.

It doesn’t get any more straightforward than that. 

You might be a wedding photographer. A portrait photographer. Or a branding photographer. But you are running a business and you need a constant stream of new clients in order to sustain this business. 

Maximizing the traffic to your website will help maximize your revenue.

Just think about when you are looking for something on google. What words do you type into the search bar? What questions do you ask? What answers are you looking for?

These words that you are typing in become the keywords that help you find what you are looking for. So reverse engineer this, how would your potential clients find you? What words would they use? What problem can you solve for them? 

Here’s a real scenario. My friend is a very talented floral designer. She has her own studio. She would consider herself relatively busy. Weddings on the weekends, holiday floral, hotel deliveries, birthday parties and more. But would she consider herself maxed out from a business perspective? Could she handle more clients? 

Absolutely.

So where does SEO fit in to her story? 

By thoughtfully considering SEO she will assist clients to organically find her. If a potential client types into google “wedding flowers Phoenix” and she has worked on her SEO, then this potential client may land on her website, like what they see and contact her for their flowers for their Phoenix wedding.

See how that works?

What keywords did they use to find her? “Wedding flowers Phoenix”

What problem did her website solve for them? They need wedding flowers for their Phoenix wedding

How were they able to find her without knowing the name of her business? They used keywords that led them to her website

By not considering your SEO, customers might never know you are there except by random chance.  Not paying attention to this component can reduce the chance of someone finding you.

For your business to thrive and sustain for the long term you need more than word of mouth. SEO will give you the opportunity to reach both short term and long term goals. 

Let’s use SEO to write your success story.

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A subject that goes hand in hand with SEO for beginners is making sure you earn what you are worth!