# Good Sites For Backlinks



## LarissaPhotography

What sites have you guys found that are good for backlinks?  I'm already listed in a bunch of places and have quite a few links, but I could always use a few more.


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## jubb

I PM'd you.


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## craig

jubb said:


> I PM'd you.



Well; that is no fun. Why can't we all here the answer.

Love & Bass


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## KmH

craig said:


> jubb said:
> 
> 
> 
> I PM'd you.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Well; that is no fun. Why can't we all here the answer.
> 
> Love & Bass
Click to expand...

Maybe it was a query and not an answer.

My first thought was it was an "I'll link to you, if you'll link to me" kind of PM.

But, there is little point of posting a "I PM'd you" note, since the OP would be notified the next time they log on, at least.


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## craig

Aahh... Good point KMH. 

The SEO is a monster to say the least. 

Love & Bass


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## LarissaPhotography

The majority of my links come from my blog and from my signature on the photo forum.  I guess this may not have been a good post since people have probably put so much work into getting their list together.  I know I've been working on my list for a while too.


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## craig

Whoa! Kala Marie! Your flower photos are the best I have ever scene. I photographed my garden one summer so I am familiar with the genre.

Back on the subject; linkbacks are an SEO accelerator. I can give my version on it, but I am so new to SEO that I doubt it would be correct. I do know that SEO research is important to the success of your online marketing plan. 

Love & Bass


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## LarissaPhotography

As far as how Google looks at links, a link on its own doesn't do too much aside from increasing your page rank, which Google says is only one of hundreds of factors in determining SERP (ranking).  HOWEVER, a link that has the appropriate link text and is placed in the appropriate context gives Google an idea of where your site is important.


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## LarissaPhotography

Craig, why the heck isn't Google indexing your site after so many posts on the forum with links to your site in the signature.  Did you block Google or get yourself blacklisted?  Great architecture work by the way.


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## craig

LarissaPhotography said:


> Craig, why the heck isn't Google indexing your site after so many posts on the forum with links to your site in the signature.  Did you block Google or get yourself blacklisted?  Great architecture work by the way.



Thanks Larissa! I am wondering the same thing myself. I am in the process of creating a mirror site that should help things along nicely. None the less I am pissed because my site barely supports SEO. 


)'(


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## LarissaPhotography

Craig, it looks like yahoo recognizes your site.  Couple of thoughts: have you submitted to Google ( Add your URL to Google )?  Have you checked your site out in Google Webmaster tools?  Maybe it even has something to do with the amount of text on your homepage.  It seems like once you get your site indexed on Google that it should start performing well with so many links on the forum.


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## LarissaPhotography

I ran a quick Google search, and even though your page does not show up with a page rank at all when I'm looking at your site in my Google Toolbar, you're on the 2nd page of Google results for "Hermosa Beach Photographer".  It's still weird to me that Google doesn't have a page rank for your homepage (not even a page rank 0).  If you change your forum signature link text to "Hermosa Beach Photographer", I wouldn't be surprised if you started showing up on the first page of Google results.


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## KalaMarie

craig said:


> Whoa! Kala Marie! Your flower photos are the best I have ever scene. I photographed my garden one summer so I am familiar with the genre.
> 
> Back on the subject; linkbacks are an SEO accelerator. I can give my version on it, but I am so new to SEO that I doubt it would be correct. I do know that SEO research is important to the success of your online marketing plan.
> 
> Love & Bass


 
Thank you!  

And back to the subject; my google page rank is zero!  according to Alexa, my blog is in the top 20% for traffic, but Google says I only have 19 inbound links and I don't know how to increase that number.
can anyone give me some helpful hints?


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## LarissaPhotography

KalaMarie,
One good place to add your blog is www.blogcatalog.com .  Also, I wouldn't be too concerned with either how many links Google shows or your page rank.  Yahoo is showing over 1000 links into your blog, so it's not really the number of links that is your problem.  The major problem is that it doesn't look like your blog is optimized for any keywords.  What are you wanting to show up for in Google.  What you're technically optimized for right now is the search term "A Matter Of How You See It", but probably very few people will search for that phrase in Google.

If you're location specific, you should include that in your page title and link text.  Either way, you'll want to think about what you want to show up for in Google and have your page title, body content, and link text all contain that keyword phrase.


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## Mandy Hayes

I don't know. The whole backlink thing is a mystery to me.


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## Heretotherephoto

Hi folks,

I am slowly learning about this whole SEO thing.  Is there some way to explain it in 2nd grader level?  What are the basics of how I can adjust my site?  How do I use keywords?  How do I get other sites to link to me?  Does typing my url at the end of these posts do me any good at all?  How do you all get those hotlinks at the bottom of your posts automatically?
Any info would be great.  Four months in and we still have less than a thousand hits.

Thanks
Dave

www.heretotherephotography.com


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## Heretotherephoto

I think I may have answered one of my questions


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## HikinMike

Heretotherephoto said:


> Hi folks,
> 
> I am slowly learning about this whole SEO thing.  Is there some way to explain it in 2nd grader level?  What are the basics of how I can adjust my site?  How do I use keywords?  How do I get other sites to link to me?  Does typing my url at the end of these posts do me any good at all?  How do you all get those hotlinks at the bottom of your posts automatically?
> Any info would be great.  Four months in and we still have less than a thousand hits.
> 
> Thanks
> Dave
> 
> www.heretotherephotography.com



The word "Keyword" should not be confused with the metadata tag "keyword". I wouldn't even bother with the metadata tag "keyword". But you do need to focus on a few 'keywords' that people will try and search. Right now your <title> "Here to There Photography Home" tells me (and others) absolutely nothing about what you are and what you do. For me, I do nature & landscape stuff, so my home page "keywords" are my location and what I do, Landscape, Nature, Wildlife and Inspirational Photography. That's whats on my <title> element and I also use that on my <h1> tag too. I added some 'keywords' on my home page to let the customer what I do and where I photograph. Also adding those keywords is good for SEO. 

Hope this makes sense. :er:


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## LarissaPhotography

HereToThere, you're getting a lot closer, and it looks like you've figured out how to change your signature.  But here area a couple things to consider: first off, Google will only see the first link to your site, so Google won't see the Western Mass Photographers.  The way to fix this is to remove your first link completely from your signature.  Also, is it realistic to think that people will search for Western Mass Photographers?  What's more likely is that they will search for a photographer in their city.  Just a thought.
If any of you guys need in depth help, I do SEO work on the side, and I'd be happy to help you out.


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## Eco

Craig, this is what Google sees when they look at your site:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>

<head>
  <title>craigblankphoto.com</title>

</head>
<frameset rows="100%,*" border="0">
  <frame src="http://www.craigblankphotography.viewbook.com/portfolio/craigblankphotocom" frameborder="0" />
  <frame frameborder="0" noresize />
</frameset>

<!-- pageok -->
<!-- 06 -->
<!-- -->
</html>

IMO off site SEO would be sort of a waste of time since they will not send people to a site without content (when viewed from page source).


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## Heretotherephoto

Okay I have made a couple of changes.  I changes our home page title so that now it comes up with a better descriptor.  I am also going to work on titles for the individual pages.  if I understand right that should help search engines pick them up.  Like say a page contains a lighthouse picture.  instead of the Title I may have given the photo I should title the page Lighthouse, or Nantucket lighthouse or something like that?

I have also changes my signature here.  I see what you are saying about the title also being a description.  I also see that some folks link to various pages on their website by using different descriptors and different URLs to link to.

Larissa.  I'll respong here and keep this in one thread.  i am not sure how the whole guaranteed nukber of hits thing works.  It almost seemed like when a page was opened then the client's page would also load as a little side box.  That doesn't seem very good to me as I find those things rather annoying whne I am using the web.

Thanks for your help. I may have more questions shortly.


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## HikinMike

Heretotherephoto said:


> Okay I have made a couple of changes.  I changes our home page title so that now it comes up with a better descriptor.  I am also going to work on titles for the individual pages.  if I understand right that should help search engines pick them up.  Like say a page contains a lighthouse picture.  instead of the Title I may have given the photo I should title the page Lighthouse, or Nantucket lighthouse or something like that?
> 
> I have also changes my signature here.  I see what you are saying about the title also being a description.  I also see that some folks link to various pages on their website by using different descriptors and different URLs to link to.
> 
> Larissa.  I'll respong here and keep this in one thread.  i am not sure how the whole guaranteed nukber of hits thing works.  It almost seemed like when a page was opened then the client's page would also load as a little side box.  That doesn't seem very good to me as I find those things rather annoying whne I am using the web.
> 
> Thanks for your help. I may have more questions shortly.



Yes, each page should have it's own title element and description. Like this: Here to There Photography
I might say "Chartwork, Lighthouse...etc" and if you have time, I would add a short description of the print.


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## LarissaPhotography

Eco said:


> Craig, this is what Google sees when they look at your site:
> 
> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
> "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
> <html>
> 
> <head>
> <title>craigblankphoto.com</title>
> 
> </head>
> <frameset rows="100%,*" border="0">
> <frame src="http://www.craigblankphotography.viewbook.com/portfolio/craigblankphotocom" frameborder="0" />
> <frame frameborder="0" noresize />
> </frameset>
> 
> <!-- pageok -->
> <!-- 06 -->
> <!-- -->
> </html>
> 
> IMO off site SEO would be sort of a waste of time since they will not send people to a site without content (when viewed from page source).


 

I completely agree that this is the problem.  If you can pull the content outside of frames, Google should start to index you.  Good catch Eco.


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## LarissaPhotography

HereToThere, good work on getting your signature changed over!  You're making a big step in the right direction there.


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## craig

LarissaPhotography said:


> Eco said:
> 
> 
> 
> Craig, this is what Google sees when they look at your site:
> 
> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
> "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
> <html>
> 
> <head>
> <title>craigblankphoto.com</title>
> 
> </head>
> <frameset rows="100%,*" border="0">
> <frame src="http://www.craigblankphotography.viewbook.com/portfolio/craigblankphotocom" frameborder="0" />
> <frame frameborder="0" noresize />
> </frameset>
> 
> <!-- pageok -->
> <!-- 06 -->
> <!-- -->
> </html>
> 
> IMO off site SEO would be sort of a waste of time since they will not send people to a site without content (when viewed from page source).
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I completely agree that this is the problem.  If you can pull the content outside of frames, Google should start to index you.  Good catch Eco.
Click to expand...



What does it all mean? The highlighted page is not found. Should I go to my GoDaddy preferences and change the url?


Love & Bass


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## KalaMarie

How can we find out what Google sees when it looks at our site?  I apologize - not as proficient with technology as I would like to be.


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## HikinMike

KalaMarie said:


> How can we find out what Google sees when it looks at our site?  I apologize - not as proficient with technology as I would like to be.



Have you signed up for Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools? :thumbup:


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## craig

Excellent SEO info for sure. We must also keep in mind that it is not the get all. This is an interesting link Is it Silly to Think Rankings Build Businesses?

Love & Bass


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## KalaMarie

This is also a good place to go:

Website SEO Tool | Website Grader


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## Sachphotography

Ebook: Seo Guide for Photographers. Pm if interested.....
No I dont want your money.............seriously.

If anybody needs help pm me with your questions. I have spent way to much time researching this stuff. 




KalaMarie said:


> This is also a good place to go:
> 
> Website SEO Tool | Website Grader



Can you SSWWWWEEEETTTTT!!!!

Thanks a million.


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## Eco

KalaMarie said:


> How can we find out what Google sees when it looks at our site?  I apologize - not as proficient with technology as I would like to be.



Right click while viewing a page and click on view page source.  

On good sites you will see:

A title that tells the search engines (google,yahoo...) what the site is about.

Meta tags that give the site's keywords= what the site or page is about.

Further down you will see the written content and hopefully images that have tags/titles so the search engine knows that they support or are about the written stuff.  

Everything comes together when you source links that support the keywords or title on a page of your site.  For example, create a page titled "Gay Wedding Photographer Denver".  Next write a 300-500 word article that uses keywords that are related to the title.  Then support your article with 3-5 pictures that all have "alt tags"  <---titles that let google know what the pictures are about.  

"Good links" for this page can now come from:

1.  Photography sites.
2.  Wedding sites
3.  Gay sites
4.  Denver related sites

"Correct links" will look like:

*Wedding Photographer Denver*

*Gay Wedding photographer*

*Same Sex Wedding Photographer*

Google and a few others have some great tools to find the keywords that people are searching for.


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## NateWagner

I do know that a number of the backlinks coming from here are "no follow" links which supposedly keep the backlinks from helping your site.


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## Sachphotography

Eco said:


> KalaMarie said:
> 
> 
> 
> How can we find out what Google sees when it looks at our site?  I apologize - not as proficient with technology as I would like to be.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Right click while viewing a page and click on view page source.
> 
> On good sites you will see:
> 
> A title that tells the search engines (google,yahoo...) what the site is about.
> 
> Meta tags that give the site's keywords= what the site or page is about.
> 
> Further down you will see the written content and hopefully images that have tags/titles so the search engine knows that they support or are about the written stuff.
> 
> Everything comes together when you source links that support the keywords or title on a page of your site.  For example, create a page titled "Gay Wedding Photographer Denver".  Next write a 300-500 word article that uses keywords that are related to the title.  Then support your article with 3-5 pictures that all have "alt tags"  <---titles that let google know what the pictures are about.
> 
> "Good links" for this page can now come from:
> 
> 1.  Photography sites.
> 2.  Wedding sites
> 3.  Gay sites
> 4.  Denver related sites
> 
> "Correct links" will look like:
> 
> *Wedding Photographer Denver*
> 
> *Gay Wedding photographer*
> 
> *Same Sex Wedding Photographer*
> 
> Google and a few others have some great tools to find the keywords that people are searching for.
Click to expand...


Did you really have to go there?????? I think you could have explained it with using such a controversial subject. think beore you type.


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## Eco

Sach, did you just read a 3 page thread and only pick up on one 3 letter word?  Ignore my post and reread the others, you might find some interesting things that could help your site.


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## LarissaPhotography

NateWagner said:


> I do know that a number of the backlinks coming from here are "no follow" links which supposedly keep the backlinks from helping your site.


If you're talking about The Photo Forum, it's actually a forum that does a good job with not adding no follow to links.  Can you give me an example where you see a nofollow in the forum?


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## Sachphotography

Eco said:


> Sach, did you just read a 3 page thread and only pick up on one 3 letter word?  Ignore my post and reread the others, you might find some interesting things that could help your site.



There are just some things that you should not go near and same sex practices are one of them. Falls in the same realm as politics and religion. 
You could have easliy provided the information without having to bring up that topic, but no.... You went there.....
It not a good idea to go there and other GRAY areas. The Mods will boot you very quick. Im not taking a stance regarding the subject. I just think you should think before you type. It will earn you more respect. I learned the hard way regarding a different subject. So no offense to you....


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## Eco

> There are just some things that you should not go near and same sex practices are one of them. Falls in the same realm as politics and religion.
> You could have easliy provided the information without having to bring up that topic, but no.... You went there.....
> It not a good idea to go there and other GRAY areas. The Mods will boot you very quick. Im not taking a stance regarding the subject. I just think you should think before you type. It will earn you more respect. I learned the hard way regarding a different subject. So no offense to you....



There= a market that is not flooded and a market with more $$$ than other markets.  If the moderator(s) had an issue with my post then I would assume I would of received an infraction or banning of some sorts after a day.........maybe they don't care since I was not passing judgment on people?  

In regards to earning respect, I'm not here for that.  When it comes to websites and SEO I'm on top of the game.....when it comes to photography I need a bunch of improvement and that is why I'm here.  

Thanks for the heads up even though I have no plans to change my views on what types of clients to target.


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## Heretotherephoto

So I am working on titles for each page, I am adding some textual descriptions on the pages themselves and am entering the kewywords where the SEO tool says to.  i think these are the metadata tags someone else referred to.  Once this is done, if done properly is there any way to tell how effective it is in a short time?  i mean should we see an increase in traffic shortly or does it take awhile to work through the search engines?

I was searching for our site on the search engines last night and saw us listed in photocafe which is weird because we have never posted in there.  And when I went into the link I found nothing regarding us.  Why does that happen?

Thanks for the help


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## KalaMarie

Eco said:


> When it comes to websites and SEO I'm on top of the game.....


 
Eco,

1) thanks for telling us about the right click view on page source.  i think i'm heading in the right direction there although i need to move my blog from WordPress.com because I am really limited to what I can do under the fixed Misty Look Theme.

2) On November 11 I ran my blog here: Website SEO Tool | Website Grader and the result was 19 inbound links and 53 Google Indexed Pages.  Today I ran it and I now have 199 Google Indexed Pages but still only 19 inbound links.  How can that be?  I know I have more inbound links than that!


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## Eco

> Eco,
> 
> 1) thanks for telling us about the right click view on page source.  i think i'm heading in the right direction there although i need to move my blog from WordPress.com because I am really limited to what I can do under the fixed Misty Look Theme.
> 
> 2) On November 11 I ran my blog here: Website SEO Tool | Website Grader and the result was 19 inbound links and 53 Google Indexed Pages.  Today I ran it and I now have 199 Google Indexed Pages but still only 19 inbound links.  How can that be?  I know I have more inbound links than that!



1. Don't move it if you can, it might be better to start over and use your existing one for links to your new blog.

2.  When you select your new domain name try to use keywords if possible.

3.  If you use Firefox get the SEOQuake plugin, you will be able to see page rank, google indexing, google links, yahoo links and a ton of other stuff.  Your site is showing 202 pages indexed and 34 links in google.  In yahoo you are showing 1680 incoming links but they count everything including forum links.  

*Google plays around with what they show for results outside of the webmaster tools.  One of the main reasons is that if you outrank me then I could just find out where you get links from and get them from all of the same places.  Even their amount of indexed pages is all over the place when viewed by the public.  

Once you get your own domain name start to limit your outgoing links since they take away from your internal link structure.  Currently you are showing 82 outgoing links and that's 75-80 to many IMO.


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## Eco

Heretotherephoto said:


> So I am working on titles for each page, I am adding some textual descriptions on the pages themselves and am entering the kewywords where the SEO tool says to.  i think these are the metadata tags someone else referred to.  Once this is done, if done properly is there any way to tell how effective it is in a short time?  i mean should we see an increase in traffic shortly or does it take awhile to work through the search engines?
> 
> I was searching for our site on the search engines last night and saw us listed in photocafe which is weird because we have never posted in there.  And when I went into the link I found nothing regarding us.  Why does that happen?
> 
> Thanks for the help



For Titles try to use https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and use less popular ones until Google really loves your site and you have good link building down.  The Google tool will help since they know the terms that people search for and we can only guess without their help.  

For traffic you will need to use titles and keywords that people search for AND incoming links from RELATED sites---they tell google that your site is a good place to go for the title/keyword.  Social bookmarking is a good place to get a few incoming links if you mix it up with other links to the same page (not all going to your main page).  

Traffic can come in minutes, days or weeks all depending on your efforts and what people are searching for.  Your main goal should be converting traffic (people that buy your goods/services) but it's still fun having xx,xxx unique visits a month!  

When you track traffic always look at;

Unique visits (not hits)

Bounce rate= If people like your content they will stay on your site and not bounce away.  Bad traffic (spamming, social bookmarking in some cases) will drive up your bounce rates.  

% of traffic from search engines

% of traffic from image searches.  Image searches are generally horrible at converting but it's really cool to Google for an image and see yours come in the first few!  

I have no idea who "photocafe" is or why your link was showing up there.  There are programs that shady sites use to show incoming links in your Awstats (server stats) just to get you to click on the link.


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## Heretotherephoto

thanks  why less popular.  Is that for uniqueness?


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## KalaMarie

Eco said:


> 1. Don't move it if you can, it might be better to start over and use your existing one for links to your new blog.
> 
> 2. When you select your new domain name try to use keywords if possible.
> 
> 3. If you use Firefox get the SEOQuake plugin, you will be able to see page rank, google indexing, google links, yahoo links and a ton of other stuff. Your site is showing 202 pages indexed and 34 links in google. In yahoo you are showing 1680 incoming links but they count everything including forum links.
> 
> *Google plays around with what they show for results outside of the webmaster tools. One of the main reasons is that if you outrank me then I could just find out where you get links from and get them from all of the same places. Even their amount of indexed pages is all over the place when viewed by the public.
> 
> Once you get your own domain name start to limit your outgoing links since they take away from your internal link structure. Currently you are showing 82 outgoing links and that's 75-80 to many IMO.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> So I buy another domain name to replace A Matter Of How You See It and that domain name should relate somehow to fine art macro,flower,nature photography since that's what I do. Is this correct?
> 
> EDIT
> I added the plugin for Foxfire and found those inbound links.
Click to expand...


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## HikinMike

Heretotherephoto said:


> So I am working on titles for each page, I am adding some textual descriptions on the pages themselves and am entering the kewywords where the SEO tool says to.  i think these are the metadata tags someone else referred to.  Once this is done, if done properly is there any way to tell how effective it is in a short time?  i mean should we see an increase in traffic shortly or does it take awhile to work through the search engines?
> 
> I was searching for our site on the search engines last night and saw us listed in photocafe which is weird because we have never posted in there.  And when I went into the link I found nothing regarding us.  Why does that happen?
> 
> Thanks for the help



If you add a 'Google Alert', like your website name, then you can find out when/who posts/updates your site. I have several Alerts from my name, my business name and some of the keywords I'm following. :mrgreen:


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## HikinMike

Eco said:


> For Titles try to use https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and use less popular ones until Google really loves your site and you have good link building down.  The Google tool will help since they know the terms that people search for and we can only guess without their help.



Doesn't this only work if you are a paid AdWord user?


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## Eco

Heretotherephoto said:


> thanks  why less popular.  Is that for uniqueness?



The big dogs will generally get the best search result placements (1st page) for a popular term and you will end up on page 3-100 with very few people clicking on the link to your site.  If you go after let's say 5-10 less popular searches all on somewhat the same topic then you will have higher placements and a better click through.

Example (I did not research this just making it up as an example);

Popular title= How to shoot macro photography

Less popular titles to go after= How to shoot macro pictures, macro images, close up photos, up close photography.

Or spelling out the whole thing like;

How to shoot macro pictures of butterflies, coins, ants, bugs.......  <---that format works great because you can in theory write an endless supply of how to guides and since the subject is different they all look unique.  Plus after you have a 100 or so GOOD articles on the same sort of subject your site tends to be viewed as an authority site in the eyes of the search engines.  

Uniqueness= you can use the same title but make sure you never copy any content or the post/article can be picked up as a duplicate and dumped from the search results.  A quote is ok but keep it short compared to the % of unique content.


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## Eco

> So I buy another domain name to replace A Matter Of How You See It and that domain name should relate somehow to fine art macro,flower,nature photography since that's what I do. Is this correct?
> 
> EDIT
> I added the plugin for Foxfire and found those inbound links.



Correct, use the Google tool to find a keyword rich domain name that suits your needs.  

Have fun with the Firefox plugin, with the ext links option you can see what sites will count in Google (if they are no follow or not).


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## Eco

HikinMike said:


> Eco said:
> 
> 
> 
> For Titles try to use https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and use less popular ones until Google really loves your site and you have good link building down.  The Google tool will help since they know the terms that people search for and we can only guess without their help.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Doesn't this only work if you are a paid AdWord user?
Click to expand...


Anyone can use it but you will have to enter the security code thing every few searches.


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## HikinMike

Eco said:


> Anyone can use it but you will have to enter the security code thing every few searches.



I tried that and I got nothing.


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## LarissaPhotography

As far as how long SEO takes, for a keyword phrase with any competition at all, don't be surprised to find that it will take 6 months to improve your ranking.  Google is making some changes with a product called "caffeine" that will be phased in starting early next year.  That may help your website climb to the top a little quicker, but it's impossible to tell how long it will take until you're actually there.


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## jubb

Playing the waiting game right now.  Unfortunately my site is only 3 months old and that kind of hampers it's stability rating by google.  

Oh, another tip is register your website name for longer than a 1 year period so that google can tell you are in it for the long term.


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## LarissaPhotography

jubb, I'm not so sure it's just a waiting game for you.  Your title may be one of the major reason's you're not showing up in search results.  Do a Google search for "Shannon Hunt Photography".  Your title for your site is showing up as "Shannon Hunt Photography &#8212; Lifestyle Portrait Photographer in..." .  That's not good.  Google isn't catching the name of your city when it's looking at your title.  If you rearrange your title so that it looks like this "Temple, TX Lifestyle Portrait Photographer - Shannon Hunt Photography" , you may see better results.  Also, you'll want to make sure to include your keyword phrase in your main body text.


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## jubb

Oooh, good advice. Thanks.

As far as the waiting game.  I was referring to getting off of 0/10 google page rank.


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## jubb

We can probably all help each other out.  Provided you aren't anywhere between Dallas and Austin and you have a decent site(not under initial construction) PM me and we can talk.  I have a higher ranked website that I'm considering using to help.


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## Eco

jubb said:


> Oooh, good advice. Thanks.
> 
> As far as the waiting game.  I was referring to getting off of 0/10 google page rank.



IGNORE PAGE RANK!  

I have several PR1-3 sites that out rank PR 5+ sites in the SERPS, and PR 3+ sites that don't rank for crap in the SERPs.  IMO, page rank is good for one thing and that is selling links.......and if you get caught Google will take away your page rank.  

Put your focus on bringing more site visitors from your service area and converting them into people that call you or e-mail you for your goods and services.  <---Conversions= $$$$, Page rank= bragging rights on webmaster forums


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## Heretotherephoto

Eco,

I understand what you're saying sort of but doesn't page rank lead to people finding your site? And that's the only way you can see conversion is getting them there isn't it?  

I know next to nothing about ranks and all that stuff as seen in earlier posts but am I wrong in understanding that ranking is how you get potential clients to your site? or at least one of the ways?  

i just want them to see the site when they search for my kind of product.  After that its on me to sell them on my product.  Right now they don't even see our site and that is what we are looking to improve which seems like it is a matter of time after you have worked on SEO if the quality of the SEO is good.

Or am I still confused?


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## HikinMike

Eco said:


> jubb said:
> 
> 
> 
> Oooh, good advice. Thanks.
> 
> As far as the waiting game.  I was referring to getting off of 0/10 google page rank.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *IGNORE PAGE RANK!  *
> 
> I have several PR1-3 sites that out rank PR 5+ sites in the SERPS, and PR 3+ sites that don't rank for crap in the SERPs.  IMO, page rank is good for one thing and that is selling links.......and if you get caught Google will take away your page rank.
> 
> Put your focus on bringing more site visitors from your service area and converting them into people that call you or e-mail you for your goods and services.  <---Conversions= $$$$, Page rank= bragging rights on webmaster forums
Click to expand...


Totally agree 100%! :mrgreen:


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## HikinMike

Heretotherephoto said:


> Eco,
> 
> I understand what you're saying sort of but doesn't page rank lead to people finding your site? And that's the only way you can see conversion is getting them there isn't it?
> 
> I know next to nothing about ranks and all that stuff as seen in earlier posts but am I wrong in understanding that ranking is how you get potential clients to your site? or at least one of the ways?
> 
> i* just want them to see the site when they search for my kind of product.  After that its on me to sell them on my product*.  Right now they don't even see our site and that is what we are looking to improve which seems like it is a matter of time after you have worked on SEO if the quality of the SEO is good.
> 
> Or am I still confused?



What is your "product" (keywords)?

EDIT: What I mean is, when people are searching for you, what words do you expect them to use? If your market is for landscape, nature and wildlife photography.....good luck. That's my market too. It's too broad, so I tried to focus my keywords to my local market. I'm now #1 for "my location Photographer".


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## Heretotherephoto

yeah I guess we are in a large category.  I am slowly working on the SEO thing and one thing I am consistently putting in the keywords and alt text includes our location, I.E. New England, Western, Mass. etc.  Does this help?  I'm not really sure but it may at least narrow down the area.

We are also looking at providing a specific service in our area as opposed to general landscape or nature photography.  We are looking at doing pet portraits.  We don't generally do paid work for others but it seems like the only way to go.  Simply selling our prints of what we think is appealing may not work.

Until then we are trying the SEo thing.  It seems that once you do that effectively it still takes time for search engines to start picking you up.  that seems to be what ranking is about.


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## HikinMike

Adding your location should help, at least for some of the local customers. 

I just received an order for 4 8 x 12s  and one 16 x 24 print this week. How did she find me? She just moved back here and was looking for some local scenes to fill her house with pictures.


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## Eco

Heretotherephoto said:


> Eco,
> 
> I understand what you're saying sort of but doesn't page rank lead to people finding your site? And that's the only way you can see conversion is getting them there isn't it?
> 
> I know next to nothing about ranks and all that stuff as seen in earlier posts but am I wrong in understanding that ranking is how you get potential clients to your site? or at least one of the ways?
> 
> i just want them to see the site when they search for my kind of product.  After that its on me to sell them on my product.  Right now they don't even see our site and that is what we are looking to improve which seems like it is a matter of time after you have worked on SEO if the quality of the SEO is good.
> 
> Or am I still confused?



While it would make sense that a site with good links which would translate into good page rank would get good traffic it doesn't always work that way.  Google has a bunch of other factors that determines who gets the traffic and they keep that stuff secret.    I'm positive that one of the factors is the actual content and the quality of the content.  A way for them to measure this is if people click on your link and return a few seconds later because your link did not do anything for them.  I really think in the long run they place the best content high in the search results, after all that is their #2 goal (#1 is to make money).  

If everything was page rank & incoming links everyone with $100 or so would be over at the DP forum buying links.....SERPS would be all about who had the most money and not the best content.  

For conversions, generally the best numbers come from targeting towns, counties and states with your keywords like "wedding photography <insert town>".  Targeted traffic converts so go after the people in your service area.  

If your site doesn't have a blog add one and do a post for every town in your service area.  While it's a boring task it will bring visitors and then you just have to work on your blog posts to get them to your main site or your contact page.


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## Eco

HikinMike said:


> Adding your location should help, at least for some of the local customers.
> 
> I just received an order for 4 8 x 12s  and one 16 x 24 print this week. How did she find me? She just moved back here and was looking for some local scenes to fill her house with pictures.



:thumbup:  On your site!  Within a few seconds of clicking on it I know who your are, what you do and what you sell while seeing your work in the modified flash showing your pictures.  

Out of interest, do you mind if I ask why you don't use alt tags for the photos on your blog?


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## Eco

Just another idea for people with blogs.  Once a month you could showcase a few pictures from a non competing photographer from another area of the country with a link or two back to their site.  In exchange they could do the same for you.


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## HikinMike

Eco said:


> :thumbup:  On your site!  Within a few seconds of clicking on it I know who your are, what you do and what you sell while seeing your work in the modified flash showing your pictures.
> 
> Out of interest, do you mind if I ask why you don't use alt tags for the photos on your blog?



Thanks!

I'm not sure what happened. My latest blog entry/image has the 'alt' tag but some of them don't. Maybe I got lazy or forgot....really don't know. I'm adding them as I speak.


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## Sachphotography

While it is still being developed, Professional Photographers Social Network is another site you can create a profile with a link to your site. You can also post a couple gallery shots as examples of your work. So far Pazilla has created about 30 Jobs/ Sales since its creation this last year. We ran a couple contests aswell. Starting in January we are going to ramp things up with the site including bigger contests and promotions. 

Check it out.


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## LarissaPhotography

Here's the deal with Page Rank.  Google says it's one of hundreds of factors that affects where you show up in results.  For those of you saying to ignore page rank, I wouldn't completely agree.  I think I catch what you're saying in that Page Rank is no longer the way to guarantee top spot in search engine results, but it's still important.

Let me explain what I mean.  IF a website has done their linking correctly (meaning that their link text contains their desired keyword phrase), Page Rank is at least a starting point for knowing how hard you will have to work to compete.  Also, when you get links from other sites, Google looks for quality links, which in part is determined from Page Rank.  Other factors ignored, if you're getting a link (again with your desired keyword phrase) from a PR0 photography-related webpage, it won't be as valuable as a good link from a PR4 photography-related webpage.  Do you guys catch where I'm going here?

I think the bottom line is that having 1000 links to your site means nothing if the links aren't from relevant websites, or your links are not properly formed.


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## Heretotherephoto

What I don't understand is how you get those links.  i mean i understand I can post links to my site in this kind of forum or have someone I know with a site post a link, or use facebook links but what are the links that really matter?


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## LarissaPhotography

Heretothere, I wouldn't categorize links as links that matter and links that don't.  There are links that matter more, and links that matter less.  There's not a magic bullet for getting onto sites that are higher page rank.  There are techniques called link-baiting techniques that can get you a decent number of good links.  That all comes down to having content that is really interesting and link-worthy.  There are probably other people here that have other ideas on how to get your site listed on a high page rank site.


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## Sachphotography

LarissaPhotography said:


> I think the bottom line is that having 1000 links to your site means nothing if the links aren't from relevant websites, or your links are not properly formed.



I think that is true. Though... having 1000 links will help traffic. lol


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## Heretotherephoto

Thanks for all the info folks.  I have been doing a lot of work with the website so hopefully over time it will pay off.  Any pointers on the website is always welcome if you don't mind.

We started a blog too as that seems like a popular choice for getting the word out.  Still not sure what a blog is but we got one.

http://heretotherephotography.wordpress.com/


thanks


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## Eco

Heretotherephoto said:


> Thanks for all the info folks.  I have been doing a lot of work with the website so hopefully over time it will pay off.  Any pointers on the website is always welcome if you don't mind.
> 
> We started a blog too as that seems like a popular choice for getting the word out.  Still not sure what a blog is but we got one.
> 
> http://heretotherephotography.wordpress.com/
> 
> 
> thanks



You can host a blog on your own URL if you want.  If you have Cpanel hosting you should have a one click option and all you need to do is name the page like site.com/blog.


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## jubb

Blogs are great for sneak peeking your work.  Then you push traffic accross your sight and they send out your website link to all your their friends or link to it on their blog, and thus you get back links.  An external personal blog that links back to your regular blog occaisionally can also help improve your sites links.


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## Heretotherephoto

Well I guess there has been a little progress with the SEO because we are now showing up on Yahoo's first page when you type our name and one of our keywords.  Not the most likely thing people will type but its a start.

I also notice that often with our name entered our flckr or pbase pages will show up.  Is this because they are such highly ranked sites?


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## Heretotherephoto

Thread is pretty old but the info is great.  Following the advice on here we are finally appearing on page one og google and getting hits as a result of google images.

Thanks for the help.


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## mooney101

*Did you know that all the Signatures on the thephotoforum.com site are "nofollow" unless you are logged in?* I'm guessing this prevents any sites like Google from indexing the links thus lowering your inbound links and not helping your SEO because they see your links as "nofollow".


I would think that if you were a supporting member you would at least have 
"dofollow" in your signature? :thumbdown:


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## DanEitreim

Google loves links to your site, but they have to have relevant anchor text or they are worthless. So if you are trying to get ranked #1 on the page when someone types in Hermosa Beach Photographer. Then that has to be the anchor text. That's how Google knows what your site is about. The way you would create your link is <a href="http://www.Yoursite.com"Hermosa Beach Photographer</a> After the .com" and before the H you would insert a ">" without the quotes. (I left it out so that the sample text wouldn't turn into a link.)

One simple way to get a lot of links is to write an article and post it to a bunch of article sites. To avoid duplicate content issues, use a spinning program Jet spinner is free - so that each article is unique. You can put 2 links at the bottom of each article in the resource box.

Another way is to write a press release and send it out to all the various press release sites. They will link back to you too. (I just published an ebook on press releases. Check it out at: "Leap To The Top With Press Releases!"

If you have a new site are having issues with getting Google to discover and index your site, here is a trick that will get Googles spiders to your site in a matter of hours...go to Craig's list - San Francisco and post a classified ad in the photography section. 

Google spiders that site several times a day and they will discover and index your site.


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## SageMark

I am looking into this. Any new information or idea sharing for backlinks? A question, is this forum a do follow, or do not follow as far as a backlink for seo?


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## toddjamesphotography

From what I've seen in the source code, it looks like it's a "do not follow" forum


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## AnthonyRyanPhoto

This forum is nofollow, posting here will not help for SEO


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## kokonut

Hi KalaMarie,
How long does your website exists?
SEO process is a very time consuming process and it takes a lot of time if you do it correctly. Link building has to be natural otherwise your site will get banned from google and other search engines. If you want to optimize your website you need to start by
Onsite optimization
That means that you need to do a good keyword analysis and identify your keyword phrases in your niche with the less competition. Then you have to apply these keywords on your web site and more precisely on the Title Tag, Description meta tag, Keyword meta tag, the headings the images tags (non exhaustive list here). You should also create an xml sitemap and submit your website to the google webmaster tools site.
Off site optimization
After the onsite optimization you can start build back links to you website by participating in forums, blogs, writing guest blog posts, directories, blog directories. It is very important to understand that search engines likes fresh and unique content. So you could just build a blog and start writing your own blog posts and then add links back to your main business website.
Then you could submist your blog posts to social media networks and social bookmarks.
All these take an lot of time and has to be donne correctly and slowly. Do not listen to people who promise thousands of backlinks in a night. This is too dangerous and will banich your website. To give a good idea build 100 links / month is quite reasonable number.
I hope that help.
I have read by my own all these information and I follow many SEO bloggers. I think it would be a good thing if you share the list with the good sites for backlinks.
After all I believe that there is no progress if there is no sharing!


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## KmH

KalaMarie was last active on TPF over 2 years ago &#8226; 10-21-2010, 08:13 PM


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## snowbear

KmH said:


> KalaMarie was last active on TPF over 2 years ago &#8226; 10-21-2010, 08:13 PM



Seems to be the day for resurrecting old threads.  I think this is third one I've seen.


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## kokonut

KmH said:


> KalaMarie was last active on TPF over 2 years ago &#8226; 10-21-2010, 08:13 PM



oops sorry, I haven't mentioned that. Anyway, I hope what I wrote will be helpful for someone in this forum.


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## FoodiePhoto

Easiest way is to find photography blogs with comment luv plugin. those links are do follow so they give you some seo juice. Then passionately interact with the Photographer or blog owner. It need not be only photography, you can also comment on travel blogs, food and recipe blogs if you want. They fall in relevant niche.


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## table1349




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## snowbear

This poor corpse has been raised twice!


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## table1349

Yeah, there are dead kittens all over from this thread.


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## FoodiePhoto

oops sorry guys. I did not notice it was a prehistoric grave I was digging. I must have arrived on it from a google search result. This was the thread that brought me here somehow. It was the first post I commented on. My bad. Sorry for disturbing the dead.
My apologies.


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