Best SEO Practices for Photographers on Squarespace - Part Two

GOOGLE is Still King...For Now

One land, one king, one Google

Or could it be a queen? hmmm….any thoughts on this?

Even as a free citizen of Squarespace you must pay your respects to the GOOGLE gods just to cross all of our SEO “t’s.”

Look at this entire section as the price we pay gladly to thrive in its fiefdom. Ok - I’ll stop the geeky kingdom metaphors now…you get it. Just grab a cup of coffee and hunker down. It will be over before you know it.

And one more reminder that we are not SEO experts by a long shot. Just some regular photographer joes who have tried these things and had pretty good luck.

There are three levels of SEO you can or should do with Google.

1. "Only-give-you-a-slight-headache-so-you-probably-should-do-them" STEPS:

• Remove any passwords on site (must be fully launched)
• Set up a google account (if you don’t already have one)
• Set up Google Search Console (used to be webmaster, or is it still webmaster?…make up your mind Google.)
  • Submit your Property (URL)
  • Submit your sitemap (yes, Squarespace already does this for you…remember King’s are fickle things…better safe than sorry.)
  • Use "Fetch as Google” to crawl your site

2. "Guaranteed-a-full-blown-headache-so-only-do-as-bonus" STEPS:

• Set up Google Plus account
• Set up a Google My Business account
• Manually enter your business to Google Business Maps using certain keywords (if not already there)
• Set up Google Analytics
• Try out Google AdSense 

3. "Get-your-google-freak-on-you-may-want-to-consider-another-line-of-work" STEP:

• Sign up for Google Webmaster Academy (yes, this is actually a thing…sigh)

Let’s break it down:

Set Up A Google Account

Sounds easy, and you probably already have one. One side note/tip: Try to avoid setting it up using a separate business email. Google doesn't like it when you have different accounts (there is that kingly decree thing again). But it’s not a big deal, because hopefully with all this google stuff you should mostly just be setting it and forgetting it.

Set up Google Search Console.

This may take some time if you have never done it before not because it’s hard, but because it’s just a lot of links, double checking & trying to acquaint yourself with the (yawn) google search console user interface.

Set aside an hour and try to avoid distractions so you can finish it in one setting. If link below has changed (again), just search for “Google Search Console” or “submit website content to google” and the info should come up immediately.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home
(Ahem. See? Even Google still calls it webmaster. Oh you Google King you).

Also - please follow the instructions in the Squarespace links below. They are a great resource and there is no point in us re-inventing a square wheel here again.

1. 1. add a “property” aka, URL - wait for verification email and click on…”add sitemap"
   2. "add sitemap” https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206543547
   3. verify & “crawl—>fetch as google" property - Squarespace recommends using the HTML tag method below - our website techs can do this for you or you can follow the instructions here: https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205813918-Verifying-your-site-with-Google-Search-Console
   4. Don't worry if you get a "re-directed" "error" while crawling either. That means your site is being properly re-directed. Honestly - the whole Fetch As Google thing is a bit convoluted and overkillish. Don't lose too much sleep over this.
   5. Ignore the rest of the google gobbledy gook on the side bar of the search console. Really.

BONUS Headache Inducing SEO STEPS.

Haven’t had enough? If you want to take this to the next level, rubbing up against all the free business services that Google offers is never a bad idea to enhance your SEO.

1. Set up a basic Google Plus feed and use it to post relevant blog posts & images - unlike Facebook, you don’t have to keep checking this. Just post and walk away.
2. Check out "Google My Business" - it will walk you through some extra SEO success ideas. Pick and choose the ones you want to try out. Don't forget you have those Google Ad bucks credit under "marketing" in your main Squarespace console. (Watch our video in part 3 to see this part).
3. A lot of our clients have had luck with paid services like Google AdSense too.
4. Do a good old fashioned "google search" for your keywords and manually enter your business if it doesn’t show up on the business map for your area. This can be a bit of hit or miss and even frustrating as you search for your business and it doesn’t show up. But give it time - and keep posting and linking.
5. Last and least set up Google Analytics. I set mine up but don’t use it often (like never) - so don’t sweat this one too much. It’s one of those overhyped “things you should do.” The Squarespace analytics are fine for our purposes.

One more thing. You should set up the SSL on your site while you are in "sharpen the saw" mode on the back end. If you are collecting emails, and especially any payments on your site, it’s a must to enhance SEO.

https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205815898-Squarespace-and-SSL

Don't forget though, the point of all this GOOGLE worship is to just set it and forget it. Don’t linger too long on any one thing. Your time is much better spent creating awesome content on your site for your current and potential clients.

And again, I recommend referring to the awesome Squarespace Support Articles area and watching any videos in the SEO department too. Sometimes the content there is a tiny bit out of date, but the basics are very helpful.

Google should be appeased now. You get a gold star if you can count how many times we said GOOGLE in this post too. Can we PUH-LEASE move on. Next up: the actual fun part of SEO! Your own content!

Best SEO Practices for Photographers using Squarespace - Part One

What is SEO for Photographers, and Why Do I Care?

So this 3 Part series of articles was really fun.

We don’t claim to be SEO experts (in fact we’d rather avoid like the plague!), but we had a client ask us about it and this is what the 16 Hoops is all about. Ask and ye shall receive!

We scoured the internet and honestly just found articles either too dry or too detailed (like, "way-too-make-your-head-spin-detailed). So instead, we just pooled our own experiential resources. We hope you find it as fun and informative as we did. (PS - yeah, I shift from "I to we" a bunch. It’s complicated. I do all the writing, but hoops is most definitely a "we." So please forgive and bear with).

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, you have at least heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and know it’s important.

And if your website is listed on the coveted “page one” spot for your industry keywords - you may even think you have nailed it.

But don’t get too comfortable.

Less and less actual clients are relying solely on search engines to find their perfect photographer. 

Also - what you may not know is that best SEO practices even from just 2 years ago are practically obsolete and vastly different than today. What may have rewarded you a few years back (keyword loading, metatags, expensive back link services) may actually harm your SEO now with the famously ever changing google algorithms. 

Squarespace is a big part of this SEO Revolution with it’s simple, responsive, mobile friendly sites and elegant back end design. 

The new streamlined SEO practices made especially for photographers that we will go over will be especially noticeable if you are coming from the WordPress platform with all its complicated key-wording and red/orange/green reward systems. 

We got nada against WordPress and hey, Squarespace ain’t for everyone (especially if you need a TON of customization…which we think, you in fact, do not)--but love it or leave it, Squarespace is by far our platform of choice here at 16 Hoops for many reasons. Its clean SEO is just one of them.

What we have noticed is that it is actually the photographers that consistently create relevant content that rise to the top. You could be pinging green left and right on yoast, but if you are only posting 6 times a year - google will punish you. 

I know - huh? 

Turns out just running your business really well is the key to great SEO. Go figure.

So here is the other KEY to great SEO:

Create thoughtful content (a lot of it) that your target audience will want to view and share. 

That is the number one reason they will not just be hiring you, but will also keep coming back year and year and portrait after portrait.

Keep in mind, SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. There is no magic bullet. If you keep doing these practices in our series and blogging frequently, your services will rise to the top in your market.

The rest of the neat tricks and stuff we will be showing you is just insurance and homage to the google gods. But insurance and spirit help is good to have.

Here is our first of two video tutorials on making the most of everything Squarespace has to offer: Setting up your Titles & Descriptions in Squarespace for SEO Success. PS - I say Part Three in beginning - just ignore that. I decided to put this part here instead and didn't want to re-record the whole thing. :)

So let's open up the hood (crack knuckles) on the Squarespace interface.

Hope you find this useful!  Let’s look forward to part two in our handy behind the scenes tour of SEO practices for photographers on Squarespace: Google Is Still King...For Now.