Pixelpost Guide to SEO

How to Increase traffic to your Photoblog … (visitor number).

A pixelpost guide to SEO

Getting Started

This is not currently a pixelpost based website. Though I did receive over 400,000 visitors in two years using these techniques.

This is a photobloggers guide to SEO. I’m not an expert, but I’ve learned a few things on the way that I hope to share with new photobloggers. Or if youve been doing it for a while and are looking for some tips.

First things first. The steps below are good ways of generating and maintaining traffic.
How do you get this traffic to begin with?

Join as main photo blog communities as you can find. Once youre a member start looking at other peoples work and comment on it. This provides a link back to you. An important key to good seo. Commenting on other
peoples work will also get you comments on your own work. Useufull if you are looking to improve photography skills.

Sign up with social bookmarking websites such as Technorati.com and digg.com.
You can find them all in one place at http://www.socialmarker.com/. Once you join them bookmark your website. The more the better.

Once you start getting some traffic to the website site determine who your audience is and what photos they are looking at. You can then use this information to generate your keywords and description information. When it comes to descriptions keep each page unique.

Steps to SEO Optimization & Generating Traffic

# 1. SITE MAP

Create an XML site Map. One of the best things you can do for any search engine is create a site map in XML.
There are several free services that allow you to do this, http://www.xml-sitemaps.com is a good one.
It may take time depending on how many images you have on your site.

Once the site map is created upload to your root director. (important) most crawl bots etc will look for it here.

Make sure you validate your code. If you create your own template validated code is really important with search engines. Even if you use a premade template learn html and make sure it validates.
Here is the Validator Link.

# 2. GOOGLE ANALYTICS & WEBMASTER

Google analytics dashbhoard.

Join Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/ and register your website with
google webmaster http://www.google.com/webmasters/. Both services are free and easy to use with set up guides. Once you’ve joined webmaster there is an
option to upload your site map to the admin panel. Once set up they can give you data such as keyword search terms, location of visitor and duration of visit. A great way
to see what works on your website and what doesnt.

# 3. PIXEL POST SEO TOOLS

There are several pixel post addons you can use to help with SEO. I’ve created a list with links that you should consider installing.

Site Map for Google – updates your site map with current images
Advanced Image Stats – Gives listing of search terms used on your blog
Weighted Archive Generator – Ads keywords to the body of your site
Clean URLS – Helps google and other look for url’s on your site
Code Generator for Robots – Change keywords without editing template
Page by Page Archive – Usefull for meta tags and archives with lots of images

# 4. TAGS & IMAGE NAMES

Tags and Image names are two of the most usefull tools you could use. Image tags and names are key. Naming your photos, alt tags, keywords, and a photo description are key to generating traffic.
Be as descriptive as possible with your photos. Name your photo if you have an image of Vancouver call it vancouver.jpg and name the alt tag in a similiar way.
Describe your photo and where you took it. Many photographers do not provide a description, the more content you have associated with your photo the better.
Use tags so you can ad them to your tag cloud. Pixelpost has addons that will generate a tag cloud, which will ad content to your site.

# 5. WRITE A GUIDE or TUTORIAL

If you are an expert at something or even really good at it, write a guide. example: A type of photography. Link to your blog images for examples. Use text from the guide to generate your meta keywords
and descriptions. Bots like content. The more meaningfull content you have on your site, the better it performs.

# 6. JOIN BLOG COMMUNITIES

Describe your blog in photoblog communities like http://photos.vfxy.com. Use them as a means to generate links to your website. The more places your site is linked, the more google will like you. Link to other blogs you like. If you read them enough maybe theyll link back to you.
Get your work out there as much as possible. If you create a user name on sites, use something from the url of your site. Example: Photodreamz. Photodreamz.net being the main url.
If you need inspiration weekly assignment blogs are a great way to keep active. http://www.photofriday.com/. Sites like this also get help to get your photography noticed.
Participate in the communities. Bookmark other sites, this way your username and site will also get noticed.

Place your site title and header at the top of the page. Also put them in your keywords and description. Be descriptive, example: Vancouer Photo Guide. My site,
The Weekend Photographer is usually near the top of the list.

Link to your favorite sites. If you give someone enough traffic they may be willing to return the favor.