I am often asked “What would you do for content marketing for <this> business?”. The steps are pretty much the same for any business that is run online, so I thought I would explain with an example. For this example, I am going to use the keyword “Photographer Auckland”. So this post will be about using content marketing for SEO for a photographer in Auckland, New Zealand.
Phase One – Research
The first part is to actually do a search for “Photographer Auckland” and see what comes up. I am particularly looking to see where my client appears, but also to look at what the competitors are doing.
Are they running ads?
Those who are running ads are prepared to spend money on growing their business. So these are generally the most competitively-minded (but not necessarily the best photographers).
Do they have Google Business Profiles?
The businesses that rank well on GBP often have lots of reviews, which can indicated whether they have a good reputation. or it can just mean that they are good at asking for, and receiving, reviews.
The best way to get to the top of GBP is to also add updates. Often.
Do they have a video on page one of Google (that is, in the top ten results)?
Google owns YouTube, so having a video on YouTube under your own channel is a great way to get Google to sit up and take notice of your business.
I wrote a post several years ago about how to get your video on page one of Google. The steps have changed, because YouTube has changed, but the principles are still solid, and this method WORKS.
Phase 2 – Create content
OK so now we understand who the competition is, and where we sit in our ranking for SEO for “Photographer Auckland”. Let’s take action.
Google Search Console
First, make sure your site is listed in Google Search Console (this used to be called Google Webmaster Tools). Add a sitemap to your website, and submit that to Google Search Console. This will ensure that Google knows when you add new content, and hopefully will list it.
Make a place for new content
If you don’t have a “blog” section on your Photographer Auckland website, make one. And start writing blogs. But what do you write about?
Here are some questions that people are asking about hiring a photographer in Auckland. I recommend you write posts that answer these questions.
How much do local photographers charge per hour?
Who are the New Zealand art photographers?
How can I find a photographer in my area?
What are the best photographers rates?
How many pictures should be expected from a 1 hour shoot?
How much should you charge for a 1 hour photoshoot?
Who is the best portrait photographer?
How do I choose a photographer?
How much is photographer hire?
You get the idea. You can use the “People Also Ask” section of Google to find these questions, or just look at what questions people ask YOU all the time. And then answer them.
Make a video
Once you have written that wonderful piece of content, make a video to go with it. Your video can just be you reading out the article (you don’t have to show your face). And put in lots of the photographs you have taken to show what a great job you do.
How should you write?
Remember that for both your article and your video, nobody really cares about who you are or what you look like. What they want to know is – can you do what it is they want? So make sure you answer that question in every post.
Talk about the feelings they will get when they have their photo shoot. Talk about how happy they will be when they get the final prints. And how proud they will be to show them to friends and family.
That is what really matters to them; not how many awards you have, or what exotic locations you have been to as a photographer.
Phase 3 – Publish and Syndicate
Now that your blog post has been written, make sure it appears on your website. Add images (of course! you are a photographer!).
Ideally, you should write several blog posts, and schedule them to appear into the future. I like one post a week, maybe on Mondays.
If you do a video, upload it to YouTube and SEO it as in that other post of mine, and then embed it into the blog post. This will help both the blog post and the video to rank.
The last step is to split up the post into, say, 12 key sentences, and create a social media post for each month for the next year. I use software called MissingLettr that does this really well, and automates it.
Where to syndicate?
Where you send the social posts depends on where your audience is. Personally, for a photographer in Auckland I would recommend, as a minimum, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Business Profile. You should probably be on Instagram too.
The Google Business Profile posts take the form of Google Updates, which can help greatly in getting your GBP to rank well.
Over to you
OK, so now you know what to do to rank well for “Photographer Auckland”. If you would like to have a chat with me about how working with me could get your business ranking better in Google, get in touch.
