Backlinks are a link from someone else’s website to yours, and they’re one of the best ways to grow your photography business. Why? They’re a vital part of SEO (search engine optimization) that helps your business show up when local people are looking for photographers and prints. And backlinks do more for your business than just SEO.
Being featured on another website helps build your brand because it shows that another business trusts you enough to send people your way. But getting backlinks can be tricky, so we contacted photographer and SEO expert Adam Riemer to share some of the tips he uses with photography clients to get good quality backlinks.
Before we share the strategies, it’s important to note that not all backlinks are good for your business. If the backlink is something anyone could get (like a link from a social media profile or post) it won’t help you with SEO. It’s also a good idea to avoid reciprocal, link-for-link schemes and paying for backlinks. These could get your site penalized which can devastate your growth potential.
Penalized in Google terms means they take an action on your website so it can no longer show up in Google searches. More severe penalties will prevent you from showing up for your own brand name, lesser ones will make it so you only show up for your brand name and not phrases like “photographer near me” or “landscape wall art”. The penalties can be either algorithmic or manual with manual being the more severe.
You can find manual penalties by logging into Google search console. Algorithmic are only detectable by using the traffic reports inside search console. You’ll see a drop or no more traffic for your website for non-branded phrases. Branded phrases are your photography business’s name or your own name as the photographer. Non-branded are the larger ones that customers who haven’t learned about you yet use to find art, studio photographers, product and corporate photographers, workshops, and more.
When you build a backlink there are two rules of thumb to follow:
With these in mind, let's jump into building backlinks for photographers.
Local photography events tend to promote their lineups ahead of time, and if you’re on the list, this is a prime opportunity to reference your portfolio site and get a backlink. As a bonus, when popular photography and media websites reference your business, this signals to search engines that your site is also about photography, which can boost your appearance in search.
Besides the reward of sharing your hard-earned skillset with a new generation of photographers, teaching can help you generate valuable backlinks, too. Check your local high schools, universities, and community centers for opportunities to guest lecture. When you get included in course descriptions and syllabi, make sure to provide a link to your site. If you want to get even more links, try generating resources for your courses that are hosted on your site. As educational institutions provide links to these resources for ease of access, you’ll get a helpful boost to your site’s SEO in the process.
Like teaching, supporting charitable causes is its own reward. But as a photography business, you can also make sure you’re putting your business out there to be discovered. Look for opportunities to provide pro-bono photography services at local events, and when you do, be sure to provide links for the event’s sponsors, vendors, or contributing businesses pages.
Because you’re a photographer, you have a distinct advantage for many charitable events—people will want the photos you took during the event, especially if you volunteered at a photo booth! This can be a great way to establish contacts for future customers as well. Just request an email address so you can send people their photos directly.
If you have the opportunity to specify, ask the event organizer to link to your homepage off of your company name so that attendees can see all the photos you took. Every little bit of name recognition helps when it comes to SEO.
As journalists and bloggers create content, they’re looking for original artwork to accompany their articles. Offering images to news sites and industry blogs in exchange for citations and sources is a great way to get featured.
For example, if you’re a bird photographer, offer your images to audubon societies and bird bloggers in exchange for backlinks. This builds your brand, gives you exposure, and drives leads to your site. Who knows, you may sell some prints, too!
Pro Tip: Linking your SmugMug site directly from your photograph can boost your discoverability .
If you’re a wedding photographer, you see a LOT of behind the scenes action. From flower arrangements to food, to the DJ setting up these are opportunities to capture moments that show the hard work that goes into the entire production. If you have the time before or after your shoot, capture portfolio-worthy product and entertainment shots from other vendors.
Next, let these vendors know you got some spectacular shots of them at work, and provide a business card or QR code so they can visit your site. If they like your work, propose a trade: they get updated photography, you get a solid backlink, and everyone wins. And this applies to all types of photographers! Wherever you’re shooting next, keep an eye out for other businesses that could benefit from your photography skills, and show them what you can do for them.
As a photography business, you’re in a unique position to generate powerful backlinks for your business, boosting your SEO, raising your profile, and strengthening your brand. Hopefully with these strategies in mind, you’ll be top of the charts in no time.
The latest and greatest from the Development Lab and beyond.
