Optimization Help

Marc S

Greetings.

I'm running into a bit of problems, not to mention confusion, about optimizing my site for Google search map results.

Several weeks ago I signed up for the Google Business listing, received the postcard and verified. Also signed up for a Google Plus account and even linked it to SM site. Still my site does not show up on Google Maps when doing a search for "Beaumont Texas Wedding Photographers".

What does this have to do with SM? A forum post on Google said that my site was not optimized and suggested that I hired someone to optimize it for me as it was missing all the needed elements for a search. SM tells me that the site is finely optimized. So, I am clueless.

The site is www.storymarc.com

Thanks for the help!
Marc S.

denisegoldberg

I'll start by admitting that I don't know what you need to do to have your site come up in Google Maps.

But - there are a couple of things that may help your search results. The first is to clean up your keywords. When I go to http://www.storymarc.com/keyword I see that you have a large number of "number" keywords. Are these actually meaningful keywords?

You appear to have tagged all of your photos with a single keyword made up of 4 words. Do you really think that people will search based on all 4 words together? You would be better served by using a set of smaller clauses, like "wedding photographer", and your town name. You might also add keywords to categories weddings vs. engagements, etc.

I don't see any use of captions on photos. This may help as well.

Do you have any inbound links to your site? Perhaps a blog that shows photos and takes the viewer to your site if a photo is clicked?

You may find some other hints at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1229846-new-seo-made-easy. Also, see this blog entry from 2011 - http://news.smugmug.com/2011/01/05/seo-on-smugmug/.

--- Denise

Marc S

Thanks Denise. I am going to clean up those keywords. I choose Beaumont TX Wedding Photographer as a keyword thinking that is how people would search. However, I could definitely be wrong on that. Also will do the other things that you mentioned. Again, greatly appreciate the info and help.

On another note, this one concerning layouts of the photos in the galleries... I posted photos in chronological order. However, as they are open for viewing by potential customers, I am wondering if I should just show a series of them (the best of the bunch) and then post the rest of them. That way, potential customers get to see all the good ones up front. Do you have any thoughts on this? I'm pretty tough skinned on my photography...so any criticism is well received and appreciated!

Marc S

denisegoldberg

Marc S wrote: »

I choose Beaumont TX Wedding Photographer as a keyword thinking that is how people would search. However, I could definitely be wrong on that.

The thing that concerns me about that keyword is that I don't believe it would return a match if the viewer searched for wedding photographer beaumont tx. I think you would be better served with "wedding photographer", "beaumont texas", plus maybe "weddings", "engagement photos", etc.

Marc S wrote: »

On another note, this one concerning layouts of the photos in the galleries... I posted photos in chronological order. However, as they are open for viewing by potential customers, I am wondering if I should just show a series of them (the best of the bunch) and then post the rest of them. That way, potential customers get to see all the good ones up front. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Given people's attention I think putting the best of the bunch first makes sense.

--- Denise

Marc S

Thanks. Makes sense. I will give it a shot and see what happens.

Many thanks!