Wedding photographers all want to be number one on Google. But we don’t think that’s necessary anymore… and could be a waste of time.
It seems like the ultimate goal – it’s all the marketing people talk about: Getting to number one on Google. It’s like ultimate hashtag businessgoals.
But, I disagree… depending on what business you’re in and what you want to rank for.
I Googled something just now (“powerful words for an email subject line”). It was a quick question I wanted a quick answer to and there were tons of articles all offering similar answers, so I just clicked the one at the top of Google. I got my answer and I moved on to the next thing. I didn’t click any more links on Google, didn’t go to page two.
(Actually, I moved on to writing this blog post, and still haven’t written that damned email subject line. Procrastination of one task = productivity of another!)
Anyway. You’re thinking “yeah exactly, so I need to be at number one!” Right?
Why wedding photographers don’t need to worry about ranking #1
Last month I was Googling for a service that would have cost me thousands of pounds, it was a personal service (design! Get your mind out the gutter!), and was an emotional purchase that meant a lot to me. I dug deep. I dismissed page one almost entirely, as it was full of big companies (ones that have the manpower and budget to get to number one on Google, which is another reason it’s not always the best to be up top), and I went really far into the depths of the double figures on Google, opening up loads of tabs.
My point is, if it’s a service that costs thousands of pounds and is a big emotional purchase, number one doesn’t need to be the goal. “Best wedding photographer in Manchester” isn’t a quick answer, whoever’s-at-number-one-will-do kinda query. It’s a huge emotional investment and a big decision. There’s no way someone will search for a wedding photographer and only click one link and book them without checking everyone else out first!
It’s a big deal and people will go many pages deep to find the right service for them. There’s a lot of crap to wade through too – being good at SEO does not equal being the best wedding photographer! So you don’t need to be number one (but you do need to be there somewhere. If you’re not ranking at all then you’re never going to be found!)
There’s also now the added factor that there is no longer any such thing as “number one” on Google. If you Google something, you’ll see the top half of your screen is Maps, bullet points, featured snippets, videos, even flipping Tik Tok.
So working towards being number one kinda feels a bit pointless now, doesn’t it? But that’s a good thing – it means less stress for you!
What you should do
Ask yourself the purpose of the page or post you’re trying to rank.
Is it your pricing page? If so, forget about it! That’s not what you want people finding.
Is it a blog post that digs deep into advice for a wedding day that answers questions that your ideal client is asking and no one else is answering well? Then get that page ranking. But don’t stress about being at number one – people will open multiple links to find the one that gives them the in-depth answers they want. The same applies for your homepage.
Don’t worry about trying to rank for everything. Just the good stuff that your ideal client is searching for and will want to know more about.
What about your homepage?
What do you want to be found for and how much work are you willing to put in? There’s so much competition in wedding photography, and so many different styles of wedding, that being found for “area wedding photographer” is firstly really hard to achieve and also can bring in lots of enquiries (yay) but generic ones (boo) and are less likely to book.
Instead, consider adding an adjective to your area photographer search term. It’ll be easier to rank, and means people searching it (fewer but that’s ok) will be happy to have found exactly what they were looking for and be more likely to book. That means less admin, less sadness about ghosting and more work. Yay!
Rank well for quick tips – then get them to fall in love with you
You don’t want to just answer basic questions and give them the answer and let them get on with their day. You want them to stick around, read some more of your stuff, fall in love with you and book you.
So give them something meaty, something deeper than a quick answer to a quick question.
For example, let’s go back to that quick asked-and-answered question, the one where you DO want to be ranking at number one on Google. Something like: “Can you legally get married outside in England?” There’s one answer (no, unless the venue is licensed and you’re under a covered area [2022]), and once they have the answer, they’ll move on. Unless…! They might just stick around if you give them alternatives that work for them! Venues that are outdoors and licensed for example.
So this is the sort of post you do want to rank up top. They come for a quick answer and stay for your ideas and expertise, then fall in love with your photos, follow you on Instagram and eventually book you when the time comes.
The trick is often in the headline and snippet – ask the question and hint at more. The sort of headline/snippet you could write would be “Can you legally get married anywhere outside in England?” Subheading/snippet: “The answer is both yes and no – you can’t get married anywhere but you can still get wed outdoors – here’s a list of epic venues you can legally get married outside.” It answers the question and tempts them to read more.
The pages you want to be working on to be ranking high are your blog posts (the useful ones that answer questions aka “content marketing”) like that one.
Most photographers don’t do much content marketing though, so it’s likely you’re only worried about getting your homepage to number one. If that’s the case, don’t stress, man! Get it ranking somewhere, then maybe hire a copywriter to write that other blog content that people will be searching for.
Rather than working your ass off trying to get your website to number one on Google, do this:
- Try making a popular TikTok video that answers the same questions people are asking that would have resulted in them finding your website or blog post in previous years, pre-TikTok.
- Create posts with bullet points that answer the question.
- Write blog posts with a featured snippet (you can use Yoast for that) that sums up the answer in one paragraph. These rank fast! Then add some meat to the post to keep them reading.
- Write your post but don’t stress about getting it to number one – ranking lower is fine.
- Try other ways of marketing, really think about where your ideal client is hanging out. Are they really Googling?
- Be The One your ideal client is looking for. They’ll have a ton of tabs open and you want yours to stand out.
One final thing…
Forget about the green light on Yoast! A high orange is fine! It’s a machine, and not a human. Follow the basic steps but don’t let it be the thing stopping you hitting Publish. In fact getting a green light can often result in clunky robotic copywriting so don’t stress about it.
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