Why SEO? There are three good reasons you should think about your search optimization are: traffic, name recognition and trust.
Why SEO for Traffic
Google processes over 1,000,000,000 (yes, billion) searches per day. Those searchers are looking for something – answers, entertainment or maybe your business. As we talk mainly about SEO for wedding photographers on this site, we will assume you are looking into doing SEO for your business.
There are hundreds of ways to advertise your business. Word of mouth for the established business is one of the top methods but beyond that most require some sort of advertising budget with the exception of SEO. If you can do the work yourself, good SEO will get your website traffic, visitor and possibly clients. Having great SEO is the best free way to make sure your business gets found. You can have a fan page with 1500 fans but only get 15-20 pageviews per day on your site. With great SEO you could have a fan page with 15 fans and get 100+ pageviews on your website everyday.
Why SEO for Personal Branding
We don’t always think about our long tail searches as much as we should (ie. someone finding you for “andy and karen” when they Google.) but studies have shown that prospects need to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action and buy from you. If you can get your site in front of their eyes when they research their venue, their DJ and their photographer twice, you’re more than halfway to possibly booking this prospect.
Why SEO for Trust
Like it or not, consumers trust Google results to show them good, solid businesses. If you Google “sports news” #1 is ESPN, “US military” brings you the Defense Department and just Googling the word “email” brings you Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. Not exactly a bunch of tiny little junk sites. Google returns relevant results and prospects know it. If they search “Maine wedding photographer” they expect to find quality Maine photography businesses. The further into the results they get, the less they trust the result.
