WooHoo! Google Page 1! 😯
For the longest time I have been trying to improve my Google rankings for the generic term of “nature photography.” It is a little side quest I have had – working on it a little at a time. I don’t get a huge amount of traffic from this particular search term, but any exposure helps. It seemed like I was stuck on page 5 forever, and bounced into oblivion a couple of times. Then I began moving up to page 2 with slight tweaks here and there to my links and page titles. Today is the first I noticed I have finally made it to the top 10!
For all I know, it may be a short lived celebration. Google can be rather fickle as they continue to update their search algorithms. One day you may be #1, and the next crawl who knows. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) seems to be a few parts know-how with a big dash of black magic. An entire industry has been created around this. I have been steadily updating various pages around my site based upon SEO articles I stumble upon, working at keeping the site up to date, with relevant content, new images, and some of it seems to have helped.
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact changes that made the biggest difference. I suppose if I was a bit more systematic about it, it would be easier to track. If I knew the golden rule – I might be retiring soon. I know for sure that having a blog that is updated on a regular basis helps. Blogs have a lot of text for search engines to pick apart. Many businesses are realizing this and starting blogs of their own.
There are A LOT of nature photography sites. Total 81 pages worth at the time of this posting. Some are updated frequently, others have some cobwebs on them. It can be a complete mystery at times in what the differences are between page 1 and page 5. Nevertheless, it is wise not to get too comfortable. Continue to follow the advice of the search engine owners and you should do OK.
So I think I will open a bottle of wine tonight, well knowing that the time on page 1 may come and go as easily as this bottle. 🙂 Wanna trade links? 😉
As expected, I dropped back to page 2 again for a little bit. But now with Google’s visit on Sept 10, I am even higher on page 1! Moose…eat my dust. 🙂
Congrats! You deserve your position. Hope it was a first growth Bordeaux…
Congratulations! Enjoy that bottle of wine.
I have some similar challenges / goals. One was to maintain first spot for San Diego Photos. The funny thing is – as you eluded to – these broad competitive terms don’t bring that many visitors. It seems for example that people are more likely to search for a photo of a specific place in San Diego, and not for such a broad term. That is likely true for nature photography as well. That is a good thing – it means there is room for everyone!
Ron
Mark, having been in the web design world for many years and researching Google, etc., I’m assuming the way that you got to the top (besides having your beautiful imagery) is the fact that your blog gets regular updates and traffic along with people linking to your site.
I tell all my clients, if you want to move up the ranks on Google, blog not only on your site but leave comments on others as well. Also, submit your blog site to as many blogging directories as possible. Google looks mainly at how much traffic one is generating on the website. The more traffic and more links to your site, the more you’re perceived as “TOPS”.
Having said all that….. Congratulations! As others have said, your work deserves the ranking.
Congrats on the page one listing, you should be there!
Boyd, Bernie, and Heather – thank you!
Way to go Mark! Making a photography business into a successful one is so much more than clicking a shutter, no? So much to learn!
Congratulations Mark, that is a great achievement, I will have a drink to you tonight as well. Well done you deserve it.
Congratulations, quite an achievement.
SEO is mind boggling. SitePro News has helped me out a lot.
Do you ever submit articles?