Google+ for photographers
-
What do you think is the best approach when it comes to using Google+ as a photographer?
The images have no real SEO benefit, but the ones I post seem to get shared more, +1ed more than posting a link to one of my blog posts with a preview image.
What do you think is the best way to approach this problem?
-
Best thing you can do to get P-interst over there is to join in. Too often we share our stuff, pin our stuff, and run away.
Try this and try it honestly:
Go to Pinterest and search for interesting things. Instead of pinning, leave comments on everything you think is unique, cool, fun, interesting, or beautiful. Leave genuine, 10 word+ comments and do this for about an 30-60 mins a day for two weeks straight. Follow more users and repin some of your favorite stuff onto a board called Inspiration from Others
At the end of two weeks, if your own repins aren't up, try something else. lol But they will be - in which case: lather, rinse & repeat.
-
Oh yeah, it was purely from an SEO standpoint.
Not quite sure how to encourage people to share my stuff from or on Pinterest yet.
-
Source: I was a full time professional photographer making 100% of my living with my camera for almost 10 years until I jumped into SEO.
I would say the best thing to do with G+ for photographers is post your newest blog post link alongside a photo and get off G+ again quickly. You're MUCH better off using sites that benefit photographers directly: weddinggawker.com, Pinterest, Instagram and even Flickr have done more for my career in photo than any amount of G+, Twitter & Facebook. Think about the target audience. How many brides/magazine editors/restaurant chefs are on G+? As was said, it's a great place for photographers and as we know, IT people. Unless you're doing IT photo shoots, it's not a place for the masses. Use the photo-related social media that already exists.
-
If your pictures get shared more than links then it's still worth doing - it could lead to an SEO benefit as it's spreading your name around, and maybe Google will begin to associate you as an authority in the world of photography. Perhaps people will put your name into a search engine after seeing one of your photos, or maybe you'll have a Jeff moment! That would be cool.
I read somewhere that photos get liked and commented more on Facebook than links because with links people are clicking away from Facebook, so when they go back they forget to interact again. I can agree with that - and that people are sometimes unwilling to click away from Facebook. The same probably applies to Google+.
I'm an amateur photographer myself so maybe I should see what's going on with photography on G+...
-
Loan-
I do both. I think that it's important to share your work with others, and join the community.
Also, a quick follow up to my earlier post; although the Moz article claims a high correlation between Google +1 and higher rankings, Matt Cutts tried to set the record straight here:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2290337/Matt-Cutts-Google-1s-Dont-Lead-to-Higher-Ranking
Thanks! And let's connect on Google+
-- Jeff -
Ok, so you're into sharing the links rather than posting the pictures then?
-
Loan -
I'm also a professional photographer and when Google+ first launched, I think the biggest community that embraced it was the photographer industry.
I went into a photoshoot about a year and a half ago (I was shooting a very high-end home in Boulder, Colorado for an interior designer), and the first thing the owner of the house said was, "Hey... I follow you on Google+"
Honestly, that's the only time that's ever happened though.
Google+ for me and photography has allowed me to connect with other photographers all around the world. I've seen some amazing work by other photographers, that I wouldn't have seen anywhere else.
That said, I think that the biggest thing that Google+ has done is that if I write an article or content page on my site, a Google+ posting (especially if it gets +1'd by many people) ensure that the post is indexed pretty quickly.
Here's a Moz article about the correlation between Google +1 and search rankings:
http://moz.com/blog/google-plus-correlations
After Page Authority, a URL's number of Google +1s is more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor. In fact, the correlation of Google +1s beat out other well known metrics including linking root domains, Facebook shares, and even keyword usage.Hope this helps!
-- Jeff
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What are your experiences with Google+?
Hi all, It would be great to hear about your experiences with Google+. We've tried a few times to use it in the hope that it might give us a hand in SEO terms but it has been utterly painful. Not only because the UI is almost impossible to figure out, but because engagement is essentially 0. Perhaps we're doing something wrong. How has it gone for you? Ross
Social Media | | MSGroup0 -
Does Google give more ranking weight for Shares for One Social Network over Another.
We are using BuzzSumo to explore the types of content that generate the highest number of shares per article. Does anyone have data to suggest that a share on Google+ carries more ranking weight than a share on Twitter or Facebook, or LinkedIn? We have seen a recent case with one of our client's competitors where they significantly grew their Google+ shares within a relatively short period of time and gained a higher rank for a key search phrase that my client is also targeting. Thank you, Rosemary Brisco
Social Media | | RosemaryB0 -
Why am I seeing so many referalls to my root domain from Facebook in Google Analytics?
When we look at referalls from Facebook in Google Analytics, more than 50% (and sometimes upwards of 80%) of the traffic we're getting is listed as landing on our root domain. The thing is, we don't have any direct links TO our root domain on our Facebook page. So is this legitimate traffic, and how are they getting to our page if we have no links to it? We do post links to stories, videos, etc, but those are to the individual pages, not to our root domain. When I look at those pages that we link to, they do have traffic numbers, but nothing compared to the root domain. Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks.
Social Media | | TexAgs0 -
Getting Google Plus brand snippet
Hi, Wondering if anyone has a checklist for getting that brand entry on the right of the SERPs? i.e from your experience how many followers you need, plus ones, where to interlink etc Here's my brands G+ if you want to check it out! https://plus.google.com/111833333168778283139/posts Thanks, Asaad
Social Media | | Asaad0 -
Google Plus Page vs. Local
We have a google plus page here, set up as a business: https://plus.google.com/b/118361610870255631824/118361610870255631824/posts Then we also have a migrated local page: https://plus.google.com/111600136449742974371/about?gl=uk&hl=en What I would like to see ideally, is to keep the local marker so when people search through Google Maps our name still appears, but on a branded search for 'world of books' I want to see our Google+ page down the right hand side, rather than the local page currently, search for 'world of books' I want it to look the same as if I search for 'music magpie' Help!
Social Media | | Benj250 -
Why is Google+ so confusing?
I have to update my data in 3 separate place is there anyway to just update one area and it filters into all required places. I have a 1)Google+ places page 2)Google+ profile page, what I would expect others to use for my business 3)Google+ page seems to be the one I should be using for my business? Anyone seen a good guide on Google+ ?
Social Media | | tempowebdesign0 -
Social Content Posting - Post to Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter and Linked in at the same time
Hi, Is there any means of posting new content for my companies various social profiles in the one go rather than having to log into each one? This would save a lot of time. Thanks
Social Media | | fdep0 -
What can Google tell from a video?
I notice that Youtube apparently does kind of an automatic transcription. What can Google tell about a video? Is it comparing text from a voice recognition transcript? Can it take compare the waveform of a video signal and see how different a video is from another video? I'm putting together a variety of videos that are similar for different pages and wondering how much do I have to change for each video. I remember one time I attempted to launch a video that was an exact copy but with a different file name, title and tags and Youtube said, "hey, that's the same video!" Thanks!
Social Media | | 945010