Penguins, Pandas or People

Panda image from OpenCage.info

I publish these posts to the Creativity Paradox each week with the expectation that they will be read by real people. However, for many sites, real people are not the primary audience. Too many sites were created primarily to influence Google’s page rank algorithm with little regard to the quality of the content.

Google’s business model is based upon providing accurate and relevant search results so people use the site whenever they need to find information. Web developers who want their sites to rank higher can help Google improve search accuracy by employing basic search engine optimization techniques that clearly identify the content on each page of the site, provide text labels for images and encouraging other sites to link back the site.

Often SEO crosses a line from improving search engine accuracy to trying to deceive the search engine. In recent years, SEO has focused strongly on building lots of links to sites, often by placing identical content on hundreds or thousands of sites. In response, Google’s Panda algorithm update released in February of 2011 lowered the ranking of sites that appeared to have “unnatural links” or links from duplicate sites.

The Panda update led many SEO practitioners to switch from posting links in duplicated content to posting links in slightly modified content. Google responded in April of 2012 with the Penguin update to lower the rankings of pages that are violating their best practices guidelines. It is a never ending battle.

There is a better way. 

Create great content!

People come to your website or blog to learn something.  Make sure that the content they find on your site is original and relevant. Keywords should be used because they naturally fit into the context. Build links back to your site from other sites that also have original and relevant content.

When you design your site for a human audience, your readers will have a reason to stay once they arrive.

3 Marketing Mistakes Photographers Make

Eastman Camera by The Javalina on Flickr

Next week the Wedding and Portrait Photographers Association will be holding their 2012 conference and trade show at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Each WPPI event draws thousands of professional photographers looking for ways to improve their photography skills and their business skills. Most of them are making the following three mistakes on their web sites which limit their search engine results and their web traffic.

1.  Building the site in Flash - Adobe Flash is a powerful tool and the websites that utilize it are dazzling for those who visit the sites from full sized computers. But the world is going mobile with 7% of all web traffic coming from smart phones and iPads. Most of those devices are not able to view your website.  

2. Blocking image copying - Many photographers block the ability to right click an image or copy an image which protects their copyrighted work from misuse. By doing so, you also prevent your fans from sharing your work and spreading the news about your talent. If you were to watermark low resolution images and allow people to link to them, your work could be shared on Pinterest, Facebook and other sites where potential clients would see your images and studio name. Those links bring people to your website and improve your search engine rankings.

3.  Image only sites - Many photography sites feature images so strongly that they neglect any captions or text explanations. People love stories and a short caption can put an image into context and give it more meaning. It also helps the search engines know how to classify the images. When you are adding an image to your site, consider adding a caption and be certain to name the image and include your copyright information in the alt text field that the search engines read.

Are you making any of these mistakes on your site?