Over the past handful of weeks, I’ve received lots of emails and messages asking why I find value in blogging on a regular basis. The first few messages caught me by surprise, though I diligently typed up a lengthy response, sharing my opinion and personal experience with blogging over the past nine years. Yes, friends, this blog was started back in 2007, when I first launched my photography business. But, as the emails and messages continued to pour in on the topic, I decided to address it on my blog, which really brings it full-circle, doesn’t it?
Ultimately, there is an infinite number of reasons why I choose to continue blogging. Several years ago, when social media was really breaking onto the scene, I remember hearing the argument that blogging was “out-dated” and an “old-school-way-of-thinking”. Many people (not just photographers) felt that blogging was a total waste of time and that social media was the better and more relevant way to promote your business. This didn’t sit too well with me. Not because I didn’t see value or make use of social media- because trust me, I love it and use all of the time- I just didn’t buy into the whole idea that blogging was dead. And I still don’t. Blogging is very much alive and very much a key factor in the ranking game called Google.
I’ve listed my top 5 Reasons You Should Blog Regularly. Of course, this is my opinion on the matter. You may disagree with me entirely, and that’s okay. I write what I know and what I have seen transpire in my business, because of my blog. While some of my reasons may not resonate with you, this blog post is intended to be helpful and honest. I know that for some of you out there reading this, blogging is pure and absolute torture, trust me, I’ve heard this time and time again. Despite this, I really hope that you’ll find room in your heart to love the blogging process, especially when you start to see all of the awesome and wonderful things it will do for your business.
#1: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
Want to boost your ranking in Google? Blog. Want potential clients to find a link to your website based on specific search terms? Blog. Want your beautiful work to appear in Google Images? Blog. Seriously, friends, blog.
Every time you press “publish” on a blog post, Googlebots will come crawl your post, taking in every line of text and all of the titles of your jpegs. This is HUGE and pretty self explanatory on why it’s vital that you actually write a few paragraphs of on-topic text for each blog post, along with well-crafted titles for all of your images. (No one is going to do a search for _img-1001.jpg!) Photo-dumping isn’t enough for a blog post and Google won’t be impressed (neither will your clients). However, if you write about the images, what they represent, where they were taken, who they are of and other various details, those little Googlebots will take in all of that information and feed it to Google, which will only help your website in the long-run.
Google only cares about one thing: relevant content. This is why they have a no-nonsense policy and aren’t afraid to blacklist websites that cheat or don’t play by the rules. In the Internet World, Google is King, and the King doesn’t mess around. If you want to rank highest and get your website seen, invest the time, energy and care into your blog. Think about how you want people to find you and create blog titles that are applicable to your blog post. Stay consistent all the way through to your content and image titles. In time, you will start to see a huge change in your rankings and traffic.
#2 BLOGGING IS FREE MARKETING
Think about it, when you write a blog post, you get to wander over to all of your social media outlets and shout it from the rooftops. Share a few image sneak peeks and tidbits of content on your social media platforms, just be sure to keep it brief and inspiring so people feel compelled to click the link for more. Whatever you do, don’t give it all away on Facebook or Instagram. In fact, I stopped sharing albums on Facebook awhile back, if I was showing all of the images there, what reason would anyone have to go to my blog? These days, I use social media as a way to promote and market my business, not showcase. My website and blog are where I showcase my work because it’s the branded internet real estate that I own- and that’s where I want to drive traffic. Social Media is an even playing field and we’re competing with every other photographer and business there, so get the traffic onto your own turf where you can really knock their socks off!
#3 DO IT FOR YOUR CLIENTS
Clients absolutely love being featured- and so do their families. When I feature a senior session on my blog and share the post on social media something amazing happens… Without being prompted, my senior client, their parents and family members also share the post. You can image what this does for my daily traffic! Truth is, my past and present clients LOVE being featured and I LOVE featuring them! This is my opportunity to share my experience with them, give them some love and brag about how incredible they are. Potential clients can see these posts, which tells them multiple things: I’m busy, I’m still in business, I love my clients and what I do and it also allows them to see my most recent work. When they read how much fun we had during a session, they want in on the fun, too, which often leads to bookings for my business.
#4 BLOG POSTS ARE ARCHIVED
Unlike social media, blog posts are archived, which makes them searchable on search engines. This may not seem like such a big deal, but think about all of the great things you’ve shared on social media. No matter how many likes or comments you received on those posts, they’re not archived, which means potential clients will never see those posts, unless they go digging for them on your wall or feed, which is very unlikely- especially when they wouldn’t even know what to look for.
Remember those fabulous little Googlebots? They’re your friends. When they crawl your site and feed all of the information to Google, they’re archiving everything for you. This means every single blog post you share could lead you to a potential client or, at the very least, a new blog follower.
#5 THE POWER OF PINTEREST
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (which is probably pinned on Pinterest), you’ve likely heard of this incredible platform. Pinterest is major and trust me, you want to be a player because everyone is using it. If you didn’t think blogging was important before, have you ever noticed that the mass majority of images shared on Pinterest come from blogs? In my opinion, this reason alone makes blogging a no-brainer.
Two years ago, I posted a senior session in the snow and it went viral on Pinterest. One of the images alone was pinned over 9,000 times and it’s still circulating. Because of this, I receive at least 100 hits to that very blog post on a daily basis- sometimes more. Add that up over the course of two years and that is a lot of traffic. I’ve booked clients from that session who found me because of Pinterest, which didn’t cost me anything but the time it took to write and share my blog post.
If you’re still with me, I just want to say a quick thank you for taking the time read this entire post. I know it’s pretty lengthy, but as you can see, blogging is something that I am very passionate about. I have seen all of the wonderful things it has done for my business over the years. It’s also an active timeline of my journey to now. This blog shows where I’ve been and where I’m at currently. It will continue to be by my side as I move forward to wherever I am going. If you aren’t already blogging, start now. Much love!
