How to Get Your Dog Photography Business Website Found

By Kim Rodgers and Sarah Sypniewski

Getting your dog photography business website live is half the battle. Getting found online is the other half. Today, most people use a search engine like Google to track down what they’re looking for, so understanding how search engines catalog and rank websites is important.

Each search engine has its own proprietary way of doing things, but essentially, the search engines “crawl” the web looking for new content to catalog and add to their databases. Most people look through the first, second, and maybe third page of search results before they type something else into the search box, so if your site doesn’t show up toward the top of the list, people won’t find you.

So how do you get to the top of the search results? Doing so on your own takes time and work, but it can be done. Google has a site dedicated to helping you get the most out of your website. Visit the site to understand how Google really works.

Search engine optimization may sound like a fancy schmancy term, but really it just boils down to getting your site found by implementing the best practices set up by the search engine. Search engines are dedicated to providing the most relevant and accurate results, so they don’t take kindly to any sort of trickery to get your website to the top of the list.

Hundreds of factors determine how relevant your page is, but these are a few of the most important:

Page rank: Your page rank is determined by how influential you are on the web and is measured by how many other websites link to your website. The more linkage you have going on, the better your page rank. Page rank also considers the influential factor of who links to you.

For instance, if a small-time blogger links to your website, that’s good, but if you happen to get press in a national newspaper and it links to you, that’s much better!
Site submission: Take the bull by the horns and submit your site so search engines know it’s out there and ready to be indexed. Don’t sit back and wait for them to do it. Submit your website to Google.
Guideline adherence: Follow the design, content, and technical guidelines set forth by the search engine. These best practices are there for a reason — use them!

For instance, use only keywords that are appropriate for your site; don’t add the celebrity of the moment’s name to your keywords simply because her name is being searched constantly. Your page isn’t considered relevant to that topic, and that type of practice only hurts you in the long run.
Web presence: Establish your presence on the web by having more than one website dedicated to your business. For example, create a Facebook page for your business, a Twitter account, a Yelp business page, a separate blog, and so on. The more your business is out there on the web, the more likely a search engine will think highly of you.

Be wary of solicitors who claim that they can get you ranked number one in search engine results; no one can guarantee that! Proper SEO companies are upfront about how you can increase your page rank and are transparent about the process. This isn’t to say you should never pay for SEO help, because some legitimate firms exist; just be sure to do your homework first.