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Optimizing & Delivering Content

Lesson 9 from: The Photographer's Guide to SEO and Online Marketing

Lawrence Chan

Optimizing & Delivering Content

Lesson 9 from: The Photographer's Guide to SEO and Online Marketing

Lawrence Chan

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Lesson Info

9. Optimizing & Delivering Content

Lesson Info

Optimizing & Delivering Content

We want to make sure that we optimize the content because if you're content is not optimized no one's going talk about no one's going to find it the ones going to share it so make sure that search and unfriendly and this is something we talk about tomorrow two full sections okay? So it's not like a small percentage of it like I am getting kidding four hours or so to it next thing is you want to make sure that you're have stylized content so make sure that it looks pretty design matters quite a lot and if you think about color even a component of branding is one of most basic elements that dictates how we feel it evokes emotions it's been programmed into our mentality since birth and steve jobs really said it best with design it's not just what it looks like and feels like designs how it works so matters greatly you want to be unique I mean colors colors are very powerful it actually evokes emotions and of course colors represent different things in different countries so make sure you ...

get that squired away because white like in china means death the white in america is like a wedding and pierre and angelic also get you know make sure it's consistent the next thing you want to make sure you have a responsive website now there are many wildman and showing an example responsive website in the second but there are many websites out there and I can I understand you can get a mobile plug in or something and make sure that works for a phone works for the ipad but when it comes to clothing there's something called css and they're making these south sheets for all of these different types of brothers but the thing is that they're so many different types of browsers and versions of browsers into next florist safari operate people still use it chrome firefox but responsive is the newest way in I'm just going tol tell this really quickly so this is my website so I just want to show you this is how responsive website works so this is a fool website browser as you condense it this might be an ipad browser has you condense it this might be a kindle fire browser as you condense it more this might be a phone browser and it still works the same way all the content is still there but you can always explained it out and it becomes a full website so it doesn't matter what browser you're on it's still fully compatible so whenever you're looking for a new theme or something look for responsive and you came in going theme forest or anything they have themes for like ten dollars, fifteen and that's where I get mine so it's pretty cool so make sure it's mobile ready a lot of times people are searching more more mobile tablets and phones, so make sure you have that. Make sure it's rich in media, as you can tell pinterest is really popular. Twitter is pushing for photos. Facebook is making photos even bigger. The thing is, is that people are a lot of a lot. People are audio, but ma la people are visual too. We need this eye candy. It stimulates it's all like sushi, you know you sort of eat it with your eyes before you actually eating with your mouth. Next thing is to make sure it's easily shareable and when I say terrible on thomas social media, email things of that sort, the next topic is content delivery platforms. So we've talked about different types of content, how we should optimize it now, it's, how we can deliver it, what platforms to use and the thing is, is that, as I mentioned earlier, these platforms always change. So were the technological factor for the very beginning, you always have to adjust it so that it's in accordance to your target audience, so currently facebook is still one you should neglect so there's personal and brand pages make sure the stunning difference they're pros and cons of each, and I'm not going to even go into detail how these work, because by the time you don't watching this video, a new version is going to come out, but I think it is focused on strategies so so far the strategies create engagement relationships um create solution to the promise these are all strategies tactics doesn't matter where you put them you can put a facebook and twitter you can do whatever those air tactical levels next pinterest now pinterest is a very powerful tool and there is one little trick to pinterest you can upload photos in two different ways one you can just upload directly to pinterest which is easy because you could just create aboard pop all the photos in there but the problem is that you can generate followers on that, but when you click on the photo it circulates the traffic within pinterest which does no good for you the entire goal is to get the traffic to your site we convert them so it is much more effort for on urine but it's going to pay off much more in the end is to upload the photos to your site first great block post put them there then tag amount of interest it's one extra step and it's a slight difference but that way when they click on the photo will go back to your site but make sure the tag um and used the wreck links on pinterest though if you upload from your computer you can then edit it and add the link to your website so you're saying what is that still not the same thing? Oh, you can do it that way as you can okay but there's no my only fear for that says there's no context to it too yeah that's true because you're just going generates your index site and okay, yes we just yeah, I like everything with context, by the way, if there's a donor has to be related donut day or something possibly reason um with pinterest ifyou're making boards um is it useful to your you know, target audience to have boards or just your pictures? When does it seem kind of do they prefer if you have multiple sources? It really depends on the target audience, but personally I like things organized, so I like boards. So if a question lawrence one more question before I move on, you know we have a lot to do. I've heard that you should name every single one year photos that you put up anywhere with your business name that should be the title of the photo because that helps and ceo and when someone searches your photos, all those photos will pop up if they're named your name. Is there any truth to that? Yes and no, but in terms of ceo yes, you'll be found for your own name but the thing is is that when it comes to search engines people were looking for you will find you your goal was to tap into markets people who don't know you so in my opinion, it's not useful, teo to have to put your name in the files. Okay? It's okay to watermark thumb? I think that's a different way when I say wally, mark, I'm not saying like, oh, you know, as the lines of them all over the photo, anything that covers their faces just corner and yes, there's a fear of them cropping it out, but it's still buried two brand somehow. Okay, next one is twitter you guys are mean, allow these platforms you might be familiar with already short text tags, the cons for using us less visual lot of noise, but same thing applies to everything to make sure that you always focus on quality, so to earn trust really takes a long time, as you can tell all of these topics takes a lot of time to build this relationship, but to lose trust takes a single tweet, so focus on quality over quantity all of the time. Next thing is instagram soul it's very visual asked tags allow it to be transparent and easily inscrutable and it allows you to tell a story your instagram feed is a story of your life in a way and it can be inspiring at same time the other thing is that if you're constantly for active on instagram you maintain that top of mine awareness so you maintain that toma and the only problem with instagram is that there is no out bombings it cannot go to your site I can post a phone so check out my sight doesn't work you can post a link but it won't be clickable google plus because you can put content on their tags yumi transparent the only con is that it's arguably less engaged users it's either googlers or photographers depends on you know your target audience so make sure I'm not saying this is it's it's different in every situation there are always exceptions youtube is a very powerful source I'll offer tarvisio unused it's underrated but it's very powerful soul you can create videos based on slide shows of just your work it can be videos of the behind the scenes even using a phone it's really okay because it shows the social proof and a real proof the social proof is you working because think about what is one of the fears I'm just going to use weddings as example what's one fear that brides have for you at the event one stab maybe you're an irritating photographer okay that get in the way or you're pushy, bossy, pushy bossy on the events of this very all great points and other things like you might look embarrassing you might not dress appropriately you know, for women is too low cut menu just wearing bright colors you know, whatever it may be but behind the scenes the social proof see the real proof is you actually being will take a beautiful father that's a real proof social proof is everything before that testimonials people are talking about you nicely social proof of you shooting photos of you engaging with the clients you dressing professionally not being irritating are being bossy all of that stuff if you can that's why it's important to have these promo trailers because they show you on the wedding day even if you're talking about pets or children if you're working with pets what's one fear that pet owners my house that you won't be able to capture the essence of my pets but it was like oh you know what while you're shooting and someone's doing problem video because the photos they're going to come in the end but you're shooting and then you're saying, you know, I like to bring a lot of toys with me because a lot of times I mean I can't talk dog I can just it down but I can't talk dog and I can't talk cat but I have these toys that talk to them you know you play with the toy and they look at the camera and that's how you get to do it I didn't have to say I come for parents with toys this this this I just don't do it people see it this already know it oh it lawrence's experience with pets so utilize these videos at the same time even when it comes to food photographers, videos of you cooking recipes it doesn't have to show you as a personality but just hands doing how you know doing the work there's so many ways next is tumbler tumbler is really powerful because it allows for asio content and tags and is one where a powerful feature of it is that it in itself is a social network because there's a tumble feature allows you to tumble the blogged and post it on to yourself I mean onto your site but there's only one problem though you're still putting all your content on someone else's platform you don't own it as we mentioned earlier do you remember my space? All of the effort gone? If tumbler ever fills gone that's why it's always important to bulletproof your efforts by having it on your own site? We'll talk more about bullet proofing on day two but it's not on your server it's still powerful but use it as a feed as an inbound traffic put the tea's on there for the full post come to my site click link next infographics easy to digest complex information with visuals the only con to this is that it takes a lot of effort to design or very expensive to hire someone to do so but you can always just curate other people's content given the link and build the traffic to your site if you think about buzzfeed or pet flow they're all they are just curator so content they don't produce their own content but they're very powerful next thing would be slide shows this could be either post on youtube or slide share or number of places these air all different contents you can put your solutions on their on the slide show or slight share slight shares a site social network as well where you post all of your slides on their sword like presenters notes and stuff you can talk about the step by step the ten steps on how tio what's ah problem people are facing when you give it okay I'll think of one good one like on okay so how to plan your wedding date timeline oh that's a wonderful topic how ten steps and how to plan your wedding day time like and this is where of course you post your portfolio follows but on the slides you have ten steps step one step two step three step force the five very seamless sequential people know what to expect next very powerful thank you for saving me there so podcasts podcasts are very powerful because is a large audience already uh itunes is really massive the only um this advantage to this is that it takes a lot of production nohow you got to know how the work it's worked audio good all you is very important intro al trolls and you have to have good clients no good clients are good interviewees to have the gun engage in discussion lastly you have to consider like strategy tactically speaking all future social media platforms there is probably another one just popped up right now at this very moment and I don't know about it but you got to know about it and if it's worth your time you utilize it and something a lot of times we forget teo you lies is traditional media when I'm talking about traditional media on time up prince there's something nice about tactile or a technicality but this really depends on the audience because it's not a scalable it costs money to produce to print and to distribute so that's the khan but depending on your audience they might like it more pdf e books next one this one's a very clever one imagine if you have you've been creating solutions for a long time for months or a year or years you can create a pdf e book by simply compiling all of your contents into a book where it's organized so instead having tio going to sight read a solution oh great that's a great cool idea portfolio portfolio portfolio oh that's a personal oh great solution, great idea, portfolio portfolio and it's going to be a really scattered I know you can organize it by category inside your sight, but it's easier if you have everything sequential in any book, and the reason why I'm emphasizing a book is because ultimately you can use it as exclusive content because there is one way to protect yourself, and that is through email newsletters and that's the reason why I asked people to subscribe to email because facebook is eventually going to screw me again or somehow twitter might screw me later in the future, but it doesn't really matter their businesses, and I understand that they have to generate income, but the thing is that you cannot rely on a specific social media platform because eventually, like all businesses, there is going to be a downfall because some newer ones going to come out. I mean teenagers or even use facebook anymore. Because it's old seoul email newsletters is very personalized. You have access to personal email. We don't give up our emails that easily because we don't like spam, but once you allow them to give you their email, then you can always tell, oh, by the way, this is new social media platform that popped up, I'm on it if you want, check me out, follow me there, that's how you tell them and this is where you can use the exclusive content such as the pdf e book that you compile all of these solutions into one so that they can just download and subscribe but then there's the whole idea about longevity of a client think about brides. How long is it brides longevity before she gets married up to the point she gets married and after that she's technically, not your target audience is she going to stay as a subscriber to your email list? This is where you have to be able to generate content that's still worthwhile for her because you want to maintain toma for her as well, because you want her to be able to refer her friends to your business. So an example I gave to a florist friend of mine he created the e mail newsletter and for brides again wants to get married. They're not gonna hire him again. He designs beautifully friends with flowers. Bye, tom, you khun constant push for floral tutorials how to spruce up your home with flowers how to cut your own flowers how to cultivate your own flowers what color is a match? We're under minutes there's so many ideas he could just post on and that's how you maintain that email subscription and top of mine awareness even though she's no longer or he is no longer inclined so ultimately it remember, people are interested in exclusive content things that you can only give him one place. So on lee email subscribers, same as all of the, you know, the fragmentation of social media. I don't want teo sometimes I do admit it when I don't have time because much as possible while I tweet is usually not what I put in a facebook and is usually know what I put on instagram, I try to diversify all of them and if it's the same photo again, I tried diversify the call to action or the captain. Next thing is, they're also interested in discounts, and I know discounts, removes barriers, therefore moves value people don't like to photographers are hesitant of giving discounts, but I'll teach you how you can do so in a very clever way that actually adds value. It sounds counting the contrary, counterintuitive, but how about demonstrate later solutions to the problems which we mentioned earlier, lots of ways and last day, places where they can join other like minded individual. This is the core of evangelism. We we are, we like to be unique and individual mystic, but we like to hang around with other people who are like us, so keep that in mind, lastly, your website and glug now, I understand that blogging takes a lot of effort, and if you don't do it, you might say I have a block, but think this is that blog's are very searchable, and I'll explain why blog's air so powerful and comes to search engines by the same time. If you think about website you go under today, you're going in next week. Next month. Does your portfolio website for change? How often does a change? Not very often, I'm sure maybe not at all, so I can go there a year later. It's still in the same thing, but the blogged, which is sort of like instagram hoffan, does not change much more frequently and allows you tell a story and ultimately seances personally hosted, which means you on the content, not like I like content you post on my space, which can be, you know, taking away any given time, so we have all this funnel effect. Every content from all the social media sources will come down to your website because ultimately, a social media is where he date and I tweet us earlier. So you saw it excuse the repetition, but social media is where you date your web site is where you get married that's, where everything converges and he'd lock it in your goal is to create a market campaign that fits your clients so well for selling isn't even necessary at the peak of my wedding profession. A lot times I've never even met with my clients, but they were still committed to having me that they just booked without even and even I told susan this weekend I was in the room. I was helping a vendor film him at the ritz carlton, and I really I was so busy because of creative live everything. I didn't want teo take time away, but he he insisted on me, and there was like there was no exceptions, like there's, only one person who can video me and it has to be lawrence. He only he can tell my sari and which is why the only reason why I want. But you have to be able to relate to people in such a capacity that there is no one else in mind. They cannot choose anyone else otherwise would be too painful with sacrifice.

Class Materials

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Ratings and Reviews

Daniel
 

Lawrence has done a great job in trying to simplify SEO and marketing in such a short course. He's obviously a clever and well clued up guy, and he comes across well if a little nervous and bumbling at times. The course itself felt quite fragmented over the first day. At times I almost felt like we were going through a business studies book, but in a disjointed way not knowing what direction we'd go next. Having said that the course is worth watching as there are a few nuggets of gold in there and it's a great general overview of both marketing and SEO which is an incredibly deep topic. There were a few questionable area for me over both days, but I've studied SEO reasonably well, for example he told a viewer to keep her old site and not move to a new domain as she'd lose all page rank. In actual fact the lady could quite easily move from one domain to another, and using a 301 permanent redirect she could transfer between 90-99% of her old pages link juice (ranking power). I understand going through deeper areas like this might have put fear in some people, but I think a few areas could have been better presented or explained. Would I recommend this course, yes I would. Although I saw faults in it, the amount of information on offer is pretty extensive and will help most photographers who run their own websites. SEO can go so much further than has been explained here, but for most small businesses this will be a great starting block to getting your business out there and ranking higher than you ever did before! Note to all: Anyone using wordpress please make sure you get it hosted on a decent host. After hosting my wordpress site on bluehost, and getting incredibly slow load times, I researched extensively to find out that the host plays a really important part in this area and going cheap isn't a great option. If your pages load slow you run the risk of losing a lot of potential customers and hits, so do yourself a favour and pay a little more for a decent host.

a Creativelive Student
 

I have been looking for a course like this to learn more about Online Marketing and SEO and randomly came across this course playing live. I usually decide within the first 5 minutes whether I want to continue learning, and Lawrence Chan definitely had me hooked. I wanted to continue watching his engaging presentation and listen to what he had to say. His quirky and nervous disposition was handled well as he broke into a smile or laughter from time to time, which made him funny yet relatable. Like everyone else, I was impressed by his thorough knowledge of Online Marketing and liked the examples he gave as he progressed with the course. Hopefully Lawrence Chan can be featured in Creative Live again!

Corrie W
 

Brilliant ! Great content, well organized, practicable, understandable. I felt like I had a good handle on SEO and really thought I’d be getting a refresher. I am amazed at the new things I learned. Great resource that I’ll go back to often. Well done!

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