Episode 34 - Automated SEO Tools (Should You Use Them?)

We often get asked, "Which website platform do you recommend for SEO?"  In this podcast, we don't really answer that question.. but we do walk you through our process of evaluating a website platform, what we look for, why, and how. 

We talk about blocking, or not blocking, AI bots from crawling your photography website. We also go into creating Custom GPTs to better handle individual tasks.

In today's episode, we discuss common reasons that people end up on a photographers website. This is part one of a two part series on optimizng your website for its users.  In the next episode, we'll use the answers from this exercise to create better content, a better user experience, and hopefully better conversions for our goals! 

Flothemes announced this week that they would be shutting down their WordPress theme operation in one year. The flex builder / flex block will not work after September 24, 2024. We talk about alternative solutions and where to go from here! We also talk to Melissa Love from Style Cloud. We take a look at Kadence themes from Sightsee as well!

We share our current WordPress stack. The domain registrars, hosting, themes, pagebuilders, and plugins that we use and recommend for photography sites.

We discuss ChatGPT (3.5 & 4.0), Google Bard / Google SGE, Github Co-Pilot,  the new Bing, and their effect on search and SEO. We then speculate on what could change in the future!

Steph ranks #1 for "Iceland Elopement Photographer", but her marketing and digital marketing is so much more than that! She's a Master Coach, Sales Expert, Photographer, and Podcast Host. Check out her free guide "25 Ways to Market Your Business As An Introvert, without relying on social media" https://www.stephzakas.com/25-introvert-marketing-freebie and more info about her Iceland Retreat https://www.stephzakas.com/iceland-retreat It's a 2-month experience starting with a group coaching micromind on June 1st to shift your money confidence and ending in a 3-day Adventure Retreat in Iceland July 17-19.  It's a metamorphosis of shedding the layers holding you down, finding clarity on your next level, and becoming radically confident it will happen. The experience will transform the top 3 reasons blocking you from your next level:  Deepening your self-confidence & what's possible for you  Shifting your relationship to money coming into your life And elevating your brand, packages, and sales skills to convey the value to the dreamy aligned clients you want to work with.   The doors to join close May 31st and the ticket includes accommodation, food during the Retreat, VIP Excursion, Planning help & coaching from Steph, and a 5-week Group Coaching Micromind. Steph's Podcast: Alchemize Your Weird

Automated testing tools can be helpful in certain circumstances, but there are also downsides. The recommendations can be inaccurate, outdated, or simply incorrect. Further, they can miss actual issues impacting your rankings! We chat about them today on the podcast.

When we do SEO consultations, we often start off by asking "what are your goals when it comes to SEO?" The response is almost *always* some form of: "I want to rank on the first page!" While it's an understandable aspiration, this type of goal is not specific or action-oriented. SEO is a broad field, with thousands of factors impacting search rankings. In reality, there is no one thing that can easily be identified as "doing SEO." Instead, you need to identify specific tasks that can help you accomplish your goals. Knowing your objectives will enable you to select the most effective strategies and ultimately achieve better results. Having specific goals allows you to: Prioritize tasks that contribute directly to your desired outcomes Monitor your progress more effectively Refine your approach over time Communicate clearly with team members or external partners (like an SEO consultant or copywriter) With this in mind, let's dive into some specific SEO goals for photographers! While this isn't an exhaustive list of SEO strategies for photographers, it should give you some great examples of how to set specific SEO goals. Blog Post: https://www.fuelyourphotos.com/seo-goals/

Should you put your main keyword in your H1 heading? What about a secondary specialty in your H2? We talk keywords, on-page, SEO, and how to navigate these questions!