Great you finally have your website up and going. You have set up stat counter and google analytics. A few weeks later you check your stats and you don’t have any visitors. You start internet searching and everything is overwhelming.
A Quick Explanation on How Search Engines Work
As you can imagine there are billions of websites and web pages out there. Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo need to first locate and find all the websites. This is called “crawling”. They are crawling the internet looking for new sites, old sites that no longer exist, and changes to existing sites. This process takes time and it’s completely up to the search engine when they crawl. After they find your site it will be indexed into the system and start to show in search results.
Now, since there are so many sites out there, the search engines need to determine what content and websites are most valuable and should be shown at the top of search results. This is called “Search Rank”. To improve your search rank you want to add keywords to your images, galleries, and site. A valuable thing you can do to improve your search rank is to join the overall conversation on the web and have other reputable websites link back to your site. When the search engines crawl again, they will see that other, popular and older websites value your content and linked back to your site. When this happens your search rank will go up.
That’s search in a nutshell. There’s a bit more to it, but my message is that it’s going to take a little time for your site to show up in search results.
Now that I’ve explained a basic how to on understanding SEO, I’m about to give the best advice possible on getting people to your site.
STOP OBSESSING over your stats and focus on your photography. If you invest your energy away from your stats and work on getting better at your photography, the traffic will come. I promise you this. Focus your energy on getting better, upping your game, making yourself set apart from the rest. If you concentrate on those things, people will want to see your site and see your work. Please stop looking at your stats. Stop being worried if your site is showing up in rankings. Turn that energy into being a better photographer.
Bottom Line
Instead of wasting time working on better search engine ratings, use that time to watch tutorials, understand behind the scenes on your favorite photographers or better yet, get out and shoot. Continue developing your eye, bettering your post production, and learning your craft. In time, as you get better the visitors to your site will grow.
Follow Pamela on IG & Twitter @pamelaannberry and view her other articles here: http://photofocus.com/author/pamelaannberry/
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Filed under: Business, Opinion Tagged: bing, Google+, opinion, Pamela Ann Berry, Pamela Berry, photography, search engines, SEO, Stats, Yahoo 
