I bet you a hundred bucks if you run a search using the words “las vegas headshots,” the number one result will be the blog of photographer Wayne Wallace, who, um, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He does shoot headshots but his range is much greater, covering fashion, editorial and commercial as well. And if you run searches for these services in the LV area, Wallace keeps popping up. What’s going on?
What’s going on is that Wallace has a background in computers and marketing and so when he broke into photography a few years ago, after studying at the Hallmark Institute of Photography, he had a clear, Web-savvy idea of exactly how to drive first-time customers to him:
Create a web of blog-powered Web sites, keep on publishing fresh, relevant content and then watch the beauty of search engine optimization (SEO) in action.
Many photographers concentrate on creating one, amazing, Flash-powered Web site. That’s certainly a good strategy if you are looking for the digital equivalent of a storefront, and know that people will be driven to the site in some other manner than a search engine. But to attract and trap potential clients who don’t know you—like flies in a spider’s web—nothing beats Wallace’s “web of Web sites.”
When I first talked to Wallace a couple years ago, he had only one blog-powered site, and used that in conjunction with a number of other more traditional Web sites. He explained that he used the blog as the “landing pad” from which his potential clients could head off to other, more content-appropriate sites.
These days, Wallace’s main site is also blog-powered, although few visitors would know it to look at it. That’s because blogs are completely flexible, and a blog-powered site can seem—in name and format—exactly like a “traditional” Web site. They’re just a heck of a lot easier to build and maintain.
The Importance of a Laser-Tight Focus
One of the cardinal rules of blogging is to make sure each blog has a laser-tight focus. This focus can be “Joe Doe,” but it’s much better if it’s “Joe Doe’s Photography,” and it’s even better if it’s “Joe Doe’s Wedding Photography,” and it’s going to attract even more appropriate visitors if it’s “Joe Doe’s Celebrity Wedding Photography,” however it could be even more enticing if. .
You get the point.