I was very happy to find you here, a familiar and knowledgeable face, who has helped me a lot in the past.
I don't want to bother you much but i'm so confused, frustrated and feel helpless and brushed off by Smugmug, that even a clue or pointing to the right direction (before i try Smumug's help again) will be greatly appreciated.
I claim that there is something wrong in the way Google (not Bing or Yahoo) sees, indexes and displays my pages in search results. It's not a matter of SEO - i built my own four websites (two in the last few years) and studied a lot of SEO. I still fully control two and am happy with their 'findability'.
I thought initially that my lack of Findability was due to my site being new (Jan 09) or faults in my SEO.
But i then noticed in my Google Analytics that i get much more hits via Bing (which has only about 10% of the market) than from Google! Through my Google analytics, BTW, i saw first that Bing was seeing my galleries' niceNames while Google was not!
I made a test today and searched "aerial photos of great neck ny" (the name of one of my 286 galleries); in Bing i was First (while the Second place was my independent website where i inserted links to all my galleries here). I couldn't find myself in Google (while my other website with the link to my site with SM was Seventh place).
I tried site:emixpix.com and site:emixpix.smugmug.com (my nick name site) with both Google and Bing (who didn't find the nickname site) and got totally confused - Google sees very few of my galleries while it sees individual keywords (with the general Smugmug's Description) and individual images.
I don't want to bother you with more and i hope you got the picture. It might be partly my fault by choosing a nickname similar to my domain name, Smugmug lack of Google's Site map, or other things which i'm not aware of.
Any clue?
Thank you (even if you don't have the time for me) <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
I'm impressed with the support from Andy and the SmugMug team for their attempt to help users' SEO when often the ranking difficulty has zero relation to SmugMug as a platform.
Bing is much easier to rank in than Google, and nobody knows why a site might rank in Bing and not Google. Maybe the site got thrown into the Google sandbox and is therefore unable to rank high for a certain period of time. Not the case mentioned previously I expect, but the point is that we don't know what is going on behind the curtain and should not be expected to solve it.
The best that can be offered is credible SEO suggestions to help improve rank. The best 2 are these: does the site have quality links pointing to it? I use this backlink checker and without 25 or more decent links I would not expect to rank for anything. 100 or more to rank for something somewhat competitive. Does the site have quality text (that it wants to rank for) first in the title of its homepage, subpages, in the text of the pages, and in its images? If these steps are not followed first then no help or troubleshooting can be offered.
I don't know much about SEO and sometimes it seems the more I read, the less I know/understand. But I do know this: my page rankings in Google have improved a lot since the nicenames change. I have not changed anything.
For example (one of many I could cite), on my site I have one image of wild asters at the Grand Canyon. Someone googled _where wild asters grow_ (no quotes) and my site came up number five. Sounds like a great placement considering the search term and the fact I only have one relevant image. Been seeing a lot of (I must admit) surprisingly-high Google ranking for my site in connection with some very broad search terms.
Either Google has changed something in its search protocol or Smugmug and/or just the nicename change helped Google see our images/info better.
Whatever the reason, I'm surprised and very happy.
I don't know much about SEO and sometimes it seems the more I read, the less I know/understand. But I do know this: my page rankings in Google have improved a lot since the nicenames change. I have not changed anything.
For example (one of many I could cite), on my site I have one image of wild asters at the Grand Canyon. Someone googled _where wild asters grow_ (no quotes) and my site came up number five. Sounds like a great placement considering the search term and the fact I only have one relevant image. Been seeing a lot of (I must admit) surprisingly-high Google ranking for my site in connection with some very broad search terms.
Either Google has changed something in its search protocol or Smugmug and/or just the nicename change helped Google see our images/info better.
Whatever the reason, I'm surprised and very happy.
I'm impressed with the support from Andy and the SmugMug team for their attempt to help users' SEO when often the ranking difficulty has zero relation to SmugMug as a platform.
Bing is much easier to rank in than Google, and nobody knows why a site might rank in Bing and not Google. Maybe the site got thrown into the Google sandbox and is therefore unable to rank high for a certain period of time. Not the case mentioned previously I expect, but the point is that we don't know what is going on behind the curtain and should not be expected to solve it.
The best that can be offered is credible SEO suggestions to help improve rank. The best 2 are these: does the site have quality links pointing to it? I use this backlink checker and without 25 or more decent links I would not expect to rank for anything. 100 or more to rank for something somewhat competitive. Does the site have quality text (that it wants to rank for) first in the title of its homepage, subpages, in the text of the pages, and in its images? If these steps are not followed first then no help or troubleshooting can be offered.
I appreciate your time and effort, Zach, to help me; I apologize for my very delayed response (i had to reinstall Windows and all programs, and that in addition to living in a remote location with not very reliable internet service).
I don't have the time now to say much but i want to mention the following:
I think i've done a lot in regard to SEO; i can see the [good] results with Bing as well as with Google on my independent (non smugmug) website.
Somehow Google got stuck and sees (and indexes) only about 10 of my galleries out of more than 250 of them. Google also seems not to want to accept most of my galleries niceNames.
The easiest solution i can think of right now, would be for SmugMug to implement what Google requests and what have done in most other image sharing sites that i know (like PhotoShelter.com), which is... A Sitemap. (I was given by SmugMug some reasons why not yet, and i understand that for most members here it might not be very significant, but for my unique situation with so many galleries and images, it might be a life saver)
(I was given by SmugMug some reasons why not yet, and i understand that for most members here it might not be very significant, but for my unique situation with so many galleries and images, it might be a life saver)[/LIST]
Hi Amos, you were given the same reason/answer that everyone got: We're working on it, and want to add them. We will, when we can in such a way that there's no performance impact.
Have you checked your non-indexed galleries, to make sure they are public, hello world set to yes, etc?
Hi Amos, you were given the same reason/answer that everyone got: We're working on it, and want to add them. We will, when we can in such a way that there's no performance impact.
Have you checked your non-indexed galleries, to make sure they are public, hello world set to yes, etc?
I wonder if a good interim solution would be to allow people to upload their own sitemap.xml file? There are a ton of tools online for generating them, although I haven't tried any on my SM site yet. Just a thought though.
Hi Allen, thanks so much for posting. I've posted many times - we have worked on it and want to release it - but not until we have it in a way that won't impact performance one bit.
Hi Amos, you were given the same reason/answer that everyone got: We're working on it, and want to add them. We will, when we can in such a way that there's no performance impact.
Have you checked your non-indexed galleries, to make sure they are public, hello world set to yes, etc?
Thank you Andy, like always you respond in the speed of light (i apologize for mine - internet here, in a remote village in Mexico is not very reliable...) ...and like always (at least in my case) I am the one (vs. SmugMug) who has to do/check something (and yes, you were right a few times).
My galleries are fine (they say "hello" to the world), thank you; Bing sees them very well and put theme in FIRST place for their applicable search terms!
I claim that there is a big problem with the way my site on Smugmug is being seen (and index) by Google. As i wrote you before, I think that this a major technical problem beyond my and your understanding. However, you already told me that your engineers are very busy (not on the Sitemap project obviously...) so i can only sit and agonize my stupidity (and being too cheap) for not choosing PhotoShelter .com.
I am using Google's Webmaster Tools (in addition to Google Analytics) to check all my websites and the only problems are with my site on SmugMug! Looking briefly now, i see 654 "Duplicate meta descriptions", 185 "Duplicate title tags" and 430 "Not followed" errors/suggestions. This is just the tip of the iceberg but i don't want to waste more space here.
Maybe i too, made some mistakes but i need technical help to solve them (as well as those which are smugmug's problems); i don't need, however, being brushed off (including with your responses regarding the Sitemap).
By the way, when i try to troubleshoot with Google's Help, their first suggestion is to submit a Sitemap...
We've got sitemaps in the works (-totally unfair- for you to say we don't care/aren't working on it - I've posted many, many times that when we can do them in a way that will not impact site performance, we'll have them ).
The response to SmugMug (help desk, Dgrin, blog comments, in-person at Smugs and Tradeshows) is that folks are getting amazing results with our SEO improvements.
I don't post often anymore, seem to be a bit snowed under lately. But thought I'd quickly say that I'm seeing good results from the SEO changes SM have instigated and all I've done is followed Andy's previous advice, nothing more.
Keep it up Smugmug, look forward to site maps if they can be made to work.
I don't post often anymore, seem to be a bit snowed under lately. But thought I'd quickly say that I'm seeing good results from the SEO changes SM have instigated and all I've done is followed Andy's previous advice, nothing more.
Keep it up Smugmug, look forward to site maps if they can be made to work.
Cheers
Chris
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Chris, Is there any previous advice you could elaborate on or that you saw as more useful that any other?
Chris, Is there any previous advice you could elaborate on or that you saw as more useful that any other?
thanks.
-John
It's difficult to know really. I followed all of the advise from descriptive page title to keywording. All I know is that I went from a few random hits to be regularly found in searches. Google analytical shows my site being found with a much wider variety of searches than before the changes. Particularly keywords are bringing up my site quite a lot.
Cheers
Chris
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Is there something Google unfriendly about Smugmug?
This is kind of part of my ongoing problems with getting a higher ranking in google for my website (I posted another thread earlier, about changing my business name).
I've been thinking this afternoon, wondering more whether there is something about Smugmug's nature that makes it more difficult to optimise your site for search engines.
I see quite often references to metatagging and keywords, and have implemented them, plus a load of other things like listing the site on various directories, adding links and even an Ask search, Google alalytics, etc, but I'm not sure whether any of this is working (seeing as searching for Wedding Photographer, stockport doesn't get me even on page 5 - don;t know where I am because I give up looking). If I put my business name in - Philip SMith Photography, I get about 6th, but that's only a listing on a directory.
I'm tempted to pay someone to boost my rating, but want to make sure it can be done. So is there anything about Smugmug's nature - that it's a kind of template site, with address forwarding (or whatever it's called), that may mean even if I pay for the boost, it won;t actually happen?
This is kind of part of my ongoing problems with getting a higher ranking in google for my website (I posted another thread earlier, about changing my business name).
I've been thinking this afternoon, wondering more whether there is something about Smugmug's nature that makes it more difficult to optimise your site for search engines.
I see quite often references to metatagging and keywords, and have implemented them, plus a load of other things like listing the site on various directories, adding links and even an Ask search, Google alalytics, etc, but I'm not sure whether any of this is working (seeing as searching for Wedding Photographer, stockport doesn't get me even on page 5 - don;t know where I am because I give up looking). If I put my business name in - Philip SMith Photography, I get about 6th, but that's only a listing on a directory.
I'm tempted to pay someone to boost my rating, but want to make sure it can be done. So is there anything about Smugmug's nature - that it's a kind of template site, with address forwarding (or whatever it's called), that may mean even if I pay for the boost, it won;t actually happen?
Use our other tips too. Album descriptions in EVERY album. Keywords on photos. Descriptive nicenames for galleries and categories. Blog, facebook, twitter, get crosslinked.
Our customers are writing every day with amazing stories of high google rank.
Use our other tips too. Album descriptions in EVERY album. Keywords on photos. Descriptive nicenames for galleries and categories. Blog, facebook, twitter, get crosslinked.
Our customers are writing every day with amazing stories of high google rank.
Thanks for that. I forgot about keywording the photos. Also have changed the homepage meta as you suggested. Am applying the other changes now.
What type of wording would you put in the Album Desc to make it more most google friendly, should it utilise keywords that might be found in a search, such as:
"Stylish wedding photographs in and around stockport, Cheshire. Reportage and more traditional styles."
Or is there some other trick?
Also, is that the same with keywording and nicenames? am I looking to reflect search terms, or is there something specific Google is looking for?
How many keywords are best, and does it matter if I replicate, as I feel I will end up doing this?
I'm also a bit confused by nicenames. Are they just like metatags, that is put in key search words, or is there some other formula? I've tried adding them, but see it only lets me if there are no spaces and it is limited to a certain number of characters. What's the best way to utelise this feature - single word, multiple words with no spaces but caps?
I have a blog which I've linked to the site, but I read somewhere that a Blogger blog isn't that effective, and that I should get a custom domained blog, which I'm tempted by, but will mean another month in doors trying to work it out .
Also got a facebook page and twitter, and trying to utilise them as much as possible (I also read that Google likes to see constantly updated pages).
It's difficult to know really. I followed all of the advise from descriptive page title to keywording. All I know is that I went from a few random hits to be regularly found in searches. Google analytical shows my site being found with a much wider variety of searches than before the changes. Particularly keywords are bringing up my site quite a lot.
Keywords are, well, "key," but image captions seem to be playing a really big role. I've seen big improvements in search engine rankings lately and they seem to track more to image captions than anything else. A recent Google search for _winding sunlight pathway image_ (no quotes) ranked my site #1. Why? I have an Antelope Canyon photo with the caption "An example of the winding, narrow pathway through Antelope Canyon. Image #DSC_1501." Another recent search using _where wild asters grow_ (no quotes), ranked my site sixth. Why? I have ONE photo on my site with wild asters and its caption reads, "Wild Asters grow among the rocks all along the rim of the Grand Canyon."
Lesson? Pay attention to image captions as well as keywords. If you do (and pay attention to SM's other SEO suggestions, too), I do not think it will be Smugmug's fault if you (that is, of course, the generic you -- not any particular person) aren't getting decent search engine rankings.
Just my opinion based on personal experience.
Keywords are, well, "key," but image captions seem to be playing a really big role. I've seen big improvements in search engine rankings lately and they seem to track more to image captions than anything else. A recent Google search for _winding sunlight pathway image_ (no quotes) ranked my site #1. Why? I have an Antelope Canyon photo with the caption "An example of the winding, narrow pathway through Antelope Canyon. Image #DSC_1501." Another recent search using _where wild asters grow_ (no quotes), ranked my site sixth. Why? I have ONE photo on my site with wild asters and its caption reads, "Wild Asters grow among the rocks all along the rim of the Grand Canyon."
Lesson? Pay attention to image captions as well as keywords. If you do (and pay attention to SM's other SEO suggestions, too), I do not think it will be Smugmug's fault if you (that is, of course, the generic you -- not any particular person) aren't getting decent search engine rankings.
Just my opinion based on personal experience.
Jerry
Thanks for that. I'm slowly going through my images now giving them captions and keywords. The only thing that made me wonder whether it was anything to do with Smugmug was the fact it was a hosting site where my address forwards to a smugmug address, and the smugmug address, though hidden, is the actual one. I wondered whether this somehow confused Google. Glad to see I was mistaken.
Again, thanks for the input, and I'll definitely bear in mid what you say about captions.
Thanks for that. I'm slowly going through my images now giving them captions and keywords. The only thing that made me wonder whether it was anything to do with Smugmug was the fact it was a hosting site where my address forwards to a smugmug address, and the smugmug address, though hidden, is the actual one. I wondered whether this somehow confused Google. Glad to see I was mistaken.
Again, thanks for the input, and I'll definitely bear in mid what you say about captions.
Phil
Hello Phil,
I want to say a few things in regard to your site's findability as well as take this opportunity to say a few other things...
SmugMug is a good place and SmugMug's people are good and knowledgeable people - follow the advices and sources you were given.
Also, as Andy once wrote me, it takes time ...so do the right things and have a lot of patient.
As for keywords, don't be over occupied/concerned about them, just write your Titles (galleries names), galleries' descriptions and captions as if you want to make it the most descriptive AND friendly to your readers (potential customers). Google wants to give/deliver to its users (your potential customers) the most relevant search results ...by trying to look into their mind/intention while they insert a search term in its search box. Google doesn't care about your intentions! You may want to ask someone (to pretend he is looking for something you want him to find in your gallery) to give you a feedback if your site/gallery was friendly enough...
Also, try to search Google/Bing for something that you want people to find in one of your galleries; choose few of the firsts results and click on the 'Cached' link of each. You will go to the actual page that Google saw on a certain date, and the search terms will be highlighted.
Now go to your site's result (even if it's in page 6) and do the same. You'll learn a lot!
I read you use Google Analytics, good, check it daily, you can learn a lot from it. I also recommend to get [free] Google's Webmaster Tools; you will learn a lot too; including errors and HTML suggestions. Unfortunately most (or all - 100's, in my case), are SmugMug's problems and you have no control over them.
Another thing that may help you a bit (for me, with my 275 galleries, it would be a 'Life Saver') is a Google's Sitemap to be implemented by SmugMug. However, apparently it's not that important to most members so SM is taking its time (more than 4 years!). ...I wonder if SM will let me pay my membership dues when i "find a solution" to my lack of funds/time/will...
Take care (and yes... Google's Sitemap-Google's Sitemap-Google's Sitemap-Google's Sitemap)
I want to say a few things in regard to your site's findability as well as take this opportunity to say a few other things...
SmugMug is a good place and SmugMug's people are good and knowledgeable people - follow the advices and sources you were given.
Also, as Andy once wrote me, it takes time ...so do the right things and have a lot of patient.
As for keywords, don't be over occupied/concerned about them, just write your Titles (galleries names), galleries' descriptions and captions as if you want to make it the most descriptive AND friendly to your readers (potential customers). Google wants to give/deliver to its users (your potential customers) the most relevant search results ...by trying to look into their mind/intention while they insert a search term in its search box. Google doesn't care about your intentions! You may want to ask someone (to pretend he is looking for something you want him to find in your gallery) to give you a feedback if your site/gallery was friendly enough...
Also, try to search Google/Bing for something that you want people to find in one of your galleries; choose few of the firsts results and click on the 'Cached' link of each. You will go to the actual page that Google saw on a certain date, and the search terms will be highlighted.
Now go to your site's result (even if it's in page 6) and do the same. You'll learn a lot!
I read you use Google Analytics, good, check it daily, you can learn a lot from it. I also recommend to get [free] Google's Webmaster Tools; you will learn a lot too; including errors and HTML suggestions. Unfortunately most (or all - 100's, in my case), are SmugMug's problems and you have no control over them.
Another thing that may help you a bit (for me, with my 275 galleries, it would be a 'Life Saver') is a Google's Sitemap to be implemented by SmugMug. However, apparently it's not that important to most members so SM is taking its time (more than 4 years!). ...I wonder if SM will let me pay my membership dues when i "find a solution" to my lack of funds/time/will...
Take care (and yes... Google's Sitemap-Google's Sitemap-Google's Sitemap-Google's Sitemap)
Thanks for that, Amos, much appreciated.
I'll definitely follow your suggestions.
It's interesting looking at Google Analytics. I see the majority of the visits to my site are from my hometown (and I wonder if they aren't just me updating the site), but some unusual ones from all over the UK, and quite a lot from the US (Dgrin users, no doubt).
A worrying trend seems to be a bounce rate of 50% recently. I'm not sure if this is because I've started putting full size images on my site, though I understood that Smugmug resizes them so as not to slow down loading (could be wrong there, however).
But yes, very interesting reading.
Here's a quick question - will visitor numbers alone push my site up the ratings, that is, if I got the entire population of the UK to check my site (not that that's going to happen, but you get the point), would I go straight to the top of Google, or does Google see through something like that and go for it's other ways of measuring a site's relevance?
Here's a quick question - will visitor numbers alone push my site up the ratings, that is, if I got the entire population of the UK to check my site (not that that's going to happen, but you get the point), would I go straight to the top of Google
No. I've never heard of such a thing. On the other hand, more people visiting your site means more people linking to your site and that is good.
Browser's [individual] page title - The MOST IMPORTANT SEO factor for a web page (gallery in our case).
Am i dreaming and there was never an individual (reflecting the gallery name) browser's page title, or is it another Smugmug's trick (after giving my many new keywords - my photos serial numbers)?
Also, does anybody else understand the importance of Google Sitemap and can tell Smugmug to give its implementation the RIGHT priority?...
Site map question
Hi guys, is it possible to submit the sitemap of my smugmug site to google webmaster tool? is there a way find what is and where is my smugmug sitemap?
Over the past few months, I've really concentrated on my findability. I've gone through this thread and followed SM's suggestions and think I have things like they should be. I have put my info in various forum signatures that I frequent among other things on the web. The results on Google and other search engines seem to be getting better.
However, when trying to emulate someone that might do a generic search for photography in my area, I'm still only appearing on page 5 or 6 of Google's results. This is consistent on Google Maps as well and I've gone through their setup for that also. When typing something like McKinney Texas Photographers or McKinney Texas Photography will give you a good example. I know there are a lot of photographers in my area, but is there perhaps something that I am missing that might improve these results? Could it be that there is simply too much saturation that I am trying to compete against?
Comments
I'm impressed with the support from Andy and the SmugMug team for their attempt to help users' SEO when often the ranking difficulty has zero relation to SmugMug as a platform.
Bing is much easier to rank in than Google, and nobody knows why a site might rank in Bing and not Google. Maybe the site got thrown into the Google sandbox and is therefore unable to rank high for a certain period of time. Not the case mentioned previously I expect, but the point is that we don't know what is going on behind the curtain and should not be expected to solve it.
The best that can be offered is credible SEO suggestions to help improve rank. The best 2 are these: does the site have quality links pointing to it? I use this backlink checker and without 25 or more decent links I would not expect to rank for anything. 100 or more to rank for something somewhat competitive. Does the site have quality text (that it wants to rank for) first in the title of its homepage, subpages, in the text of the pages, and in its images? If these steps are not followed first then no help or troubleshooting can be offered.
Rank your blog with Photoblog SEO Zen
For example (one of many I could cite), on my site I have one image of wild asters at the Grand Canyon. Someone googled _where wild asters grow_ (no quotes) and my site came up number five. Sounds like a great placement considering the search term and the fact I only have one relevant image. Been seeing a lot of (I must admit) surprisingly-high Google ranking for my site in connection with some very broad search terms.
Either Google has changed something in its search protocol or Smugmug and/or just the nicename change helped Google see our images/info better.
Whatever the reason, I'm surprised and very happy.
Jerry Ennis
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
I appreciate your time and effort, Zach, to help me; I apologize for my very delayed response (i had to reinstall Windows and all programs, and that in addition to living in a remote location with not very reliable internet service).
I don't have the time now to say much but i want to mention the following:
http://www.eMixPix.com - Stock Aerial Photos of NYC Metro area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut)
--- http://www.emixpix.com/New-York - NY Aerial Photos
--- http://www.emixpix.com/New-Jersey - NJ Aerial Photos
--- http://www.emixpix.com/Connecticut - CT Aerial Photos
http://www.BestAerialPhotos.com - Aerial Photography service in the NYC Metro area
Have you checked your non-indexed galleries, to make sure they are public, hello world set to yes, etc?
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
I wonder if a good interim solution would be to allow people to upload their own sitemap.xml file? There are a ton of tools online for generating them, although I haven't tried any on my SM site yet. Just a thought though.
Lakewood, Colorado, USA
My Pictures | My blog
Facebook | Twitter
Dear Smugmug,
Are you ever going to finish this sitemap task?
You have already worked on sitemaps for more than 4 years: http://groups.google.com/group/google-sitemaps/browse_thread/thread/77c6f832999c115e/76cab004d9786a53
Do we have to wait another 4 years?
Panoramio: Spectacular photos on Google Earth
Google: Allan Hansen - fotograf og IT-nørd
Blogs: Photo and SEO news by LichtenHansen, Allan Hansen foto nyheder, Antarctica Travel
Homepage: Fotograf Allan Hansen, Unusual wildlife photos
Thanks!
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
- My galleries are fine (they say "hello" to the world), thank you; Bing sees them very well and put theme in FIRST place for their applicable search terms!
- I claim that there is a big problem with the way my site on Smugmug is being seen (and index) by Google. As i wrote you before, I think that this a major technical problem beyond my and your understanding. However, you already told me that your engineers are very busy (not on the Sitemap project obviously...) so i can only sit and agonize my stupidity (and being too cheap) for not choosing PhotoShelter .com.
- I am using Google's Webmaster Tools (in addition to Google Analytics) to check all my websites and the only problems are with my site on SmugMug! Looking briefly now, i see 654 "Duplicate meta descriptions", 185 "Duplicate title tags" and 430 "Not followed" errors/suggestions. This is just the tip of the iceberg but i don't want to waste more space here.
- Maybe i too, made some mistakes but i need technical help to solve them (as well as those which are smugmug's problems); i don't need, however, being brushed off (including with your responses regarding the Sitemap).
- By the way, when i try to troubleshoot with Google's Help, their first suggestion is to submit a Sitemap...
Thank you for your time listening to mehttp://www.eMixPix.com - Stock Aerial Photos of NYC Metro area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut)
--- http://www.emixpix.com/New-York - NY Aerial Photos
--- http://www.emixpix.com/New-Jersey - NJ Aerial Photos
--- http://www.emixpix.com/Connecticut - CT Aerial Photos
http://www.BestAerialPhotos.com - Aerial Photography service in the NYC Metro area
(http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1325532&postcount=72)
We've got sitemaps in the works (-totally unfair- for you to say we don't care/aren't working on it - I've posted many, many times that when we can do them in a way that will not impact site performance, we'll have them
The response to SmugMug (help desk, Dgrin, blog comments, in-person at Smugs and Tradeshows) is that folks are getting amazing results with our SEO improvements.
More, from Zach: http://photographers-seo.com/seo/reviews/interview-smugmugs-chris-macaskill/
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Keep it up Smugmug, look forward to site maps if they can be made to work.
Cheers
Chris
Become a fan of Chris Humphreys Photography
thanks.
-John
http://www.johnparliphotography.com/
http://www.johnparliphotography.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joliet-IL/John-Parli-Photography/235669552864
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnparliphotography-joliet_photographer/
https://twitter.com/johnparliphoto
It's difficult to know really. I followed all of the advise from descriptive page title to keywording. All I know is that I went from a few random hits to be regularly found in searches. Google analytical shows my site being found with a much wider variety of searches than before the changes. Particularly keywords are bringing up my site quite a lot.
Cheers
Chris
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This is kind of part of my ongoing problems with getting a higher ranking in google for my website (I posted another thread earlier, about changing my business name).
I've been thinking this afternoon, wondering more whether there is something about Smugmug's nature that makes it more difficult to optimise your site for search engines.
I see quite often references to metatagging and keywords, and have implemented them, plus a load of other things like listing the site on various directories, adding links and even an Ask search, Google alalytics, etc, but I'm not sure whether any of this is working (seeing as searching for Wedding Photographer, stockport doesn't get me even on page 5 - don;t know where I am because I give up looking). If I put my business name in - Philip SMith Photography, I get about 6th, but that's only a listing on a directory.
I'm tempted to pay someone to boost my rating, but want to make sure it can be done. So is there anything about Smugmug's nature - that it's a kind of template site, with address forwarding (or whatever it's called), that may mean even if I pay for the boost, it won;t actually happen?
Change your homepage meta http://www.philip-smith.com/homepage/controlpanel.mg?NickName=Philx123#Settings to 'Stockport Wedding Photographer blah blah'
Use our other tips too. Album descriptions in EVERY album. Keywords on photos. Descriptive nicenames for galleries and categories. Blog, facebook, twitter, get crosslinked.
Our customers are writing every day with amazing stories of high google rank.
More here: http://www.smugmug.com/help/search-engines
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Thanks for that. I forgot about keywording the photos. Also have changed the homepage meta as you suggested. Am applying the other changes now.
What type of wording would you put in the Album Desc to make it more most google friendly, should it utilise keywords that might be found in a search, such as:
"Stylish wedding photographs in and around stockport, Cheshire. Reportage and more traditional styles."
Or is there some other trick?
Also, is that the same with keywording and nicenames? am I looking to reflect search terms, or is there something specific Google is looking for?
How many keywords are best, and does it matter if I replicate, as I feel I will end up doing this?
I'm also a bit confused by nicenames. Are they just like metatags, that is put in key search words, or is there some other formula? I've tried adding them, but see it only lets me if there are no spaces and it is limited to a certain number of characters. What's the best way to utelise this feature - single word, multiple words with no spaces but caps?
I have a blog which I've linked to the site, but I read somewhere that a Blogger blog isn't that effective, and that I should get a custom domained blog, which I'm tempted by, but will mean another month in doors trying to work it out
Also got a facebook page and twitter, and trying to utilise them as much as possible (I also read that Google likes to see constantly updated pages).
Again, thanks for the help.
Phil
http://photographers-seo.com/seo/reviews/interview-smugmugs-chris-macaskill/
http://photographers-seo.com/
he's amazingly helpful.
Nicenames are descriptiive urls.
http://www.moonriverphotography/Weddings/Los Cabos Country Club/Smith-Jones is a really descriptive method of naming.
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Thanks for that. I'll have a good look in the morning, roll my sleeves up, and dive in.
Again, thanks for the help.
Phil
Keywords are, well, "key," but image captions seem to be playing a really big role. I've seen big improvements in search engine rankings lately and they seem to track more to image captions than anything else. A recent Google search for _winding sunlight pathway image_ (no quotes) ranked my site #1. Why? I have an Antelope Canyon photo with the caption "An example of the winding, narrow pathway through Antelope Canyon. Image #DSC_1501." Another recent search using _where wild asters grow_ (no quotes), ranked my site sixth. Why? I have ONE photo on my site with wild asters and its caption reads, "Wild Asters grow among the rocks all along the rim of the Grand Canyon."
Lesson? Pay attention to image captions as well as keywords. If you do (and pay attention to SM's other SEO suggestions, too), I do not think it will be Smugmug's fault if you (that is, of course, the generic you -- not any particular person) aren't getting decent search engine rankings.
Just my opinion based on personal experience.
Jerry
Thanks for that. I'm slowly going through my images now giving them captions and keywords. The only thing that made me wonder whether it was anything to do with Smugmug was the fact it was a hosting site where my address forwards to a smugmug address, and the smugmug address, though hidden, is the actual one. I wondered whether this somehow confused Google. Glad to see I was mistaken.
Again, thanks for the input, and I'll definitely bear in mid what you say about captions.
Phil
I want to say a few things in regard to your site's findability as well as take this opportunity to say a few other things...
SmugMug is a good place and SmugMug's people are good and knowledgeable people - follow the advices and sources you were given.
Also, as Andy once wrote me, it takes time ...so do the right things and have a lot of patient.
As for keywords, don't be over occupied/concerned about them, just write your Titles (galleries names), galleries' descriptions and captions as if you want to make it the most descriptive AND friendly to your readers (potential customers). Google wants to give/deliver to its users (your potential customers) the most relevant search results ...by trying to look into their mind/intention while they insert a search term in its search box. Google doesn't care about your intentions! You may want to ask someone (to pretend he is looking for something you want him to find in your gallery) to give you a feedback if your site/gallery was friendly enough...
Also, try to search Google/Bing for something that you want people to find in one of your galleries; choose few of the firsts results and click on the 'Cached' link of each. You will go to the actual page that Google saw on a certain date, and the search terms will be highlighted.
Now go to your site's result (even if it's in page 6) and do the same. You'll learn a lot!
I read you use Google Analytics, good, check it daily, you can learn a lot from it. I also recommend to get [free] Google's Webmaster Tools; you will learn a lot too; including errors and HTML suggestions. Unfortunately most (or all - 100's, in my case), are SmugMug's problems and you have no control over them.
Another thing that may help you a bit (for me, with my 275 galleries, it would be a 'Life Saver') is a Google's Sitemap to be implemented by SmugMug. However, apparently it's not that important to most members so SM is taking its time (more than 4 years!). ...I wonder if SM will let me pay my membership dues when i "find a solution" to my lack of funds/time/will...
Take care (and yes... Google's Sitemap-Google's Sitemap-Google's Sitemap-Google's Sitemap)
http://www.eMixPix.com - Stock Aerial Photos of NYC Metro area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut)
--- http://www.emixpix.com/New-York - NY Aerial Photos
--- http://www.emixpix.com/New-Jersey - NJ Aerial Photos
--- http://www.emixpix.com/Connecticut - CT Aerial Photos
http://www.BestAerialPhotos.com - Aerial Photography service in the NYC Metro area
Thanks for that, Amos, much appreciated.
I'll definitely follow your suggestions.
It's interesting looking at Google Analytics. I see the majority of the visits to my site are from my hometown (and I wonder if they aren't just me updating the site), but some unusual ones from all over the UK, and quite a lot from the US (Dgrin users, no doubt).
A worrying trend seems to be a bounce rate of 50% recently. I'm not sure if this is because I've started putting full size images on my site, though I understood that Smugmug resizes them so as not to slow down loading (could be wrong there, however).
But yes, very interesting reading.
Here's a quick question - will visitor numbers alone push my site up the ratings, that is, if I got the entire population of the UK to check my site (not that that's going to happen, but you get the point), would I go straight to the top of Google, or does Google see through something like that and go for it's other ways of measuring a site's relevance?
Thanks
Phil
No. I've never heard of such a thing. On the other hand, more people visiting your site means more people linking to your site and that is good.
borealphoto.smugmug.com
Browser's [individual] page title - The MOST IMPORTANT SEO factor for a web page (gallery in our case).
Am i dreaming and there was never an individual (reflecting the gallery name) browser's page title, or is it another Smugmug's trick (after giving my many new keywords - my photos serial numbers)?
Also, does anybody else understand the importance of Google Sitemap and can tell Smugmug to give its implementation the RIGHT priority?...
http://www.eMixPix.com - Stock Aerial Photos of NYC Metro area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut)
--- http://www.emixpix.com/New-York - NY Aerial Photos
--- http://www.emixpix.com/New-Jersey - NJ Aerial Photos
--- http://www.emixpix.com/Connecticut - CT Aerial Photos
http://www.BestAerialPhotos.com - Aerial Photography service in the NYC Metro area
Nicenames are not in the pagetitle any more
It must be a bug.
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Thanks guys.
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Hi guys, is it possible to submit the sitemap of my smugmug site to google webmaster tool? is there a way find what is and where is my smugmug sitemap?
Thank you, Mika
Michael Bastia (MB) Photographie Web Site :lust
We're hoping to add sitemaps for you in the future.
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However, when trying to emulate someone that might do a generic search for photography in my area, I'm still only appearing on page 5 or 6 of Google's results. This is consistent on Google Maps as well and I've gone through their setup for that also. When typing something like McKinney Texas Photographers or McKinney Texas Photography will give you a good example. I know there are a lot of photographers in my area, but is there perhaps something that I am missing that might improve these results? Could it be that there is simply too much saturation that I am trying to compete against?
-Danny
dannyberryphotography.com
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