We appreciate this topic moves us a little away from the normal advice and discussions we have on product photography, but it is an important topic to discuss. For any packshot studio, taking fantastic photographs is the ultimate goal but you don’t want to lose sight of the tools you have to market your products. The number one tool is your website and this is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in.

Do the research

Before you can begin to make improvements, you need to understand how exactly you can get your website ranking on search engines and subsequently be the packshot studio or product photographer people choose to visit.

There are countless tools out there to help get a benchmark for where your current website is in terms of SEO, or you can engage with a digital marketing specialist to do this for you. Once you understand your performance in comparison to competitors, you will be able to see where you need to improve.

It is important to think about who your competitors are – they might be individual product photographers, larger packshot studios or specialists who operate in a specific niche. Understanding this and the keywords your customers search for, is the most important thing to get right, otherwise you will waste time and money.

Start optimising

Maximising the SEO of your website is a complex matter and in most cases, it is better to get an expert to do this for you. However, if your budget doesn’t allow or you want to learn the ropes yourself, then there are some key rules to stick to:

• Make sure the keywords that you wish to rank for and target, are in the title. From a technical perspective, this is important but more simply, it helps people see what your website is all about.
• Include your keywords in the first paragraph and subsequent headings but they must also be done in a natural way. Whilst you want Google to index your page, you also want them to be easy to read and draw in your potential customers.
• Remember that each page should rank for a specific service, keyword or audience, so don’t simply think every page should follow the same keyword rules. You want traffic going to the right place and not spread across random pages.

Backlinks and directories

You should also consider SEO that isn’t based on your website and this is where backlinks and directories come into play. Google will rank your website higher if you have reputable websites linking back to your website in their content. This may be on a product photographers blog, a packshot studio directory or industry bodies websites, basically anywhere that is trustworthy.

It is also important to make sure you are listed on relevant directories, particularly if you also have a physical store or operate in a specific geographical location. These are easy to set up and really do make a difference.

Summary

SEO is a big undertaking and one of the most important tasks you will do, so it is vital that you put the time and effort into understanding what must be done and how best to do it. Ultimately, getting professional support will provide the best results but you must think about what time and money you wish to invest.