Increasing your PageRank in Google

Google ranks websites through its relevance via Pagerank. 

Knowing your Pagerank is important because it helps you keep track of your search engine optimization efforts as well as it helps you rank higher in the google index.

LINKS

Pagerank measures how many websites link to your site.  More important than the quantity of the websites is the QUALITY of the websites that link to you.  This means, the higher their pagerank is, the better your rank is. 

You can submit to a lot of directories such as the search engines (google, yahoo, msn, aol, etc) and directories (dmoz.org) but don’t forget about portals specific to your website (ie, if you have a wedding photography website, submit to wedplan.net, wedj.com, etc.) as well as regional websites (specific to your country, state and city).  Some website will call you on the phone trying to sell you higher placement, but in my experience, it really is not necessary.  Just tell them, no thank you and just hang up.  But expect a LOT of phone calls especially from the wedding industry.

Also, links to your website without a reciprocal link from your website to theirs are measured higher than if you link back as well. 

A great way to increase your inbound links without having to reciprocate is by participating in message boards, classified ads and forums.  Some forums allow you to create a footer so you can include your website in all your posts.  Trying to mess with the pagerank by spamming and other similar ways is frowned upon and your website might get penalized because of this, so make sure that what you post is relevant to the topic.

CONTENT

PageRank is also judged by how relevant your website is with regards to specific keywords. 

Make sure that you have a lot of text in your website.  If you have a flash website, make sure you have a HTML site that is text-rich with your important keywords.

Create articles and tips that you can place in your website.  It does not have to be complicated, just a simple guide for beginners will usually do. 

BLOG

Funnily enough, the single thing I did that increased my google pagerank 2-3 points higher is getting a blog.  Not just getting an ordinary blog, but getting a blog here at wordpress that is hosted on THEIR server.  I’ve had blogs on blogger and blog.com before but they didn’t really affect my rank.  I switched to wordpress because they allow bigger photos.  Less than a week after I created my wordpress blog, my pagerank jumped for my 2 websites.  I don’t have any proof that it’s due to wordpress, but I’ve been submitting my websites everywhere and only when I got a blog did it jump higher.

FIND OUT WHAT YOUR PAGE RANK IS

You can find out what your page rank is by going to this site and typing your url in their form.  http://www.mypagerank.net/service_pagerankbutton_index

You can also install a pagerank button on your website by copying the code from mypagerank.net to your footer.

The importance of a website

Having a website is absolutely essential to a photography business because of the simple fact that we have visual products. 

Most brides looking for wedding photography or moms looking for portrait photographers utilize the internet in their search because it’s fast, easy and convenient.  It’s easy to compare prices and packages as well as the quality and style of the photographs. 

Most people who get our business cards would head over to our website before even calling or emailing so that they can get an idea of the work that we do.  How your website looks and how your photos look in your website is a big part of what makes a potential client say yes or no to you.  They won’t waste their time or yours meeting you if they don’t like what they see in your website.

I like to put a lot of information on my website so that I don’t get a lot of emails asking me this or that.  Not that I don’t want to answer emails, it’s just that it is more efficient for them to see the information they need right away than to email me and have to wait for an answer.  And very few people really email to ask something unless they’re really interested so if they don’t see the answer, they might just move to a different website that does have the answer.

It also helps the search engines find my website if I have a lot of content-rich keywords.

I put my complete price list on my website which makes it convenient because potential clients would call me or email me and they know already which package they want.  Some photographers who don’t like to put a complete price list just say on their website “prices starting at $1500″ so that people who are not in their price list can move on.  Putting your price list or at least a starting price point is important so that potential clients pre-qualify themselves as being in your price range or not. 

I have a lot of clients who book me sight unseen.  We talk over the phone or email, and I send them a contract, they send it back with the retainer’s fee and the only time we meet is during the event or the wedding.  That is all on the basis of my website so my website is working for me. Usually, this happens because they live far from where I live, or because they’re busy and they don’t really have the time to meet me or because it’s a last-minute booking.   I prefer it this way because I save a lot of time, I save gas, I can do other things.   Of course, I still meet a lot of potential clients in person.