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  • « Memorable Wedding Reception Tips | Main | Motivate Your Writer Within »

    Better Photo Tips - Writing a Photo Article

    By Bests | July 14, 2008

    Web pages and articles have several things in common,
    the most obvious being that both do better when “Key Words? are included.  This article covers the importance of Key
    Words in both the title and body of any article you are writing.

    By now you’ve probably heard that writing photo
    articles is a great way to get Qualified Traffic to your photography web site.
    By “Qualified Traffic” I mean people that are actually interested in
    photography to begin with. Let’s face it, 10,000 visitors a month to your site
    means nothing if only 10 of those people are actually interested in
    photography.

    I want to be up front with you. I have 30 years photography experience, 10
    years web page design experience, but only two years of writing photography
    articles experience. So, you ask, why am I writing about writing if that’s what
    I have the least experience in? I write about 48 years of lifetime experiences
    and relate them to photography. In other words, all that we are as
    photographers or writers comes from ALL that we are.

    On my own website I currently have about 120 photo articles, 120 photo tips,
    120 photo quotes, etc. The reason I choose 120 as the magic number was so that
    I could list 10 new photo articles, 10 new photo tips, 10 new photo quotes etc
    each month on my front page. This way my home page would have new and different
    information showing up each month for a whole year before anything was
    duplicated.

    That having been said, I ran into an interesting design problem. When I had to
    list an article with a title like: “Depth of Field - A Major Player in
    Creative Control”, it physically would not fit in the small space I had on
    the left hand side of the page. At first I shortened the link to something
    like: “DOF- A Major Player”.

    Keep in mind that web pages and articles have several things in common; one of
    the most obvious being that they do better when “Key Words” are
    included. Key words are those words people will type into Google or Yahoo to
    find your website or article to begin with. To give you an idea how important
    they are, my first photo website was called: “lordtedric.com”,
    simple, unique, easy to remember. The problem is: it said nothing about
    photography. Unless someone knew me personally, they had absolutely no reason
    to go there.

    I had learned that lesson when I designed my current website, but I still had
    not applied it to my articles yet. Maybe I get too focused in on one problem at
    a time. At the time I was thinking about web page design not articles, but I
    did realize I had a similar problem. Rather than using the short description
    “DOF- A Major Player” I went to “DOF in Your Photo”.
    Presto! Problem solved. Short, concise, to the point, and now my link had
    another Key Word on my home page.

    Sometimes one good idea leads to another, and another, and another, etc. I
    figured if it would work on my article, why don’t I change ALL the links to
    include a key word? This is where I got my education about article titles. I
    did NOT write most of the photo articles on my site. There are many photo
    articles written by very good photographers, but a surprising number of them
    never mentioned the words photo or photography in their title. I am not passing
    judgment, because I did the same exact thing. True, “Depth of Field”
    is a key phrase, but not as basic or as widely searched for as photography or
    photo.   By changing the title of my
    photo article to: “Depth of Field - A Major Player in Your
    Photography”; my search engine response for that article increased
    dramatically.

    Notice the current article you are reading has the keyword “photo” in
    the title, twice. It is also no accident that I have started writing articles
    with my web site’s name in the title as well. This is something that has been
    learned over time. I had already written 60 photography articles, when it
    finally dawned on me that I REALLY needed to include key words in the main
    title. For me, having the word photo or photography in the title of a new
    article is not even an option any more. No matter how clever or catchy a title
    may appear if it does not include a key word, (like “photo”) then it
    defeats the purpose for having written the article to begin with.

    Like wise, it is possible to write a photography article and only use the key
    words two or three times. Yes, it is possible to do this; in fact it is amazing
    how many people do, but if the reason you are writing your photo article to
    begin with is to draw attention to your photo website, then you need to include
    those key words in the body of your text as well. The article you are reading
    has the words “photo or photography” in it at least 30 times. Is that
    over doing it? You tell me. Read this article again, does it feel like those
    key words were forced? As long as the key words are relative to what you are
    talking about, use them as often as possible.

    Personally; I believe photography is a gift from God, as is the ability to
    write clearly. Speaking as a parent (and as a grandparent), I also believe the
    best gifts are those that can be shared. A great photo can motivate , uplift and
    inspire. Do you know anybody who does NOT need a little more of those traits in
    their life?  Go out and make the world a
    better place.  Share the gifts you’ve
    been given with the world today!

    About the author

    Award winning writer / photographer Tedric
    Garrison has 30 years experience in photography. As a Graphic Art Major, he has
    a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how those elements relate to
    all aspects of photography. His photo eBook “Your Creative Edge” ( http://www.betterphototips.com/creativeedge.htm)
    proves that creativity CAN be taught. Today, he shares his wealth of knowledge
    with the world, at: http://www.betterphototips.com

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