CLICK TO SEE → THE KEYWORDS FOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Key Points
- Keywords for wedding photographers are useful data points that tell you how many people are searching in search engines for different kinds of wedding photography services each month.
- Picking the right keywords for your strategy can guide your digital marketing campaigns to success.
- In the wedding photography industry, most useful keywords can help you target local markets or a specific niche.
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are the terms people type into search engines. It’s also important to note that there are marketing tools that can tell you how many people are searching for these keywords every month. Click here to see a list of keyword tools.
Businesses identify keywords related to their products and services, then target them in marketing campaigns with paid search ads or search engine optimization (SEO).
Screenshot shows paid advertisement on Google that was triggered by a keyword search, below it is an organic result.
Why Do Keywords Matter To A Wedding Photographer?
If you’ve made it this far, then you likely understand that your success relies on more than just taking quality photographs.
You must also stay up-to-date with the latest tools and marketing trends to ensure your online presence is optimized to be found by engaged couples looking for their perfect photographer.
To give you a jump start in this area, below is a list of keywords people are actually searching for on Google that you can use in your SEO and PPC campaigns today.
With these suggested search terms – plus thoughtful content marketing strategies – you might be able to better market yourself and grow your photography business.
List of Keywords for Wedding Photographers to Target
Here is a running list of the best keywords for wedding photographers, data provided by AHREFs:
Keyword Data Points and How to Understand Them
If you want to learn how to analyze keywords yourself, then there are a few data points you will want to familiarize yourself with.
- Monthly Search Volume (msv) – The amount of people searching for the keyword every month
- Cost Per Click (cpc) – The amount that 1 paid advertising click would cost you for that keyword
- Keyword Difficulty or Keyword Competitiveness – How difficult it is to rank for the keyword in SEO or how competitive it is to win the bud for it in paid search advertising
Important Keyword Strategies for Wedding Photographers
Although there are many different strategies that could hypothetically be crafted out of the list above, I’m going to focus on three. These 3 strategies I find to be applicable to the majority of wedding photographers.
The 3 strategies are:
- Local oriented keywords
- Niche specific keywords
- Long tail keywords
Local Marketing
Local marketing is especially important for wedding photographers because many couples want to hire someone based on location for their special day.
These are important keyword conventions to understand:
- “Location + wedding photographer” for example: “dallas wedding photographer” or “cambridge wedding photographer”
- “wedding photographer near me”
These types of keywords generally have a high monthly search volume and are being searched by users who are looking for a wedding photographer. Watch out though, because these can get competitive to rank for and run ads for in highly populated areas. They can also become expensive to run ads for.
If you work in multiple locations, you don’t necessarily need to limit yourself to one location for your marketing campaigns. Use your willingness to travel to your advantage to cast a wider net.
Niche Specific Keywords
One way to stand out is to target specific types of wedding themes or styles. The possibilities here are endless. Here are some examples:
- Christian wedding photographer
- Destination wedding photographer
- Candid wedding photographer
- Offbeat wedding photographer
- Jewish wedding photographer
- Italy wedding photographer
If you pick a niche, or a few, you are not only allowing yourself to stand out but you will also narrow down the competition. In marketing, sometimes it’s good to be polarizing, sure some big companies want to sell to the masses but for you wouldnt it be good to lean into who you are to work with people like you? It’s probably more fun like that anyways.
Think about it, are you religious? Multilingual? Love to travel? From or related to a certain ethnic group? Belong to certain communities? Have a passion for a certain photography style? Lean into it and work with people who want to work with you.
After all, great business is when everyone is happy right?
Ways to Niche Down
Here are some ideas for how you can diversify the niches you specialize in:
- Style keywords – Keywords that reference your photography style or different themes, for example: Vintage Wedding Photography, Fine Art Wedding Photographer
- Scenery related keywords – Related to the place the wedding will take place or a specific scene in which the client wants to be photographed, for example: beach wedding photography, sunset bride photography
- Package related keywords – Keywords for people looking for specific packages or service deals, for example: wedding photography videography package, basic wedding photography package
- Religion related keywords – Keywords related to different religions, for example: muslim wedding photography, hindu wedding photographer
- Cultural keywords – Keywords related to cultures or different ways of living, for example: japanese wedding photographer, mexican wedding photographer
- Event related keywords – Related to the different stages of the wedding or engagement process, for example: wedding photography reception, engagement photo shoot
- Season-related keywords – Keywords related to different times of the year, for example: stunning summer wedding photography, winter wedding photography
Local Niche Keywords
Imagine narrowing down the competition even more by finding local + niche keywords, for example:
- vintage wedding photographer los angeles
- photojournalist wedding photographer in los angeles
Even if the search volume seems low for these keywords, if they align with your business offerings then they are likely worth pursuing in a paid advertising or SEO campaign.
If you want help researching niches that might work for your marketing efforts, you can contact us for your free marketing plan today.
Long Tail Keywords
These long-tail keywords are defined as keywords made up of four or more words that are specific and relevant to the content on a website.
For example, instead of just “wedding photographer,” a long-tail keyword might be “affordable wedding photography in Dallas.”
There are less people searching for long tail keywords than short tail. However, long tail keywords generally indicate the searcher has a highly specific intent. Since the searcher is more certain of what they are looking for, long tail keywords actually convert at higher rates than short tail keywords and can sometimes have lower competition. This goes for both paid search advertising and SEO.
These long-tail keywords provide more targeted information that gives a potential customer what they need while also providing an opportunity for a wedding photographer to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Long-tail keywords also allow wedding photographers to target specific demographics in different areas of their service.
For example, suppose a photographer is located in Dallas and specializes in luxury wedding photography. In that case, they can target their SEO and PPC campaigns to include long-tail keywords such as “luxury wedding photography in Dallas” or “affordable luxury wedding photography in Dallas.”
Read our Guide to Marketing for Wedding Photographers to learn about other growth channels.
Tips For Choosing And Using Keywords Effectively
Sometimes selecting the right keywords for your campaign can be simple and straightforward. Oftentimes though this is not the case. In fact, I’d say that keyword selection is one of the most vital parts of the digital marketing process.
Keyword selection lays the foundation for the rest of the campaign, you can think of it as the “targeting”, so if this step is done incorrectly, it could jeopardize the entire campaign.
If you want to invest in a marketing channel that requires keyword targeting, consider consulting a professional before making the big investment in paid ads or SEO.
Doing Your Own Keyword Research
Keyword research and marketing strategy are difficult to master. You only have 2 choices, learn it and spend your time doing your own marketing, or outsource the work to an experienced marketer.
There are pros and cons to both of these approaches, and for most the decision comes down to if you have more time or money available.
Regardless of what path you take, as the business owner, it’s advantageous to have an idea of how marketing works, this way either you can do it yourself or make sure you can keep your marketing vendor honest.
Hack for Finding More Wedding Photography Keywords
First you will need a keyword research tool.
2 of the Top Tools in the Digital Marketing Industry:
2 budget friendly options that I think are a great value:
If you have time, definitely check out their free trials.
After you start doing your own marketing, you will soon realize that The Knot dominates most marketing channels in the industry.
Check out these screenshots of The Knot dominating Google rankings in multiple big cities.
Check out this competitive Google SERP out for yourself.
How do you fight back? Well, you can ethically steal their keywords then use them in your own marketing campaigns.
How do you see what keywords The Knot is using in their campaigns? Navigate to your SEO tool and drop in The Knot’s website URL into the search bar, https://theknot.com and you will be able to see all the keywords they rank for or use in their ads, depending on what tool you’re using.
Marketing Tactics That Require Keywords
The main marketing tactics that require keyword research, analysis and then use in content are:
- Paid Search Advertising (Generally on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and DuckDuckGo)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Video Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
Paid Search Advertising
Paid search advertising is when you buy ads on search engines. For example, if you buy Google search ads then ads that link to your website will show when people search for the keywords you want it to. For example if you are based in Albuquerque then you could likely get some good results with ads that show for the keyword “wedding photography albuquerque”.
Want to boost your wedding photography business with effective advertising? Dive into our comprehensive guide on wedding photography advertisement!
SEO
Keywords are used in SEO to optimize pages on your website so that they rank in search engine’s organic results. This is different from the paid results we discussed above. You don’t pay the search engine any money to rank in the organic results, but accomplishing this does require a lot of work so you might end up paying a consultant or agency to optimize your website for SEO.
Building on the Albuquerque example above, you could rank your website’s homepage for the “city + wedding photographer keyword”, “albuquerque wedding photographer”, but the opportunity doesn’t end there, you have a whole host of opportunities to connect with engaged couples through SEO.
For example, you could rank a blog post for the keyword “best wedding venues in albuquerque”, this would give you a chance to connect with potential customers as they research for their big day.
Check out our blog post about SEO for Wedding Photographers
Google Business Profile
Another digital marketing asset you will want to keyword optimize is your Google maps listing, or the Google Business Profile.
YouTube SEO
Youtube is actually the world’s second largest search engine. There is a ton of opportunity to market your business on YouTube. You can SEO optimize your videos specifically for the YouTube algorithm.
Social Media Marketing
Believe it or not, some social networks are slowly turning into search engines. In fact younger users say they use apps like TikTok and Instagram more than Google to search. Having your business represented on these networks can help you get more eyeballs on your brand.
Looking to enhance your online presence? Discover the secrets of a winning social media content strategy specifically tailored for wedding photographers!
Case Studies
Here are a few sites that seem to dominate large local markets, these aren’t our clients but we thought they were awesome examples.
This business ranks highly in Google’s organic results for the keyword “miami wedding photographer”
This business ranks highly in Google’s organic results for the keyword “phoenix wedding photographer”
Conclusion
The topic of keywords in marketing can be a dense topic, and it only begins to scratch the surface of these deeper topics like PPC and SEO. Navigating the vast world of keywords and digital marketing can be overwhelming.
Remember, you’re not in this alone. If you’re ready to optimize your online presence and get your business in front of more engaged couples, get in touch. Contact us for a personalized, free marketing plan that’s tailored for your unique needs. Let’s elevate your business together!