Boosting blog relevance and ranking
Many of you have blogs and websites that you are trying to attract viewers (and perhaps buyers) to. And I’m sure you know the difficulty of getting a good ranking on Google and other search engines. One key factor that has remained important over the years is to create a regular supply of authoritative content and that is still the number one priority. Not far behind is the ranking of the site in terms of the number and quality of links to your site from other trusted sites. This site has a ranking of 32 on AHRefs with over 21,000 backlinks, but my newest site used to give background stories to my images intended as wall art and high-quality prints has a ranking of only 7 with 420 backlinks. You would think that you get a backlink if you comment on an article on some authoritative site and include your website in your signature. However, almost all of these are marked by the site owner (or automatically in the case of WordPress sites) as “NoFollow”. They are instructing search engines that the link is not one that they would like to vouch for and so it doesn’t count much (if at all) to the ranking of your site.
Do Follow Plugin
A group of Fine Art photographers have got together to try to create a web of interesting blogs all with the general subject of photography and particularly the sale of photography. We have overcome the WordPress default “NoFollow” by installing a plugin called Do Follow Case by Case:
With this plugin, you can create a whitelist of either URLs or email addresses and this will create the backlink from any comments they make on your blog to be visible and followed by search engines. So, when someone comments on your website, it helps you by making your site seem more active, and it helps them by creating a new backlink to their own site that adds value to that site. As a result, there is a mutual advantage to commenting on each other’s sites.
To keep track of new posts, you can obviously subscribe to their blog, or use an RSS reader. I use Feedly which is a free site that allows you to create a list of blogs (and also comments) that you follow, and it will show you any new posts or comments on those blogs. It is up to you if you want to comment (with something useful as it will form part of the backlink to your own site) and similarly other people in the group will comment on your posts.
To make this a bit more worthwhile, I will add all the sites of people who have this plugin installed in this post and keep it up to date when new ones are added (add them in the comments). This will give you an immediate backlink from here (which search engines will follow).
If you are interested, firstly add this plugin to your website and add these URLs to the whitelist. Then add your website in the comments below and I’ll keep this post updated with the new site. It is worth setting up Feedly so you can simply track what new posts have been added.
Current Photography blogs that I follow
Backyard Image Photography – Steve Heap Features stories and photographs from around the world from Steve Heap
Katrina Gunn Art – Artwork in charcoal, pastel, watercolor, and oil
Beautiful Sun Adventures by Deb Beausoleil – A landscape photographer’s photo blog – the story behind the photographs of Beautiful Sun Photography
Carolina Footprints – Nature, Wildlife and Adventure Photography by Bob Decker
Travelways – Travel Destinations Photography, Insights and Stories by Tatiana
It is all about the light – by Alessandra Chaves
Purple Rosemary – Travel and Art Photography by Sharon Popek
US Pictures – Bill Swartwout Photography
Traveling the Globe – Rebecca Herranen Photography Going beyond the Essentials
Jim Hughes Photography – a Photographer in Minneapolis
Ramblings of the Hotshot Photoguy – Jim Cook
Any other Good Ideas?
I’d really like to hear any other good ideas about boosting the reputation of your photography site in the comments as well. I’ve been trying to build (with little success) an email marketing list on my own Fine Art Photography site, but more recently have wondered if my sort of photography really would support that. I don’t have a distinctive style as an artist that someone could gravitate to, and as I have images from all over the world, someone with an interest in Cornwall, say, would only find a few stories of interest. They are unlikely to have visited Kauai and be interested in stories from there. So, my best approach is to write articles that someone interested in the location might want to read and perhaps then buy an image to remind them of that place. The best way to do that is to make my site rank highly for Google searches for those locations and hence backlinks are a key part of that strategy.
Very nice, Steve. And although I’m signed up for the Do Follow, I appreciate reading the explanation of what happens when we leave a comment on an authoritative site. The key, I’ve learned from you all, is that we need more detailed comments than just “nice image!” Or “ I agree!”
So, does that mean that if several other WordPress bloggers comment in a more detailed fashion on my blog, it won’t help my rankings at all if they aren’t using the Do Follow plugin that we FAA people are?
Hi Deb
Comments on your blog by anyone helps your blog because it makes it more active, changes more frequently and indicates that it has people interested in it. So comments are always welcome. If you have DoFollow installed, then those people will gain a benefit for their blog when they comment. Similarly, you gain a benefit of a backlink when you comment on one of the other blogs in the group.
Steve
Hi Steve, I can only add a plugin if I subscribe to the business plan on wordpress.com or go self-hosted. I have the latter in mind, but little time to act on it, and my current plan is paid for till beginning of the next year. This is on my list but not on my priority list. If you want to put a link on my blog that people can follow, you can always write a guest article, as long as it’s something about photography, and link it to your site or blog. Alternatively, I can re-blog one post from your blog, if it is possible for me to do it. Let me know if you are interested in this at this time.
Last year I took a course on art marketing, and the teacher stressed the role of artists’ blogs as a means for the artist to connect with one’s audience, not as a means to gather one. According to him, arts sales are very personal, people prefer to buy from those who they “know”, and random sales through search engines (although they happen) are not something the regular atist can rely on.
I only started worrying a bit about search engines and my blog this year. My experience after one year and a half blogging is that people might read your article or follow you and even participate in your blog, but the extent to which they will look at your site and finally buy something remains to be determined. Much of my traffic on my site is through my blog, but it is not much.
If after these considerations you still want to gather the search engine traffic, I think that, besides optimizing your blog for SEO, you need to narrow down to a niche within a niche, write consistently, and put out a lot of content. I hope this helps.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole area but I’m traveling and not really able to explain. More later!
I appreciate the link love here, even though I stick out like a sore thumb in this list as the only nonphotographer.
You could be an honorary photographer!
I am so glad I wasn’t trying to take a drink when I read this.
Blogging is making a bit of a comeback, as people burn out on the big social media sites. The issue with blogging has always been – how do I get found by people who might be interested by what I write? RSS feeds are a bit retro-geeky and the feed-readers are complicated. I’m hoping something better comes along – another way for people with common interests to find each other. We can’t just depend on Google, because Google sees us as insignificant ants.
I don’t find Feedly to be that complicated, but then, I’m a geek at heart!
I have approval required for comments, so have all comment marked as DOFOLLOW – in addition i’ll be adding the whitelisted sites & will post when done. I’ve organized myblog by specifically photography, travel & history.
complementing the mutual comments approach, also trying idea of hosting detailed descriptions of ‘featured’ artists – 1 per post, rather than just a list–> https://cascoly-images.com/help-your-fellow-starving-artists-by-promoting-their-work/
steve
Thanks Steve – I’ll add your site to my white list for dofollow comments. You should announce this in the main group on FAA as well so that others can add your site.