SEO Basics for the Wedding Industry

 

The wedding industry is a particularly competitive market and getting rated highly in Google can take a lot of work. However I am here to help, I’ve put together my top 5 SEO basics for the wedding industry, so your website gets higher to the first results in Google.

 

1. Content

There is a quite a lot to do to get your content right, but here’s a summary.

• Always ensure that your content has a purpose. What questions are your customers asking and how can you answer them?
• A post should have a least 250 words, at least. The more, the better. Show how you’re the expert with clear, concise information.
• Keep it fresh, by creating content regularly, whether it’s a post about a wedding you just completed or upcoming trends, keep on top of being current.

Read more about creating SEO Friendly Content

 

2. Fast Page Speeds

Google is now putting more importance on how fast your site is. One big problem for wedding suppliers is the beautiful images they have on their website. These are of course necessary – however, it’s crucial they don’t go over around 150kb in size. Use tools like Lightroom or jpeg mini to create web-friendly content.
I also employ a whole range of tools so you can smash your site speed.
Firstly you have to find out what’s going on. Here are the two primary tests I use:

Google Page Speed
GTMetrix

Once these are complete, I use a range of plugins and backend server management to get things super duper fast. If you want some help with your site speed, get in touch.

 

3. Submit a sitemap

Unfortunately, Google won’t automatically understand your site. Make sure you set-up a Search Console account and submit your sitemap.
There are a range of WordPress plugins which automatically create you a sitemap, so worry not if you don’t have one. I would recommend Yoast SEO as my top one, as you can get into the nitty-gritty and decide what you want Google to index or not.

 

4. Ask partners to add your link

In the biz, we call this back-linking, In the real world, it’s asking people you work with to add a link to their website. Here are some people to ask:

1. Your Partners – ask your password to recommend you with a link on their site. The wedding industry is full of connections and partners, make sure you help each other out.
2. Exhibitions – If you’re exhibiting at a show, make sure they have your link on their site, if they don’t offer this service, maybe ask them if they could start and return offer to add a link to their website on yours.
3. Listing sites – If you have signed up for listing sites such as Hitched or Bride book, make sure your links are correct and up to date. These websites have a lot of authority in the wedding industry so that Google will give some of their influence to you.

 

5. Rich Snippets and Metadata

Rich snippets and metadata are the information that you tell Google to display underneath your listing. Create metadata that explains what your page is exactly about, have unique titles that are short and snappy.
Google has the reading level of an 8-year old, but with a much higher vocabulary, make sure it understands, in one or two sentences, what the content of the page is.
All our website pages should have unique titles, so Google can differentiate between the pages, but make sure you don’t make them too long.
For example – Wedding Photography in Surrey is going to perform better than Wedding Photography, Photos and Engagement Photoshoots in Surrey and Hampshire. If you add too many keywords, Google will consider them all irrelevant.

 

If you’re looking to find out more about SEO Basics for the Wedding Industry, find out more about how I can help you with your online marketing.