571: Kari Bjorn – Double your wedding photography income with SEO

PhotoBizX The Ultimate Wedding and Portrait Photography Business Podcast

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Kari Bjorn of www.karibjorn.com is an Icelandic wedding and elopement photographer based in Connecticut in the USA, where he also photographs weddings.

We chatted recently, and he told me he'd love to share what he's learned in the past 2.5 years while optimising his website and SEO for my own business.

As a bit of a backstory, three years ago, he moved with his family from New York to Arkansas—about 2000km away—which meant he lost all of his corporate contacts and wedding referrals.

And he just moved again!

He had to start from scratch as most weddings had been booked via referrals.

He invested heavily in SEO in 2021 and nearly doubled his income between 2022 and 2023. He also started booking destination elopements in Iceland.

His website looks great, and everything he's written has been written for the couples he's looking to attract. His photography is colourful and vibrant.

In this interview, Kari shares how he doubled his wedding photography income with SEO backlinks and how you can do the same for your website.

Here's some more of what we covered in the interview:

• How Kari doubled his income in 2021 through SEO optimisation.
• With 15 years of photography experience and nearly 4 years photographing weddings, Kari aims to focus on elopements in Iceland to save on expensive holidays.
• Why his SEO strategy targets the local Icelandic market, even though it's easier to rank for local wedding photography in Connecticut.
• Ranking for destination wedding photography terms is challenging, but Kari prefers SEO and organic Google search over Google Ads for cost-effectiveness.
• Focusing on transactional keywords like “Iceland elopement photographer” is more effective than generic content about locations.
• Having experience shooting in specific locations can significantly help in ranking for elopement photography clients.
• Kari created a separate page on his website for Iceland weddings, using links and photos to support the content. SEO results took months but benefited from the main website's domain authority.
• Quality backlinks from high-authority websites are crucial for SEO. Avoid buying backlinks from controversial sites, as they can harm rankings.
• Leveraging smaller wedding blogs and getting featured in high-authority publications can boost SEO.
• Kari pitched to 50 tour agencies in Iceland, securing 3 backlinks from blog posts on their websites. Each post had its own landing page, enhancing link juice.
• Using descriptive anchor text is vital for SEO, helping target specific search terms effectively.
• Maintaining consistent branding and using proper anchor text links on the website are essential for SEO success.
• Nofollow links, while ignored by Google, can still benefit SEO.
• Facebook and Instagram pages can appear in Google search results due to SEO optimisation, with relevant hashtags increasing visibility on Instagram.
• It's crucial to remove or disavow bad, spammy backlinks using Google Search Console to maintain a healthy SEO profile.

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Outranking local photographers for destination weddings is pretty difficult. But it doesn't mean that it's not worth it. Because weddings and elopements is such a high ticket item, that it's not the same as searching for something like best Mexican restaurant for lunch, or some people are just going to click on the first point two or three results. – Kari Bjorn

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What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything from what Kari shared. Is there something you heard that excited or motivated you to the point where you thought, yeah, I'm going to do that! If so, leave your thoughts in the comments below; let me know your takeaways and what you plan to implement in your business based on what you heard in today's episode.

It helps when your domain has reasonable authority already with Google. So if you have a lot of backlinks pointing to your domain, it helps make the switch. – Kari Bjorn

If you have any questions I missed or a specific question you’d like to ask Kari, or if you want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them in the comments area below.

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Because it's holiday time (I'm off to France) and there's no better reason to celebrate!

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iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs

I check for any new iTunes or Google reviews each week, and it's always a buzz to receive these… for several reasons.

Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!

Secondly, iTunes and Google are the most significant podcast search engines, and your reviews and ratings help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners mean more interviews and, ultimately, a better show.

Definitely stay away from anything that is too good to be true in the backlink world. – Kari Bjorn

If you have left a review in the past, thank you! If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes or https://photobizx.com/google. You can leave some honest feedback and a rating, which will help both me and the show. I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL of your website and your name.

Alternatively, if you've left a review for PhotoBizX and are looking for more backlinks to help your SEO, leave a review for the new Photography Xperiment Podcast. Email me your keywords or phrases and where you'd like me to link them.

Another great way to get a backlink to your site is to send a video testimonial. It doesn't need to be fancy, and your phone will be perfect. Click record and tell me how PhotoBizX has impacted you and your photography business.​

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Kari Bjorn – Iceland Elopement and Wedding Photography

Kari Bjorn on Instagram

Kari Bjorn on Facebook

Thank you!

Thanks again for listening and to Kari for coming on and sharing his thoughts, ideas and experience on creating backlinks to boost your SEO and get booked for the type of photography and locations you want to be booked for.

When it comes to anchor text, it matters that you have a lot of anchor text links that are your brand name, or kind of a variation, exactly, as you mentioned, on what you do and where you do it. – Kari Bjorn

That’s it for me this week; I hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

Thanks, and speak soon
Andrew

The post 571: Kari Bjorn – Double your wedding photography income with SEO appeared first on Photography Business Xposed - Photography Podcast - how to build and market your portrait and wedding photography business.