If folks are looking for your studio online, chances are they are going to type in something generic like “photographer” and include a specific location. If you want your customers to find you online, it is important that you have your studio listed in every local directory you can find.

For example, I typed “photographer flint mi” into Google, and found that most local photographers don’t even bother to take the time to put their studios online. Looking for a photographer when you don’t know their name is like looking for a word in a dictionary when you don’t know how to spell it.

Below are 10 local directories you should check to make sure your studio information is listed and accurate:

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It isn’t very pretty, but 50 million folks visit Craigslist.org every month, and chances are that one of them could be a bride looking for a photographer.  Are you advertising on craigslist?

The advantages of advertising on craigslist are: it is free, it only takes a few minutes to post an ad, it has lots of visitors, you can include your best images and you can direct potential customers to your studio with a hot link.

The disadvantages are that on craigslist you have to “re-upload” your ad every 3-4 days, and that the site tends to bring you clients who are price shopping.

If you have a low-cost starter package you use to attract brides, and if you’re good at up-selling potential customers from the starter package, you should consider advertising  on craigslist. If you don’t like to talk to price-shopping brides, or if up-selling isn’t your forte, you won’t want to be on craigslist.

Even if you’re not a wedding photographer, you could still try craigslist.org for holiday portrait sales, or virtually any other kind of marketing.

Here are some tips:

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The images submitted for the February Photo Contest were amazing. But even more amazing was the marketing savvy of photographers who used Facebook to promote their images.

Although we’ve encouraged photographers to use Facebook for years, this contest proved beyond any doubt that it really works.

Whether you entered the contest or not, here are some of the lessons learned that we can all benefit from:

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If you’re having trouble picking the 5-8 best keywords for your website, take advantage of Google’s auto-complete feature.

How does auto-complete work? As you type each letter into the search box on the www.google.com homepage, Google sifts through millions of other online searches to “guess” what you are looking for. The more letters you type, the better Google gets at guessing. Since most people hate to type, they click the terms on the screen, and over time the top searches get more popular.

These “top searches” can be used to help you verify the best keywords or 2-3 word keyword phrases.

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I was concerned. JD had just launched a redesign of our simplyelegantphotobooks.com website in December, and after a couple of weeks we weren’t showing up at all on Google. I decided to make sure we had all the SEO basics covered. After walking through the process, I thought this might be something you’d be interested in learning about for your website too.

Step 1: I went to the SEOWorkers free website analyzer tool. This is by far the most useful tool I’ve found to give you a quick rundown on what Google sees when it looks at your website. If you run this tool and fix all the problems, you’re website will be head-and-shoulders above most of your competition. I discovered a dozen SEO problems instantly I never would have known otherwise.

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Have you received one of these emails yet?

From: “SEOExpertz”
Date: November 29, 2010 4:04:35 AM EST
To: tom@jdphotoimaging.com
Subject: Get on the first page of Google Fast – Guaranteed!

Our research staff has identified you and your company as one that may benefit from Google / SEO. Is getting to the top of Google searches important to you? Do you know where your company ranks on Google, Yahoo, and/or Bing?

If search engines matter to your marketing, we can get you on the first page of Google fast – guaranteed. Click here for more info…

I get these every day, and instantly delete them. Here’s why:

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We all know the old joke about what the word “assume” means (in the interest of good taste, I can’t print it here). Yet all of us make them.

Below is a list of five assumptions many of us have about online marketing. If you have any of them, you could be hurting your studio’s bottom line.

• Assume that an attractive website is the goal. I hear clients say, “I know my website isn’t great, but I’m working on a new one.” Then one night after work they will buy one of those cool all-flash photography templates, spend 4-5 hours adding a bunch of images and studio contact information, and declare the project “finished.” Great design is important, but unless your website is SEO friendly, potential customers won’t be able to find you.

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I honestly cannot remember how I got along before Google. Back in the day a phone book, a telephone and a map were all the tools I needed to make a purchase or find an address. Now that I have Google, I can’t imagine going back to the old way of doing business.

The problem with Google is that it has too much information. Type “photographer” in Google and you’ll see everything from Ansel Adams to Zoom Lenses. Not very helpful if your customer is looking for your studio online.

Here are the steps I use when I’m selecting keywords to help visitors find my website.

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I was talking to a client the other day about websites. He typed “wedding photographer” in Google, clicked the mouse, and turned to me.

“I want to be at the top of the first page in Google,” he said. “How do I get there?”

Most of us assume that the top spot on Google is the best position for your website, and that everything else is second-best. The reality is that the top spot is rarely the right place for your business: it will cost too much to get there, and like the game “king of the hill” you won’t stay on top for long.

Instead of focusing on the #1 spot, if you can be in the “top 10″ for your selected keywords, you’ll get just as many customers off the Internet, and you’ll save lots of money too.

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During our spring open house at JDPI, Mark Lemon gave a step-by-step presentation on how to improve your search engine ranking in Google. You can download a PDF version of the Powerpoint here.

Topics include:

• What is SEO?
• What are keywords?
• Link building

If you’re interested in learning more about SEO, this is a great introduction and set of tools I can highly recommend.