I’ve been looking at local search for a while now, being listed in Google places has helped my business tremendously by being ranked well in a Google organic search results, so much so that my business is a favorite place on Google. (I got the fancy QR code sticker and everything.) In the last few months I have been studying other local search such as foursquare and yelp. I have been asking experts in the photography field about how local search affects photographers online and had an interview with Rosh Sillars, co-author of “The Linked Photographer’s guide” on his podcast the new media photographer. Yesterday I got a call from a very kind and knowledgeable sales rep from Yelp and I had a long phone call with him this morning. I learned a lot about Yelp and thought I’d share it here.

the free business profile on Yelp

Yelp’s business listings let your customers write reviews about your business and also give you a chance to add some basic information about your business, similar to a profile on Google local. It includes your address, contact info, link to your website, map of the business location, room for a special offer, your opening hours, some options for sharing this listing and writing a review and a space for an add of your competitor (more on that later).

Below the fold your business listing continues with your reviews and some more information about your specialities, your businesses history and a brief bio of you the business owner.

All this information can be entered by you on Yelp, where all you need to have is a personal profile in order to claim your business listing (or to write a review for that matter). Once you claim your business, Yelp verifies your information with an automatic phone call that prompts you to enter a code.

The organic search algorithm in Yelp is based on a couple of factors, reviews, completeness of listing, age of listing (I assume all this – since it’s secret), but it also takes into account the reviewer. When I do a search for photographer in Miami there are listings that have higher rankings, although they have less and worse reviews, but the reviewer is a top reviewer on Yelp with many reviews.

Yelp provides a lot of information about the reviewer how many reviews, how many 5-star, 4-star, 3-star, … reviews how many reviews of what type of businesses (‘x’ number of restaurants, ‘y’ number of bars, ‘z’ number of hotels) and it seems that if you have a person that writes a lot of reviews on Yelp reviews your business that this pushes that business listing to the top of the pile – even if the reviews are not good. For instance, my company – at this point I have 2 5-star reviews came in behind 2 3-start reviewed businesses – although one of the companies had only one review, but the reviewer had written many reviews on Yelp. Yelp also does not seem to be able to differentiate on what was reviewed, so if an expert reviewer that has 500 restaurant reviews for instance (and would arguably be an expert on reviewing restaurants) – if that person reviews my photography business, and that review is the only photography related review, it would rank higher than a listing that is reviewed by photography experts that have not reviewed an aggregate of 500 businesses, although their opinion should carry more weight.

However Yelp also has another method of advertising:

the paid business profile on yelp

Yelp has a paid advertising program, that has a lot of benefits over their normal business listing. Let’s start with the Search Page Ad. The business listing with the yellow background is the sponsored result. Yelp places this on top of the search when people search for related topics, Yelp says this is not keyword driven, but more concept driven, i.E. this listing for a photographer would pop up when someone is looking for photos, photography, images, …

So is it worth the money?

This specific program is based on impressions (the Yelp rep guaranteed me 500+ impressions a month, for roughly ¢70 per impression.) – There is a PPC version available as well, but it is limited to 10 clicks a day for $2.- per click. It does not give you the enhanced business listing.

The second benefit of a paid listing is that your listing is placed in your competitors ad (again see the sponsored yellow link inside the Business Page Ad of another photographer – see I told you we were coming back to the competitors ad in your business profile). At the same time paying for this program guarantees that no competitor ads will pop up in your listing.

Finally you can track your profile views on your business owner’s account page (which looks very similar to the information I get with the un paid version of my Yelp account).

The last big thing difference you get for this paid program is the Enhanced Business Listing. This listing features a slide show with unlimited photos, where the first image is actually a video that is produced by TurnHere.com, a web service that comes to your place of business and produces a 60-90 sec video – actually a pretty cool concept.

my conclusion

I like Yelp. I like the concept. I like the interface. I like the reviews. I like the fact that real people write real reviews – at least that what Yelp is trying to do.

But so far all of my SEO efforts have centered on organic search. I have played with Google adwords for a month with not a single sale and I have done some paid facebook advertising without any success either, whereas my organic (can you say free) SEO efforts have paid off immensely – Photography by Depuhl is a ‘Favorite Place on Google‘ for instance, so I need to confess that I am a little gun shy about paid search. Going from a $0.- search budget to one that would cost several thousand dollars is a little steep for me right now.

However, this paid search on Yelp has some really good benefits, I like the idea of the professionally produced video they throw in – that’s pretty sweet (but also something I can do my self with a couple photographer buddies of mine), I like the enhanced listings, but not enough to pay that kind of money for this. I also like the fact that you pop up in your competition’s profile as an ad – although I almost always completely ignore sponsored results in a search result.

Today I don’t think my target  market (companies that are looking for a commercial photographer in Miami) are looking for that on Yelp. In the future I think that Yelp is definitely a valid resource to be listed on and I like where the company is headed (so does Google, they tried to buy out Yelp  for $500 million but where turned down in late Dec. 2009 according to the New York Times blog).

My biggest issue is the lack of metrics. Sure Yelp says that 1,000 people were looking for photography in Miami last month, but I would assume that most of those are looking for shooters for their weddings, portraits and events. But I can’t see that, I have to take their word for it. They also guarantee me 500+ impressions – and though I can see them on my business owner’s account page, they are very rudimentary from what they look like to me. Since it is not keyword based search on the users part, I don’t know when Yelp would serve up my listing – if someone is looking to buy a camera or for a place to have photographic prints made, will I be listed and counted as an impression?

So the long and short of it is that for me the cost of this profile (although it comes with some really nice features and exclusivity) is too steep. My concern is that my target market is not using Yelp (yet) and I would like to see some better metrics for knowing who is searching for what on Yelp and how my ads would get served up.

That being said, if you want to give me the money, I would love to try this out for a year (Yelp’s timeframe one has to commit to for the sponsored listings) and I promise to report back on it in a year. But for now I can’t justify the expense and the PPC program does not seem to give me good enough benefits – although I may try it on for size. Who knows maybe it will convince me to give Yelp a try with the sponsored profile.

(Since this post was written in 2009, pricing on these packages may have changed. For a more upto date look read “4 must have products to build your photo website.’ posted in August 2010)

Now more than ever being a professional photographer is more than capturing an image. Technology has changed the way we capture photographs from a photochemical process (film) to a electronic (digital) one. This shift in technology has also caused a shift in responsibility. A commercial photographer has to do much more than just take a picture. He has to become an IT specialist (or hire one) to do everything that today’s clients expect.

We are able to manage our business online, which begins with building our website, how we deliver our images to our customers, the way we manage our clients and business contacts, how we track the performance of our web presence and ads online and where we actually host our website.

Before you read on I do have to make one disclaimer, this post is inspired by Jeana Lee Tahnk‘s mashable post “5 Essential Sites for Professional Photographers” and were her blog gives you the turn key solutions to some of these needs, the sites that I have listed here, require you to do a little more work – be it learning a new software, re- interpreting how a cloud can be used for your business or figuring out how to bounce data through a few services to make it work for you. The upside of this is that you do save money. Here are the sites in no particular order:

1. SiteGrinder

SiteGrinder is a Photoshop plug in, which allows you to design your website in a program that any professional photographer is very familiar with. It requires you learning a few hints at the end of a layer name, which are very with easy to understand video tutorials and very good customer service. They usually answer my email questions within 24-48 hours.

Photoshop plug in that codes HTML for your PSD design

Pricing: $129.- for the basic version

2. Photoshelter

If SiteGrinder creates the face of your web presence, Photoshelter is the backbone of your image delivery system and portfolio presentation. It allows you to store your photographs remotely, i.E. offsite but also has good security features for protecting your content and your clients privacy needs. You can create password protected web galleries and share them with your customers. It also allows you to sell the images directly. They have incredible phone tech support.

Photoshelter provides the backbone for the images on your website.

Pricing: $9.99 per month for the basic plan

3. Salesforce

Salesforce is the kingpin of your online presence. It helps you manage all of your sales leads, opportunities, customers, correspondence, … Salesforce is build for sales people, which professional photographers have always had to be. It is the most powerful one of these websites, since it can integrate the information your visitors type into your contact form with the client database it maintains, it also can track your click through traffic from your Google ads, letting you know precisely were a lead originated. (You can read more about how to integrate Salesforce with your website here.) These guys invented awesome technical support.

Salesforce is an amazing Customer Relationship Management tool

Pricing: $17.- per month for the Group edition

4. Google

As you know Google is one of largest players on the web. I use Google docs to let my clients track their products through my workflow, when I am photographing a large volume of items for them. Google analytics helps you track the performance of your website,  Google Adwords keeps your business in front of potential clients, …

Google does much more than just search

Pricing: $Free

5. 1&1

You’ve designed your website, you’ve customized your image delivery and your CRM. One thing you need underneath all of this is a web hosting company. The one’s that actually serve up your website, email, … 1&1 allows you to host your URL, your email addresses (you are not still conducting business from your name@gmail.com address right?) 1&1 reps can answer all your questions efficiently and quickly.

1&1 - a great website hosting company that offers many extra features to its customers.

Pricing: $9.99 per month

These are just a few of the software, services and sites I use in my commercial photography business. Many of these services run specials on their pricing structure and also offer free trials for their services. So give them a whirl, kick the tires and see how they can make you business more productive in 2010.

I would be interested to hear which ones you use.

Read my more recent post for more information on tools you need to build your photo website.

Photography by Depuhl is cautiously testing the waters of paid advertising. The first ad began running on December 16th, 2009. Although I have been creating photographs for clients since the late 1980′s, the way of selling yourself as a photographer has drastically changed. You used to have to purchase expensive ads in printed annual professional directories to have your work seen, have an agent that had all the connections – a route that I just could not afford as a beginning photographer. Today I can determine down to the $0.01 how much an ad costs, which search phrase triggers it, when and where it is displayed, …

Screen capture of the first paid ad for photography services

Paid advertising is the logical next step for our online presence. Back in 2007 I made the decision to put a professional website up online. It is created with an awesome photoshop plugin called sitegrinder. This is my first step in a concerted effort to use the web as my primary sales tool for my fashion and product photography.

In 2008 Photography by Depuhl pursues its online network in earnest …… reaching out to clients, friends and prospects via LinkedIn. This becomes the basis for a new level of engagement with people for us. At the same time my blog ’catching the light’ begins – although at that point I just post what is interesting to me, not expecting much out of it. The website is also reworked to better display images and to have a more professional branding across all of my communication channels. In late 2008 I implemented a cloud based CRM, by using Salesforce.com, now my website is tied in to my client services back end – taking a request for photographing people, products or places and automatically notifying me as the information is being entered into my client database. The photography back end of my website also changes using Photoshelter as a backbone to serve up my images online. Proof of this approach working is in the jobs I receive from my network and people that find my website via organic search results and book me as a photographer through my website.

In 2009 Social Media becomes a more important part of PbD’s web presence – you can find us on twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, … and ‘catching the light‘ my blog is receiving more and more attention. I am now posting articles not just about me, but about what I am learning about SEO, how to utilize the web in your online business, and also stories about my photography. Proof of this approach working is in the photos resold after blogging about them, and my website becoming more popular as seen just last week where my photography business is named ‘a favorite place on Google‘.

What is going to be new in 2010? None of the pieces of this web presence is ever finished. So I continue to build my network (online and offline), I continue looking at how redesigning my website and social media channels can push my business forward (A new and improved website design-both design wise and SEO wise-is in the making.) PPC advertising on Google and other social networking channels will be another portion of Photography by Depuhl’s online presence and I am also looking for more services that I can offer my clients to help them grow their business and make their interaction with my photography studio easier.

It never stops, but it’s been a great few years now with many lessons learned and all of this done spending a lot less money on this (web hosting fees, URL registrations, software, web based services, PPC advertising, …) that a single yearly ad would have cost me a few years ago.

Merry Christmas and an awesome new year of 2010!

… catching the light!