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Ep. 185 - SEO Made Simple for Photographers with Melissa Arlena
62 Plays23 days ago
💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
In this episode, Carissa sits down with Melissa Arlena—photographer turned SEO coach—to simplify the world of search engine optimization for creatives. If you’re tired of relying on ads or just crossing your fingers for inquiries, this episode breaks down what it really takes to start ranking, showing up, and booking dream clients—without the overwhelm.
🧠 Episode Highlights:
- How to get your website to rank (without tech stress)
- The biggest SEO mistakes photographers are making
- Simple steps to boost your visibility today
- Why SEO isn’t just for “techy” people—and how you already have what it takes
- The power of keywords, blogging, and Google love
🔥 Why You’ll Love This Episode:
Melissa speaks photographer, not tech guru. She’s been behind the camera herself and knows exactly how to guide creative entrepreneurs toward sustainable, organic growth—so you can stop guessing and start growing.
🌟 About Melissa Arlena:
Melissa is the founder of Picture Perfect Rankings, where she teaches photographers how to master SEO, attract their ideal clients, and grow confidently—without paid ads. With a background in photography and a passion for teaching, she makes SEO feel simple, fun, and totally doable.
🎧 Tune In + Take Notes
This episode is packed with actionable tips—perfect for any creative who wants to grow without hustle.
Host: Carissa Woo
📸 carissawoophotography.com
📱 @carissawoo
🎤 Get a "HECK YES!" Podcast
Connect with Melissa
https://pictureperfectrankings.com/
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Transcript
Introduction and Turning Expertise into Digital Products
00:00:00
Speaker
Happy Woo Wednesdays everyone! If you want to stop giving all your business secrets away for free, turn your expertise into a digital product and you could automate all your marketing through reels or a simple ad. You can literally make money in your sleep.
00:00:15
Speaker
I've done this and it's really life-changing. Go to my video in the show notes and see what it's all about. So today I interview Melissa Arlena. She is the SEO coach for photographers and founder of Picture Perfect Rankings.
00:00:32
Speaker
The hot topic today is maximizing your marketing, how to create a week's worth of content from one blog post. It's going to blow your mind. And she says, if you're struggling right now, just start blogging.
00:00:44
Speaker
It's cut and dry and everyone could do it. She's so much fun and this episode will get your wheels spinning. Enjoy.
Meet Melissa Arlena: From IT to SEO Coach
00:00:55
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host Carissa and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all.
00:01:05
Speaker
I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise. Some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:01:24
Speaker
Time hacks because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo-woo, and most importantly, self-love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey.
00:01:36
Speaker
i hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesdays so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon.
00:01:46
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to Get Heck Yes. I officially got my voice back, so I'm super excited. Today I have Melissa Arlena, ah SEO coach for photographers and founder of Picture Perfect Rankings.
00:02:01
Speaker
Melissa helps photographers show up in search, book more of their ideal clients, and grow with confidence without spending a fortune on ads. Thank God. and She brings a deep understanding of the photography industry.
00:02:15
Speaker
She is a photographer herself. I love your newborn stuff and is so good at making SEO feel simple and doable. Welcome, Melissa. Hey, thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
00:02:28
Speaker
I love your earrings. I love your pop of color. like I love Lily Pulitzer. So like I like all, which is funny because if you look at my newborn site, it's very neutral. That's so funny.
00:02:39
Speaker
You have a little bit of color, like pastel colors. Yes. I love Lily Pulitzer too. Okay. So tell everyone who you are in a nutshell. Yeah. So I'm Melissa Arlena. I'm a lifestyle newborn photographer. I've been doing this for 17 years now.
00:02:53
Speaker
and um And then recently in the last couple of years, I ah ah help photographers with SEO, which kind of calls back before photography, I was in IT t for 10 years. so yeah um So I feel like actually doing SEO for photographers takes all of that past experience and like wraps it up in a nice neat bow for me. and Yeah.
00:03:10
Speaker
And you look like you're 21. So there's that. yeah Because I'm like double that plus a few. I'm on the same boat as you. so Cool, cool. Okay, let's go back to young Melissa.
00:03:23
Speaker
Tell everyone like where you grew up and what you were like as a kid. Yeah, so I grew up in Virginia, which is where I live now, where we I grew up about like an hour south of the nation's capital kind of thing.
00:03:35
Speaker
And I was definitely not like the popular kid. I was very much the geeky kid. um Recently, I showed somebody my third grade picture and it was like a group chat and everybody was like, you win for most awkward photo as a child.
00:03:47
Speaker
And I was like, I know. So then I had to send like a good picture to be like, guys, I didn't spend my entire childhood being awkward, but there was a time. um But yeah, I was, I've kind of bookworm always into books and, you know, and then when IT and computers and the internet came along, cause that's how old am.
00:04:04
Speaker
um I got really into into all of that kind of stuff. um So yeah, and then when I graduated high school, I started doing IT. t Like I jumped right into it at like 18. See, that's why. That's right. How does that equate? That's awesome. I feel like geeks um are the ones that thrive in life the most because you don't like the popular kids or just they're at their height like when they're 16 Yeah, think there's a confidence. You're right. Because then there's a confidence level as a geek that you don't come in into until like later in life. Yeah. And like now I'm at a point where I look back and I go, you know, 16 year old me would be like, I'm sorry, you're on what you talk to how many people you stand up on stages like I want to go throw up at 16 thinking about that. But, you know, and now like it's not a big deal. Like I feel like I definitely just come into that confidence way later in life. Yeah, I love that.
00:04:56
Speaker
So when you say like geek, were you into like books and what were your AP classes? Tell me a little bit about your hobby. Yes, definitely. i was the kid um in third grade where the teacher was like, oh, we're going to teach the kids to read. And I love reading and I always encourage it. My mom's like, no you're going have to tell her to put the book down. And she's like, no, no, no.
00:05:13
Speaker
And then sure enough, first like, you know, parent teacher conference, she's like, you're right. She hides books inside of books. And so I have to tell her to put them down. And I can remember doing that, like having a book inside of my textbooks. Oh, that's funny.
00:05:24
Speaker
mean, I was making A's. So like, i don't know why it was a big deal. oh my God. You're like Belle. Yes. yeah I was stuck in a book. Oh, I love that. And what kind of like extracurricular activities were you involved with?
00:05:38
Speaker
I did volleyball. That was my big thing when I was a kid. I think I did Girl Scouts too. Oh, nice. My kids are in Girl Scouts. Oh, nice. Yeah. we're ah We have two boys and then a girl, and I'm kind of waiting for her to like hit the Girl Scout age. So I think we're right about there. She's six now. So I think that think she might actually be into whatever the – it's not – what I'm trying to think. Is it brownies for six?
00:05:59
Speaker
Uh, yeah. Brownies. Okay. Daisies and brownies. Yeah. That's what I was trying to think. Daisies. Yeah. Oh, fun. How old are your boys? They are 11 and 12. oh wow. Back to that.
00:06:10
Speaker
Yes. Do you know babies are really
Mastering Photography and SEO
00:06:12
Speaker
cute at six months? Like really cute. Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah. That would allude to why you're a newborn photographer. But let's talk about maybe college days and early jobs you had.
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah. So I am an odd person in that I actually did not go to college. I did like some community college classes, but I jumped onto the IT t train and got my... called an MCSE. It was Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer when I was in my early 20s.
00:06:39
Speaker
um And i I started working. And like i i just I worked as a systems administrator for a couple different companies up around DC and stuff, like government contractors and things like that.
00:06:49
Speaker
wow And I fixed computers and all of that. um And then I ended up coming down to Quantico, which is the Marine Corps base right near where I live, um which was great because I had a reverse commute. And if anybody's in like an area of traffic, you know how amazing that reverse commuted Yeah, yeah. You're like, I'm flying. And you guys are just.
00:07:06
Speaker
I know you're like, everybody over there's parked and I'm going the opposite direction. I love that. So yeah, I did it t for about 10 years. And then I found and I was starting my photography business, I think about two years before I left my it t career.
00:07:20
Speaker
um And one day I like found myself like slamming my keyboard down on the desk. It was very much like an office space meltdown where I was just like, rawr. Yeah. And I thought, okay, we got to get out of this.
00:07:31
Speaker
Like we're done with IT. t Oh my God. We've got to walk away. I had a moment like that leaving like um sales job and I did like the slow clap.
00:07:41
Speaker
That's when you know you're like out of any kind of energy left. You're like, I'm i'm just, I'm tapped out. I'm done. Wow. But how did you even like get into that? Like, I don't know anyone like college years that just like, I'm going to get into IT t and start working.
00:07:54
Speaker
lucked out. um I was working part time in retail at the time. And my retail managers, their husbands did that. And then were at that time, it was like a big thing. So they were like, no, no, no, you guys should go take the classes. And so they kind of brought me along, which I really am happy they did, because otherwise I could have ended up being a retail manager, which would have been a waste for me. Wow. Yeah, I worked at like Hollister and Abercrombie and it's no fun folding clothes all day.
00:08:18
Speaker
Nope, nope, it's not. But yeah, I think I was like 18 at that point, you know, when they were like, all right, let's go take these classes. I was like the youngest person in the class. Oh my God. Okay, so after you threw that keyboard yeah on the table or on the ground, um what was like your next move?
00:08:35
Speaker
um So at that point, I think it was within the next couple months, um I found out that my job was actually going from contractor to government. And so the company I worked for, they were like, well, we can give you a month of a month of severance pay or you can come with us and we'll try and find you something else. And I was like, I'm going peace out.
00:08:52
Speaker
I'll take that check. And I'd already been, you know, booking photography jobs and stuff like that. So I just kind of was like, well, I feel like this is my sign. Just jump in and and go from there.
00:09:03
Speaker
Oh, interesting. OK, so you were already doing photography. How did you get into the photography world and were you doing like just ah newborns and lifestyle shoots and in home? So I started off in photography like way back. The community college classes I took were all photography related. So I had taken all the black and white film classes. I'd done film in high school.
00:09:22
Speaker
um I was like the ah photographer for the high school newspaper. So I just i always had loved photography. And so then i took classes and stuff like that. And then and then it's a typical thing.
00:09:33
Speaker
I got married. Yeah. And I discovered the wide, wonderful, wonderful world of wedding photography. how um Where do you meet your hubby and how old were you when you got married?
00:09:44
Speaker
um We got married in 2008. We met in 2005 on a whitewater rafting trip. Whoa, crazy. Yes. Yeah. i see cool It's cool. And it was one of those, he had some coworkers and I had some coworkers when I was doing IT t and they put together the trip. And so we met serendipitously there. Oh, wow. Very similar.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So getting married, how was your photography experience? Awesome. Um, so I was broke. Aren't we all? Yeah. but and I ended up, we, um, we were able to find like a student photographer.
00:10:20
Speaker
And so i kind of just like, I was like, well what camera are you shooting with? Because I think at that time I had like a prosumer, but I was still mostly shooting film. And I was like, all right, I want to break into digital. So he had like one of the Canon 5D Mark ones, you know, like the original.
00:10:34
Speaker
And so I'm like, all right. So I bought the camera and I bought a lens and I was like, let's give this a shot. And honestly, like looking back, I mean, i I had a student budget and I got a student um and he shot everything with like a wide angle lens.
00:10:49
Speaker
Oh no. And I was like, yeah, I think this could be better. i think I could do a little bit better and like yeah make sure that clients get... you know, good photos and stuff. um And so i started shooting everything, actually. i just I feel I do feel like when you're a photographer, try everything.
00:11:07
Speaker
So that way, you know what you don't like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then go from there. And so initially, I was like, I'm never going to shoot a wedding. Like, that's terrifying. And then um and then I ended up second shooting for someone. And I just absolutely fell in love with it.
00:11:20
Speaker
Because all of the photo journalistic stuff. I mean, a wedding you get you get to be a detail photographer, you get to be a portrait photographer, a documentary photographer, like, you just get all the aspects in one day.
00:11:33
Speaker
Yeah. Which for me was great. I really enjoyed it. And so then I went into wedding photography for, gosh, think it was like 10 years. Oh, wow. And then I had kids. And then, you know, then I wanted to see my kids on the weekends.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:47
Speaker
I have a 10-hour wedding this Saturday, so I'm like, see you for a day. See you on Sunday. Well, good Lord. I mean, the wedding hangover, I feel like it's really, really bad now too. Yeah, it's so bad. But I mean, I try to drink like the liquid IV and like keep hydrated. and But my hips and my my knees, oh my God, I barely could walk.
00:12:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I feel like the next day you feel like you got hit by – I mean, it felt like a hangover. That's why was a wedding hangover. And it's like, oh, I can't do this anymore. like you ran like a marathon, which I never would have run a marathon.
00:12:18
Speaker
Well, that's the thing. I love with newborns now. Like those – they happen 10 o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday while my kids are at school. I don't have to worry about missing anything. Yeah. And having three kids, I'm like the expert when I walk in. New parents are terrified. And so they're like, oh, somebody who maybe knows what she's doing. Yes. I love that. Okay. So how long did you do or how many years did you weddings? And then like, how did you um like right when your kids were born? Is that when you started like posting more about like newborns and in-home shoots?
00:12:45
Speaker
So I did weddings for about 10 years and it was, think I was actually pregnant with my oldest. Um, cause I'm trying to think I started in 2008, started the business. And then i think it was, I was pregnant with him like 2011 and eleven and i was like full force into weddings, um, at that point. So I kept going, trying to remember how long it was exactly, but At some point, I knew he was going into kindergarten or he had already started kindergarten.
00:13:12
Speaker
And I was like, OK, like this is I'm only going to see him on weekends. And if I'm not there, I won't see him. And like that was my first baby and stuff. So was like, it's time to get out. And at that point, I did. I'd done sessions for some clients for newborns, like past wedding clients and stuff.
00:13:27
Speaker
Yeah. um But I had to kind of do like some model calls and everything and start start shooting. And I knew I wanted to do lifestyle. I was like, I i am not good at posing babies. Yeah. I don't want to have props.
00:13:39
Speaker
I think I did one session where I brought all the props, all the stuff. And I stood there on their front porch and I looked around, I was like, I look like I'm moving in. And I'm like, this is ridiculous. And vowed that day when I was done with that session, I said, will only ever show up with my camera going forward. Like maybe some lighting equipment kind of thing, but I'm not bringing all the props and all the stuff. I would rather just capture them in their nursery and around the house.
00:14:04
Speaker
And I love interior design. So like that also helps feed that side of my soul of like Yeah. I tell people, i'm like, I do interior, I do ah in ah in home because I'm just nosy. I want to see how you decorate. like Yeah. I mean, that's a good testament to like, you could really do whatever you want as a business owner.
00:14:20
Speaker
Yeah. You have some crazy boundaries like, hey, do you have like um those baskets or those
Maximizing Content for Marketing
00:14:25
Speaker
wraps or blah, blah, blah. And you're like, nope. Like, yeah, on that drum. And in fact, on my website, I even say like, no props, no crazy poses like that. That is my mantra. I i think they're beautiful and there are people who do them well. I do not. So I just know that. And I'm like, we're not doing that.
00:14:40
Speaker
And so if they come out and they want to send me like all these shots, I'm like, I'm just not the photographer for you. But luckily, I'm pretty good on my website about only showing lifestyle. Yeah, there's nothing in there that's that's posed and stuff. And yes, every once in a while, somebody will pull out, you know, like a what is it? um They'll pull out a costume from like Star Wars or something.
00:15:00
Speaker
Can you photograph my kid in this? And I'm like, yes, but it's not going look like the Etsy picture you bought this costume from because it's not what do. Oh my God. I know someone for a newborn shoot, she brought like every character of Monsters, Inc.
00:15:12
Speaker
Oh God. And like, I was like, I left like almost in tears because it was just like a nightmare. I'm excited to share with you all about our first Get A Heck Yes sponsor, 17 Hats.
00:15:27
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:16:39
Speaker
Yes, I do tell them but that we're going to wait till the very end. And I let them know. I'm like, look, we're going to do that at the end because babies hate being changed. I said, and I want to make sure you get the photos you see on my website. Like, that's what you hired me for.
00:16:52
Speaker
But yes, at the end, we'll absolutely dress them up like a doll baby if you want. And it's only happened a few times in my career. I will say that. But I tell people, I'm like, I'm not going to say no. Like, of course, you're going to say yes. But is it going to go on my website?
00:17:03
Speaker
Heck no. Oh, my God. I wish I talked to you like 10 years ago. i guess I just can't say no, but I love that. I love that boundary so much. Okay. Time to talk about how you got into SEO. I know you said like after babies, but walk me through like – Yeah. you're already Obviously, you're already good at it, but the whole like time when you first started.
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah. So actually when I started doing wedding photography, I was not a person who had a bunch of friends who were getting married. So I didn't have referrals on that aspect. Um, and I was like, all right, I need like people to find me.
00:17:35
Speaker
Um, and so I started learning at that point about SEO and I think because my it t background, it just made sense for me. yeah It didn't feel overwhelming or intimidating or anything. Um, and so I started learning as much as I could about SEO and Uh, and then that started helping me get booked for weddings. I remember this lady once she, uh, she was planning a wedding from overseas. She was military.
00:17:54
Speaker
And she said, I just want to let you know, every venue I looked at you came up on page one with a blog post for, and I was like, good, that is my ah SEO at work. And that was but probably 15 years ago kind of thing. So I started using it then and getting, you know, really dialing it in for weddings. And then I was like, okay, i don't want to do weddings anymore.
00:18:13
Speaker
So I had to pivot completely. And at that point it was like, okay, well now I need to start working on my SEO for newborns. um And so I figured out how to do that. And I do feel like when it comes to SEO, there's a lot in the wedding world about SEO and how to do things.
00:18:27
Speaker
And then portraits was always just kind of off to the side, like nobody really focused on that. So I had to kind of figure it out from what worked on weddings, how can I translate this to work in portraits?
00:18:38
Speaker
and And kind of come up with my own like systems and stuff. um But yeah, then I got booked out for for newborn sessions and we were living in the D.C. area. And then my husband was sick of the traffic and he was like, I want to move.
00:18:50
Speaker
And I'm like, OK. I just like got to page one of Google, man. What are doing? But um we ended up moving down to Miami, Florida. um And so I had to start over from scratch on my SEO. And so I worked on it, worked on it. And within, I think like six or eight months, I was page one of Google for Miami. And I think within a year, I was the number one for Miami newborn photographer. So was booking out there. Everything was great, except I hated Florida. Yeah.
00:19:17
Speaker
I am not a summer girl. I am a fall girl. Interesting. And South Florida, FYI, does not have seasons, which I did not know going down there. but Yeah, we don't have seasons too. I'm in Torrance, California. Oh, yeah.
00:19:31
Speaker
I didn't that was a thing. i mean, like I knew was going to be hot in Florida. I just didn't realize it would be just as hot in November as it was in like June, you know, that kind thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:19:41
Speaker
Um, so right yesterday she was like, Oh my God, it was so cold this morning. It was like but seen seven degrees or 70 degrees. Oh, wow. Oh, that sounds nice. That sounds lovely. Um, but yeah, so we were down there for two years and we were also so far away from family. I mean, it was two day drive practically to like get up to see my family in Virginia.
00:19:58
Speaker
Um, and so we decided, okay, Hey, let's move back to Virginia, but not to the DC area. Um, and so my husband was able to transfer to Charlottesville and And then i was actually really picky when we were deciding where to live on making sure that I was kind of equal distance between Charlottesville and Richmond, which were the two major cities. So I can now serve two cities with my business wow because they're both about like 30 to 45 minutes away.
00:20:23
Speaker
And that was something kind of SEO strategy wise a little bit of, okay, hey, if we live here versus if we were on the other side of the mountain, it was like, oh, yeah, no, I'm too far from a lot of stuff there.
00:20:34
Speaker
Wow. So yeah yeah. My blog was my baby for like forever. And then I haven't posted a blog post since like 2021, which is really bad. But um well, I think how long have you been in business?
00:20:47
Speaker
15 years. Yeah. So we were in that genre of we would be posting like every did you post every day for a while? like No, but I posted every shoot and every wedding. Okay. Yeah. I remember a timeframe where we blogged every single day and it was like, I think everybody burned out.
00:21:03
Speaker
And so I hear from a lot of people that are I haven't touched my blog in years. um But the thing is, I mean, I have blog posts that I wrote four years ago that still book me clients today. So that's the thing I love with like SEO and blogging.
00:21:15
Speaker
And so then when we moved back here to Charlottesville, I had to restart again, huh get back up. So at this point, I've become like pretty good at my at this. And, you know, it's that same story of like, you do something well for yourself. Other people start asking you like, hey, how did you do that? Yeah. you help me And that was probably a couple of years ago where I was getting that a lot. And so I was like, all right, sure, I'll try. And then they started getting good results. And so it kind of at that point just blossomed into a business.
00:21:42
Speaker
Wow. Nice. i um I mean, I guess everything goes full circle with like your IT and being techie and then understanding like computers and stuff. So it all worked out for you.
00:21:55
Speaker
I don't know what your hot topic is, but we're talking about SEO. I think I picked something else, but you could pick whatever one you want. But maybe it's your hot topic today and why is it so near and dear to your heart? Yeah. um Yeah. So I think my hot topic is going to be creating a week's worth of marketing from a blog post.
00:22:10
Speaker
Yay. Okay, cool. Yes. And so here's the thing. I think we all look at blogging as it's on the to-do list and it ends up being at the bottom of the to-do list. Okay. And we're like, okay, well, I've got to write my email newsletter and I've got to post to social media and I've got to share to my Google business and update Facebook and all of this. And then then you get to the blog you're like, oh, and I have to blog.
00:22:31
Speaker
And my point is, if you take your blog and you put it at the top of the list, then you could create all of the other content from that blog post. So now you're not sitting there wondering like, well, what am i supposed to you know what do I post about this week? Maybe you wrote a blog post on like what to wear for, we'll say, fall family sessions.
00:22:48
Speaker
Well, now you could go to that blog post and just start copying and pasting stuff for Instagram captions. You can grab your images from the post and share those on social media. You can do a little quick blurb of it to put into your email newsletter. Like you can pull all of your content from that blog post. Wow. Okay, let's talk about...
00:23:06
Speaker
the title of the blog posts to give them like a big picture of where to start. Yeah. So, I mean, you want to think about with your any of your blog posts that you write, think of something that's be helpful for your future clients. So I know we were talking about we used to blog in every session.
00:23:22
Speaker
And what typically what typically happens is people will blog a session of it's the Jones family and they're having their family portraits. And aren't they so nice? And it was so nice to see them. No one cares about that except for the Jones family and maybe their friends and family.
00:23:34
Speaker
But like your future clients don't care. So you want to think about like, if I've got a session, what can I write that's going to be helpful to future clients? And fa any of your FAQ type stuff, you know, when to book a session, what time of day to have a session, the best locations, what should I wear to a session? Like those are all things that can be really great blog posts okay and starting with those.
00:23:55
Speaker
And so when it comes to your headline on that kind of stuff, just be very simple about like, what is this post about? Okay. Okay. Okay, so let's just like break down one. So what would be like a good headline for maybe a wedding photographer?
00:24:11
Speaker
Um, wedding photographers. So when I did weddings, uh, it was a lot of times the venue, you you know, what, what is the venue name? Um, other things could be is the style of the wedding, like colors of the wedding. I do think when it comes to wedding photography, you tend to get into a little bit more of long tail keywords, which means there's more words in those posts and stuff. yeah Um, cause you can only write so many weddings about a venue that you're at or so many blog posts about a venue you're at all the time. And i remember I got to a point where I would talk about the season. I, you know, it would be something like,
00:24:41
Speaker
fall burgundy and gold um retro wedding at, you know, blah, blah, blah venue. And those were some of the things I would do when it came for, for weddings and stuff to,
00:24:52
Speaker
to have more information in there that would catch people's attention. Okay. Let's run with that. So I guess not maybe fall we could do, um, like winter. Yeah. Cause I guess, um, summer winter is coming up. Um, or guess it doesn't matter, but what would the title be like?
00:25:09
Speaker
So for winter, I think I'd follow the same formula of like, you know, especially if I've shot at this venue a bunch of times. So it might be winter, um, Navy and silver, uh, ah I don't know, frozen themed wedding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, um at at a particular venue. Because keep in mind too, the more detailed you can get with some of that stuff, ah when you find the right person or the right person finds your blog post, like then they're ready to hire.
00:25:35
Speaker
Um, so for example, this goes back more to portraits, but like I have a blog post on how to have pet, you know, uh, pets at your session, at your newborn session, when someone reads that it, now it's a very small amount of people who find that blog post and read it. because It's cause it's a, you know, very niche type thing, but when they do now they're like, you're the expert.
00:25:52
Speaker
Like I want you to photograph because you had this blog post. So things, same things with weddings and stuff. If you are really niching down into our particular, um, you you know, particular blog topic about that wedding, you may not have as broad of an audience, but the ones you do find are like diehard at that point. Yeah, for sure.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah. I love that. Yeah, I was just thinking today, I was like, how do I get more wedding clients? And I was like, okay, I'm going to – I get the most referrals from Shade Hotel and Noor in Pasadena. So i was going to write like um make a reel on – about like best places to shoot at Shade Hotel or yeah whatever. Yes, you make a blog post on that.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah, blog post, turn into real, like even boost the post and tag them as a collaborator so it's like they – people see it on their feed too. Yeah. Yeah, and even ah my favorite thing too with wedding stuff is to do like roundups of stuff. So it might be like the top five bouquets 2025 or 2026. And then I'm going to go grab those bouquets.
00:26:50
Speaker
Or my favorite dresses from this past season. And you then you list out the styles. Like there's so many ways you can take all these individual weddings, but then like group them by, you know, bride's shoes, bride's bouquets, bride's dresses, bridesmaid's dresses. And now you've got like five posts that you can write that's going to show all those different photos of bridesmaids from your different weddings.
00:27:11
Speaker
So you're able to reuse that content more than once. Oh, interesting. Okay. So say like going off of the winter Navy and silver frozen theme, um, wedding. And then obviously you have like pictures from like beginning to end, yeah but would you, um, would, how would you like, um, dissect it and then turn it into like content? Yeah.
00:27:36
Speaker
Yeah. So when you're talking about what the blog post should be on helping other brides, at that point, a lot I used to do interviews with my brides and stuff and ask them things about planning, um ask them about you know things about the venue or sharing information about the venue that I already know.
00:27:50
Speaker
um Weddings can be a little bit harder on that aspect because you're cause you're you're sharing their day and people do want to see that versus I feel like when it comes to the portrait side, like people don't really care necessarily about like the engagement session, but like the wedding, everybody's like, Ooh, let me check that out.
00:28:06
Speaker
Um, but you can always just find things that, you know, helpful information and tips from the bride can be a big thing or find a story from the day. The big thing is like connecting with people and getting them to remember that wedding, like something that's going to stick out, whether it's a story. for I mean, I still remember I had a wedding where, um, it was a simple detail of the bride. She had a bracelet that somebody had made,
00:28:25
Speaker
um with her grandmother's actual handwriting. Like they sent the sample to the jeweler or whatever off Etsy and they created a bracelet with the bride's name written in her grandmother's handwriting. And so like that's something that is memorable.
00:28:37
Speaker
So when I tell the story of her wedding day, I'm definitely going to include that detail with a picture because that's what's going to catch people's attention is that personal story yeah and what's going on there. Yeah. I mean, I really like this um mind shift of think of the blog post as almost like the top of the pyramid.
00:28:53
Speaker
Yes. And even when you're shooting the wedding or even when you're at a portrait session, like you said, like you love interior design. Like if this family allows you to post photos, like maybe is it like mid-century modern or is yeah it like um Eichler just something unique about that family?
00:29:11
Speaker
and then you have the blog post and then you could like, I don't know, turn that into maybe like three, four reels. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact, we um I have like an AI prompt and stuff in our blogging club that what they can do is they can put in their blog post and it will automatically turn it into like ideas for like three or four reels.
00:29:29
Speaker
It'll turn into Facebook posts, Instagram posts, like LinkedIn, all Pinterest. Pinterest is another big one, but it'll give them like all that information from their blog post, which is really nice. It makes it super easy. That's where one area I do love AI for.
00:29:41
Speaker
Yeah. So when you do blog, like, are you pinning through like Tailwind? And then, um, how are you, do you have like a easy steps of how to, um, name these photos or like tag them?
00:29:54
Speaker
Yeah. So I did use Tailwind. Um, my girl who does that stuff now, I think she said you can schedule directly with Pinterest now. So I cut off that subscription because it was like, well, all right, sweet. Um,
00:30:05
Speaker
So she just pins directly to Pinterest. But yeah, when it comes to naming your photos, typically what I'll do is something like ah the client, the couple's name, um the venue, maybe those details, kind of that blog post idea of like, what is my keyword? So if my keyword is going to be, you know, more of a long tail, like.
Unexpected Success from Blogging
00:30:22
Speaker
winter frozen wedding or something at a venue, then I'm going to have that in my um in my file name. The biggest thing I see though with photographers is they'll have a file name. It's like DSC001.jpg or something. So like, yeah don't do that.
00:30:36
Speaker
That is the worst you can do. um You just wanted to keep it keep it easy. So like I said, what I would do if it's a a blog post that's directly about the wedding, I'm going to include the venue name in there. I'm going to include some other details in there that are going to go with the blog post.
00:30:49
Speaker
If I'm doing a post on like bridesmaids dresses, then I'm going to rename that photo something of like top five bridesmaids dresses. And then I like to put my business name in there just because these images will show up on Google image search. And if someone happens to download them from Google image search, I want to make sure that like they can look at the file name and see, oh, this is the photographer.
00:31:08
Speaker
Wow. When you were blogging every day, what year was this? Oh gosh, this was probably back in like 2010, 2011. I think once I had kids that like ended, but I mean, it was session posts. It was personal posts.
00:31:21
Speaker
You know, i had one that was like a love it, hate it on Fridays or whatever. I just basically shared my week. Yeah. ah Which now it's like, oh, you know, it was funny then. I feel like now that's more of like a newsletter type thing that you would do. But um yeah, it was it it was.
00:31:39
Speaker
A lot. Yeah. What, um, I was going to say like, what blog posts, um, perform the best or like, what are your favorite ones? Wedding pros.
00:31:50
Speaker
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00:32:02
Speaker
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00:32:13
Speaker
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00:32:31
Speaker
For now, my current ones, I actually have a staircase gallery one that has been up for over 10 years. I'm thinking. And I get tons of traffic from it. And all it was is I took a picture of my staircase gallery wall and gave directions on how I created it and then hung it. And I had...
00:32:47
Speaker
I mean, I had iPhone photos of like pieces of paper on my living room floor kind of thing. Like those are some of the photos that are in there. But that that one right there, i shared it. I had someone in D.C. who found it on Google and she hired me to come into her house and create a staircase gallery wall for them from the current photos that they had. So it was more of an interior design type job. interesting And then when they moved, she hired me to go to the new house and redo it in the new house because her kids were bugging her on like, Mommy, when are the photos going back up on the wall?
00:33:15
Speaker
and So that was a personal post that made me, I think like five to $8,000. I can't remember between the two jobs and stuff. Yeah. Do you do um in-person sales?
00:33:26
Speaker
I do not. I am the worst salesperson ever. I'm very much like, here's my price, take it or leave it. yeah um So i actually, i do collections with digital files and print credit.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah. So it just makes it easy. i send that over. um i have friends though that do amazing with in-person sales. I just have never been able to Yeah, it's my nightmare. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, i just don't want to. Don't come to my house. Like, I don't want to see you.
00:33:51
Speaker
I have done them before and it felt really awkward. And I was like, I'm so bad at this. There's got to be a better way. I took the whole like Sarah Petty like, um oh, yeah, a long time ago. what I was like, I can't do this.
00:34:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I know some people do like virtual IPS, which I'm like, well, that's a little bit better at least. But even they still get times where they're like, oh, nobody purchased anything. They want to take more time and talk about it. Yeah, yeah, for sure. yeah I can't do the pressure.
00:34:14
Speaker
I'm just like, look, here's your three collections. You know it up front. Pick one. and And I send a video when they inquire walking them through my collections because I don't want there to be any, um any you know, thought of like, oh, I don't know what we get. I'm like, no, no, no. going completely clear here. You will be purchasing.
00:34:33
Speaker
Yeah. So you send that video, like, is it, um, rerecord I mean, pre-recorded or do you like personalize it to their names? And so it depends. I used to do pre-recorded ones. Um, but at times where I would get like a lot of inquiries, I mean, we all get ghosted.
00:34:46
Speaker
Then it kind of felt like, all right, well, only 25% of the people here are actually, you know, watching it all the way through. yeah So I have one that's kind of generic. And so when people don't give me any information or just like, Hey, we're inquiring what you're pricing.
00:35:00
Speaker
that's the one I send. But if they give me a lot of questions or say something that I'm like, okay, this one feels like it might be a closer booking. Yeah. i'll I'll do a recording just for them kind of thing.
00:35:11
Speaker
Yeah. I think I... Saw one of your blog posts about that. Oh, yeah, yeah. oh Was it like um how audio messages help your sales? Yeah, it's something about inquiry videos. Yeah, inquiry videos. thought that was interesting.
00:35:25
Speaker
Maybe that's for another conversation. Yeah, because I definitely – I had a client um that she told me. She was like, I've never seen another photographer do this. She was like, we loved it. And it was an extended family session. So the best part was she could then just forward that video to everybody else who was involved in the decision on the extended family session And I was able to sell to each one of them through my video without having to do it, you know, on a call or something like that.
00:35:46
Speaker
See, you are a good salesperson. I am when can be like passive. I'm like, I'm to send this over. Here you go. um But yeah, so i I do still do them and stuff. And I think too, like they can see a little bit of my personality and and all of that kind of thing.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah. What's your take on like people finding um photographers? Like, do you think they go more towards Instagram or do they still go to Google or Chachut Boutique or Pinterest?
00:36:13
Speaker
I think it's Google um because to me, Google is where you go when you're ready to buy. Like that's when you're like, okay, I'm looking for this particular service. And so to me, they're ready to go. Instagram is one of those like, oh, that might be nice someday. Like, oh, that's cute. But there's not this like urgency as much on Instagram of like, I have to book this photographer right now. yeah Now there are, you know, if you're putting up your fall dates or something and it's somebody who's already exposed to you, sure.
00:36:37
Speaker
um But to me and for most of my clients, we all agree that like when they come in through Google, they're ready to book. Wow. Yeah. Like I did as something um like I had a frame business like 16 years ago and I still get calls from like, do you have do frames?
00:36:52
Speaker
like, oh my God. Like I thought I took this website down. like Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, what's funny too, is like your SEO will stick around because I still get inquiries for South Florida. And we left there two years ago. And so like I have a whole, I have like a little thing in Tave that when I close it out that I didn't book it, I say like Florida inquiry.
00:37:09
Speaker
And then sometimes I look at how many I have and I'm like, oh, I'm sad. That was a lot. Oh my God, totally. like oh But yeah. And then like you were asking about like with chat GPT and AI and stuff now, like that's a big thing where I'm finding that the people who are getting found in chat GPT and booking clients have already worked on their SEO.
SEO Services and Future Plans
00:37:28
Speaker
And it's kind of that thing that if you've worked on your SEO and you've been blogging and you've got your website all set up correctly, you're going to show up in those searches. Interesting. Yeah, I agree too. um I was going ask you, like, tell me about your SEO business and like where it is now. like um And I guess a funny question, but do you they find you through SEO? Yeah.
00:37:49
Speaker
So, you know, it's funny. We that's one of the reasons we're trying to step up our blogging more is most of my SEO clients come from referrals and stuff, which cracks me up. I do have some that come from SEO. and We're trying to, you know, make that more. But it was definitely one of those. We got so many people right off the bat from referrals because I do feel like when it comes to business owners, um especially photographers, like they tend to jump into a Facebook group.
00:38:11
Speaker
and ask in there kind of thing. yeah But I have had a few that, you know, we're like, oh, I found you on Google. And I'm like, really? Okay, cool. I'm glad that's working. But we're trying to work right now on our blogging for the SEO side. So like some of those blog posts you mentioned are actually the podcast episodes from our podcast my podcast that I've repurposed to there.
00:38:30
Speaker
And then we're pinning them and stuff. But yeah, in the SEO business, we do done-for-you services. So where we'll come in and we'll fix your homepage, we'll set up landing pages for you. um We'll check out your blog posts and then give you a plan of what to blog for the next 12 months.
00:38:44
Speaker
um We offer group coaching, which is kind of that for a lot of people, they want to learn it, you know, because maybe they're going to move again, or maybe they just want to know for future reference, like how to do their SEO.
00:38:55
Speaker
um So we have group coaching with that. And with the group coaching, I love it because You still get to talk to me. You still get my eyes on everything. It's not like when you just take a course and then you're like, well, I did it, but I don't know if I did it right.
00:39:08
Speaker
Yeah. This way you submit your homework. I call it to me and I double check it and I give you like direct feedback. Um, I did used to do one-on-one mentoring, but I like fire hose people with information and they like walked away looking like, you know, deer in the headlights and I was like, it isn't working.
00:39:23
Speaker
So that's why I switched to the group coaching. It works out a lot better. as like recorded videos and stuff. And then we have our blogging club, which is actually for, it's mainly geared towards portrait photographers.
00:39:34
Speaker
But even for wedding photographers for like those portrait sessions, engagement sessions, there's a lot of good post topics in there. um But basically every month you get to blog post outlines and You get a masterclass from me. actually was just uploading them for July right before this. And we have AI tools in there so that it will let you take that outline and ask you questions from it. And then it will turn that into a blog post that's full of like your stories and expertise. but I had a recent beta tester. She got a whole blog post done in an hour, including photos. Wow. And I was like, sweet.
00:40:05
Speaker
so Yeah, this is very inspiring. I mean, um I was kind of getting out of the wedding photography industry, but I still am in it. But just talking about blogs, just like, brings me back so many like good memories yeah yeah like my blogging days and just I don't know just I like to see what i've I I shoot and like present it to the world and I would like put it on like Facebook and like the venues Facebook and um this is when like social media like when you post something you watch you see it you know so it was so exciting and um but one last question before rapid fire questions but
00:40:40
Speaker
Speak to the hearts of wedding pros just in like maybe a bad season right now or maybe like negative state of mind like, um oh, business is horrible or it's not what it used to be or blah, blah, blah, blah. Like how do you get them unstuck? You can speak to their hearts.
00:40:57
Speaker
um I would it honestly, it comes to blogging right now, because here's the thing when it comes to SEO and especially blogging, you're planting seeds to grow later. So there's not really much you can do to get out of the current season right away. Like there's no magic cure. We all know how that works, but the clients that I am seeing who are, are struggling with that, I'm getting them to focus on like, if you work on planting these seeds now, they're going to pay off later. Like I said earlier, I've got blog posts from four years ago that are booking clients for me today. yeah,
00:41:26
Speaker
plant those seeds so in this time of like i don't know what to do focus on the future um and keep that in mind wow and you said you spoke on the big stage uh i mean i've spoken on like not like super huge stages no that's a goal to get to right now but more of like you know um groups and stuff that would have made 16 year old me terrified oh i love that um okay so rapid fire questions maybe social media hack favorite social media hack Um, I literally just quit Instagram like a month ago, so I'm not the person to ask.
00:41:58
Speaker
Oh, I love that. That's a hack. That's a good hack. Just quit it. If it's not performing for you, don't waste your time there. I guess that's probably that's what I decided. Best mom of three hack. Oh, um, oh gosh.
00:42:11
Speaker
Parenting hack or just parenting advice. Yeah. I'm trying to think. Um, I don't know. I think just listening to the kids and stuff, like it's not really a hack, but I find that my kids, when I talk to my best friend, I'm like, oh yeah, my kid came out and talked to me about this. She's like, I know what you're doing, but you're doing it right. She's like, cause that's awesome that they are willing to have conversations with you about that stuff. So I think just making sure you're showing empathy and you're there to listen, but I'm still a tough mom.
00:42:35
Speaker
Oh, I love that. That's a really good one. And then let's see, any efficiency hack like software or oh I mean, I love Loom videos for everything. okay screen It's like a screen recording software type thing. And so I, if most people know when they work with me, they're going to get a video because it's just easier for me to send a three minute video than it's for me to type out an email. It'll take me, you know, 30 minutes to type the same stuff out that I can tell you in like three minutes.
00:43:00
Speaker
So even for clients and stuff, like if they're asking you a question, like shoot back a video of you answering it. Yeah, I love that. I talk to ChachiBT a lot. Oh, yeah. ah Yes. And I do like AI for stuff too.
00:43:12
Speaker
And then let's see, um maybe any big goals for yourself? I know you you said you have a business coach. um How are you going scale this business? Or you could say anything about your big vision. Yeah, I mean, ah ah we were talking earlier, eventually my goal is to like be able to sell this side of the business and retire someday. I feel like when it comes to photography businesses, unless you create a big studio, if you're a one-off person, like on the scale I'm at, nobody wants to buy my photography business. Yeah, yeah, they could do it themselves.
00:43:40
Speaker
Yeah, but on the SEO side, I have thought about that ahead of time of like, I think this is something that could continue on and it could be purchased by another company and stuff. And so that's kind of the long-term goal, but I have no idea how to get there, which is why I have a business coach.
00:43:52
Speaker
I love that. That is so cool. um And then where can everyone find you? Yeah. So you guys can find us. We're pictureperfectrankings.com. um I mean, you can check us on Instagram at pictureperfectrankings or Melissa Arlena.
00:44:04
Speaker
Just be aware there's nothing like fresh out there. All good. Because it's not where we hang out. And then I do have a free Facebook group that is on this pictureperfectrankings on Facebook. So it's just a free group to jump in and ask SEO questions.
00:44:17
Speaker
Thank you, Melissa. This is a great conversation. Awesome. Thanks so much for having me.
00:44:25
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine.
00:44:41
Speaker
See you next time, wedding pros.