Photography SEO: Single Domain or Multiple Domains?
If you’re a photographer, you probably have a need for a blog that features your most current work and a main website that features your portfolio and more information about yourself and your services. If you’re in this situation, you’re probably wondering if you should start one website (on one domain) or multiple websites (on multiple domains).
Note: Domain and website interchangeably in this article.
The typical example for one website for a main site and blog is as follows:
Main Site: http://www.example.com
Blog: http://www.example.com/blog
A typical example of using multiple domains is as follows:
Main Site: http://www.example.com
Blog: http://www.exampleblog.com
Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each.
1) Centralized Backlinks - Backlinks (links from other sites to yours) is a huge factor in determining your search ranking. If your photography studio has one website, any chatter around the web will directly link to your website, bumping your search ranking up. In contrast, if you’re using a multiple domain system, links will be more dispersed, which could slow down your climb to the top of the rankings.
2) Less Time and Money to Set Up - Setting up multiple websites requires more effort than setting up a single website. It also costs more, as you have to pay for more domain registrations (roughly $10 each per year) and possibly more hosting (price varies). Luckily, if you use a hosting service like bluehost, you can pay for one hosting plan and set up unlimited domains on that one account. However if you’re with a service like Godaddy, you’d need to pay another monthly hosting fee as well.
[rewind: What is the best hosting service for photographers?]
3) Less Work to Maintain – Properly maintaining multiple websites includes a decent amount of work. From keeping each site secure with updates for your content management system to providing it with fresh content, each website needs the proper amount of work in order for it to benefit your business. Maintaining one website is easier and less time-consuming than maintaining multiple websites.
1) More Web Presence
Having two websites with solid links profiles gives your business more web presence. Think of it as owning two stores or having advertising space on two billboards. Essentially you can cover more virtual search ground; and you can utilize different strategies to target different keywords. For example, if you’re in Denver, Colorado and you’re a wedding photographer, you might use your main website to target the search term “Denver Wedding Photography” and the blog to target “Colorado Wedding Photography.” You might focus your main site on certain types of photography and your blog on others. You might even focus your main site on your city and your blog on specific venues, neighborhoods, or areas. Basically, more web presence gives you more options to craft your web marketing.
2) Diversify For Search Engines
Bing is a growing force in the web search industry that uses a similar but different algorithm as Google to determine the ranking of your site in searches. For example, it puts less weight on things like backlinks and page rank and more emphasis on domain name and title tags.
[related: What's the Difference Between Google and Bing]
Having two sites that utilize slightly different strategies and techniques makes your site more discoverable, regardless of the web browser the potential client is using. These differences can be intentional or sometimes just inherent in the functions of the sites. For example, you’re more likely to list your main site in directories, map listings, and other sites; but you’re more likely to continuously update your blog with fresh content and link it to your social sites. These differences are inherent in their functions, and even if you don’t know a single thing about SEO, they will yield different results in different the search engines.
2) Diversifying Penalty Risks
Some SEO strategies are straight forward, like building useful content and using keyword rich text, while others are in the grey area, like building links through comments or link exchanges. Either way, if you somehow do something that Google doesn’t like, knowingly or unknowingly, your site could fall in ranking. In this situation, it’s critical to have something else that represents your work continue to appear in the results.
It is my opinion that owning two separate websites, or perhaps even more than two sites, is a better route to take. However, this depends entirely on your situation and your commitment to your web presence. If, for example, you are doing photography part time and you don’t have the resources to maintain two websites, it probably makes sense to stick to the single domain. However, if you’re full-time and/or serious about growing your photography studio; and you’re willing to put in some work to grow each site, your business will benefit from owning two strong, healthy websites. You can diversify your virtual assets, decrease the risk, and expand your web presence.
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Augus young
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http://www.bradleypatten.co.nz/ Bradles
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