Easy backlink ideas for photographers

Free directories & paid directories

Photography directories and business directories are a great place to start building backlinks for photographers.   Keep in mind that wedding photography directory backlinks will be “juicier” in the eyes of Google as the website is in your same niche.  The backlink from the chamber of commerce is a great one to have, but Google will not value that one as much since it’s a general business directory.

Some niche-specific directories may require you to be paid to be listed.  This isn’t a bad backlink for photographers to pay for depending on the potential ROI.  If the directory’s domain authority is high enough or you may actually get photography leads from the website, then it may be worth the cost.

Getting credit for photos already in other places

Now it’s time to put on your hindsight glasses!  Have you photographed anything and shared the gallery with other vendors?  Perhaps you photographed a wedding, and you know the venue is using your photos on their website?  It’s time to reach out and be sure you’re getting a link back to your photography website for that work!

Do this with every other event, session, etc. you’ve photographed, and you may well have a great backlink profile waiting on you!

Think hard about where you may already have photos floating around online.  Kindly email the business’ owner about putting your backlink in place.  A link back to your homepage is great for this situation.

You might go so far as to start sending galleries to different vendors in your niche solely for the photography backlinks.  We do this at the end of every wedding season because we know how the cycle works.  Most wedding vendors are less busy in the winter, so they’re updating their website.  This is the best time to send along a gallery and kindly recommend using the photos in exchange for a backlink to your photography website.

Another protip: don’t be afraid to follow up via email multiple times.

Medium-difficulty backlink ideas for photographers

Now that we’ve got those easy backlinks for photographers in place, let’s check out some backlinks that take a little more work but are definitely worth it!

Guest posting to get backlinks to your photography website

What is guest posting?  Guest posting is when you reach out to another business and offer your writing (and maybe even photos) for them to put on their blog.  To build photography backlinks this way, you’ll want to be sure you’re reaching out to websites that already have higher domain authorities so your payoff is worth the effort.

In the past we’ve had great success with building backlinks for photographers by reaching out to wedding venues.  You can simply email and say you’d love to write a guest post for them concerning “5 reasons specific venue is perfect for your city, state wedding.”  Detail some of the reasons you’ve brainstormed and how you’d love to write the blog bragging on their venue.  Folks love to be praised!

At the end of your email, mention how you only ask for a backlink to your photography website in return for your positive review and guest post.  Rarely has a venue outright denied this.

Now–think about your niche.  What vendors, websites, etc. would be willing to link back to your photography website if you offered a guest post?  It will be different for every niche.  True, you can technically guest post for any website, but remember–your photography backlinks will be more valuable if Google sees they are more relevant and in your niche.

Backlinks for photographers by link exchanging

Link exchanging!!  My FAVORITE way to build backlinks!  You can build backlinks for your photography website easily by using content you already have in place and offering a link exchange.

If your backlink profile isn’t as solid and your domain authority isn’t as high, this strategy may take time before you can put into place.  However, once your domain authority is 10+ I’ve found link exchanging to be a great tool!

In this strategy you’ll simply think of a business or blog that would benefit from the same audience as you.  Email them to pitch linking to their business in your blog in exchange for them linking to you on their blog.  In our elopement industry we’ve exchanged links with adventure vendors, floral designers, travel planning servies, and more!   Think critically about your niche and who else will benefit from being seen by your audience.

Don’t forget to follow up on this strategy as well by continuing to email if they have shown any interest in a link exchange.

Writing with backlinks in mind

Let’s think about your future content here instead of content you’ve already written!  Are there content ideas floating around in your head that can be skewed to showcase your expertise on a subject?  For example, if you know your future clients will be looking for date night ideas in Houston, could you write that piece of content…. But consider adding businesses and details about them so that they could link back to your photography website?

Keep in mind, you don’t even have to have photos of their businesses, services, etc. for the blog!  A small section showcasing how they provide a great date night is often enough to get a backlink for your photography website.

Email the business owner, and let them know you’re including them in the your blog post.  You’ll reach out once its published, and you’d love a backlink on their press page!  

You can also write exhaustive and authoritative posts so that the general public can see you are clearly an authority on a topic.  Once upon a time we wrote a post on tips for your couples photo shoot.  For a long time this ranked nowhere.  Then one day we got a backlink on it from a website we didn’t know.  Then another backlink.  Then another backlink.  Until that post went the Google version of viral.

This piece of content is not necessarily lucrative for our business, but it was great at building backlinks for our photography website.

Backlinks for photographers by link exchanging

Link exchanging!!  My FAVORITE way to build backlinks for photographers!  You can build backlinks for your photography website easily by using content you already have in place and offering a link exchange.

If your backlink profile isn’t as solid and your domain authority isn’t as high, this strategy may take time before you can put into place.  However, once your domain authority is 10+ I’ve found link exchanging to be a great tool!

In this strategy you’ll simply think of a business or blog that would benefit from the same audience as you.  Email them to pitch linking to their business in your blog in exchange for them linking to you on their blog.  In our elopement industry we’ve exchanged links with adventure vendors, floral designers, travel planning servies, and more!   Think critically about your niche and who else will benefit from being seen by your audience.

Don’t forget to follow up on this strategy as well by continuing to email if they have shown any interest in a link exchange.

Writing with backlinks in mind

Let’s think about your future content here instead of content you’ve already written!  Are there content ideas floating around in your head that can be skewed to showcase your expertise on a subject?  For example, if you know your future clients will be looking for date night ideas in Houston, could you write that piece of content…. But consider adding businesses and details about them so that they could link back to your photography website?

Keep in mind, you don’t even have to have photos of their businesses, services, etc. for the blog!  A small section showcasing how they provide a great date night is often enough to get a backlink for your photography website.

Email the business owner, and let them know you’re including them in the your blog post.  You’ll reach out once its published, and you’d love a backlink on their press page!  

You can also write exhaustive and authoritative posts so that the general public can see you are clearly an authority on a topic.  Once upon a time we wrote a post on tips for your couples photo shoot.  For a long time this ranked nowhere.  Then one day we got a backlink on it from a website we didn’t know.  Then another backlink.  Then another backlink.  Until that post went the Google version of viral.

This piece of content is not necessarily lucrative for our business, but it was great at building backlinks for our photography website.

How to ask for backlinks: Evaluating whether someone would link to you & how to reach out

I’ve talked a lot thus far about reaching out to other website for links in one capacity or another.  The truth is, though, when I first started getting backlinks to my photography website it took a long time for my domain authority to be high enough and my initial approach to be something other websites took seriously.

I’m a firm believer in “you have not because you ask not!”  So I still shoot for the stars when reaching out to brands for backlinks to our photography website.  However, I’ve also developed a more reasonable approach.

To gauge whether someone is likely to link back to your photography website you’ll want to analyze your domain authority, their domain authority, and your pitch to getting a backlink from them.

First use one of the tools below to check out your domain authority and the authority of the other website.  If their authority is much higher than yours they may not see a benefit in linking to you no matter how great your website or piece of content is.  

Secondly, if your pitch to them about the link is less than stellar then they’re likely to not continue reading the email.  They definitely won’t open your other emails either.  Keep in mind your initial outreach to build backlinks should be friendly & professional.  Most importantly it should benefit them.  You must make it abundantly clear why linking back to your website is a benefit to them.

How long until photographer backlinks are crawled & increase authority?

Once you’ve gotten those initial easy links and started working on other backlinks for photographers you’ll be wondering, “How long until those photography backlinks are crawled & increase domain authority?”

If your website is brand new, expect it to be a long game!  It can take months and even up to a year before a significant increase is seen.  However, once you make a habit of getting backlinks to your photography website, you’ll find the pay off to be exponential!  

Now that our domain authority is established, and Google has seen our reliability in our niche, new backlinks for photographers take less time to increase authority.  This is just an encouragement to keep up the work for a big payoff!  Because when you get links for your photography website, your business markets itself.  You just have to do some preliminary work to set it up to do its job!

Good vs. bad backlinks

Are some backlinks better than others?  Are there bad backlinks?  Generally speaking, any backlink for photographers from a nonspammy website is a good backlink to have.  However, backlinks from websites in your niche are much weightier as we’ve previously mentioned.  As you watch your backlink profile grow, be sure and keep tabs on the websites linking back to you.  If you notice a lot of spammy websites linking back to you, reach out to your developer about possibly disavowing links. 

Now–let’s get to your list of backlinks to get!

The conclusive list of backlinks ideas every photographer should use:

• Better Business Burea
• Your local Chamber of Commerce website
• Linked In 
• Zola, Wandering Weddings, & niche specific directories
• Send galleries to other vendors for their use & a link back
• Write a guest post reviewing a service or product
• Write a roundup post for several businesses to link back to
• Offer to take brand photos for another business for a link back
• Get simple link exchanges from other businesses in your niche
• Share a gallery on your blog reviewing other creatives for a link back
• Submit your galleries to online publications
• Pitch a news story to local news where you can be linked back to  
• Scout your competitor’s backlinks for their link ideas

What are tools to help get backlinks for photographers?

• Ubersuggest – for researching keywords, competitors, & domain authority
• Moz & Ahrefs – for tracking backlink progress
• Google reverse image search – to see if your most popular photos are being used elsewhere

No need to be scared.

We’re chill folks just like you.

and we have a passion for serving photographers just like you too.