Meredith's Husband: 0:42

Hey, this is Meredith husband, I've got some SEO advice for you. But I'm gonna keep it really simple so that you can understand it. So make sense. And most importantly, so you can actually use use pick time, right? Yeah. And pick time had some news recently. Yeah,

Meredith: 1:02

yeah. So Tim has a new set, everybody. Everybody is so excited about. Somebody literally said, I want to kiss pick time on the mouth for this. And another person said, Okay, this is reason enough to switch back to pick time.

Meredith's Husband: 1:20

And so what is the news? What was the news and picked up?

Meredith: 1:23

Okay, so I don't have everything in front of me. Okay. Well, all right. So that's pretty much it. They have a blog. That's SEO. Something

Meredith's Husband: 1:34

it's, yeah. So it's like auto optimize. So my question, I guess, are people excited about the automation aspect of just getting a photo shoot on to their blog, or are they excited about the SEO portion? That it's auto? For

Meredith: 1:50

sure. For sure, for sure. Cuz that helps them? Yeah.

Meredith's Husband: 1:55

All right. All right. So I get, I get it, forgive me, but I can get really upset about companies when they do things like this. Now, the reason now, we'll get into the specifics of the pick time, auto SEO, okay, but this has happened hundreds of times. I'll take for example, Wix. I'll use Wix as an example. Wix is gonna be my punching bag today. Okay. So people on Wix, you might be familiar. If, you know, Wix also says, Hey, we have these great SEO features. All you do is you go here, and you put your keywords in, it says your keyword tag, okay.

Meredith: 2:30

And people are like, Oh, my God, that's awesome. So cool.

Meredith's Husband: 2:33

I did everything right now my site is doing what that is, does Absolutely. Gold, nothing for SEO, nothing, not even a millionth of 1% of SEO, what it's talking about Google doesn't even pay attention to and it hasn't paid attention to for almost 10 years. And my problem with companies that do this is they know this. They know that it's doing nothing for SEO. And yet, they're saying here, look, these great, we do your SEO. And so Squarespace is much better now. But Squarespace used to be similar. But it's not these two companies alone, there are all kinds of companies that tout these SEO features that do absolutely nothing. Now, sometimes, it's even worse than doing absolutely nothing. Sometimes it does more harm than good. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. So when I heard this pick time news, it it very much piqued my interest, because I'm wondering, okay, well, I've piqued your interest. Yes, pick time. Pick the pick time peak take time. It piqued my interest very much. Because I, I was curious. So I, you sent me the email that pick time sent out? Yeah. And I followed that email and went to the blog where they announce this feature.

Meredith: 3:52

And picked up is a very reliable, incredible thing.

Meredith's Husband: 3:56

It looks good. It looks beautiful. I mean, first, I will say the automation aspect of it, where they where you take your photos, and it creates an auto blog post for you and formats it to mobile, and makes sure the images are optimized in terms of speed. Yeah, looks fantastic. And that is great. And that if that is what you're excited about? Super. Yeah, it looks like a great tool. It looks like they they did a wonderful job implemented. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful. They're gorgeous. But my concern is in touting this, these SEO features, and people are going to be like, Oh, great. Now these are optimized, I don't have to worry about it. I can make my concern is just by looking at the email was like, Oh, wait, that has the potential to do more harm than good for your SEO. So I went and looked I read their blog. And like I said, it looks gorgeous. It looks absolutely fantastic. But this could create a red flag if you do this if you do their their auto SEO features, and then you don't do anything else. I think it's more likely than not, you're gonna raise red flags with the Google spam team. We Yeah, it is a spam. This is what we would consider spam in the SEO industry. So

Meredith: 5:08

I am going to share this with everybody who was so excited.

Meredith's Husband: 5:12

Yeah, so I'm going to read well, I'm going to like tell you what you would need to do to avoid this being spam perfect. But first, I'm going to go to the pick time blog and I'm going to read the portion about specifically about SEO. Like I said the other stuff is fantastic. It looks gorgeous. It creates blogs that look amazing. And then so if that's your objective, yeah, yeah, like I would do it too. But you got to be very careful with the SEO portion. So that's Can I

Meredith: 5:39

just interject one thing? One, one person said, The only problem with this on the blog is that you have to stay on pick time. Because as soon as you leave, pick time, all those blogs go with it. Now those,

Meredith's Husband: 5:55

okay, so that's one, that's one issue that I will talk about. Oh, okay. But first, let me let me read this. So the portion from the pick time blocks is the heading of this portion is increase your reach with SEO. And then it goes on. Pick time blogs are optimized for SEO to help you have a better presence on Google and can include links for better cross promotion, take advantage of our and this is the important part, take advantage of our advanced tools such as descriptions, alt text tags, automatic file renaming, and fast loading. So those things, the fit, like I said, the fast loading is great, fast loading is very important. And I'm sure they're doing an awesome job with it. The other things, the descriptions, the alt tags, the alt text, the tags, the automatic file renaming, if that's all you're doing, if you're just taking that stuff, and you're taking photos from a session, and you're just creating a blog that has just images, and you do that stuff, that's going to do more harm than good. That is what we call spamming. That is what Google would consider spam. Why you have basically a useless page to users just images, it's just images and no text, right? So to Google, that's kind of like a blank page. Now, what you're doing is you're stuffing your keywords into the alt text into the file names into the descriptions. That is literally what Google is looking out for. You're creating what used to be called a doorway page has no real value in terms of content, but you're trying to stuff your keywords in there. Oh, my God. Okay, so that's not good. Now, there is a way there is a way around this. Okay. You have to add content, you have to put words on that page. Yeah, you have to have I would if you want to, if you want a page to rank in Google for anything, even if it's not very competitive. It's gotta have 250 words, minimum, absolute absolute minimum 350 to 500 would be better. Okay. But you have to have words on the page. So if you use this tool, and other it's, like I said, it's a beautiful looking tool, and it looks like it works great. You still have to add content, don't just think that you're going to do this, and it's going to name your files somehow magically, and you're gonna start ranking and Google that's the option.

Meredith: 8:20

Is there a place to write those words on it?

Meredith's Husband: 8:24

I don't know. Now, I looked at the builder, I haven't gone in and logged in and created a blog this way and tested it out. But I haven't I haven't I should I have an idea for that? Well, okay. I don't really I don't have a blog. I mean, I can't create a blog this way. Okay. I suppose you could, we could test that at some point. But I haven't, I have another idea for that. Okay. But you need to add words. And also, whatever is however, it auto names your files. The first file names are like, super, super minor. I see this advice all the time, like, Oh, you got to name your file. Yeah. For SEO? Yes. Super minor. Because when you're visiting a website, do when do you how often do you see the file names of the images? Only if they're missing? Now the file names? file names? Yeah, the names of the files

Meredith: 9:17

in a website? Yeah. Is that the one where you put when you hover your mouse over?

Meredith's Husband: 9:22

No, no. And the file name, that's the that's the title tag. That's the title of the image, or sometimes the alt text you never you never do. And so Google knows that why would Google Play so much importance on something that what user to a website is never ever going to see? It's not that important. Now, it probably it does play a very minor role. And even Google says, like, name your files appropriately. But don't stuff your keywords in there thinking it's going to do anything, users never see that Google is interested in what users are going to see. Okay, so number one file names not that important. And so when you're setting this up, and you know, I don't know what kind of prompt you give it in order to auto name your files, or your alt text or whatever. Be very careful. If you stuffed keywords in your alt text, Google is going to know that it's a red flag, you would be better off just going through and I'm sure this feature is there. When you add those images go through and just add the alt text manually. I'm sure it's their right and pick time and you can just say, Kids playing on a swing or a couple kissing at the park or whatever it is, name it appropriately, because I guarantee you if you just say oh my keywords are Buildings photography. And it's gonna go in and create some variation of that for all your images. That's not good. That's not going to be good. So a couple other things that you had mentioned. So I get, I get very excited I get

Meredith: 10:49

Oh, I love it.

Meredith's Husband: 10:52

Cuz this was like, and I don't think pick time is really sometimes, you know, like in the in the example I had about Wix like, yeah, you know, there are people at that company who No, this is not doing anything. This is a little more borderline like, well, maybe they don't have somebody who with the SEO experience, and they don't really know this that,

Meredith: 11:12

I think because they're good people, and it's a really good company.

Meredith's Husband: 11:17

I do know that I do know. Yeah. So I don't I don't want to like, you know, I don't want to use them as a budget. But I don't want to bad mouth this thing? Because I think there are ways you could you really could use this to help your workflow and do both and be a lot more productive. And maybe it'd be good for us you

Meredith: 11:32

collaborate with them to install things that would work. And hard

Meredith's Husband: 11:37

just yeah, maybe who knows, to make it better? Anyway. So what you what you had mentioned is, the one downside is like, you have to stay with QuickTime, because if you're relieved, then those blogs disappear. Okay, so there are two after you'd create a blog. If, if that blog is on pick time, if it's on the pick time site and not your website, that doesn't absolutely no matter what you do, it's not going to do anything for your own SEO, it has to be on your website. So the blog, and I don't know, if they offer this feature, you have to embed that blog, on your website on WordPress or script, wherever your blog is. The blog has to be on your website. And and this is really important. It cannot be indexed on the pick time site. There are

Meredith: 12:24

Oh, it is though they have because they have websites, you can create your website. Yes,

Meredith's Husband: 12:29

I know. I know. I know. But they have to have an option. And I do think it's there. But you have to use it and make sure that you choose the option to not have it indexed on the pick time site. Okay, that's really important. Because then more time, you have to look for and find the option where your blog is not indexed on the pic time site, okay? Because then if you do that, then you're gonna have a blog, you're gonna have a duplicate blog, on your website and on the pick times site very bad. That equals very bad. That's very bad, don't do. I don't know how many times I can say don't do that. Because then Google can look at it and be like, You Meredith Zinner just are copying this blog from pick time and you're putting it on your own site and claiming that it's your own. There have been years and years and years of specific updates where Google found content that does that and penalizes it. So so this is very important. If I haven't mentioned this, it's very important. The your blog cannot be indexed on the pick time site. That will go that will be a good SEO for pick time. If you do that, that SEO for you. I do believe that's an option. Now. I am pretty sure I'm

Meredith: 13:47

sure they would have I'm pretty sure that I haven't looked at it yet. I just sent you the email.

Meredith's Husband: 13:53

Okay, so now, like I said, the other thing that you have to do is you have to add some content to this blog. So I don't know if you can do that right on the pic time site and then embed the whole thing. Or if you have to embed the whole thing on your blog and then add content. I have a feeling you can add the whole thing on their blog on that. Yeah. So you're creating your blog on pick time. Yeah. Somewhere in there, they must have the option where you can put some text in? Yeah, got it, you got to do that. And like I said, aim for if there's anything if it's anything, you want to have rank at all, you got to have at least 250 words 350 or more. Now, if you're using your blog, just for your users to see like, Hey, here's what a session looks like, here are the photos that come out of a session. Great that super. But then don't worry about SEO and don't try to stuff your keywords in there. That's just for users. In fact, I would probably if I were working on the on something that were that was happening, I would say let's no index those pages. Because we don't want to even make it appear to Google like we're trying to spam this. How would you do that? That's a that's a little more advanced. I don't want to get into that. Right. Okay, right now. Okay. So, okay, number one, make sure you add some content. Number two, I would go through and I would actually add your alt text manually. Okay. Instead of letting them do it automatically based on whatever keywords they give you. And literally a we've talked about this before. The way to create an alt tag is finished the sentence. This is a picture of blank, fill in the blank with four to five words. That's your Alltech make it accurate. Don't try to say it's children's photography. If it's up picture of a kid of kids playing on swings. If you say kids playing on swings, kids is kind of related, you know, kids and children, Google knows the relation. So do that. And then in terms of file naming, you know, I'd like to include your brand name and file names. So if somebody tries to take your image off the website, it has your file is named with your name, like, you're kind of making it obvious. Aside from that, then I named the files by the pages that they're going on, or you know what the shoot is, or something like that. And to be honest, that's pretty good SEO, because that's likely going to include some related keywords, maybe you're not going to name every photo, children's photography, or children's photographer, New York City, don't do that ever. That's. But it might be, you know, kids in a playground is, is related, you know, so it's accurate. And it's related. And it's honest, always try to be honest with Google. If you're if you're if you're trying to, if you're trying to trick Google, they're kind of figure it out. They always do

Meredith: 16:34

so clever. Anyway, I think that's it. That's very good. I can't wait to share this with everybody.

Meredith's Husband: 16:45

Oh, the so the idea I had? Yeah. So like I said, I don't have any photography blogs, I don't think you, you, you're not doing this. This is not something. By the way, when people say you need to blog for SEO, don't think that putting a bunch of images from a recent shoot and just putting that on your blog, that's meaningless for SEO, that's not going to do anything for SEO. Like I said, if it's for users to show that, hey, here's examples of my photo sessions and what you get if you hire me, super, that's awesome. But don't think that putting a bunch of images on a blog and publishing it helps you SEO, it doesn't, unless you have that, unless you have content lets you have text. So I am not a photographer, I don't have a blog where I can test this, I was going to say, if people are using this, and they want to know if what they are doing is right or wrong to message me on Instagram. That Meritus husband, however, I'm getting a lot of messages on Instagram now. And I don't want to reply to all of these individually. So what I will do, I think is I'm going to create a post, I'll call it pick time blog feature, whatever, on that, on that post. If you if you have a blog that you've done with this pic time, and you want me to take a look at it and say that, you know, give my opinion, leave a comment with the URL in that in that post. And then I will leave my feedback as a comment on that post. And that way, I won't have to answer the same question 10 times and everybody should hopefully get some value out of this. Yeah,

Meredith: 18:20

everyone should hopefully get some value. Hopefully.

Meredith's Husband: 18:25

That hopefully, hopefully. So I'll put that in. I'll just name out and I'll make it like a big text thing like pick time blog SEO or something so easy to find. Married as husband.

Meredith: 18:36

I'm I'm speechless. A rare, rare occurrence.

Meredith's Husband: 18:40

That's pretty rare. And, you know, I like I said, I don't want to just flat out say This is terrible. It has the potential if you don't use it wisely, I think to to not only not be good, but could actually do more harm than good.

Meredith: 18:56

Hopefully they'll fix that. They'll hear this well fix that.

Meredith's Husband: 19:00

Yeah. Well, I don't know what they would do. Because it's got to be up to the users a little bit. Like there are no there are no tools out there that are going to just do your SEO for you. Like, you know, you know now I mean, maybe someday, maybe someday, but still not. I mean, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of tools have claimed to do this. Like the one that comes to mind is the Yoast the WordPress Yoast. Yeah, the Yoast SEO plugin. And they came up with a gimmick years ago of having this the red yellow green lights. Yeah. And it's basically it's is your SEO good as yours? Yeah, that was a gimmick all the time. That's that's a that's a gimmick. It's probably it's probably better than absolutely nothing. But it's again, it worked fantastically well though, because Yoast exploded in terms of popularity. And now the other plugins are doing similar things. So it Yoast did really well, it was a great idea did really well for them. But tools are not going to do SEO for you at the like if there are tools that are going to do SEO perfectly for you and get you visible in Google like they all say and they actually do it, then everybody's going to do it and you're no longer going to have an advantage. Right. Okay. So if you're using this pick time tool, put in a little bit of effort on your own. I don't know what kind of analogy I can use, but it's like a self driving car. Well, you still gotta get in and turn it on and tell it to go somewhere like, you know All right. Yeah, you got to put in a little time period. All right. I hope that helps. If you have questions, look for that Instagram post on my feed in my grid. Thank you, husband. Bye bye I hope that helped. I hope that helped your website hope that helped your business. I hope that helped give you a little bit of confidence that SEO was not this convoluted, cryptic, crazy thing that nobody can understand. If you did like it and you found it helpful. Please share it with a couple of your colleagues. Tell them what you like or more importantly, tell me what you liked. Let me know interview leave a review on Apple. Tell me what parts you like. And I'll try to do more of those parts. And again, thanks for listening