Photography site still not ranking well after over year

[gaji]

I have a photography business In the Orlando Fl market. I have noticed my site: joeyvalyphotography.com Does not rank even In the top 50, for my strongest keyword: Orlando Wedding Photographer However, the keyword Orlando engagement Photography/photographer Ranks Very well, and has been rising I'm rank very rapidly over the last two weeks. I'm not sure why my main keyword is not going anywhere, and what my next move should be. I'm considering spending few fhousand dollars on a n seo company, however I though I could learn how to improve my keyword ranking on my own to no avail. Any and all tips, suggestions, advice, will be greatly appreciated.

[wojkwasi]

Could be due to a number of reasons - just a couple of quick ones:

On page/Tech:

1. Poor (lack of unique) URL structure
2. Home page missing h1
3. Lots of short page titles
4. Site-wide duplicate meta descriptions

Off page:

1. Not many links (according to OSE - http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=joeyvalyphotography.com )
2. It's moderately competetive (http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty/results.html?commit=Run+Report&date=2012-01-19&engine_id=96&keywords=Orlando+Wedding+Photographer&utf8=%E2%9C%93) - the comp has links

Have a look at what's in the Google index by searching:

site:joeyvalyphotography.com

Hope that helps!

[RyanKent]

As an individual I look at your site and think it's beautiful. I have the ability to pick up a camera and take a picture, but I am a horrible photographer. You have the ability to take a camera and capture moments and feelings in a way words cannot express. You are truly gifted in this area and I envy those people who have that artistic ability.

When I look at your site, I see some great pieces of SEO. You offer a flash site BUT you support it with HTML code so those who cannot view flash, such as search engine crawlers, can still view your site. I also noticed you offer social engagement with facebook, twitter and google+. Your site loads very fast as well.

With the above noted, there are many issues with your site which can be improved from a SEO perspective. If you wish to try to fix some of them yourself, the best place to start is with the Beginner's Guide to SEO. Frankly, there is a lot of work involved and you will likely need support from a quality web developer as well.

A few specifics:

• the moment I entered your site music began playing. The music may be wonderful, but it is an awful user experience. Some people visiting your site may be in offices or other environments. Any sound at all, even if you set it at a low volume, may offer a very unpleasant surprise to the site's visitor. The first reaction of a percentage of your site's visitors will be to close their internet browser as quickly as possible. Not only is this a bad user experience, it sends negative metrics to search engines. My recommendation would be to disable any audio and allow interested visitors to play it.

• The site's URLs are not optimized. A friendly url would be something like joeyvalyphotography.com/wedding-photos. Try performing the following search in Google.com  "site:joeyvalyphotography.com". There are 34 pages listed with URLs such as <cite>joeyvalyphotography.com/?pageID=657995. </cite>

• your site is duplicated on the internet. Both www.joeyvalyphotography.com and joeyvalyphotography.com are valid internet addresses. This is a problem for SEO.

• there is very little text content, and what is offered is not very good. Look at your home page's first sentence: "Considered one of the best Orlando wedding photographers in Florida, JoeyValy Photography team of photagraphers have worked as a team of professional Orlando wedding photographers and photojournalist photographing weddings, and engagements since 2005."

Please forgive me for saying so, but that sentence sounds like it was written by a very poorly paid "SEO" worker from a foreign country.

If you wish to improve your site's SEO performance, start with the things which are under your immediate control. Look at all the content in your site and try to have it read as well as your images appear. If you are unwilling or unable to do such, then it would be best to seek assistance from a qualified SEO.

[wojkwasi]

Agree with the music user experience too (at least offer an option to turn the sound off - as is offered inside the site) - I recently got married & that Christina Perri song was part of the ceremony so it didn't bother me as much but it could be a potential reason for some bounces, as Ryan mentioned.

Expansion on Facebook & other social channels could be very good & low cost mediums for you to gain an audience. Start with your existing clients and leverage from their friends & family. Tag the models too (they can always be removed if unwanted)

And yes... stunning photos - you're very talented!