Seo benefits to keywords other than specifically targeted?

[studio35design]

Im a photographer. Im interested in starting a blog on my site with articles relating to photography advise, tips, recommendations, etc...

Will traffic to those posts help my serp rankings to terms i wouldnt specifically target in them?

Say local terms such as my city wedding photographer?

I know the blog posts would help others, and help give me industry authority, but i would like it if in addition it helps drive my local target market to my site.

Thoughts?

[DennisSeymour]

Hi Ruben!

It will definitely will help.

I'm assuming you will also be putting your business address on the site, so that also help identify you as part of that locality.

Aside from that, using the location on your posts will also help you rank for them.

There are other ways to specifically rank for those local terms, but I think you just wanted to know if your blog posts will rank locally/bring in local traffic.

[Steve.C]

Great answer Dennis!

I think a good way to look at it is that if Google sees a blog post and is ranking it well for some search related to photography - they think you are knowledgeable & trustworthy. If they think you are knowledgeable and trust worthy about photography in general, they will assume you are knowledgeable and trustworthy about photography on a local level and reward you as such.

Dennis mentioned some steps you need to take to ensure that Google knows you desire those local SERPS - address citations being the most important. As Dennis also alluded to, there are other steps which you need to take as well to optimize your results, but a blog is a great start.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Ruben,

How people use your site (like traffic to your blog posts) can contribute to your 'authority', and thereby, your rankings, yes, but you would want to be blogging with your keywords in mind. If you are a wedding photographer with a local business website and you're starting this blog as a vehicle for publishing additional, on-going content, then consider viewing the blog as a showcase of the client projects you take on locally.

So, let's say you're operating out of your physical location in Taos, New Mexico, but you frequently get jobs in neighboring cities like Santa Fe, Mora and Albuquerque. Lacking a physical location in these 3 towns, you are very unlikely to earn Google local pack rankings for them, because that's just the way Google works. But, by steadily blogging about the weddings you've photographed in these other cities (writing about the projects, the venues, showing your photos) you will begin to develop a body of content that relates to your service keywords + these cities. The hope here is to gain visibility in the ORGANIC SERPS, rather than the local ones. If your work is impressive and your writing engaging, this additional organic visibility can help you to start getting phone calls from these additional cities.

That's basically how it works. If you are blogging regularly about your work in these other cities, and your competitors aren't as motivated in their marketing as you are, you have a chance to get into the organic SERPs with the kinds of blog posts that excite new potential customers and encourage them to pick you for their event.

Hope this helps!