This Is The Sure Fire Best Way To Find A Photographer Near Me

It's a question posed thousands of times a day. Finally here is a complete answer to the query, how do I find a photographer near me?

Find A Photographer Near Me

I'm being a bit facetious. After all, most searches for find a photographer near me are a direct attempt to find a photographer near the person searching. However, the question poses another question in and of itself. That is, should we trust the results we get for that search?

How Search Engines Find Photographers Near You

Ask Google to find a photographer near you. It provides a list of photographers in your area. So, how do they get those results? First, they do consider location.

Second, photographers submit their website to search engines. Then, the search engines crawl the site to see if it's relevant. Additionally, search engines rely on more than the site crawl.

Search Result Factors

In addition to the search engine finding that a website's content matches what you are searching for there are other factors at play. This is especially true for how it orders the provided results.

Page Ranking

Search engines want to provide you with what they believe to be the best results. Or, at least they used to. Now many of them provide you with AI Slop. They now tell you to eat glue and rocks. However, to determine the amount of glue and rocks their AI recommends they consider the authority of the website providing the information.

Authority and Reddit

One reason Google told people to eat glue is because Reddit has a high level of site authority. Additionally, they trained their AI on Reddit. Also, AI doesn't understand sarcasm. As a result, it tells us to eat rocks.

Photography Website Authority

For a photographer's to rank high Google considers if it's an authority on the subject. For example, search for headshot photographers near me. The results shouldn't return photographers who don't do headshots. Nor should it show photographer not near you.

How Search Engines Rank Pages

The way that search engines rank pages isn't publicly shared information. This is the algorithm - a collection of commands that decide how to order your search results.

In addition to the ways listed above, search engine algorithms also look at how many other websites link to the websites they're showing you. The more that other people trust and cite those websites the more the search engine assumes they're authoritative.

Of course, some websites artificially inflate these factors. For example, they'll pay for people to write articles that link to their website. That said, the search engines know about this practice and therefore weigh these factors considering this information.

Photographers Near Me Services

Another issue when searching for photographers near you is services like Yelp, Angie's List, and Thumbtack. These websites boost pages that are willing to pay them for advertising. The more a photographer pays the more they show them to people. As a result those with more money to spend get ranked higher.

Higher Ranking Doesn't Equal Better Photographers

The best photographers don't always have time to spend updating their websites or hiring experts to improve their page ranking. As a result, when you search for photographers near me there are going to be amazing local photographers that don't even show up on the first page of results.

Does that mean you should pass up the photographers who appear higher up in search rankings? Not necessarily. In fact, a better way to choose the right photographer near you is to look at their work to see if it fits what you're looking for.

Choosing The Right Photographer Near Me

When it comes to choosing the right photographer near you it's important to find a photographer whose style fits what you're looking for. In addition, try to get a feel for their personality. How? Look at their social media and or their blog. Often photographers share personal information on social media which helps you understand more about them.

Photographers Within Your Budget

It might go without saying but finding the right photographer isn't the only factor. These days finding a photographer that fits your budget is often critical. That said, if you're choosing on price alone you need to understand that you get what you pay for.

Photographers prices vary. Therefore, it's better to find photographers who you like and whose work you like. Then, find out if their fees fit your budget. You'll have a lot more success finding a photographer near you who fits your budget if you ensure their work fits your goals and styles first.