Photographer link exchange

<p>If you search google for "find a photographer near you" you can see several websites that have a page dedicated to photographer links in different states. I have seen a few different lists like this and I was wondering how people are able to join them? Does anyone know? I have e-mailed a few of the people that have it on their pages but I dont get a response. </p>

<p>What kind of work are you hoping to get from these "lists"? I googled exactly what you put in quotes, and I've never even heard of most of the top results.</p>

<p>Besides, that's not how people search anyway; they put in their own locations, and often include some other definer for style or specialty. San Diego Wedding Photographer. Boston Sport Photographer. New York Fashion Photographer. (good luck with that last one)</p>

<p>A little bit of good web SEO will help you much better than any of those "lists" that I saw.</p>

<p>backlinks</p>

<p>Avoid them. Most are link farms, used by people trying to use questionable "SEO" techniques to fool Google into ranking their web sites higher. This almost always backfires, which is why most of what appears on those lists aren't real (or more serious) businesses. Google actually penalizes people who use these techniques.</p>

<p>If you search "GRAND RAPIDS PHOTOGRAPHERS" which is my targeted keyword, the top person on the results uses the link farm technique. DeYoung Photography. If you look at some of her backlinks almost all of them are links from "link farms". How is that a penalty?</p>

<p>I honestly dont think google is near as smart as everyone thinks. People always say not to stuff keywords into your page either. But look at the same persons page as I was describing above. How much more can you stuff Grand Rapids and Photographer in one page? <br>

Doesent look like a penalty to me.</p>

<p>How often has it been that way, and ranked that way? They re-engineer those indexes on a periodic basis, and that's when well-worn SEO techniques tend to collapse like a house of cards within specific link farm territories. <br /><br />Also (and no disrespect - I've spent many happy months in Michigan!) - Grand Rapids may not be the best test. Try that for Chicago or New York or San Fransisco. The more web destinations there are vying for the same phrases, the more that stuff really matters. I agree that the site you mention is clumsy (does every link <em>really</em> have to open another browser window?) and full of awkward text, etc. But don't forget that there are other factors that also weigh heavily on the ranking. For example, her domain name has been registered for a couple of years longer than yours, and your site is heavily Flash-dependent, which provides much less straightforward text for Google to latch onto - and that's a big killer, index-ing wise.</p>

<p><strong>Photographer Links</strong><br>

I have a page for photographer links.</p>

<p>http://www.saugus.net/Photos/photolinks.shtml</p>

<p>My e-mail address is in my photo frames. </p>

<p><a href="../photo/8618764&size=lg">http://www.photo.net/photo/8618764&size=lg</a></p>

<p>Put "photographer links" in the subject line.</p>