The 5 most popular photography blog posts of 2019 on DJC Design

Published on Wed Jan 22, 2020 by David J Colbran

I always spend a little time each year in January checking my SEO metrics and potential impacts on search engine rankings for my site. And thought this year I would highlight the five most popular blogs last year in 2019. Not all of them are new, in fact a few are quite old but they hit a spot and keep getting impressions and all important clicks.

How do you measure popularity for something like a blog post or web page?

Click-through rate (CTR) can be used to gauge how well your pages or posts are performing. CTR is the number of clicks that your post receives divided by the number of times your post is shown: clicks ÷ impressions = CTR.

For example, if you had 5 clicks and 100 impressions, then your CTR would be 5% for that particular page. So I'm only looking here at 3 measurements; the times a particular page appeared in a Google search (impressions), the number of times a visitor clicked on a link and went to the page (clicks) and the CTR itself. Of course things like Google Analytics, Google Search Console and other specialist SEO software record many other metrics. For example bounce rates. A bounce occurs when someone visits your website and leaves without interacting further with your site and the rate is that percentage. Or device or platform - you maybe interested in mobile visitors in particular, or those using a specific browser. But I'll leave those stats for another blog post.

Of course just because you have a good click-through rate that doesn't necessarily convert to people reading your blog, or indeed getting in touch, or making that sale. Though to be honest from a business point of view, if you've created interesting content, with great titles and people are clicking on them, it can only be a good thing. However it has to be noted that it is unclear whether click-through rates are a ranking factor on search engines like Google, lots of SEO experts run tests and argue both ways. But it is something I always check and try to improve.

So onto the graphs and a little bit about each page.

1. Writing a photography brief

A long way out ahead is my post about writing a brief for photographers with 5066 clicks, 48666 page impressions and a pretty good CTR of 10.41%. I guess there are a lot of people out there struggling to get the best out of their investment in a professional photographer. As the post says, I've read many, many briefs over the years and they have ranged from a couple of lines to something more comprehensive and professional. I've condensed my thoughts down to just a few points - so follow the link to read my Top 6 tips on writing a killer brief for photographers.

2. Tips for Public Relations photography

Having completed commissions for the top PR agencies and some international brands, I've got the experience to know what works and how to pull off a great public relations shoot. Planning is of course the key and again I've summarised some pointers for readers. Some of them are obvious but again from my experience, it is easy to miss the simple things. So check my 10 top tips for great Public Relations Photography - it had a solid 2190 clicks, 30783 page impressions and 7.10% CTR in 2019.

3. Industrial Photography

This one is more a case study about continuing work with an industrial client and a day spent at their manufacturing plant. Nice to see it high up the searches and page impressions with 1110 clicks ,18151 page impressions and a CTR of 6.11%. Post is here Industrial photography in the North West - manufacturing commission

4. Hiring A Conference Photographer

More tips - this time about hiring a conference photographer - what to look out for, how to plan for an event and some advice about making it as effective as possible. I've completed many conference commissions here in Liverpool and further afield and it is something I really enjoy. This post in 2019 clocked up 841 clicks, 12684 page impressions on Google, which is a click-through rate of 6.63% - nice. So of course, if you are planning a conference please get in touch , here is the blog post - 7 Tips for Hiring a Conference Photographer

5. Portraits in Liverpool

This is my portraits portfolio page - another busy part of my practice - I provide traditional head and shoulders portraits for businesses, as well as more informal, natural images. Check the page  People and Portrait Photography in Liverpool - it had 506 clicks and 17295 page impressions with a CTR of 2.92%.

So that is a very brief round-up of some stats from last year. As I suggest earlier, there are many more measurements available and there are loads of people and companies who specialise in site analytics and dozens of business tools for those who want to do it themselves.

Author: David J Colbran