Do you "own" a search?

Gjesdal

There are so many talented photographers that I'm sure a lot of you have experienced that your photos might pop up "everywhere".

(Bear in mind that if one search Google without using a trick like using a different browser or in incognito-mode your work will show up more for you than for others due to it filters results based upon your previous behaviour. Duckduckgo.com isn't suppose to track what you search so it is suppose to be more neutral than the other search engines...)

On Flickr it seems to me from when I look at what people search for the results staggers me, as for instance I've visited Riga 4 times but if a search is done on "Riga, Portrait" it would seem like I live there... Naturally people from Latvia would tag their photos often in Latvian and/or Russian, but still it baffles me and makes me wonder if Flickr does the same..?

If one have a very unique subject for photography or a place (like a friend of mine who went to North Korea in late 1980's got a lot of attention on a few of his photos which he posted online a few years ago when he finally got a scanner... (Langly, VA amongst others :-) ) I can imagine it would be easy to "own" that particular search, but if one would search "Fashion", "car" or "Paris" few could hope to "own" such a search :-)
I got the d7100 the same week it went on sale and took a trip to Berlin and a lot of people searched for that camera the following weeks that would also bring in a lot of traffic I would imagine..

Anyone else given this any thoughts / experience?

Elvishefer

I think you're right in that 'owning' a niche is the best way to get search attention for those of us who are not working pros.

Another way is to add a lot of value around your photos, like doing a blog post on an area that is good for photography, and doing a better job explaining it and providing more information than anyone else. Lots of keywords (location, name of an attraction, area, etc.) and getting your post some initial attention by telling interested parties about it are good practices. (They must be, given the number of photography site cross-posts we get in this forum ) The more links to your content from other sites, the better. I know when I plan a photography trip, one of the first things I do is check for other photographers who've done the same for scouting purposes.

I remember the photographers who shot the insides of nuclear missile silos, the first into Chernobyl, or the woman who shot the FBI body decomposition test site, and dozens of others, got attention (and search results) by being the first to conquer new territory photographically. I'm not sure how much business it got them, but they did receive attention for their art. Were all the photos taken spectacular? Not always.

All the drone camera shooters out there who are getting attention these days by re-shooting locations from new perspectives translates into better search result ownership too. So new technology can shift the content pool and influence search results (similar to what you said about your D7100 trip).

I ramble, but I think owning search results is just part of the bigger issue of getting exposure for your work through the Web and beyond. (Especially for those of us who can't/won't pay for exposure).

Great topic!

Ironheart

The term is Search Engine Optimization or SEO. You can do it yourself, or pay someone to do it for you. The techniques @Elvishefer mentions are a few of the things, but there are many more.

Gjesdal

The term is Search Engine Optimization or SEO. You can do it yourself, or pay someone to do it for you. The techniques @Elvishefer mentions are a few of the things, but there are many more.

Wasn't really thinking of SEO, was thinking more that it comes "naturally"... Like if you search "American landscape photographers" you'd expect that Ansel Adams should give a few hits and some of his works naturally would be found on sites that have had some SEO work done on them, but the importance he is regarded etc..

I know what SEO is, and topic wasn't an attempt to be about me, I was just curious if anyone else have discovered that "by accident/luck" their work will pop up whenever anyone does a search that covers their work.

Symphotic

I don't "own" a search, but I can be found on the first page of google searches for a couple of commercial video camera systems. We are number 8 of 198,000 results for one product and 9 of 19,400,000 for another. That was with no SEO. Keeps me going to work every day.