Flickr is a social media platform that is often overlooked in terms of SEO and building brand awareness. Nonetheless, if used in a right way, it can generate additional traffic to your website with minimal effort. Since it is a platform for photographs, it requires some creativity in that department. But don’t stress. After reading these tips on how to use Flickr to boost your SEO, maybe you’ll get some ideas.

Good Photo Titles and Tags

When uploading photos, make sure you write titles for each of them. Apart from being a good place to put your primary keywords, if the title has good wording, it can catch the attention of people browsing through photos.

Tags are another good place for your keywords. They are also good because they place your photos into certain categories, which will enable the right people to find them quicker. The number of tags is not fixed, but you should try to have about 6 of them. Keep in mind that both tags and title have to be relevant to the photo. Using tags just for the sake of having them can cause more damage than good.

Hyperlinks in Descriptions

Description that goes with each photo is a good place to insert hyperlinks, either to your website or to a particular post on your blog. Although Flickr has added no follow attribute to links on its platform, this does not mean they are not useful. If you have a compelling photo with an interesting title and a good description that peaks the interest of your viewers, they will definitely be compelled to find out more by clicking the link for your site.

For example, imagine you own a tattoo parlour and you post a photo of the newest tattoo you designed with the title ‘The latest creation’. If you add the link to your website with a call to action ‘Look at other tattoos we designed’, you will entice people to check your other work.

As long as we are on the topic of links, don’t forget to link your Flickr profile on your website. As with any other social network, you should use Flickr naturally and try to manage it carefully and with a plan. If you use Flickr only as an SEO tool to boost traffic, it will not yield the same results. Let Flickr become part of your virtual identity.

Greater Visibility

Images posted on Flickr rank pretty good, since this is a popular platform for sharing images. If you place your keywords in a right way, the images you post on your Flickr profile may rank well in search engines, and consequently bring traffic to your website.

As already mentioned, it would be good to place your primary keywords in the title, and secondary ones in tags. Experts agree that you should try using keywords that are not that competitive within your sector, but are still relevant to the topic. You wouldn’t like to misguide people. If you find the right combination, traffic will organically increase.

Couple of Things Regarding Photos

Apart from the tips mentioned above, there are a couple of things you can do to fully utilise photos as a generator of more traffic. Firstly, make sure you always use photos that are yours, i.e. for which you own copyright. If you decide to use other people’s photos, then you should give credit where credit is due and mentioned them.

Secondly, make sure you put a watermark on all your photos, as designers recommend that a watermark should be in the form of your company’s logo or even your website address. Therefore, if someone shares your photo, people will be able to see who originally uploaded it and may feel compelled to visit your website.

Lastly, allow people to share you photos – but remind them to mention you. If you give people authorisation to use your photos, and in return you ask of them just to include the link to your website, you have an enormous potential for organic dissemination of your website address. To be safe, you can always perform reverse image search and find those who don’t play by the rules.

Conclusion

Flickr is another virtual space which can potentially be used to boost your website’s SEO. Bear in mind that although popular, Flickr won’t generate as much traffic as other social networks, like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. However, even if you use Flickr sporadically (once or twice a month), it can still provide a good traffic boost. Therefore, for a minimum investment of time, you can still see the difference.

As a photo sharing platform, Flickr will be most beneficial to those businesses that can upload pictures of their products, and for certain types of blogs (like travelling blogs) that rely heavily on the visual aspect to tell their story. Nonetheless, other types of businesses can also use Flickr to boost their traffic. You just need a little creativity, a good plan and a little time invested in managing your Flickr profile. Just keep your photos relevant to your business, your keywords relevant to your photos and use those hyperlinks to bring people to your website.

Author bio: Sam Cyrus is CEO and co-founder of http://agseosydney.com.au, an innovative online marketing agency based in Sydney which is focused on Digital Marketing. Sam is also a creative writer and his interests are entrepreneurship, business, online marketing, SEO and social media.