SEO Helps You Say “I Do” with a Wedding You’ll Never Forget
February 16th, 2016 by
Mardi Gras is winding down, so it’s time for the second most festive time of year in New Orleans: wedding season! February is National Weddings Month, and happy couples all over the country are prepping and planning for their upcoming big day. For many brides- and grooms-to-be, this process begins online with vendor research, decor inspiration, and even placing orders for things like guestbooks and cake toppers. To see how their expertise in SEO and Internet-driven business affected their plans, I decided to ask several of our recently wed Influencers how the Internet shaped their wedding day dreams.
Nothing Like an Old-Fashioned Google Search
You’re recently engaged and you have no idea where to start to plan your wedding, so you turn to your go-to resource of infinite knowledge: Google. As Influencer Chris and his wife found out when they were planning their wedding a year and a half ago, sometimes a basic search is all you need to really get the ball rolling.
“New Orleans has a ton of wedding resources, and there were often many options to look at when searching for things like ‘wedding photographer New Orleans’ or ‘popular New Orleans wedding venues,’” he says. In big cities or popular destination wedding locations, the list of available vendors is seemingly limitless, so those with higher SERP rankings really beat out the competition for customers who don’t have the time to thoroughly investigate every result.
When there are so many options, it’s good to find techniques for narrowing your search down to exactly what you want. Influencer Alison knew she wanted to get married in her church and needed a photographer who would capture the day perfectly. When it came time to search for a photographer, she explains “I was hoping to find one that had photographed weddings at my church before (they would know best angles, nuances of the church layout, etc.).”
To find the right person, she searched for “Mater Dolorosa + wedding photos” and found several photographers who had worked in her church before. This search technique is also helpful for viewing potential venues full of people and activity instead of trying to imagine it on a site visit. It is essential for photographers to have their images optimized so they show up in searches like these.
Pins on Pins on Pins
While Google searches were the most popular way to find specific vendors near the wedding location, Pinterest provided plenty of inspiration for our Influencer brides. The image-based format of Pinterest means that thousands of ideas for flowers, decor, fashion, favors, and dramatic exits can be explored, compared, grouped, and saved. Many of these pins also include a link to Etsy or another location to buy the depicted object or instructions on how to copy the look yourself. Influencer Kari had a small, DIY-style wedding and used Pinterest for all her decor inspiration, and she even found a DIY wedding veil. Another Influencer, Michelle, also used Pinterest for design inspiration, allowing her to source most of her ideas from other sites, including a donut-shaped bride and groom cake topper from Etsy and scratch-off save-the-dates.
Tying the Knot
No discussion on modern wedding planning could be complete without mentioning The Knot. For nearly 20 years, the husband and wife team behind this site have culled countless wedding resources, inspiration, advice and etiquette tips, and organization tools into the ultimate wedding planning portal. Influencer Laura testifies to its power: “I … used The Knot a great deal to conduct searches, make lists, check items off said lists, and place bulk orders of favors, stationery, decorations, invitations, etc. The Knot is awesome because it helps you stay organized and provides links to external vendors to best meet your needs.”
The lists of vendors proved helpful to most of our Influencers. Vendors are searchable by location, price, and style considerations, and each vendor’s page on The Knot includes basic information, photos, a link to the vendor’s website, and customer reviews. Good reviews from other couples often tipped the scale when it was down to the final decision. The Knot also selects the “best of weddings” in each vendor category every year, providing a credential the vendor can put on their website.
Utilizing SEO techniques not only helps wedding vendors as they compete in a heavily saturated market, but it also makes things easier for brides and grooms. Wedding planning can be stressful and overwhelming at times. From optimized searches to social media engagement to customer testimonials, the Internet has quickly and efficiently brought resources from all over to couples, hopefully alleviating that stress and putting the focus back on fun and love.
