How to Book More Work at Your Favorite Locations

So you’ve decided you want to use blogging to target + rank on Google for all of your favorite locations – woohoo! 👏 But now that you’ve recognized all the lovely benefits that blogging can bring to your biz, and you’ve officially forced your brain to shift into blogging mode, there’s just one problem you’re facing: where the hell do you start??

I know firsthand that it can be EXTREMELY difficult to pick where tf you should blog about first, especially if you serve multiple locations in your business. If I had to guess, you probably fall into the camp of “I have too many locations I want to blog about & work at, but I don’t know where to start.“

Having too many ideas can be just as much of an obstacle as having none when it comes to blogging, and sometimes you really just need somebody to tell you what the fuck to do. I actually received a voice memo recently from one of my past Blogging Bootcamp students who is an absolute blogging queen, telling me that she was feeling stuck during her busy season and wanted to know if I could just provide her some direction + give her a plan for her to run with. So I did – and on that note, I’ll be sharing more about fully custom blog plans soon 😉

But for now, I wanted to give you an easy blog plan that you can start following RIGHT NOW to start targeting all of your favorite wedding & elopement locations! Whether you’re brand new to blogging or you’ve been blogging for a while but just don’t know what direction to go in right now, using this simple 3-step, location-based strategy will help you begin attracting your ideal clients, climbing the Google rankings for locations you want to work at, and providing excellent resources to every couple you work with 🙌

How to Use Blogging to Target Your Favorite Locations as a Wedding Photographer

Step 1: Capitalize on your primary market

Before you start to really focus on any other destinations (if that’s something you want to do), I really recommend positioning yourself as the absolute expert in your home, primary market first! Prioritizing content about your home base will do a few things for you:

1. Demonstrate your expertise as a local, and show clients that you really know your shit
2. Show Google that you are a top expert in the main location you serve, because you’re consistently publishing fresh, in-depth content about it
3. Save you the most time up front with clients – I’d guess that the majority of your clients are getting married in your primary market, so you’ll have lots of clients asking you questions about that one location. Having these blog posts ready will save you all that time answering them over & over!
4. Help bolster your SEO presence in that area, because I’d assume that the majority of your website (or at least your main pages) target your primary location (e.g. if you’re a Seattle elopement photographer and your website is mainly optimized for Seattle elopements, creating Seattle elopement blogs will help add to that!)

Focus on building out a library of resources about your one, main location where you want to book the most consistent work, and THEN move onto other locations you want to work at.

And if you serve more than one main location equally as much (e.g. you’re based in WA, but you shoot in both WA & OR all the time), then simply repeat the set of resources you created for your #1 location for your other location!

---

Sample blogs you could publish to show authority in your home market, using a Denver wedding photographer as an example: 

• Top 10 Best Wedding Venues in Denver
• Complete Guide to Getting Married at [Your Favorite Venue]
• Denver Wedding Costs: Budget Tips + Best Packages
• How to Get Your Denver Marriage License
• 8 Best Locations for Your Denver Engagement Session
• 5 Best Denver Restaurants for Your Rehearsal Dinner
• Best Denver Hotels for Luxury Mountain Weddings

Step 2: Target other locations outside of your primary market

Once you’ve really started to show your expertise in your main market, then you can start branching out and targeting more of your favorite locations in other areas – whether those be specific wedding venues outside of your home market, national parks, state parks, specific cities, countries, etc. These should be locations you have ALREADY shot at and have work to show for, and that you have some sort of knowledge about already.

Go ahead and make a list of your top, specific favorite places you’ve shot during your career (outside of your primary market) as a photographer that you want to book MORE work at, then start by:

1. Sharing those galleries – with plenty of helpful info and tips included, of course! Only showcase galleries that represent work you want to book more of; e.g. if you shot a big wedding in Portland but you only want to shoot elopements in Portland moving forward, maybe take out the photos of the big reception and only include photos that make it look like an elopement. Orrrr just don’t publish that gallery all together.
2. Creating articles about weddings/elopements at those specific locations (I like to call this a “venue feature” or “location feature” blog) – e.g. How to Elope in Rocky Mountain National Park, How to Plan Your Wedding at X Venue, How to Elope in Argentina

When you blog about your favorite locations that you’d like to book more work at, either through sharing one specific gallery or creating an informational article, you’ll want to include info such as:

• Where that location is
• How to get there
• Why couples should get married there
• Answers to FAQ’s
• Where they can have their ceremony/reception
• The best time of year to get married there
• Potential costs
• Where to stay nearby
• Recommended vendors
• Your packages for that location

Do this for each of your favorite locations so you can start booking more work at the places you’ve loved working at in the past!

---

Examples of blogs you might publish if you were a Seattle-based elopement photographer, but you want to book work at some of your other fave places on the west coast:

• Joshua Tree National Park Elopement Guide
• Cannon Beach Elopement Guide
• Big Sur Elopement Guide
• Tucson National Park Elopement Guide
• Portland Elopement Guide
• Gallery blog featuring an elopement you shot in Sedona
• Gallery blog featuring an elopement you shot in Redwoods National Park

Step 3: Target new destinations you have yet to work at

Lastly, once you feel like you’ve really bolstered your credibility + authority in your home market, and you’ve published content about all of your favorite places you’ve worked, you can move onto NEW destinations that you want to work at, but haven’t yet! 

I recommend finding locations that don’t have a lot of competition on Google, that you could rank for fairly easily – or at least balancing out more popular location guides with guides for less popular locations. 

E.g. let’s say you want to work in Italy – go ahead and publish that Amalfi Coast guide that might take longer to beat the competition, but ALSO publish that Sicily Elopement Guide that might help you rank quicker, since there’s less competition. 

Finding gaps in the content that’s already out there is the BEST way to rank quickly for new destinations that are outside of your primary market, since you won’t have as much content about that location to show your local authority. 

When you’re publishing content about places you haven’t been, I do recommend adding a disclaimer that you have not been there yet so that your couples can set proper expectations, and can find somebody else if they prefer working with a local/somebody who knows the area better. However, you can also add that you’re great at doing research + location scouting and have lots of experience working at new locations (if that’s true), so they don’t need to worry about that!

👉🏼 But what images do I include if I haven’t shot a wedding/elopement at the location I’m writing about?

If you’ve been to the destination you’re writing about but haven’t shot a wedding there, you can totally just use landscape shots or iPhone photos you took during your trip there! 

And if you don’t have any images of your own, just find images that resemble the location, and mention that the images are solely provided for inspiration & aren’t of the actual location itself. E.g. If you’re creating a Dolomites Elopement Guide but you haven’t shot in the Dolomites, use other mountain elopement photos that might resemble the type of scenery.

Your other option is to ask fellow photographers for images to borrow! Maybe you’re writing a Thailand elopement guide but don’t have any images that resemble Thailand: try asking in a photography FB group or on your Instagram story to see if you can find anybody who’s willing to let you use their images in your blog post, as long as you credit their work & include a link to their website!

Sample Blog Plans for Wedding & Elopement Photographers Using This Strategy

Before you go, I wanted to give you a few sample blog plans that I might put together for different photographers, based on this strategy. HOWEVER: please, please keep in mind that the blog plan I’d recommend to you would COMPLETELY depend on your own unique goals, clients, brand, locations, values, schedule, etc. 

I might recommend a different plan to two photographers who serve the exact same locations but have two completely different audiences. Some of you might only use step 1 of the strategy I just laid out, and some of you might use a combination of all 3 depending on who + where you want to serve. 

These are simply meant to serve as generic EXAMPLES, and should not be taken as customized recommendations as to what I’d personally suggest you do for your own unique business!

⭐️ Sample 12-month blog plan for an Oregon-based elopement photographer wants to work equally as much in Washington & California

I’d suggest starting by bolstering their credibility in their home market (Oregon), then adding in some alternating Washington & California content!

1. Comprehensive List of the Best Places to Elope in Oregon
2. How to Elope at Smith Rock State Park
3. How to Elope on the Oregon Coast
4. Comprehensive List of the Best Places to Elope in Washington
5. Comprehensive List of the Best Places to Elope in Southern California
6. How to Plan Your Cannon Beach, Oregon Wedding
7. How to Elope at Mount Rainier National Park
8. How to Elope in Joshua Tree National Park
9. Best Trails in Oregon for a Backpacking Elopement 
10. Best Trails in Washington for a Backpacking Elopement
11. Best Desert Elopement Locations in California
12. Best Mountain Elopement Locations in the PNW

---

⭐️ Sample 12-month blog plan for a Dallas-based wedding photographer who only wants to serve Dallas & the surrounding areas

If this photographer only wants to work in Dallas and doesn’t want to book any destination work, then they only need to stick to step 1 of the strategy: publishing expert content about their home market!

1. Top 15 Wedding Venues in Dallas 
2. Best Outdoor Wedding Venues in Dallas
3. Dallas Wedding Costs: Budget Tips + Best Packages
4. 12 Most Beautiful Locations for a Dallas Engagement Session
5. Best Small Venues for an Intimate Wedding in Dallas
6. Complete Guide to Getting Married at [Your Favorite Venue]
7. 10 Best Dallas Restaurants for Your Wedding Rehearsal Dinner
8. Complete Guide to Planning a Wedding in Dallas
9. Best Proposal Locations in Dallas
10. How to Get Your Dallas Marriage License: Texas Marriage Laws
11. 5 Unique Ideas for Your Dallas Wedding
12. Best Wedding Venues in Northern Texas

---

⭐️ Sample 12-month blog plan for an Arizona elopement photographer who would also love to book a little bit of international work in southeast Asia:

I’d want to see this photographer focus mainly on creating resources about their home market in Arizona to show Google that that’s where their main expertise lies, and sprinkling in some international content every few months. 

1. Ultimate Northern Arizona Elopement Guide
2. Best Places to Elope in Northern Arizona
3. How to Elope in Saguaro National Park
4. How to Elope in Bali
5. Complete Sedona Elopement Guide
6. Complete Tucson Elopement Guide
7. Best Venues for an Intimate Wedding in Tucson
8. How to Elope in Vietnam
9. Best Airbnbs in Arizona for Desert Airbnb Elopement
10. Arizona Boho Desert Elopement Inspiration
11. How to Get Your Arizona Elopement Marriage License & Permits
12. How to Elope in the Thai Islands

---

⭐️ Sample 12-month blog plan for a Montana wedding photographer who works in Montana in the summer, and Florida in the winter

Since this photographer balances out their work in two locations pretty equally, I’d recommend alternating locations instead of publishing all Montana resources first, then all Florida resources. This way they’re focusing on both of the places they want to book work and it doesn’t take 6 months to start targeting Florida clients!

1. Best Wedding Venues in Northern Montana
2. Best Wedding Venues in the Florida Keys
3. How to Get Married in Glacier National Park
4. How to Get Married in the Florida Everglades
5. How to Get Your Montana Marriage License
6. How to Get Your Florida Marriage License
7. Complete Guide to Getting Married at [Favorite Montana Venue]
8. Complete Guide to Getting Married at [Favorite Florida Venue]
9. Best Time of Year to Get Married in Montana
10. Best Time of Year to Get Married in Florida
11. Top Locations for a Montana Engagement Session
12. Top Locations for a Florida Engagement Session

Alrighty friend, you’ve made it to the end! I hope that this blog post helped give you a simple, yet strong location-based strategy to start with if you’ve been feeling stuck, or directionless, and that you feel confident knowing what you should do FIRST, if nothing else.

Here’s a quick TLDR ⬇️

1. Blog about your primary market first
2. Then blog about your other favorite locations you’ve worked at
3. Thennn blog about new locations you haven’t worked at

If you already feel like you have great content about your primary market, feel free to skip directly to #2 – and, of course, feel free to flex the order of these steps based on your own unique priorities + goals at this point in your business.

Happy blogging!🫶🏼

---

Looking for more tips to help you kickstart your blogging journey? That’s what I’m here for – check out a few of my recent faves below! 😘

👉🏼 3 Ways to Get Your Photography Blog Post to Write Themselves

👉🏼 My 20 Favorite SEO + Blogging Tools for Wedding Photographers

👉🏼 4 Ways You’re Procrastinating Real Progress In Your Business