Hi everyone!

The following post is a summery of the exact steps that I used to reach page one of Google in less than 60 days using SEO practices on the Zenfolio photography hosting website.

Click on any of the links below for detailed information on each day including how-to videos and commentary.

DAY 1 NO RANKING
https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/1/zero-to-page-1-on-google-zenfolio-website-challenge

* Signed up for a basic Zenfolio account

* Added images for the portfolio

* Entered my About information,

* Created one custom page for my pricing info

* Wrote out the Blog Welcome message.

* Wrote the description copy for the site in the Search Engine Optimization tab and copied and pasted that information directly into the Home Page Welcome Message details. 

DAY 2 NO RANKING
https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/2/zero-to-page-1-on-google-zenfolio-website-challenge-day-2

*Added a bunch of photos to the public facing portfolio

* Entered all of the needed meta data for the new galleries and for the individual photos contained therein.

* Added the new site to my Google webmaster account

* Submitted the first site map to Search Console

* Started Fetching the first URLs for indexing

* Wrote and published one long form blog post

* Embedded a couple of Instagram posts into my Zenfolio Blog feed

* Scheduled those embedded social media blog posts to auto publish over the next week so that I can add new content on a regular basis.

DAY 4 NO RANKING
https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/2/zero-to-page-1-on-google-zenfolio-website-challenge-day-4

* Created a new Google Places account listing and expect that process to complete by February 15th.

* Created and scheduled 10 new blog posts to publish every other day through the end of February.

* Entered and linked my social media pages to my newest Zenfolio site

DAY 6 NO RANKING

https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/2/zero-to-page-1-on-google-zenfolio-website-challenge-day-6

* Created custom URL addresses for each page

* Organized my published posts into blog categories 

DAY 10 PAGE 31

https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/2/zero-to-page-1-on-google-zenfolio-website-challenge-day-10-finally-indexed

* Changed  my website's Display Name/ Title  (now Asheville Wedding Photography by Sally Siko) 

* Upgraded the Zenfolio subscription from the Basic to the Pro account to remove Zenfolio branding showing in the first part of the display URL address.

* Embedded video content from my You Tube Channel into the site 

* Completed Google Maps/ My Business listing Verification process

* Embedded Wedding Wire Reviews

* Embedded The Knot reviews

* Created & Scheduled 4 long form blog posts to auto publish through mid March.

DAY 12 PAGE 32 

https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/2/zero-to-page-1-on-google-zenfolio-website-challenge-day-12-im-back-baby

* Temporary Google sandbox status for 24 hours and return to ranking

DAY 25 PAGE 6

https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/2/zero-to-page-1-on-google-zenfolio-website-challenge-day-25-out-of-the-sandbox

* Rewrote original copy for my About Page 

* Manually fetched and indexed new content as it was published to the site every day.

* Submitted an additional sitemap for the http version of the new website in addition to the working https version.

DAY 34 PAGE 3

https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/3/zero-to-page-1-on-google-zenfolio-website-challenge-day-34-made-it-to-page-3

* Created a custom "hub page" linking my Raleigh/ Eastern NC website to the new Asheville & Western NC website 

* Created 2 original blog posts (auto published each Wednesday

* Continued to publish new content to the blog from my Asheville Instagram feed on a daily basis

DAY 45 PAGE 2

https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/3/made-it-to-page-2-day-45-zenfolio-zero-to-page-1-seo-challenge
*No work needed

DAY 57 PAGE 1

https://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/blog/2019/3/made-it-to-page-1-day-57-zenfolio-zero-to-page-1-seo-challenge

* Ranking on page 1 on Google for the search term “Asheville Wedding Photographer”

Objective completed.