If you’re a professional photographer than your website is often the first point of contact that people have with your business.
Therefore you really want your photography website design to make the right sort of impact immediately.
At the same time, photography websites need to be more than just visually appealing – the ultimate aim of any photographers website is two-fold:
It needs to attract targeted visitors.
And it needs to convert those visitors from casual browser into someone who makes contact with you either by phone, email or in-person.
Everything your website does needs to support those two goals.
So below are a few key areas related to your photography website design that you need to be aware of in order to ensure your website is performing as effectively as possible.
Clear & Simple Navigation
It’s important that your website is easy to navigate. If people can’t find what they’re looking for very quickly, they tend to exit your site instead of taking the time to look around.
So if you offer a range of different photographic services, you need to make sure that these are easily found in navigation menus, whether those menus are at the top of your site or down the side.
A good rule of thumb to follow is that pretty much every page on your website should be no more than 2 or three clicks away from your home page.
Fast Loading Time
The faster your website loads in the web browser, the greater the chances that you’ll be able to capture the visitor’s attention long enough for them to realise how good a photographer you are.
Conversely, a website that loads slowly will always have a greater abandonment rate than you’d like – meaning lost clients.
On-Page Optimisation
As mentioned above, one of the two goals of a photography website is to attract targeted visitors that are ready and willing to hire you.
This means search engine optimisation – SEO.
Generally speaking there are two parts to SEO – on-page optimization and link building.
A good photography website design will involve making sure that title tags, meta descriptions, image alt tags, keyword density and content are all written in such a way that they target the right keywords for your business.
This will ensure that when you do get around to the link building part of SEO, your website is going to have the best possible chance at getting some quick front page rankings.
Visual Style Should Match Your Desired Image
It’s important that the look of your site immediately provides the visitors with a sense of who you are as a photographer, as well as the sort of photographic work that you do.
This means using colors, fonts, images, logos and layout to create your desired look.
For many photographers this is something that will evolve with time, so don’t worry too much if you can’t get it right immediately.
This is also one of the reasons we recommend working with WordPress - changing the look of your website is done with the click of a button and doesn’t involve the time and expense of developing an entirely new website.
Focus On Quality Over Quantity With Your Portfolios
Too many photographers feel the need to display every single photo they’ve ever taken on their website.
If you remember that your ultimate goal is to get the visitors to take the next step and contact you, then all you want is for them to become interested in your work, and feel compelled to see more and talk with you about how you can work with them on their project.
So keep your portfolios small but impressive…and make sure that you have a clear link on display close by where people can contact you for more details about working with you.
If you work in a number of different markets (e.g you do both weddings and commercial work), make sure you include examples of both styles, but again you don’t need to upload hundreds of images.
Here’s a great tip that you should think about using…
When you’re choosing what your ‘best’ photos are, you should get the opinion of regular people who you’d consider to be in your target market.
Often times what you think of as your best work, and what other people are drawn to will be entirely different.
And in the end it’s all about what the people visiting your website think, so try and work out what photos other people like the most and then use those on your website.
Testimonials
It’s important that people visiting your website can see from the testimonials displayed on your site that you’ve got experience delivering high quality work. This is known as social proof and is an important part of the sales process.
So you need to be continually collecting testimonials from happy clients and updating your website so that it shows the very best of the testimonials that you’ve collected over the years.
If possible, include a photo and the name of the person who provided the testimonial – this simple thing will increase the credibility of that testimonial.
Create A Website That Appears Professional
It’s important that your website doesn’t look like it was built using a free photography website template…even if it is.
This is another reason we recommend using WordPress for photography websites – you can find professionally designed themes that are free, or at the very most cost you no more than $50-70…yet have the appearance of a website that cost thousands of dollars to develop.
When a person is looking for a photographer they’ll typically browse multiple photography websites in one sitting – which means they’re going to be directly comparing you against your competitors based on the look of your website.
So if your website stands out as being among the better looking, they’re immediately going to be under the impression that if you put that much effort into making your website look good, there’s a better than average chance you’re going to do the same with your photographs.
Use Video Slideshows
It’s now very possible to create professional looking slideshows, with a great soundtrack and embed them on your website.
This is something that can really separate your from your competition.
The best way to go about this if you don’t really have the skills to create your own slideshows is to use a tool known as Animoto.
This is a great piece of software which can create slideshows that look like they were done by a pro.
Obvious Call To Action
A call to action is a marketing term that basically means make it obvious what you want the visitor to do next.
In the case of photography websites you want them to contact you – so make sure you have your contact links and details clearly labelled and blatantly obvious on your website.
Conclusion
So whether you’ve already got a photography website online, or you’re in the process of having one developed, there’s always something you can do to improve the effectiveness of your site.
In the long run if you’re steadily making small changes to your site and assessing their effect on your website’s performance, you’ll end up with a site which consistently send you new clients and makes you money
Therefore you really want your photography website design to make the right sort of impact immediately.
At the same time, photography websites need to be more than just visually appealing – the ultimate aim of any photographers website is two-fold:
It needs to attract targeted visitors.
And it needs to convert those visitors from casual browser into someone who makes contact with you either by phone, email or in-person.
Everything your website does needs to support those two goals.
So below are a few key areas related to your photography website design that you need to be aware of in order to ensure your website is performing as effectively as possible.
Clear & Simple Navigation
It’s important that your website is easy to navigate. If people can’t find what they’re looking for very quickly, they tend to exit your site instead of taking the time to look around.
So if you offer a range of different photographic services, you need to make sure that these are easily found in navigation menus, whether those menus are at the top of your site or down the side.
A good rule of thumb to follow is that pretty much every page on your website should be no more than 2 or three clicks away from your home page.
Fast Loading Time
The faster your website loads in the web browser, the greater the chances that you’ll be able to capture the visitor’s attention long enough for them to realise how good a photographer you are.
Conversely, a website that loads slowly will always have a greater abandonment rate than you’d like – meaning lost clients.
On-Page Optimisation
As mentioned above, one of the two goals of a photography website is to attract targeted visitors that are ready and willing to hire you.
This means search engine optimisation – SEO.
Generally speaking there are two parts to SEO – on-page optimization and link building.
A good photography website design will involve making sure that title tags, meta descriptions, image alt tags, keyword density and content are all written in such a way that they target the right keywords for your business.
This will ensure that when you do get around to the link building part of SEO, your website is going to have the best possible chance at getting some quick front page rankings.
Visual Style Should Match Your Desired Image
It’s important that the look of your site immediately provides the visitors with a sense of who you are as a photographer, as well as the sort of photographic work that you do.
This means using colors, fonts, images, logos and layout to create your desired look.
For many photographers this is something that will evolve with time, so don’t worry too much if you can’t get it right immediately.
This is also one of the reasons we recommend working with WordPress - changing the look of your website is done with the click of a button and doesn’t involve the time and expense of developing an entirely new website.
Focus On Quality Over Quantity With Your Portfolios
Too many photographers feel the need to display every single photo they’ve ever taken on their website.
If you remember that your ultimate goal is to get the visitors to take the next step and contact you, then all you want is for them to become interested in your work, and feel compelled to see more and talk with you about how you can work with them on their project.
So keep your portfolios small but impressive…and make sure that you have a clear link on display close by where people can contact you for more details about working with you.
If you work in a number of different markets (e.g you do both weddings and commercial work), make sure you include examples of both styles, but again you don’t need to upload hundreds of images.
Here’s a great tip that you should think about using…
When you’re choosing what your ‘best’ photos are, you should get the opinion of regular people who you’d consider to be in your target market.
Often times what you think of as your best work, and what other people are drawn to will be entirely different.
And in the end it’s all about what the people visiting your website think, so try and work out what photos other people like the most and then use those on your website.
Testimonials
It’s important that people visiting your website can see from the testimonials displayed on your site that you’ve got experience delivering high quality work. This is known as social proof and is an important part of the sales process.
So you need to be continually collecting testimonials from happy clients and updating your website so that it shows the very best of the testimonials that you’ve collected over the years.
If possible, include a photo and the name of the person who provided the testimonial – this simple thing will increase the credibility of that testimonial.
Create A Website That Appears Professional
It’s important that your website doesn’t look like it was built using a free photography website template…even if it is.
This is another reason we recommend using WordPress for photography websites – you can find professionally designed themes that are free, or at the very most cost you no more than $50-70…yet have the appearance of a website that cost thousands of dollars to develop.
When a person is looking for a photographer they’ll typically browse multiple photography websites in one sitting – which means they’re going to be directly comparing you against your competitors based on the look of your website.
So if your website stands out as being among the better looking, they’re immediately going to be under the impression that if you put that much effort into making your website look good, there’s a better than average chance you’re going to do the same with your photographs.
Use Video Slideshows
It’s now very possible to create professional looking slideshows, with a great soundtrack and embed them on your website.
This is something that can really separate your from your competition.
The best way to go about this if you don’t really have the skills to create your own slideshows is to use a tool known as Animoto.
This is a great piece of software which can create slideshows that look like they were done by a pro.
Obvious Call To Action
A call to action is a marketing term that basically means make it obvious what you want the visitor to do next.
In the case of photography websites you want them to contact you – so make sure you have your contact links and details clearly labelled and blatantly obvious on your website.
Conclusion
So whether you’ve already got a photography website online, or you’re in the process of having one developed, there’s always something you can do to improve the effectiveness of your site.
In the long run if you’re steadily making small changes to your site and assessing their effect on your website’s performance, you’ll end up with a site which consistently send you new clients and makes you money
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