Photographer Websites: How to Improve them for Business.
Photographer Websites
When we’re not creating the next big thing for photographers and collaborating with clients and photographers, we are busy searching the web for the best photographers around. What I’ve found while performing this search of photographer websites is that it’s time consuming. Here’s why.
Photographer Websites: Why they are bad
First off, I should say that I understand that photographers want their websites to be creative and visually appealing, but it is a rare occasion when I find that a photographer has built in the idea that they’re actually in business.
Photographer Websites: Load Time
If it takes me 1-minute just to get the home page of a photographer website because I’m waiting for Flash to load, and upon reaching that home page I am presented with a nice image and an “Enter” button, then the chances are that I’m going to give up. It is clear that you don’t have my time-interest in mind.
Photographer Websites: Contact Information
Every page of your website should have, at least, your email address, or a link to your email address, and, at best, your email address and phone number. I don’t want to fill out a contact page; I don’t want to search your site for your phone number or email address. Make your page SCREAM “Contact me because I want your business”.
Photographer Websites: Too Many Photos
All it takes is about 20-images per photography genre portfolio for me to get the idea as to whether or not I like your style and think you will fit for a particular project. If you have 100-images in each portfolio then you’re wasting my time by having my browser to download the thumbnail images for each of the 100-images.
Also, if you use an image hosting company to host your images, try not to make me visit your Flickr site to have me look at your photos. There are many ways to display your images on your site without imposing great inconvenience to me.
Photographer Websites: Tips to Improve Yours
- Use Javascript, or HTML5, for your website. Browsers are better equipped to handle either of these technologies than Flash. Many times, with the various Javascript libraries available, you can mimic everything you can do for images in Flash, with Javascript.
- If you must use Flash, embed it so that at least the header of the page is still HTML. Then, put your phone number and/or email address in this header and then I can copy and paste it without difficulty.
- Try to make your site load in under 10-seconds, because this is just enough time for me to click the link to your site, take a sip of my drink, and begin checking out your work.
- Keep it simple. Simple doesn’t mean that you have to lose elegance. Remember the reason that people are visiting your site is because they’re either interested in your work, or interested in hiring you. Make sure that you add function to your form.