Are you looking to create a photography website for your business? Well, just like any other business, there are tons of reasons why you need a website for your photography business in 2019.
From connecting with clients who are searching for you online to educating your target audience about your brand and giving you the social proof, it’s almost mandatory to have a website for a photography business. Despite the benefits that come with having a professional photography website, it’s never easy building one from scratch.
Don’t worry, though, because, in this post, we’ll walk you through the little but costly mistakes you should avoid when you create a photography website for free.
Forgetting About the HTTPS Protocol
Long gone are the days when switching to HTTPS protocol was optional. Today it’s almost mandatory to switch to HTTPS because of these three primary reasons:
Your site might not rank well among competitors. Google announced that it would be considering HTTPS as a ranking signal. Though it was reported that it would not be a major ranking signal, studies suggest that sites still using HTTP rank lower than sites using HTTPS.
It helps you secure the user data shared on your website. You don’t want to lose your brand’s reputation or get into losses due to fines for leaked confidential user data.
In case, if you are using multiple subdomains then, you can avoid installing RapidSSL Wildcard certificates to encrypt all the data shared on the site and keep them out of reach to eavesdroppers.
You need it to win your target audience’s trust. Today Google warns users from navigating to sites that have not yet switched to HTTPS protocol. It shows the sites are unsafe, making them lose the confidence of browsing or making any purchases on the site something which may not only impact your bounce rates but also affect your ROI.
Choose the right platform for your website
If you don’t want to get into the complexities of building a website, Pixpa is the platform for you. This DIY website builder will let you design your website any way you want. Pixpa is the ultimate all-in-one website platform for photographers to showcase, share, and sell their work online.
Pixpa provides you with all the necessary tools to run your creative business. It is updated constantly and keeps up with the latest design trend. Avoid making the mistake of choosing the wrong platform, and choose a website builder such as Pixpa, which will make your work easier and give your website a professional look. Here’ an honest review about Pixpa on digital .com
Do You Know: You get 1-year free domain name with Pixpa
(including SSL certificate)
Using a Slow Server
Using a slow server is not wrong, but it will negatively impact your photography website’s loading time and speed. This can be disastrous on your overall ROI, considering that web visitors barely wait for three seconds for a website to fully load before they bounce off. Find a hosting provider that serves your files with the best speed.
Not Having an About Page
When building a photography website, an about page is an absolute must-have. To make an about page that stands out, you must first understand your business’ unique identity.
From there, you can share the story of your brand with your audience to make them connect with you. A good about page should be direct and humanize with your brand and give context and meaning to it.
Check out the about me page of wedding photographer “Zach Nichols” at Zach Nichols Photography for some inspiration.
Using an Average Web Template
You need a website template to provide you with the framework that you’ll be using when setting up your site. The template should also have powerful built-in features to help you with web design and technical SEO aspects etc.
A good template should also come with timely updates and reliable support to help you minimize bugs and keep the site alive. To get a good web template and avoid the average ones, it’s prudent that you do your research before investing in a template.
Check its usability, aesthetic qualities, speed, and customer support to avoid compatibility and performance issues that may hamper the growth of your business.
Leaving Out the ‘Contact Us’ Page
No website is ever complete without a ‘Contact Us’ page. It may sound tiny but very important when it comes to credibility issues.
It’s an individual page you can craft on your website to make it easy for your web visitors to connect with you. A typical ‘Contact Us’ page should include; a contact form, a short description of your business, mail-to link for your email address, or any information on how your prospects can connect with you.
It’s also prudent to explain briefly why the prospects should contact you and give them multiple ways of communicating with you.
Not Having Social Media Buttons on Your Site
Did you know you can benefit from social media even if you’re not active on social media? Well, having social media buttons on your site allows your existing clients to share your content online, thus helping you to build your social media experience and boost your brand’s exposure.
It will also help you enhance organic SEO, boost your reach to the target audience, and improve the customer experience.
Using Dull or Hidden Opt-ins
When creating Opt-in forms, you must craft a good copy on it that will excite your site visitors and compel them to take a specific action. Don’t put them at the bottom of your pages only as some of your audience will not scroll down looking for them.
You can strategically place them in between contents with powerful Call to Action buttons (CTAs). To hook your audience, be sure to explain some benefits they’ll get by opting in.
Don’t forget to set realistic expectations though. You can also use a mix of different fonts or color schemes to grab attention.
Having a Complicated Web Navigation
Web navigation plays a crucial role in the overall user experience on your site. Right off the bat, your goal should be to ensure that the site is easy to navigate.
To avoid complicated web navigation, it’s advisable that you stick to simple web navigation and keep off the fancy web navigation templates. Simple navigation will make it easy for your site visitors to land on target pages quickly. It will also make the site look professional.
Completing Your Website with a Photography Portfolio
With the competition so tight today, it’s essential than ever to have a photography portfolio on your site. It gives you a professional way of showcasing your work to the target audience or industries. It also helps you enhance your online visibility while at the same time still allowing you the freedom to edit or add more videos and photos to beef it up and stand out as one of the best in the business.
Not Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Phones
Failing to optimize your website for mobile phones is one of the foolproof ways to lose leads. It would also impact your organic ranking due to high bounce rates, especially when web visitors land on your website then navigate away immediately because the page is not mobile responsive.
Avoiding this mistake is as simple as installing mobile-friendly themes on the site, and templates.
Having Broken Links
Broken links refer to hyperlinks, which lead to missing or error pages. They usually result when the URL you linked to on your website has been deleted, changed, or you missed something when typing the URL.
Broken links can weigh down your photography website by destroying its navigation, lowering its ranking, or even reducing the traffic. To avoid such mistakes, it’s recommendable that you use special tools like BrokenLinkCheck.Com to locate the links then remove each of them manually.
Having Low-Quality Visuals
Low-quality visuals are one of the significant factors which will turn off your web visitors right away. When displaying graphics on your site, it’s critical to ensure that they’re top quality.
To avoid the low-quality visual mistakes, optimize the images for your website before uploading, and add filters when necessary. You may also let an expert do this for you if you have lesser time to spend on the site.
Bottom Line
Your website serves as your business’ ambassador. When the design is weak, your prospects may not hold your company in high regard. To give them the best first-time experience, be sure to avoid these mistakes, especially the security aspect since they won’t come back again if they suspect that the site is insecure.
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