If you’re a photographer looking to turn your passion into a career and grow a business, an online portfolio is a must. Potential clients need two things from your website: First, they need to be able to find you. Second, they need to be delighted by your work.
Sounds easy enough, right? Then why do so many photography websites I see reflect decisions that bury pages in search engine rankings or make basic navigation a virtual treasure hunt?
I don’t know the answer to that, but both photography websites I’ve made (one for Emily McManamy, a Vermont photographer and another for Alison Redlich, a Vermont wedding photographer) have managed to attract clients through search, and captivate upon arrival. Here is a checklist of 10 things that will help improve your photography website.
Are all aspects of your website indexed by search engines?
Flash: I’ve got some bad news: The Flash site that you spent thousands to have built is nearly invisible to Google. Since search engines can’t crawl Flash content, all text, images and pages won’t appear in Google. Unless you create an HTML mirror site, you’ll only have one page indexed by Google. Flash also won’t play on many increasingly popular mobile and tablet devices.
If you’re curious how Google has indexed your site, try the following search: site:http://www.mywebsite.com
Alt text: If your site is not fully powered by Flash, kudos to you, but there is still work to be done. Make sure your HTML image code contains descriptive alt text, which is text that is displayed if the image fails to load. Additionally, alt text will give search engines valuable information about the content of your images. By using the alt text, I was able to help a client have her images appear in searches for “Haraseeket Inn wedding.” (A Haraseeket Inn wedding page was also built to rank well in traditional search.) Potential brides might search for images from various venues, and by ranking well for those terms, you put yourself one click away from a new client.
Text: Yes, we’re talking photography, but remember that search engines have a hard time deciphering information from images. Alt text will help, but it would behoove you to add some text to each page. Pages should all have relevant and unique h1 tags and title tags. Instead of naming pages “Gallery 1,” use descriptive, keyword-rich text to describe the gallery. Also, make sure you’re linking to important pages to pass on SEO link authority.
Image file names: File names, in conjunction with alt text, help search engines understand what your image is about. Use keywords separated by dashes and you’ll make your images more visible in image searches. For example, harraseeket-inn-wedding-photo.jpg is a better file name than IMG_8617.jpg.
URL: Your URLs are another opportunity to reveal information about a page’s contents. Make sure relevant keywords appear in all URLs. (Noticing a pattern here with the relevant keywords concept?)
Links: Links are viewed as votes by search engines. It’s part of what helps their algorithms determine if your page is relevant for specific terms. In addition to seeking links from other websites, take advantage of your own site to insert links to other pages within the text. Keep it relevant and make sure that links will benefit the user and won’t be perceived as spammy.
Are you doing things that annoy potential clients?
Music: Contrary to what you might think, music set to autoplay is extremely irritating to site visitors. Avoid this at all costs, and if you must have music, allow the user to turn it on, rather than forcing them to turn it off.
Photo size: If your homepage or a gallery takes too long to load, clients will be less likely to delve further into your site. Have you used Photoshop’s Save for Web option to create a smaller file? Images from DSLRs are large files, and you’ll need to do everything you can to reduce the file size so that the pages load quickly.
Contact form: Consider dropping unnecessary questions that make clients less likely to fill out the form. Less-pressing information can be gathered after the initial contact is made.
Navigability: Clients should flow smoothly through your website. They should not have to jump back to the homepage, and there should be no dead ends, wrong turns, or mislabeled links. Have a friend or relative test drive your site and observe how they navigate.
Usability and crawlability are two of the most important aspects of a successful photography website. (Good photos help, too.) There are dozens of other beneficial techniques such as blogging, paid search, and social media, but this gives you a solid foundation. I’ve added some helpful links below. What are your pet peeves for photo websites?
Additional resources
- Photography Web Marketing Guide eBook
- SEO Photography Website review 7 point checklist
- 7 tips for creating a successful photo blog
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