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Ten common photography website mistakes (and how to fix them)

When we think about websites, search engine optimization (SEO) is often top of mind. How is Google ranking you against other similar photographers? Are you showing up on the first page of search results? There’s no doubt SEO is important for every photographer to consider. However, there are some big misconceptions when it comes to SEO.

“Photographers first need to nail other aspects of their sites,” says website designer and PhotoShelter certified consultant Alex Vita. “That’s where I stand when it comes to SEO. I know the power of SEO, but not at the expense of huge user experience issues and mistakes.”

Before you focus on improving your page ranking, you need to make sure your website is easy to navigate, features great photos and a great user experience. Without that, your SEO efforts will largely be futile.

Below, we’re breaking down ten website mistakes we see on a daily basis. From broken links to missing contact info to repetitive or absent metadata, see how your site stands up.

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Everything you need to know about building your web presence

Years ago, simply having a good website was enough for a photographer. Updating your site once every year was okay, and it basically existed as a digital version of your print portfolio. It was not the primary way that potential clients evaluated you. Today, it’s a vastly different landscape. You’re no longer limited to just having a website — or at least you don’t have to be. The internet offers savvy and ambitious photographers dozens of possible avenues to make themselves known to potential clients. To take advantage of them, you need to build your web presence.

Self-promotion is essential to creating an online presence — increasing your visibility and establishing yourself as an authority, expert, ninja, or whatever. After all this time, you finally get to tell the world how great you are!

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Do I still need a photography website in 2019?

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Before the rise of social media and the ubiquity of apps like Instagram, photographers established and flexed their brands through their personal website and blog. The photographer website supplanted the printed portfolio, for the most part, offering photographers a way to showcase their work with a remote audience of photo editors, customers, and fans.

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Do photographers really still need a website in 2018?

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It’s an interesting thought. Do photographers really still need a website today? Is it possible to survive on social media alone? After recently cutting out a bunch of old social media platforms from his life, photographer Ed Verosky has been thinking long and hard about this question. Should he kill or keep pursuing his website?

As Ed says in this video he recently posted, cultural shifts happen rapidly. The way people use the Internet changes all the time. We’ve seen the mass exodus from one social platform to another over and over again. But are people even going to photographer’s websites when they can see a living portfolio on services like Instagram?

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Tips and tricks for choosing domain name and web hosting as a photographer

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With all the social networks and plenty of ways to share your images online, the question is – do you really need a website? And the short answer would be – yes, you do. There are several reasons for that.

With social media, you can’t control how your photos look (just think of Facebook compression). Also, you’re just a part of the crowd, which makes it more difficult to compete for clients’ attention. So, social media websites should be only one of your methods of advertising, but not the only one. Your website (or your online portfolio) is the best way to display your work. And in this comprehensive and very informative video, Joe Edelman will give you many useful tips for choosing a domain name and website hosting. And there are plenty of clever tips and tricks in addition to that.

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Photographer Crafts Epic ‘About’ Page With a Single, Hilarious Image

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Some people have all the fun…something I’ve never really ever been accused of.  But, that’s not the case for photographer and Yale MFA graduate Victoria Hely-Hutchinson.  In what is probably one of the most epic About pages I have ever seen, Victoria wastes no time with the usual BS about awards and accolades and exhibits.  Who really cares anyhow, right?  The page contains a single image that is not only uproariously hilarious but describes so much about the artist at the same time.

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500px Improved Their Image Uploader To Allow Bulk Upload & Other Time Saving Options

Popular image sharing and photo marketplace, 500px announced this morning they have made some updates to the way users are able to upload their photos to the website, which will (hopefully) allow photographers to speed up their online workflow a bit. The latest update now allows users to upload their images in bulk rather than having to painstakingly upload each individually, as Clay Cook explains in the demo video.

You can upload new images from your hard drive or import them from other websites such as Facebook, Flickr, Picassa, etc…While waiting for your image collections to upload in the background, you are free to spend that time tagging, titling, licensing options, and organizing the fresh uploads so they are ready for publication on 500px as soon as they are finished uploading.

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Wedding Photography Prices: ON or OFF Your Website?

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It’s the age-old question, should a wedding photographer put his/her prices on the website, or leave them off? I’ve asked myself this, and seen many photographers ask the same thing. Lots of opinions, some of them very strong opinions, but no one seems to back it up with actual data.

An argument I’ve heard for putting prices online is that the potential client wants to know if you’re within her price range. If you make it too difficult to find that information, she won’t bother to contact you because there are plenty of other photographers to look at. Would you go look at a new car if they wouldn’t tell you the price until you got to the dealership?

The counter-argument is that wedding photography can be expensive, clients don’t always have an understanding of how much they should expect to spend, and placing too much emphasis on price means that the client misses out on less-tangible benefits that the photographer has to offer. If you make the client ask for pricing, you can then strike up a dialog with the client and build a relationship before getting icky with numbers.

Both arguments seem reasonable. And those photographers who can’t make up their minds usually wimp out and put a “starting at $xxxxx” on their site! (That’s what I do currently. :) )

But I’ve got some Actual Data!

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