Like any other modern business, one important tip is to put up a photography website for your photography business, especially if you intend to work primarily online. But even if you work mainly with more personal clients, a website is the best means of revealing information about your qualifications as a photography business to any client who wishes to see it.
However, it is most likely not enough to just put up some blog on the internet and post every single photo you've taken and label it as "my photos". A website, being a form of photography marketing, means that it must be designed and presented accordingly to represent the competency of your business. Also, your website should clearly communicate your specific marketing message. So here are a couple of things you need to consider when designing and customizing your website:
- Optimize your site for search engines. This is probably the most used technique in getting traffic for anybody's site and to you it will mean more potential clients online. Remember that making your site is only half the battle: you also have to find ways for people to find your site. Use the right words for your site.
- Title bars - pick out the right phrase or title for your site so clients automatically recognize what your site is about.
- Key words - try to put in a healthy set of keywords for your web content so that the people who will be looking for what you have will make their way to your site. Key words are the specific words that people enter into search engines when they're looking for something on the internet. The words that you use must be relevant to what your site contains.
- Optimize your photos - search engines will find the key words that you use to optimize your photos. Photo keywords are sometimes referred to as tags. Similar to key words as text, the 'tags' that you optimize your photos with must be relevant. Of course, the key words that you use to 'tag' photos don't have to be in grammatical order. Also, your online photos do not have to be high-resolution images. Lower resolution images allow your web pages to load faster. And lower resolution images usually discourages people from stealing your photos.
- Don't spam - people who surf online hate spam, so if they come across a site that has a jumble of keywords all over it they will think it's filled with nonsense and just close the window. Keep the keywords but stay relevant.
Increase Networking. Search engines are not enough, so if you have friend sites or other blogs, leave space for a link to your photography website. Also, try to sign up your website for online directories. Most of these sites are for free, and free advertising is invaluable to any business, especially yours.
Make your website convenient and relevant. Ever went to a photography website and felt like there are things that are difficult to do, or that there are features that are easy to work with? Integrate these ideas onto your site. Make it easy for your clients to browse through your site. Include a search engine as well as a site map. Also, if needed, categorize the content of your site properly.
With all these in mind, please remember that your photography website needs regular updates. As much as possible, make your customers see that you are an active business so that they won't be hesitant to availing of your services. Make announcements and promos if you can on these sites so people get something new everyday. This way you will always have lots of people viewing your photography site and know that you are in business.