How to Build a Photography Website
If you are just starting a new photography business, creating a great website is a MUST for anyone serious about doing business and winning new customers win. A website isn’t just your virtual storefront, it also contains important information and images that will be a deciding factor in an increasingly digital world of potential customers hiring you.
Reading: How to create a website for my photography business
Your website isn’t just a great way to to get leads. It’s also one of the cheapest ways to market your photo business and is very easy to edit if you want to refresh your content and/or portfolio.
So what do you need to put in your photo Record site? to make sure it’s professional and brings in LOTS of BUSINESS?
Here are 6 easy steps to create your photography website:
1. Set up your domain name and hosting
This is essential and the virtual address for your photography business. Choose a domain that is not only easy for potential customers to remember and spell, but also works well to showcase your business. Be aware if you are looking for a dot.com domain you may need to be a little more creative or look for alternative domain options such as .co or .net.
Your hosting can also be set up using simple ones and affordable online hosting companies like SiteGround or any other online hosting group that is inexpensive and reliable.
In this step, you can also do a keyword search on Google Keyword Planner to find suitable keywords your photo shop and find out which words rank higher than others. When writing the text for your website, make sure you include these relevant keywords.
See also: How to build a multi-million dollar website without spending a cent
2. Choose your website program
Once you’ve got your domain and hosting sorted out, it’s time to choose the type of website you want to build and the options are all based on your budget.
If you want to avoid expensive outsourcing of your website and create something professional without the high price tag, look at options like WordPress, Wix or Squarespace. Each of the websites offers great photo business themes that can easily be customized to suit your needs.
If money and cost are not an issue, you can get a nice, custom-made website for around $3000 or more. While you can fully customize your site this way, your marketing budget could probably be better spent elsewhere if you’re just starting out.
3. Choose a Theme
Now it’s time to choose your theme and make your website look professional. There are many great themes you can buy instead of building your website from scratch. The theme includes the design and visuals that give you a predefined look and feel but can be customized to fit your branding and photo store.
4. Adding Images and Content to Your Website
Next you need to flesh out the content for your website and add information about your services and portfolio. These pages should be mandatory on your photography website:
- Home
- About Us
- Services
- Blog
- Portfolio
- Contact
See also: How to start a book blog
You can also add a store page if you have an ecommerce store or payment gateway. If you’re a great writer, you can write your own content or hire a freelance copywriter to help you create the copy to ensure it includes a great CALL TO ACTION that sets your business apart from the competition.
5. Make sure you include keywords everywhere and describe the areas you serve
Once you have your content and images set up, it’s time to add your meta descriptions and title tags and a Conduct a quick check to ensure you are including the correct keywords in the text on your website.
You should also make sure that you clearly outline the locations, including cities and suburbs, to which you will provide services so that your website will show up when people search for photography services in those areas.
6. Make sure your contact details are correct and clear
A lot of people forget this, but proofread your website and make sure your contact details are crystal clear and easy to understand. This is important. Would you like to be contacted by email, phone or online form? Make sure this information is extremely clear and test that everything is working properly. Send your website to friends and ask them for feedback too.
Finally…
Your photography website will evolve and grow over time, but this is it the essential elements to know and complete during the setup phase. Also, make sure to include a portfolio of your best photos so your audience feels compelled to book with you and gets plenty of photo work coming their way.
Have any questions or comments about creating a photography website? Leave us a comment below – we’d love to hear from you! And PLEASE SHARE our tutorial on the social sharing buttons (we really appreciate it)!
See also: How to Build a Financial Website
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