How’s Your Website? The Editor’s POV – Gary Cole
There is no more important marketing tool in a photographer’s arsenal these days than his website. Have you examined yours lately? And if you have, are you thinking about it from the perspective of your prospective clients? Or is your website simply some of your images laid down willy-nilly without any particular purpose or thought?
First of all, your website should not be the repository of all your images or even simply your favorite images. It is a representation of your skills as a photographer, a medium that provides the viewer with a quick overview of the kinds of photography at which you are best.
Is your website easy to navigate? The navigation should be nearly seamless and intuitive. I don’t want to search for how to get from one photo to the next, from one section to the next. I don’t want to be forced to move my cursor to get from one image to the next. Does your website allow the user to view photos individually and linger over them or is it a slideshow presentation format?
Hint: it should offer both options. How big are the presented images? Can the viewer enlarge them for a closer examination? Are they heavy to load and thus time-consuming on the user end? Does your website have music? If so, I would recommend you get rid of it. The last thing I wanted to listen to when working at my desk at Playboy was a photographer’s choice of music as I looked at his photos.
About Gary Cole
Do you have a short bio on yourself that gives a quick insight into who you are, what your experience is? Is your contact information evident? Believe it or not, I’ve seen some websites where you have to hunt for contact info. Keep in mind that anything your website does that slows or confuses the user is likely to make him click off.
Do you have a way of keeping track of how many people visit your website and how long their visits last? Have you investigated what happens when someone googles your name or the name of your company? Have you explored ways to make yourself more visible on search engines?
We’ll talk more about websites and ways to successfully utilize social media in the coming weeks. In the meantime, keep shooting and keep your critical eye in focus.
~ Gary Cole
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