Addressing 10 Common Mistakes on Photography Websites and How to Rectify Them
Search engine optimization (SEO) is often at the forefront of our minds when we think about websites. How is Google ranking you against similar photographers, and are you on the first page of search results? SEO should certainly be taken seriously by every photographer – but there can be misconceptions when it comes to SEO that we should all avoid.
“Alex Vita is a website designer and PhotoShelter certified consultant. When it comes to SEO, my belief is that photographers need to focus on other aspects of their sites before moving forward with SEO efforts.” He understands its power but not at the cost of user experience issues or mistakes that affect user satisfaction.
Prior to trying to improve your page rank, make sure your website is easily navigable with great photos and user-friendly features – without this foundational foundation your SEO efforts may prove fruitless.
Below we present ten website mistakes we encounter every day – everything from broken links and contact info being unavailable, to repetitive or absent metadata. Take our test below and see where you stack up!
1. Mislink of Social Media Profiles While photographers should prioritize website development for business reasons, social media should still play an integral part in their workflow and business plans. Allowing photographers to take people behind-the-scenes, share new work without updating websites regularly, take people behind-the-scenes during sessions and more, social media should form a part of every photographer’s identity in some form or another.
One of the most prevalent mistakes we see among photographer websites is an improper link to social media profiles, be it broken or simply not listed – improper social media linking will leave you missing out!
So as to ensure your website design remains unobtrusive and focused on you, we offer social follow icons which enable you to enter your social media handles for the platforms on which you wish to feature yourself.
Don’t add your URL (for instance https://www.instagram.com/photoshelter/), nor your handle with an “@” symbol (e.g @photoshelter). Just enter your handles for each platform and you should be set.
Checking in regularly with yourself to see that everything is running smoothly can be done easily and instantly.
2. No Public Phone Number Listing
We know it may seem counterproductive to publish your phone number publicly on a website; but as our editors have reported back, adding one may make all the difference – anything that makes you easier for people to contact makes booking you simpler!
If you haven’t done so already, adding your phone number to your homepage or contact page could make you more available and demonstrate your readiness for work.
Your phone number can also be linked with custom HTML so if someone clicks it, a phone call will immediately begin on their cell (or, on a laptop, FaceTime).