Any photographer hoping to find success in this day and age needs to post their work online. While you could post your work to social media like Instagram, you need your own website if you want to appear professional. In fact, these days, not having a website is a serious disadvantage. Here’s how to create a photography website tailored to you.
Set a Goal
The first thing you need to do when establishing your online presence is determining what you want to get out of your website. What is its purpose? Are you an event photographer hoping to increase local business? Are you hoping to sell your images for a tidy profit? Perhaps your website will serve as an online portfolio that potential employers could view.
Having more than one goal for your website is fine, but make sure you’ve defined these goals before you go any further.
Pick a Blueprint
This step should be easy for you. Launch has a pre-built blueprint specifically optimized for photographers. Our blueprint allows you to effortlessly showcase your work, allowing clients to focus on your imagery instead of trying to navigate to it. Our photography blueprint is mobile-friendly and easily allows for Instagram integration.
All Launch blueprints allow for easy uploading of new content, and include contact forms so potential clients, customers, or employers can easily get in touch with you. Additionally, our blueprints can be paid for monthly or purchased outright for a fraction of what a custom site would cost.
Set Your Tone
While Launch blueprints are mostly pre-built, you do have a degree of creative control. Studies show that up to 75% of a website’s credibility comes from design. As a professional photographer, you’ll obviously want your creativity to be evident as soon as your visitor lands on your page. With Launch, you can customize much of the content and appearance of your site, so it’s tailored to the audience you want to appeal to.
Mindful Content Choices
Now that you’ve locked down your new Launch blueprint, it is time to fill it to the brim with your work! But you have to decide how your images will be presented. Picture your homepage: in your mind’s eye, do you see one large image displayed across the top? Or do you envision a grid of images?
Consider your nav bar too. Will your images all reside on your homepage, or do you want to urge your visitors to continue clicking until they get to the goods?
Will you be able to update your content on a regular basis? If you’re unlikely to have the time, energy, or capacity to conduct regular site updates, it is strongly recommended that you opt for Instagram integration. That way, you can easily and instantly share your work with any site visitors with barely a keystroke.
Getting In Touch
It turns out that just over half of users believe that thorough contact information is important to any professional website. This means the contact page of your website should be as complete as you can make it. Alternatively, you could opt for a contact form so that visitors can reach out directly through the website instead.
Blog About It
Finally, you may have heard the term SEO in the past, and it stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of improving your website in ways that help it rank higher in search results on Google. One of the better ways of improving your site’s SEO is to provide consistent, relevant content. And what better way to do that than through a blog!
While it is optional, a blog will help your site show up on search engines. They are also a great way to connect with your audience through telling the stories behind your images, or even sharing tips or tricks of the trade to novice photographers.
Writing blogs is not for everyone. You may not even know where to start! Luckily for you, there are services out there that can provide regular blog content for your site. All you need to do is ask. Check out our partners at Siva, with its skilled and knowledgeable copywriters just waiting to write for you.