Creating an Effective Website Series: Putting the Pieces Together

This is the last article in our series for creating an effective website.  Previously, we wrote about: (1) Targeting each of your customers with sub sites that are geared toward each of your customer’s needs  (2) How to create an effective splash page to give the best first impression.  Now we will attempt to put all of the pieces together as we talk about the overall presentation.

First Impressions: 
Everything starts with the Splash page.  This will be your customer’s first look at your business.  They should be able to get an idea of your brand, they should see your company name, and they should be able to get a good idea of what you do.  First impressions mean a lot and this will be your web site’s front door.  Take a look at these great examples!

 Presentation:
Would you show wedding photos to a customer that is in need of senior portraits?  -No, so don’t let your web presence give your potential customers the wrong impression.  Create a website that targets to your market with your images, content, and design.  If you do two different types of photography that shouldn’t be mixed, get two websites to separate the content!  This doesn’t mean that you will brand two businesses or even market two domain names.  Link everything from a splash page like this:  Viso Photography

Content:
Have you heard in real estate the term “Location, Location, Location”?  Well, many would say that in regards to websites, its “Content, Content, Content”.  This saying is in regards to two primary reasons.  First of all, you want to be able to give the customer enough information to call you, but not too much to push them away.  Don’t make it overwhelming, but try to use key phrases that really draw them in so that you can close the sale.  Secondly, better content will result in better search engine optimization.

In regards to your images, give yourself a fresh look and change things around often.  Using a drag and drop control panel like PhotoBiz has, you can do this very easily.  Many will debate on displaying your pricing and I don’t want to necessarily pick sides on this; however, if you do, make it easy by having a PDF downloadable file for your viewers.

Quick Tip:  Create a PDF Coupon and place it in your website.  This creates incentive, adds value to the customer, and lets you know that customers are coming from your website.

Presentation:Analyze & Adjust:
Find out where your traffic is coming from.  Google Analytics is a free service that you can set up to track all sorts of information about web traffic.  Part of having an effective site is knowing what works.  There might be particular images or templates that you use while your analytics are telling you the bounce rate is low, time spent on your site are higher, etc…  Use this information and adjust your site accordingly.  Larry Perez Photography does a great job of this. Click here to see what he has to say in regards to this.

With this being the end of the series, I want to remind you that we have some wonderful examples of some great websites that have been built using PhotoBiz at:  Bloggers Corner

Here are 3 great photography websites that I feel have done a great job of “Putting the Pieces Together”: 

PhotoUmbra   ::   Alante Photography   ::   Jen-Shannon Photography