If you do one thing this month… refresh your website
Your website is the digital shop window onto your business. So think Selfridges or Hamleys. Not One Stop or Spar.
Websites are at the forefront of every business person’s mind. If you don’t have one, you’re thinking about creating one, and if you do have one, you’re probably applauding yourself on having set it up.
But creating your website is only the first step. Once it’s up and running, you can’t simply sit back and relax. A website needs refreshing and updating. If not you run the risk of it becoming a shop window displaying outdated images on faded paper with a top-class dead fly collection!
To avoid winning a place in the Guinness Book of Records with your dead flies, allocate time every three months to review your website. This isn’t just a case of uploading a few new images. It needs to be more in-depth than that. You need to judge how effective it is at presenting your business and generating new work. If you’ve got the data available, find out who visits the site. Is it more men or women? What do they look at? Analyse data to see how visitors use the site and if they become clients. Go back to your original concepts, targets and the initial brief for the site, and compare with data about your visitors.
For your site to generate the kind of business you want, it needs to effectively target the right market, which means presenting yourself as that kind of photographer. It’s no good putting a collection of your flower shots up, if you want to market yourself as a wedding and social portrait photographer.
Select the images you upload carefully, and do update them. While that prized picture from last year might stand the test of time, not all of last season’s images will, so it’s wise to make refreshing your on-line portfolio part of your three-monthly review.
After every shoot, select a few shots that might work on the site. Keep them in a folder on your computer, so you can go straight to them when you refresh the site. Then there’ll be no need to go fishing for images when the time for a refresh comes. Decide what fits the bill each time you review your site. It’s important that the uploaded images illustrate the best, and latest, aspects of your photography. If the images stay the same, it gives visitors the impression that your business is stagnating; they might think you’re not working much. And if you’re not working much, that’s probably because you’re not very good. Not the impression you want to give at all!
Something that can give a dynamic impact is a page devoted to client stories. Showcasing shots from certain jobs together with comments from the client is a powerful mix. This kind of page is often read by site visitors, and it will reinforce the quality of your service. It can even be a great PR exercise. Not only will the clients you feature be thrilled, they’ll be encouraged to return to you and tell the world all about it. Something that is sure to generate more traffic to your site. And your business.
Review checklist
- Does your website still reflect your original intentions and your business?
- Are the images current? Do they still represent your style and approach to photography?
- Do visitors to your site contact you, and then hire you?
- Is the price guide up to date?
- Is the range of services current?
- Do the showcased jobs need refreshing?
- Have you informed the clients and venues involved?
- Are search engines finding your site?
