Tracy Main came to us from a recommendation for her photography website. She was already waiting for a website to be built by another company who specialised in photography websites. The designer hadn’t returned her emails or calls for a few months and Tracy was looking to establish her photography website before COVID lockdown came to an end. She was keen to have a website built within two months and we were certainly up for the challenge.
Tracy shared her stunning photography with us which made it all the more easier for us to start building the homepage design. We wanted to keep the website looking fresh, spacious and let her photography do the selling for her. With a photography website, having image SEO is extremely important. It’s often not feasible to add alt tags to every single image when a photographer is uploading hundreds at once. This is why we were very careful in selecting the correct WordPress plugins for Tracy to use. We also ensured all her images being uploaded were compressed to reduce file load time on the servers. Following the homepage design which we ensured was signed off, we went on to design the remaining pages, checking intermittently that Tracy was happy with how the website build was coming along.
What did we need to consider when building a photography website?
Loading time for images for a photography website
As mentioned, we needed to ensure that the website wouldn’t struggle to load due to the number of images. Ensuring an AJAX load so that the website loads images as you scroll, reduces load time and helps to speed the page view up.
We also needed to ensure the images that were loaded onto the website weren’t gigantic. Photographers typically use RAW formats or at the very least, enormous filesizes! This isn’t something you want to load onto a website as it will absolutely cripple the servers. So we set out guidelines for the filesize for each image which meant Tracy could bulk the images to the right size ready for the website.
Compression of the images is another vital step to ensure the servers can handle the page load. We selected the optimal WordPress plugins so that the images would automatically be compressed when loaded onto the photography website.
The servers that are used for a photography website
There are cheap servers out there ideal for new businesses who aren’t sure if their business is going to work out for them. We highly recommend IONOS for this. However if you’re looking to make your website a long-term marketing solution then we strongly advise you look at more superior hosting providers. We only ever recommend ChemiCloud as they offer an extremely great package. The best bit about them, if you’re stuck just click the online chat icon and someone will speak to you right then and there. No waiting for an advisor, no having to call – they’re always about and they seriously know their stuff.
The structure of the photography website
Tracy’s website was a large build. It required a good web structure to ensure that it made sense not just to people visiting the site, but to Google too. We sat down and worked on the website architecture to ensure the pages linked together correctly and there were no unintentional orphan pages. A well structured site can help your SEO dramatically and we’re proud of the results on Google:
What you can see above is that Tracy’s site has popular web pages which Google is displaying. It goes to show that taking the time to structure a website properly can lead to more visibility. It’s why we don’t just use WordPress themes that most agencies prefer to use. By building the site from scratch, we could select where each image should be, where the text should be, how Google should view the site, and how an end user should be able to view and navigate around the website.
End results for Tracy’s photography website
We went live with Tracy’s website within the two month’s timescale that we promised. Tracy was over the moon with the results. The next steps was website training with Tracy to help her to use the website as and when she was ready to update imagery, prices and text. We spent a few sessions training Tracy virtually and had some handy guides to share with her. Tracy has a website that drives a good amount of traffic and most importantly, enquiries to her.
Why Choose Digital Paw Marketing for your website?
We are an open and honest small family run business.
We do not believe in rolling out basic templates that you could get for free and charging the earth. We ensure each and every website we build is bespoke. Every website we build has an enormous amount of research carried out to ensure we use the right SEO keywords for your business needs. We make sure the website is appealing to your customers and that Google will want to share it in results.
We dedicate our time to ensuring your website is mobile optimised
We know that in today’s world it’s most essential to have a website designed for mobile first. The chances are you’re looking at this project right now on your mobile phone. We build websites to have a great look and feel on mobile while always ensuring the load time is reduced.
We work to industry SEO standards
We make sure that your website doesn’t just look delightful, but it actually drives traffic and enquiries. It’s all very well cooking a three-course meal but if nobody comes to eat it then it’s a waste of money. With that principle in mind, we make sure that we carry out the necessary SEO keyword research before building your website and look at your competition too.
We don’t just leave you after the site is built
We don’t see our customers as numbers – as a small family run business ourselves, we know how important customer satisfaction it. We have an excellent customer satisfaction rate for good reason – we make sure our customers know they can come to us even after the website is built. If our website clients are stuck and need a helping hand we are there. We don’t charge for every minute we’re helping our clients either. We also help to setup PPC Google Ads campaigns for our clients and manage their campaigns if they need us to.
