PhotoBiz Magazine // Spring 2017

eyond SEO
BEYOND SEO
7 Steps to Optimize Your Website
Written by HOLLY H.
We sometimes get calls from clients who are concerned
that their sites aren’t performing as well as they like, and
their first thought is usually SEO. While some sites could
use a little SEO love, there are usually other issues that are
driving customers away.
Perhaps a website is hard to navigate. Maybe the content
is unfocused. Sometimes it’s impossible to find the
contact page!
Let’s take a look at the most common website pitfalls and
how to correct them. With a few tweaks, you can attract
better customers and sell more products and services.
Clean Up Your Navigation
Your website’s navigation is like a road map. Not only
should all roads lead to “Contact Me,” there should be as
little clutter as possible to distract a visitor along the way.
Try to limit your navigation to only a handful of
top-level links.
• Start with Home
• Give a little info About yourself
• Provide compelling examples of your Work
• Share your Investment page or any Products for sale
• Link to your Blog
• Then ask visitors to Contact you
People like to start at the left and click down the line. In this
way, we lead the visitor through your story in a logical way
and end with a final request to contact you.
Another way to declutter your top navigation is to use
List or Marquee Plus pages.
Long drop-down menus can get cumbersome and cover up
important information. Instead, consider linking to a page
that provides a portal to your different galleries or products.
It’s cleaner and provides a better experience than trusting a
user to navigate a drop-down menu.
Build A Solid Homepage
Make sure that a visitor knows everything they need to know
about your business EVEN IF they only see your homepage.
Show a few choice images that reflect your bread and butter
work. (Or the work you’d most like to attract!) Include a little
information about your business, including your location and
service area. Then end with a strong call to action to contact
you – or better yet, embed a contact form right on the page.
Fine Tune Your Galleries
Huge numbers of photos can overwhelm visitors and
cause long loading times. Statistically, visitors only view
the first 10 or so images in a gallery. We recommend
limiting your galleries to about 20 images each.
In addition to making sure your galleries are the right
size, you’ll need to add new images regularly. This is for
three reasons:
You’ll Give Repeat Visitors Incentive to Act
A prospect can visit your site multiple times before
they make up their mind to book a session. Giving the
appearance that you’re busy churning out amazing
photos will help clients feel that you’re in high demand –
and that they should act now!
You’ll Avoid Looking Out-of-Date
The second your work starts to look dated, you’ll lose
visitors who are looking for an active, modern photographer.
Cull any photos that look “old” (clothing and hair styles
included).
You’ll Draw in New Visitors
Google loves it when you update your site. This is partly
why regular blogging is so effective for SEO. In addition
to getting Google points, you can promote major updates
on social media and drive visitors to your site to check out
your amazing new galleries.
So if you can’t decide between your reams of images,
don’t despair! Keep in mind that you can (and should!)
change up galleries every few months to keep content
fresh and exciting.
24 PHOTOBIZ MAGAZINE