Website critique invitied

[Alan W]

Hi there, new to this forum. Inviting your critique re my Wedding Photography website:

http://www.kentweddingphoto.co.uk

[MrsOpie]

C&C on the website.

1. HomePage - Work on creating a logo instead of just text with the company name at the top. There is way too much wording on this page. I would showcase your best shot or your most recent shot at a fairly good size.

2. Gallery - I find that the pictures are just too small to get an idea of what your portfolio is like. Look into a service that offers rotating images or small thumbnails that you can get a larger version when you click on them.

3. Pricing - this page looks good but you might want to add a little thumbnail picture next to each package.

4. the "more info" link is very general. it seems to be a combo of "Contact Me" and "About Me". I would create two links with these categories and keep it up beat. This wording is negative sounding, "
Should you then wish to proceed you will be asked for a booking fee of £150 and the remaining balance for your package will be due 28 days before the date of your wedding.
Please note that we are unable to accept payments by credit or debit card." As if it is rare that anyone wishes to proceed. Also, say the positive end of your payments accepted such as, "We accept cash or check"


5. Links - remove this page.


I hope this helps.

[Alan W]

Thank you for your input

[tony fanning]

The one thing that I noticed was that you are only using the cetre 50% of the page. There is a quarter page each side that is black! More space to spread out your content!

[Banbert]

Hi Alan and welcome, I am a newbie myself and have a learnt a lot from this place so its deffo worth hanging around.

How long has the website been active in its current form ? Theres obviously been some thought put into SEO for the website and I am interested to see what effects its had as some of it may be a little OTT .... alternatively it may have really worked for you, its hard one to gauge with the continualy moving goals of SEO.

I think generally the wording is a bit imprersonal, its written as if someone else is telling us about your business for the main part which isnt a problem on its own but theres quite a few references to "the photographer" which again I find quite impersonal, particularly for this industry when a lot of its about making a connection with your clients. Youve actually made me go back and look at some of the wording on my own website and I have done the same in a few instances but on the whole its more personal. Maybe "the photographer" references are for SEO ? but even then I still think it could be written a bit better.

A contact page with a form clients can complete online to make contact with you will get you more enquiries than just an email and telephone number in my experience. I dont know why but brides are just more likely to complete an online form than they are to compose their own email, it made a big difference when we added a contact form to our website, we still have an email address and telephone number at the top of the page but 95% of enquiries/bookings start with the form being completed.

None of your packages give any indication of how long your coverage is in terms of when it typically starts and ends, I think it would be a good idea to include this.

[*Mike*]

The contact page is important. An idea - search engines find addresses very well. Sometimes better than words - like you have across the top of the page. If you studio has no physical location, use the address of the town - eg: Abilene, TX 79602. It makes a BIG difference.

A contact page is needed.

I agree with removing the links page. The address will put you on the search engines faster than the links. And links off your page that arent recirpocated are usually bad. Ideally, you want lots of inbound links and hardly any outbound links.

I like your overall layout. I think it might be nice to leave the layout the way it is and add a white background behind the main part of the text. It looks a bit too much with all that black. The narrow strip of text is usually a good idea - people dont want to read, they want to see.

With that said - you might consider using images on other pages on your site. You're a photog - its expected.

[Alan W]

Hi Banbert, you mention SEO and you are absolutely spot on. Although I won't give too much away, this site may not appeal to everyone's taste but the fact is that it comes up on page 1 of Google every time using search terms that I would consider to be used by my potential clients. There's lots of other things which are less obvious but it's all about knowing what bells to ring. So whilst it may not look like a fantastic work of art, clean cut, contemporary or have a flash intro, it really does do the job. The website is my on-line brochure so has to be up there within the first two or three pages of a search. Then it's all down to whether they like the look of me and if the price is right. My free promo dvd advertised on the site is a work of art and hopefully the icing on the cake for getting bookings.

Tony, you are right in that the format of the text isn't very wide, this was to allow for persons with small screens or screens set to low resolutions. Also, some browsers can vary in the way they display sites. This is something I may have to address in the future.

[*Mike*]

everyone's taste but the fact is that it comes up on page 1 of Google every time

You aren't coming on page 1 with several search terms on google. That may be a regional issue, but thought I'd mention it.

[Banbert]

Hi Banbert, you mention SEO and you are absolutely spot on. Although I won't give too much away, this site may not appeal to everyone's taste but the fact is that it comes up on page 1 of Google every time using search terms that I would consider to be used by my potential clients. There's lots of other things which are less obvious but it's all about knowing what bells to ring. So whilst it may not look like a fantastic work of art, clean cut, contemporary or have a flash intro, it really does do the job. The website is my on-line brochure so has to be up there within the first two or three pages of a search. Then it's all down to whether they like the look of me and if the price is right. My free promo dvd advertised on the site is a work of art and hopefully the icing on the cake for getting bookings.



It comes up high in the search results when I search but I think you have to be careful not to sacrifice user appeal for SEO, not saying your doing that I just think its something to bear in mind. I think you will be surprised at the results you get if you add a contact form to your site, certainly made a lot of difference to my enquiries.

[picturecrazy]

I'm of the opinion that there's too much to read and not enough of it is important.

A lot of stuff, like the 3 page essays about albums and booking procedures actually aren't THAT important believe it or not.

The 'a final word from the photographer' part isn't important either. It reads like a fact sheet rather than finals words.

What content *IS* important is YOU. You gotta make this site personal. It's gotta show your personality throughout.

People aren't looking for a PHOTOGRAPHER, they are looking for SOMEBODY THEY REALLY LIKE that happens to take great pictures. Even though they may not know it, that's how the game is played.

Second to that, your pictures should do the talking, not pages of text. If you were a bride and this was the 25th wedding photographer website you visited that evening, do you really think you would read all the text on your site? I doubt it. Let your pictures do the talking. If they're interested, they'll contact you to meet. Keep the text short and concise, to a minimum, and don't let it dominate your site layout. Give them eye candy on every page on your site.

That's my humble opinion. You are free to take it, or think I'm a total moron and ignore me. ;)

[Alan W]

Been thinking about some of your suggestions, especially those of Mr Picture Crazy and have made a few changes. The most obvious one is that there is now more about me (scroll down on the gallery page) and this seems a more logical page for this to appear. Thank you all for your input...

[MrsOpie]

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/nd/aboutme.asp?page=1&of=2

Take a look at Lloyd's "about llyoyd" page. The picture of him in a playground says, "I'm a fun photographer". I would make your about page fun and about YOU, not about the type of pictures you take.

Thats just my input.