New Website! I'd like to hear your feedback!

[kansascityshuffle]

Launched my new wedding photography website....Now I'm focusing on the advertising aspect of my business plan.


www.focusedmemoriesphotography.com


Tell me what you think of the layout, images, overall vibe. What general feeling does it give you?

I'm aiming for the upper-middle customer in my market, based on other photographers' prices that I scouted. Do you think I've projected to that market with my website and samples? Classy enough?

And definitely tell me if there are any dead links or incorrect spelling/grammar!

Thanks in advance knowledgeable POTN-goers!

Jacob

[nickbunyun]

As a very sarcastic graphic designer ... this what I think.

1. the name is too long.
(think also how that would look on a business card)

2. Both your sites (blog, and flash site) are typical "templates" it doesnt say a story of you..
but who knows you may be going after a typical look

3. Personally, I'm not a big fan of flash portfolio sites because loading images takes too long, slides takes too long.
However it does serve its purpose of Contact and prices..

thats just some stuff i saw at first look..

[TheHoff]

1. Don't "launch" something that is under construction. Either populate the blog or remove it for now.

2. Nick above is right; it looks like the typical Bludomain site. Once a bride starts searching through enough sites they start to look similar and you easily recognize the splash page. Their horrible, horrible splash page... That isn't saying you can't book jobs with a Bludomain site; plenty of photographers do. But it doesn't stand out.

3. And don't take this the wrong way as I'm in the same position, but are you ready for the high-end market? It is easy to see that most of your samples come from the same ceremony or two and the galleries, at 8 or 9 images, are very thin. Around here (a fairly high-priced city) the photographers that can start their packages at $3000 and $4000 have a much thicker book of work.

4. Agreed again with Nick that the name is too long, especially when you put 'wedding photography'' at the end.

[Pete W]

Think it may pay to offer a html version as some people will not want to or know how to change their pop-up settings......

[kansascityshuffle]

Thanks for the feedback thus far guys. I've addressed some of the issues, and will continue to work on others.

The best piece was to take the blog down, and I've done that. This also allowed me to get rid of the splash page for the time being. Now the Flash gallery site comes up automatically if the web address is entered. This also eliminates the pop-up problem.

The website is going to have to be cookie-cutter for now, as I lack any real web design ability. It's not ideal, but I can't really afford to have a nice site custom designed for now. Plenty of photographers book clients with templates...I don't foresee an issue. I do like Flash, however. Anybody who doesn't at least have the capability to view a Flash website probably isn't all that interested in picking a photographer.

As far as "being ready" goes, I don't know. The photographic ability is good enough, but will continue to improve, of course. My level of professionalism is also ready for an upper-middle level of clients. I do lack the experience of somebody doing this for years, so we'll see if I generate interest at my current pricing structure. The entry fee for my services is $2500...that is very middle-of-the-road in the Indianapolis market, considering the unlimited shooting on the day-of and all of the high-rez shots.

Again, thanks for all of the input. It is very helpful, so keep it coming!

[nphsbuckeye]

On your info page, you can scroll, but the scroll bar on the side doesn't move. However, if you move the scroll bar, the content moves. Not really a functionality issue, but something to fix nevertheless.

And, if it were me, I'd scratch the Flash site, but that's probably too late now.

[Hikin Mike]

Since you removed the splash page, you have NO text for Google to index. Now, I don't like splash pages and Flash site. If you must use Flash, then I suggest having a HTML site too. This way Google can index you and maybe your site may list within the first couple pages. Without any text, Google will have a tough time finding you. Make sense?

[kansascityshuffle]

Mike,

Thanks. I had completely forgotten that, and I had specifically added text to the splash page originally in order for better search placement. I'll simply add it back, without the option to go to the blog.

On a related note, how long does it normally take to get crawled by google? I submitted the site 4-5 days ago, bt it hasn't happened as of yet.

[TheHoff]

Mike,

Thanks. I had completely forgotten that, and I had specifically added text to the splash page originally in order for better search placement. I'll simply add it back, without the option to go to the blog.

On a related note, how long does it normally take to get crawled by google? I submitted the site 4-5 days ago, bt it hasn't happened as of yet.

Does anyone link to your site? If not, google won't know it exists. Just putting the site link in your signature here would be enough to get it crawled. Also if you have the Google toolbar, just going to the site through the toolbar will probably get it crawled. Alternately, google "google submit" and you can add it to the index that way. (edit: missed the part where you said you submitted already; if that is the case, give it at least 10 days to show up in the index and then only if you search for "site: xxxxxxx.com" where xxx is your domain name)

In reality, a few lines of text on a splash page will not help you rank in any meaningful way. I'm currently climbing up and over my local competition who have been in business for years because in Google's eyes, my page is FULL of keyworded text while theirs is only a flash player. They all have splash pages with a few lines of text and locations where they shoot. I have like 12 paragraphs of keyword-rich information.

In the same way, you need more links in... people / blogs / other sites not affiliated with you that link to yours. That is the real Google technique... it isn't a trick, they need to like your site and link to it. The only possible way a Flash site will beat an HTML site in the rankings is if the Flash site has been around a lot longer and it has a lot of powerful sites that link to it.

[TheHoff]

I do lack the experience of somebody doing this for years, so we'll see if I generate interest at my current pricing structure. The entry fee for my services is $2500...that is very middle-of-the-road in the Indianapolis market,

There certainly is no harm in putting up your site, your desired prices, and waiting to see if business comes in. But it will be quite a while before Google is delivering any meaningful traffic. I would guess the inquiry rate on a well-designed site might be 2 to 5 visitors in 100 that will send an email to talk to you. So you'll be waiting a while to see if your pricing structure works if you only get a few visitors per day.

Once you have your site to a decent point you might consider running some Google Adwords to drive some instant traffic and test your pricing.

And again, I don't want to belabour my above point, but I think only having galleries of 8 or 9 images each, all from the same ceremony, is too thin to instantly insert yourself into the $2500 to $4000 base market. But hey, that is what you will find out or prove wrong.

[kansascityshuffle]

Does anyone link to your site? If not, google won't know it exists. Just putting the site link in your signature here would be enough to get it crawled. Also if you have the Google toolbar, just going to the site through the toolbar will probably get it crawled. Alternately, google "google submit" and you can add it to the index that way. (edit: missed the part where you said you submitted already; if that is the case, give it at least 10 days to show up in the index and then only if you search for "site: xxxxxxx.com" where xxx is your domain name)

In reality, a few lines of text on a splash page will not help you rank in any meaningful way. I'm currently climbing up and over my local competition who have been in business for years because in Google's eyes, my page is FULL of keyworded text while theirs is only a flash player. They all have splash pages with a few lines of text and locations where they shoot. I have like 12 paragraphs of keyword-rich information.

In the same way, you need more links in... people / blogs / other sites not affiliated with you that link to yours. That is the real Google technique... it isn't a trick, they need to like your site and link to it. The only possible way a Flash site will beat an HTML site in the rankings is if the Flash site has been around a lot longer and it has a lot of powerful sites that link to it.

There certainly is no harm in putting up your site, your desired prices, and waiting to see if business comes in. But it will be quite a while before Google is delivering any meaningful traffic. I would guess the inquiry rate on a well-designed site might be 2 to 5 visitors in 100 that will send an email to talk to you. So you'll be waiting a while to see if your pricing structure works if you only get a few visitors per day.

Once you have your site to a decent point you might consider running some Google Adwords to drive some instant traffic and test your pricing.

And again, I don't want to belabour my above point, but I think only having galleries of 8 or 9 images each, all from the same ceremony, is too thin to instantly insert yourself into the $2500 to $4000 base market. But hey, that is what you will find out or prove wrong.



Hoff, thanks again for all of the help. I really value it.

The main thing for me is this...photography is a part time thing for me. I'll be starting grad school in August, and a wedding here and there on the weekend will be a nice help financially, but by no means do I have to dive in to this head first.

That said, I can afford to take it slow. I will have limited free time to shoot weddings, so I'd rather get 5-10 a year at a higher price point than 20-30 at a lower point. I also don't have to start getting 10 bookings per season right away...I have a couple of weddings scheduled at a lower price for next season already, and that's about the extent of the price slashing that I'll do. After that, I'll only adjust my prices if the bookings refuse to trickle in.

In theory, it sounds good to me. Will I be able to book 5-10 weddings a year? Who knows....

As far as that goes, I don't expect to book many clients through search engines, just because SEO is so difficult with Flash. The thing is, Flash looks so much better and nicer than html sites to me personally. To each their own on that one, as long as the choice doesn't kill your business model.

I do have a couple of nice venues that I know will push some clients my way, and I intend to do some networking with other photogs around here in order to get referrals when they are booked for a specific day.

[Todd Lambert]

I think the site looks good, but as everyone noted above, it's a template.

I'm okay with the name, myself. You have a bunch of keywords in there, which is always good for ranking purposes.

Only gripe would be to change the menu item called "practice" to rehearsals, or something. When I see practice, I think these are experimental shots of yours or that you're amateur and these are your practice shots.

[kansascityshuffle]

Thanks Todd. I'll change the name. I'm not good with trying to be "cute." :p Not my style.

[lancebroad]

Wow, flash really takes a long time to load the images if they havnt been pre-loaded before clicking them.

Maybe invest in a web designer to produce a site thats quick and easy to navigate, and will also provide you with what you need and get you submitted to the search engines? These days with CSS and html being so flexable, you can produce something outstanding.