Website redesign - opinions please

Moved over to Squarespace for my hosting and to get a few more options (password protected pages, online ordering etc)

Would be grateful for any feedback. Thanks in advance.

Www.bgs.photography

I had to a tough time finding out were you're located. I would not put your location in the footer. Sometimes the footer info is NOT indexed, so I would put it near the top of the page.

Your header (logo/navigation) seems to move from page to page. Without looking at each page, it seems like your 'Gallery > Overview' page is different from all other pages.

Your site isn't SEO-friendly. Read my SEO link in my sig.

Thanks. Would hoping you'd have a look!

I used to use weebly and had the seo pretty sorted. It seems harder with Squarespace to sort it, will definitely do more on it.

I'll put the location in a more prominent location, thanks. Not sure about the difference in pages?

Design is good, very clean. You've got some great portraits, although the product section is a little weak, and it's not clear what the actual product is in some of the photos.

You've got way too much text, and a lot of filler that isn't really helping.

Stuff like this:

"I don't do the 'hard sell'. We will discuss beforehand what you require from the shoot and what prints will be included with it. If you wish to purchase more, then great. If not, that's also great. I will keep the images on a secure server so you will be able to purchase any further prints at a later date if you wish. It's completely your choice."

That's fine if you aren't pushy about sales, but there's no need to advertise it. From the looks of your base pricing, it looks like you could use all the print sales you can get anyway.

Other text to lose:

I like to cater for most needs; whether that be a family session, just children, or if you need headshots or product shots for your company

These are actually fairly specific needs, and this is a redundant statement, as the rest of your site makes it clear that this is what you do.

For each hour of shooting I expect to get 40-50 high quality shots

This is a crazy thing to promise, and although it's possible with some products, is generally not going to be true, as it will vary widely from product to product. Just don't mention anything to this affect. If I have 3 products that I want to be shot, by your estimation, that will take less than 10 minutes, which should cost me about £5 according to your hourly rate. None of that makes sense, nor would it be a sound business practice, so keep all of that in mind.

On my iPad I say default size text is too large and the top header is taking up too much space

mltn wrote in post #16971788
Design is good, very clean. You've got some great portraits, although the product section is a little weak, and it's not clear what the actual product is in some of the photos.

You've got way too much text, and a lot of filler that isn't really helping.

Stuff like this:

"I don't do the 'hard sell'. We will discuss beforehand what you require from the shoot and what prints will be included with it. If you wish to purchase more, then great. If not, that's also great. I will keep the images on a secure server so you will be able to purchase any further prints at a later date if you wish. It's completely your choice."

That's fine if you aren't pushy about sales, but there's no need to advertise it. From the looks of your base pricing, it looks like you could use all the print sales you can get anyway.

Other text to lose:

I like to cater for most needs; whether that be a family session, just children, or if you need headshots or product shots for your company

These are actually fairly specific needs, and this is a redundant statement, as the rest of your site makes it clear that this is what you do.

For each hour of shooting I expect to get 40-50 high quality shots

This is a crazy thing to promise, and although it's possible with some products, is generally not going to be true, as it will vary widely from product to product. Just don't mention anything to this affect. If I have 3 products that I want to be shot, by your estimation, that will take less than 10 minutes, which should cost me about £5 according to your hourly rate. None of that makes sense, nor would it be a sound business practice, so keep all of that in mind.

Thanks for that. I will address those points.

Much appreciated

juicedownload wrote in post #16971853
On my iPad I say default size text is too large and the top header is taking up too much space

Changed the text size, it was definitely too big. Thanks

On the first image on the home page I'd generally like to see softer light on a child, somewhere between what you have & the one at the bottom.
So I clicked on Gallery > Overview
Then I clicked on each choice & got nothing, so it's a dead end?
So then I clicked on Gallery > Portraits
The software crops the images with heads cut off. If I click on the "thumbnails" & go to the actual image, I can see the original framing, but what if someone sees the cropped images & doesn't click on them? What if they just exit & look at some other site?
And the image in line #2, #2 has got to go.
If I'm in Products looking at the large image & click on the Back button, it takes me back to the Home page. Not what I expected. And yes, I know that you've got other options to go back, but we're working with the lowest common denominator here (Grandma)? ; )

PhotosGuy wrote in post #16972797
On the first image on the home page I'd generally like to see softer light on a child, somewhere between what you have & the one at the bottom.
So I clicked on Gallery > Overview
Then I clicked on each choice & got nothing, so it's a dead end?
So then I clicked on Gallery > Portraits
The software crops the images with heads cut off. If I click on the "thumbnails" & go to the actual image, I can see the original framing, but what if someone sees the cropped images & doesn't click on them? What if they just exit & look at some other site?
And the image in line #2, #2 has got to go.
If I'm in Products looking at the large image & click on the Back button, it takes me back to the Home page. Not what I expected. And yes, I know that you've got other options to go back, but we're working with the lowest common denominator here (Grandma)? ; )

Again, thanks for that. Much appreciated.

I'm in two minds pretty much daily as to what image to put on the homepage as the first image.

Don't know what happened with the links in the overview page, but they're sorted now.

The picture in line 2 #2 in which gallery should go?

I completely see your point about the square thumbnail thing, and it is a thought I've had before, the alternative seems to be to not use square thumbnails - however as the images are a mixture of portrait, landscape, 1x1 and other various crops it all looks a bit of a higgledy piggledy mess. I'm sure I've seen an example of a Squarespace gallery that looks better, but not sure how to achieve it.

I think I'm confused on the last point, where did you expect back to take you?

Thanks again for taking the time to have a look. I missed loads of things!

sancho1983 wrote in post #16972917
The picture in line 2 #2 in which gallery should go?

Portraits

Back one step to the Product thumbnails. Not all the way to the home page.

sancho1983 wrote in post #16957138
Moved over to Squarespace for my hosting and to get a few more options (password protected pages, online ordering etc)

Would be grateful for any feedback. Thanks in advance.

Www.bgs.photography

“I used BGS Photography to take portrait photos of the characters I portray for my events and entertainment company. I found them to be very accommodating and made sure I got the exact photos that I wanted. He also arranged a site to shoot and ensured there was space to change so the models felt comfortable and at ease. "

them
he

Choose Don't use "them" to try and sound bigger than you are as a company, client see through it very easily.

Client area does not need to be on the main menu. Stick it in the footer or just email links to clients.

Your rate is too low and you will go bust.

Don't put out of focus images in your portfolio or "even" in front of a paying customer.

I like a lot of your photos, but there is a huge range in quality and I feel some of them are letting you down. I love the fingers on piano shot, but it's not a portrait and that goes for a lot of the shots on display.

Best of luck.

SuffolkGal wrote in post #16973639
“I used BGS Photography to take portrait photos of the characters I portray for my events and entertainment company. I found them to be very accommodating and made sure I got the exact photos that I wanted. He also arranged a site to shoot and ensured there was space to change so the models felt comfortable and at ease. "

them
he

Choose Don't use "them" to try and sound bigger than you are as a company, client see through it very easily.

Client area does not need to be on the main menu. Stick it in the footer or just email links to clients.

Your rate is too low and you will go bust.

Don't put out of focus images in your portfolio or "even" in front of a paying customer.

I like a lot of your photos, but there is a huge range in quality and I feel some of them are letting you down. I love the fingers on piano shot, but it's not a portrait and that goes for a lot of the shots on display.

Best of luck.

Thanks.

Must be the way that the website has rendered them as there aren't any that are out of focus (or at least there shouldn't be)

The current pricing is "testing the water". It's something I'm going to look at after the summer.

Any particular shots that you feel shouldn'tbe in there? (aapart from the piano one, which I agree with you with)