Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi there. I'm Ingrid Collness and this is my podcast, Sustainable Photography. This is the third episode in a three part series about your photography website. And today the episode is about the biggest website mistakes that I see photographers make and also how you can fix them. Because even the best photographers have website mistakes. And these mistakes, they can turn potential clients away.
[00:00:29] And I don't want that to happen to you. So that's why we have this episode. In the last episode of this series, I talked about what you want to have on a website to make it work for you.
[00:00:42] And in the last website episode, I talked about what elements you want to have on your website to make it work for you. And in the first website episode I talked about why you want to have a website in the first place. But let's talk about what not to do. I kind of touched on this in the last episode, but it's really important. So I mentioned it again and that is adding too many images to your website and to your portfolio page. If you have too many photos, it will slow down your website and it's also going to overwhelm your visitors.
[00:01:16] And I'm sure you know this, but not all your images are as good. Some of them are better than others and some of them are closer to what you want to keep doing. Those are the ones you want. So Instead of adding 100 photos to your website, start with like 15 at least to one single page. Like, just make it easy.
[00:01:45] And if your website doesn't work well on a mobile phone, you could be losing half your visitors. That is a lot. That's a lot of money you're leaving on the table. And it's just such a waste. It's such a wasted opportunity. Make sure that you've tested your website on different devices and put mobile responsiveness as your top priority. When it comes to your website, make sure that the buttons aren't too small, make sure that the font, they'll look good, make sure that it's working the way it's supposed to.
[00:02:23] And the third mistake is having an unclear client journey. Because if your clients can't figure out how to book you, they're not going to book you, they're going to leave. You're going to have lost a client. And honestly, that's on you. You have to make sure that you have a clear call to action, a clear button on every single page, and make sure that your menu is easy to work, that it's intuitive and people don't have to really think about it. The fourth mistake is having that homemade look. If you have an amateurish design, it is not going to encourage people to spend money with you. It's probably going to get them to go with someone who has more of a professional vibe. Professional doesn't mean boring. It definitely doesn't mean that you can't be yourself, but you want to make sure that it looks good, that it matches your photos and your brand.
[00:03:23] So make sure that you are using professional templates or that you have a professional designer that can work with you and that your branding is cohesive, that it's you. Basically, the fifth mistake is not maintaining your website, meaning you have outdated info, broken links, the load time is slow, maybe an automatic update left something in a weird way. And sometimes I do website reviews and I'll come across something like that and they'll be like, oh yeah, yeah, I saw that. And if you aren't fixing it straight away again, I bet you know that your clients, they don't want to work with someone who has a bad website because what does that say about the service that they're going to get from you? And yeah, you know that you wouldn't do the same with your own services, but that's not the impression that you're leaving for them to see. Remember, this is may be the first and only impression they're ever going to see of yours. So make sure that you give a good first impression. If you schedule regular updates, if you check in with your website once a week, making sure that everything is up to date, that your contact form is working, that is a good idea. The sixth mistake is how much DIY is actually costing you. Because the time you spend making your own website, updating your website, maintaining your website, that is time you could spend growing your business.
[00:05:03] That is time you could be out there making money. So just think about it if that is the best way for you to spend your time or if you should outsource that stuff.
[00:05:15] The seventh mistake I see is not adding anything about you on your website.
[00:05:23] Previously I mentioned how I don't like it when someone talks too much about themselves on their website. By that I mean like you're making it all by yourself, when really it should be about your client. But the opposite is sometimes also true. You want to make sure that you have a photo of you, preferably where you're looking into the camera and you want to mention your name a few sentences about something a little bit more personal about yourself than the fact that you're a photographer.
[00:05:54] If you speak to your values, why you're a photographer, maybe give some fun facts. That is what's going to stick. Not your diplomas from college or the awards you won or anything like that, but the deeper stuff, the stuff that truly matters because people buy from people. So you want to make sure that it's clear that there is a person behind there that you're not just a faceless brand.
[00:06:25] The eighth and let's say it's the final mistake for now is to forget about testimonials or not making it clear that it is a testimonial. So you want to have quotation marks around your testimonials. You want to add a photo of the person saying it, you want to add their name and you want to have them on all your pages.
[00:06:45] You don't want to hide them away under a tab on your in your menu or just maybe add one at the bottom of your homepage. You want to make sure that if someone is on your website they will have seen what someone said about working with you about the results they got. And you don't need like three paragraphs. Having something short and swee is probably way more effective than having something long because when it comes to your website, people don't read every single word that you put on there. They skim. So you don't want to have those long paragraphs of text anyway. You just want to make sure that it's easy to kind of see and take note of even though you're probably not reading all of them. So your tasks after listening to this episode is to actually re listen and make sure that you fix at least one mistake on your website this week.
[00:07:45] Look for broken links, check your load time, make sure that there's a photo of you where you're looking into the camera.
[00:07:53] Make sure it's clear how to book you and that you don't have too many images.
[00:07:59] Check your website on mobile and you can also go back to the first two episodes of this three part series to get some more tips and insights. And if you want my eyes on your website, go over to Instagram and you'll find me Ingville Colmes. That's in K O L N E S and send me a dm. If you want me to check out your website and give you some pointers.
