My website - what works and what doesn't work?

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Original Message Added : 5 Apr 2011

Hello, I have just started a photography business, and doing some courses in business.

I have just done my own website and would like feedback on what works and what does not.

all advice is welcome and grateful for.

www.damienrossphotography.co.uk

thanks for reading

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	Damien Ross from Damien Ross Photography
Location :	Southend-on-sea
Joined :	03 April 2011
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	2 ( 0)

Reply : 6 Apr 2011 - (Edited : 6 Apr 2011)

Hi,

Had a quick review and my thoughts:-

1. If you designed the website then well done.

2. Areas I suggest that could be improved:-

a. It appears the whole website has been built in flash which I'm not keen on as it: takes too long to load and does not allow for ALT tags (image descriptions) ; both may have an impact on search engines and readers for the visually impaired fully understanding the website and may also have an impact on your search rankings; .

b. Suggest the image file sizes are too large and could be reduced by about a fifth without having an impact on image quality

c. 'Gallery' page and other images: Suggest you could opt for a better lightbox and also have larger original images so when thumbnail clicked it opens a larger image and the visitor has the option to click 'previous' or 'next' within the image frame without having to close the image down and open another image.

d. Suggest an email address such as: enquiry@www.damienrossphotography.co.uk as this looks more professional than a gmail email account

e. Further optimisation: You should limit your Meta Tag keywords to approx 250 characters as search engines tend to ignore beyond this point. Your current Meta tag keyword count is 689 characters; Suggest you improve the page titles so that better reflect the content of the page.

f. Suggest you need a Privacy statement as you are collecting data from your contact form.

Hope this helps

Regards

SteveB: www.pxwm.co.uk

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	Steve Billington from ProPraxis Web Management
Location :	Leicester
Joined :	11 February 2010
About :	Web Design & Build + SEO + Web Management
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	420 ( 208)

Reply : 6 Apr 2011

it's good, one flaw i'd remark on is that visitors can download your image files, leaving you at risk of copyright infringement. Even a picture at 800pixels is good enough for picking, should 1 ever need a picture of say... a bumble bee? If you want to give away your stock images then that's fine but you should consider adding a watermark to your pictures before putting them into a public gallery.

Why not consider selling your stock rather than giving it away.

I also agree with the previous post, flash sucks, it also doesn't show on certain devices and computer platforms, so by using flash, you are limiting your audience.

Also, consider which photo you want to have on your front page. Personally, i'd just had my breakfast and a dozen caterpillars desecrating a leaf kinda churned my stomach! Think more about your target audience, who you want to sell your services to, what they are looking for. If it's weddings you are promoting, put a wedding pic on the front page, or maybe set up a new site just for your stock and keep a separate site to promote your weddings?

feel free to criticise or comment on my own sites, or compare designs/layouts. I've just recently set up a stand alone site to promote my wedding photography;

http://www.click-emotive.co.uk (still under construction)

with my own personal site;

http://www.russellsneddon.co.uk

and the stock archive previously mentioned;

http://www.stockpix.eu

hope this helps and best of luck!

Russell

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	Russell Sneddon from Click Emotive Photography
Location :	Penicuik
Joined :	20 June 2010
Posts :	2 ( 1)

Reply : 6 Apr 2011

thank you both for the advice i will look into making some changes this week. i am new to web design and used an online website builder so i may have to seek more advice in this area.

thanks again

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	Damien Ross from Damien Ross Photography
Location :	Southend-on-sea
Joined :	03 April 2011
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	2 ( 0)

Reply : 7 Apr 2011

From the optimisation side, don't forget how many of us, especially the facebook generation cannot spell, its always handy to put 'fotography' in your keywords as well as other common mistakes.

get rid of the "under construction" nonsense...put anything but that in the where to buy page, you have info on where to buy under the bright orange banner telling people effectively.."go away nothing to see here"..just delete it.

Remove the downloaded statement in your copyright notice. the fact we can see them in our browser means they are already downloaded. and this makes the whole statement legally void.

Simply state they may not be reproduced.

now here the best bit of advice I can give you.

imagine your target audience/consumer of the product you built the website to promote. arrive on your index page being completely unaware of its content.

ask yourself

is this the right place?...remember you are not going to go trawling through page after page to find out, you need to go back to google on your next click unless you have found it.

I just did it imagining i was looking for a

A wedding photographer....I didn't find one....but you have the service hidden in your site.
A Photograph/Art retailer...again no...but again it is one of your services.

if you are lucky enough to get someone on your homepage, you have to tell them they have found what they are looking for.

I saw someone wanting to exhibit their work, if that's all you wanted to do with your site, then its fine.

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	Richard Page from 2Pages
Location :	Edinburgh
Joined :	28 June 2010
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	4 ( 1)

Reply : 10 Apr 2011

nice site.

I noticed that you do not have google analytics. Do you have an analytics package??

If not, how do you know who you measure your advertising and promotional success.

Are you based in Sheffield? I have an online photo lounge - www.jeyjoo.com/gallery. The gallery specialises in travel and macro photography. since inception 2 months ago, the galler has had tens of thousands of hits. If you have suitable images to send, please get in touch.

We can add your images with a link back to your site. Win win.

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	Jeyjoo from Jeyjoo Web Design
Location :	Sheffield
Joined :	10 April 2011
About :	Web design, SEO, Internet marketing company based in Sheffield
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	29 ( 7)

Reply : 11 Apr 2011

remember not to confuse "hits" with "unique visitors" two completely different entities.

And I recommend using statcounter.com over google analytics.

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	Russell Sneddon from Click Emotive Photography
Location :	Penicuik
Joined :	20 June 2010
Posts :	2 ( 1)

Reply : 11 Apr 2011

Hi,

I've taken a look at your site and agree with comments posted by others. I've a few of my own too:

The use of flash for your gallery means that it will not work on iOS devices (iPhones/iPads/iPod Touch).
Some of the images look squashed and don't appear to be in the correct aspect ratio, consider making small thumbnails of equal sizes and then having a larger image displayed when the user clicks on them
With regards to the comments about people being able to download and 'steal' your images - you could add a watermark across the large versions - stock photography sites do this
Your keywords could do with improving too - there are too few of them and they're not specific enough - for example you have 'portraits' as a single keyword and then a separate phrase of 'based in Southend Essex' as another - you should combine these and make the phrase more descriptive - something like 'Portrait photography southend essex' - this gives it more context and also location information.

Hope this helps you.
Kind regards,
Ian
http://www.yellowcircle.co.uk

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	Kate Hazeldine from Yellow Circle Web Solutions Ltd
Location :	Stoke-on-trent
Joined :	08 November 2005
About :	Sales Director at Yellow Circle Web Solutions Limited
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	138 ( 96)

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