Building a website that helps potential customers choose you over others is not always an intuitive process. Here are six ways that you can upgrade your website.
There are different types of online presence and each serves its own purpose. If you have a large following on social media, even if you place customers via social, it is still important to have a paid website with a custom domain. Social media is full of hobbyists. Having a website sets you apart from hobbyists and lets potential customers know that you’re a business professional. The public expects businesses to have a website, so if you don’t have one, you’re making a bad impression and losing potential customers who think you’re not serious.
A website is also important because it allows you to organize the flow of information that you want to present to potential customers better than you can on social media. Having a beautiful Instagram gallery is important, but it doesn’t answer any questions about your booking process or who you are. Likewise, on Instagram, for example, you can’t organize your photos into galleries. Potential clients won’t need to scroll down to see all of your work.
Important changes to help you convert leads
Just having information on your website is not enough. You must be organized and digestible to consume quickly. Don’t assume that just because you have information somewhere on your site that someone will read your entire site. You have to give them a reason to stay on your site by getting their attention and letting them know how you can help them, or you risk losing them. If your site only has a gallery and a contact page, here are some things you can do to make your site better serve your customers.
Who are you? Where are you?
One of the simplest and most overlooked things is to include a bio about who you are and what you serve. If your site is called something vague like Digital Dynamic Aperture and you don’t list your name anywhere on your site, it will look suspicious. Unless you’re Banksy, you should let everyone know your real name. If a potential client wants to work with you, they may skip to the next site if they have to spend too much time on your site trying to figure out where you are.
What makes you different?
Will you hire you for your price? Why? Are you communicating that effectively and succinctly with words or pictures? Assume that there are 1,000 people in your area offering similar services and most of them will be at free or unsustainable rates. Why would a potential customer choose you over others? Is that your lighting style? Is it something technical? Is it your satisfied customers who have left reviews? You need to be able to communicate with your customers within the first 30 seconds of their arrival on your website; if not, they go to the next person on the list to see if they can get their answer there.
Made for mobile devices
At least 60% of your traffic will come from mobile devices, but we design most of our websites for desktop screens and often overlook how they look on phones. I use Wix and if I change the settings on how the gallery is displayed, it doesn’t change on the mobile version. You should also pay attention to how the various elements on your page are rearranged as they are converted to a narrow column format for phone screens.
Here is a screenshot of my mobile stats. 83.3% of my clicks are on mobile.
Create libraries for fast loading
One of the important things that search engines find is how fast your page loads. If you have a slow loading page, you will be penalized in the search rankings. You can test your website speed here and get details on what you need to fix on your website.
Including a gallery of images or videos on autoplay can have a significant effect on your site’s speed. I try to keep my image file sizes outside around 800 KB to 1.2 MB. Don’t forget to change the filename to a search engine friendly name. If your file is named “0001.jpg”, rename it to “[Your City]PortraitPhotographer.001.jpg. “I converted the galleries on my homepage to screenshots of the galleries to reduce loading time. Clicking on a screenshot of a gallery on my homepage will take you to the message. Similarly, having unnecessary fancy features on your page, like fancy transitions or menus, can ruin your site.
Anticipate your prospect’s questions
Put yourself in the shoes of your potential customer who is looking to book someone like you. What questions do they have? What services are they looking for? Have you done projects similar to what they needed? Once you’ve figured out what the client needs to know before they decide which photographer to hire, give them that information so they can see within the first 15-30 seconds, otherwise you risk lose them.
Make it easy for them to book for you
Place a call to action or contact form at the bottom of each page so it’s easy for potential customers to contact you. The call to action can be a link to your booking or contact page. Having a call to action will greatly increase the chances of your prospect going on to take that next step to contact you or read more or view your library or wherever you direct them. .
