Web design resources & articles for photographers.
Let’s build amazing photo websites!
I'm going to try to do a video exclusive, I'll try to act as an image thief, sort of a hacker if you want, just to prove how easy it is to steal large images from the source code on WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix.
Read articleThe definitive guide on optimizing your images to increase the speed of your photography website: how to size & compress your images, what file types and tools to use, how to test your site's speed (plus examples & FAQs). Start your engines!
Read articleMany photographers are still following old SEO tips, some of which no longer work or are even hurting their chances to rank well. Learn what SEO strategies to avoid and what to do instead to make Google happy.
Read articleThe fact that all major social media and video platforms allow turning the autoplay feature on (or off), is a clear sign of how wide-spread and popular autoplay videos are. Here are 10 strong reasons to add auto-playing music or videos to your website. Or not.
Read articlePhotography website teardown for Kate Dyer's Urban Safari website. A great example of a beautiful design that combines two different specialties (personal branding and business photography). Watch to see a page-by-page review of the site's layout and design details.
Read articleWebsite teardown I recently recorded for UK wedding photographer Linus Moran. A must-see for service-based photographers struggling with content.
Read articleI've been working as a web-designer on photography websites since 2010 and I noticed a few patterns in my work. Here are some common photographer "blind spots" or things they're struggling with.
Read articleAnswering your questions about Google Search Console, font sizes, structured data, ALT tags and geo-tagging for SEO.
Read articleEven if you pass Google's test, there are different levels of mobile friendliness, which all come down to offering a good user-experience (UX).
Read articleFocusing on SEO can help you grow your business, but not at the expense of huge user-experience mistakes. Let's define your website priorities and set the in the right order.
Read articleBrowsing habits, in particular, are changing over time; and without revamping your photography website based on recent industry standards, you're leaving money on the table (low traffic, poor conversion rates, fewer leads and sales)
Read articleIf you feel you're ready to launch a new WP photography website, take some time to go through this list of small tasks to make sure everything is ready to go live.
Read articleI'm back on the PhotoBizX podcast with a really long and detailed conversation (with host Andrew Hellmich) about user experience in photography websites. Andrew and I cover (almost) everything you need to know for building a great photography website.
Read articleCollection of recommended WordPress plugins (that I'm often using when building photography websites). Almost all plugins below have excellent reviews & a rating of at least 4 out of 5 stars, and have been thoroughly revised and tested.
Read articleWordPress themes have come a long way in recent years. Premium WP themes are now incredibly flexible and powerful, they're mobile-friendly and SEO-friendly, and they often include a slew of powerful plugins that extend their functionality even further. Here are my recommendations.
Read articleHow do you decide what platform to build your photography website on? WordPress has become very popular, but photographer-specific tools have their own strong features. This article will help you decide which best fits your needs.
Read articleSEO procrastination is too common among photographers, often times actually damaging their business. There's a time for SEO work, of course, but other website changes should be taken care of first. Make sure your website completely nails these issues before worrying about traffic and SEO.
Read articleI was recently invited for a live Facebook event (hosted by Julie Christie from Togs in Business) where I shared some insights into what photographers like you should be thinking about when it comes to photography website user experience.
Read articleWordPress' popularity leads to complexity as well. Combining this with poor hosting services, improper management, security attacks and negligence, and you get a slew of possible errors. The solution is prevention: properly manage your WordPress site to avoid security and functionality problems down the line.
Read articleIt's important to dedicate some time to do research and to strategize before building a new photo website. Follow these guidelines to gain more clarity.
Read articleHow you structure your galleries will help users navigate your site more easily. For a small portfolio site, just a few galleries and you're done. But with a large image archive, creating (nested) collections is important.
Read articleWith everything related to your photography website, only image pixel dimensions matter. You can ignore DPI/PPI, that's just a piece of metadata, only relevant for printing and scanning.
Read articleSee what website design you can achieve if you use the right WP theme and if you let yourself be creative along the way. When the type of photography you shoot demands something special, it's OK to step outside of the norm and creating something unique to showcase it online.
Read articleImage SEO guidelines for ranking in Google Image search, along with explanations of why you'd want to rank in Google Image search, how it different from regular SEO, how to track your image SEO results and what the future brings.
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