5 essentials for a photography website
Are you a Photographer working on designing your website? If so, you're in the right place!
Today we're diving into website design for photographers: What you should include and the design essentials that are going to help you land more of those dream jobs.
We've written posts before on the standard essentials every website should have and these apply to Photographer websites too.
But because we work with A LOT of Photographers that use our Squarespace Templates, we've seen the good, the bad, and everything in between when it comes to their websites.
To help, we've put together our best strategy and design tips to take your photography business site to the next level.
Let's get into it!
1 - Where you're located and what kind of photography you offer
I know, this is a combination of two things. But these are equally as important as each other.
Imagine your ideal client is landing on your website for the first time. What are the VERY first things they need to know?
Where you are located
What photography do you offer?
These two points should be clear to your visitor within the first 10 seconds of visiting your website.
They can't dive into the rest of your website and content if they don't know these things first.
These two points are going to tell them if working with you is even possible. And if you don't make this information easily accessible for them, they might just move on to looking for someone else.
The majority of photographers are based in one area and offer only 1-2 photography options. But if you're a photographer who is available to travel, or offers literally every type of photography style, make sure that's clear too!
Never assume that your website visitors know everything about you.
So, how do you incorporate this into your site, within the first 10 seconds?
Add it to your opening statement, or just after.
My general advice for anyone building a website (not just photographers) is that the first text on your website needs to explain who you are, what you do, and who you serve.
Those are good rules for photographers too, but the essentials to include are: where you're located and what kind of photography you specialize in.
This should either be in the first heading or clearly in the text after the first heading (e.g. sub-heading or the first paragraph).
You should also include it wherever else it seems appropriate, like your about page and your services/packages page.
2 - Client Case Studies with Testimonials
Portfolios are great, but full Case Studies are going to really help convert visitors into clients.
Hiring a photographer isn't something one does lightly, I'm sure you already know! Photography is often a big investment (rightly so!), and it's also a very vulnerable and nerve-wracking experience for whoever is being photographed. Choosing the right photographer is a big decision.
So of course, it's likely that your client is going to be looking into all of the different options. A part of this research is going to be looking at your previous images and portfolio and making sure your style and vibe fit with there's.
But if you really want to go the extra mile, we recommend including detailed case studies on a number of your previous photography jobs.
A Case Study is basically a full write-up of the job and all of the details that went into it. These are great because your potential client can get a real feel for exactly how things work when they sign up with you.
Your Case Study could include:
Information about your research and prep for the job
Onboarding details
Behind the scenes of the day
Q+A with, or info about the client
Client testimonial
And of course, the final images!
It might not be possible to do a write-up like this for every single job you do, as they do take quite a bit of time to put together. But even just having a few Case Studies on your website is going to make a huge difference to your website conversions and leave a great impression on your potential clients.
If you're using Squarespace for your photography site, I recommend using either the Portfolio feature or the Blog Post feature to organize your portfolio + case studies!
Extra tip: Make sure you optimize your portfolio and case studies to include only the work you actually like doing! This will bring you more of those dream clients and dream jobs!
3 - About page
This is a must-have for every website, but the About page for your Photography website is particularly important to get right.
Like I mentioned above, photography is an intimate experience, and can be really scary for some people!
When your client is weighing up their different photographer options, a huge part of their decision is going to be how they connect and resonate with the photographer. The About page is one of the key places this connection happens - even if it's just through the images and words on a website page.
Express who you are, and how you are going to help them through the process.
While the About page is a great place to show your personality and give some insight into who you are, you want to be very conscious of writing from a perspective of how you serve your clients, rather than writing paragraphs on paragraphs about your life story.
Your visitors want to learn about you in a way that shows them what working with you would be like.
Remember, your clients are potentially pretty nervous and uncomfortable with being in front of the camera, and if they can connect to the person behind the camera, it will make them much more comfortable with the whole experience. The About Page is a great place to start this connection!
4 - Packages and Pricing Details
Packages
I highly recommend creating some generic packages, as this is really going to help your potential clients get an idea of the process and deliverables before they have to reach out to you.
This doesn't mean that you have to stick to these packages exactly, as every client will probably require some customizations. But it's a great starting point and will really help your clients see what's possible.
Put these on a dedicated "Packages" or "Work with me" page so your clients can easily see what's available and compare.
Pricing
Should you post prices on your website? We get this question a lot.
Our answer is always: YES.
This goes for any business, not just Photographers.
Everyone's budget is different. Some people will be able to afford you, some won't - that is the reality. Not putting any price information on your website is only going to alienate even more people than you intend to.
When you add your Packages, it's important to include Pricing too.
Because Photography varies so much depending on the packages, it's likely that you don't have any set prices. In this case, I recommend putting a "starting at" price.
Read more about why we believe you should include pricing on your website
Packaging and Pricing will both vary depending on the client's needs, but having a starting point for both of these on your website for clients to see is going to increase your website conversions. It's also going to lessen the number of questions you get in your inbox, which is always a win-win!
5 - Good design and use of Photography
We talked about Case Studies/Portfolios earlier, which are an awesome way to display photographs from your previous jobs combined with information about the projects.
Now we're talking about the actual website design. The whole kit and caboodle.
If you know anything about us, you know we live and breathe beautiful web design and believe good design is one of the most important factors in landing clients via your site.
We see this as even more important for Photographers.
Photography (like design) is an art, and great Photography deserves to be displayed in great web design.
We don't have any stats on this, but I can pretty much guarantee that if your beautiful images are accompanied by a beautiful website, the perception of your images is going to be, well, more beautiful than if they were accompanied by an average looking site.
The same goes in the opposite direction too, great photographs can really elevate an average website design - but we already know you have great photographs, so this isn't the issue!
Whether it's investing in a professional design for your website or using a professional template, it's so important to get this right.
Make sure your site is professional, works well with your style of images, and of course, puts your photography on display. You want to create a website that has lots of imagery and places to show off your amazing work!
A word of caution: Unfortunately, the more images you add to your site, the slower it loads. If you have a very slow-loading site, then Google (or any search engine) will punish you for that, and display you lower in the ranks.
It's a huge annoyance for Photographers and Designers or anyone who relies on displaying images on their site, but we're all in the same boat!
The best thing you can do is optimize your images for the web. This is SO important and will make a HUGE difference to your site speed. So, don't forget this step!
That's a wrap! I hope you're feeling much more confident in what to include on your Photography website. If you nail these 5 things, it's going to make a huge difference to your conversion rate and you'll be able to attract more of those dreamy clients! For more design, business, and Squarespace tips, be sure to follow us on the gram!
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