Website Exclusive

Hi there! My Name is Jon – I’m the Lead Designer and Owner of Photography Web Designs. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Stormy for years now, and we always find new things to explore and create together! The All Heart Access family is something extremely dear to my heart, not just because of my connection with Stormy, but because I’ve had the pleasure of getting to work with many of the students that have moved through the educational journey that Stormy has graciously laid out for photographers to walk along and learn from. Below are a few of my Web Design and SEO “head shakes”! Hopefully you can learn from a point or two!

Design – Picking your “favorite shots” over the “best images”. Too many times I see a photographer force images into design elements that don’t work! Sticking a bright image in their header that makes it so visitors can’t see their logo or menu… Veering away from their main niche as a focal point in their design because they get obsessed with a random session… An image has wide focal content, but gets cropped weirdly on mobile… etc. Don’t FORCE something that should be in your design spot!

SEO – Trying to target too many cities in one page! It is so much better to target additional cities and locations through either blog posts or landing pages. This gets really overwhelming for a user when the land on your site and you mention like 5 different city names in the opening of your website. Not only is there not enough good meta data real estate to target more than one place, but it also confuses the client. Nothing wrong with targeting several cities, just do it in a more organized, spread-out way.

Design – Don’t copy someone else’s style and vibe – if it doesn’t fit with yours. Don’t follow success if it breaks from your own personal style. If you are bright and colorful, make that show in your design and content. Don’t turn it dark and moody because you just say XYZ photographer selling out their mini sessions. Your web design should follow your lead so you speak more accurately to your potential client

SEO – You don’t HAVE to blog to have good SEO. It can be a great tool to help aid your SEO, and there are good ways to leverage it, but if you just would rather jump off a cliff than blog, then don’t do it! There are lots of ways to build up your presence online through better page targeting on your home page and city specific landing pages. Think of building out content that speaks to your city/area locations and your preferred niches – Family, Maternity, Weddings, etc. I’ve ranked a lot of people that would never write a single blog post! Optimize your regular page content and get people to it! Either through social media, links, or referrals.

Design – Everyone freaks out about writing their content. Don’t. Just start writing. Get it out. Get the “YOU” on paper. Then you can revise, refine, tighten. You don’t HAVE to get a content writer. You have a voice and you do actually know how to get it out, even if you think you don’t! I’ve seen it countless times.