20 Tips To Make Your Squarespace Photography Site Shine in 2021
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So, you want to start your own photography site? Maybe you have one already and want to tweak it a bit? Then you've come to the right place.
You see, there are so many resources available, all with different pieces of advice and tips. This makes it challenging to find the information you need, let alone some actionable tips you can implement.
Fortunately, we've created this guide with 20 tips to make your photography shine in 2021.
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Tip 1: Galleries: Keep Them Small To Make Them Faster
Let's face it; you don't want your visitors to feel like they're visiting a site in the 90s. It's 2021, after all. So, while it is a good idea to use galleries on your site to display images in a cohesive layout, you should also make sure that your site is fast.
Site speed affects not only your search engine rankings but also your users' experience. To make things move along a bit quicker, you should limit the size of your gallery's to no more than 50 images.
Tip 2: Keep Images Small Too!
And speaking of images, you want them to load fast too. Sure, you want your audience to see great, high-resolution examples of your work, but the bigger the images, the slower your site will load.
It's a good idea to format your images for display on the web and use an image compression tool to keep those image sizes down. Use tools like TinyPNG to keep your images small.
Tip 3: Jazz Up Those Browser Tabs With Your Favicon
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Although they are pretty inconspicuous, favicons are a significant part of your branding strategy. They help your visitors remember your site by giving you some brand recognition. They also give you some credibility compared to other websites which don't have them.
Site metrics can be positively boosted by using custom favicons. Let's be serious; Internet users tend to trust services more based on how professionally their websites are built.
Tip 4: Help Mobile Users With AMP
Have you ever browsed a site on your phone where it loads the original page on the tiny screen? You have to pinch out and scroll consistently to get to the information you need. You don't want this for your site.
It will help if you use AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to create lightweight versions of your web pages to prevent this. This not only makes them load faster but also easier to read. Also, it works with Google to prioritize results in mobile searches. Keep in mind, though; only blog posts can use AMP formatting.
Tip 5: SSL Is Your Friend
Google loves sites that have SSL enabled, and you should too. You'll know if your site is SSL enabled if your URL starts with HTTPS:// it has a padlock next to it.
If it is, it helps you to create trust with your audience by showing them their information is secure, and it prevents hackers from stealing visitors' data. As a bonus, it improves your SEO because sites that aren't SSL enabled may be penalized in the search engine rankings.
Tip 6: Blog, and Then Blog Some More!
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Yes, that's right. You should blog and blog some more. When you post content regularly, it sends signals to Google that your website is still active and directs more visitors to it.
But it goes further than this. It helps you to provide more value to your audience and lets them connect with your brand. It's simple when they align with your brand and see that you're knowledgeable, they'll trust you more and be willing to use your services.
Tip 7: Have a Plan
Yes, you should blog regularly, but you should also have a strategy about what you'll blog about, how often, and how you'll engage with your audience.
So, you could consider blogging about equipment, techniques, or events. You could also answer questions you get asked frequently and plan how you'll interact with your audience through comments.
Tip 8: More Than Images
It's a good idea to add more words to your site. So, apart from your blog posts, you should also make sure that your other pages have enough text on them to be indexed by search engines.
When you do, it gives search engine's more to work with and improve your site's SEO. Just make sure that, like your blog post, your other content has the right keywords.
Tip 9: Remember Those Image Tags
Apart from optimizing your images to make them load faster, it would help if you also optimized your text. The first step is to include photography-related keywords in the alt tags for your images.
The alt tags tell search engines what the image shows and, in the process, improve your ranking in the search results. You should also include photography-related keywords in the filenames for your images.
Tip 10: Categories Make the Difference
To make it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for, you must categorize your photos and content. To do this, you'll, for example, use categories and tags on Squarespace.
When you create categories like this, a page is created automatically for every category, and the URL reflects the category. This will help your content and photos feature higher in the search results.
Tip 11: Give Your Photos the Attention They Deserve
For those photos you really want to show off, don't just put them into a gallery on your site. Instead, create a separate page for the images, give it its own title, and write a description for the image.
This not only allows you to showcase your best work, but you'll also have the opportunity to improve your SEO by using relevant keywords in the description, title, and image file name.
Tip 12: Get Some Ideas
Let's get this straight, stealing is never good, but that's not to say you shouldn't look at other photography websites to get some ideas. If you do, you'll get a feel for the designs and content you like.
You'll also see what works and what doesn't. Based on this, you can then improve those parts of your site that you feel are lacking.
Tip 13: Look Into Getting Some Help
If everything seems too complicated, or you want your site to be the best it could be, you should definitely look into getting some professional help.
A professional designer can help you save a lot of time, and they'll help you incorporate custom features into your site that will make it stand out in the crowd.
Tip 14: Up Those Visual Effects With Parallax Scrolling
Remember, your ultimate goal is to make your site look as appealing as possible. One thing you could do is incorporate parallax scrolling that gives your site a unique and modern look and feel. Not only does this show visitors that your site is professionally built, but it also enables you to stand out from the crowd.
Tip 15: Get Google Search Console Up and Running
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To further improve your search ranking, it's essential that you get Google Search Console up and running. This free tool helps you manage your site's presence in Google's search results.
Once it's up and running, you should also submit a site map. This is a list of all the URLs on your site and tells Google more about the structure of your site.
Tip 16: Analyze, Analyze, and Analyze
An essential part of your strategy should be to analyze your website's performance using Google Analytics. This serves several purposes. For one, it shows you who your visitors are and where they're coming from.
It's simple when you know who your visitors are; you can target your audience better. Analytics also shows you which parts of your site are working best, and you'll be able to improve those parts of your site that aren't.
Tip 17: Let Those Comments Roll In
A very effective strategy to improve engagement with your audience is to allow comments on your blog posts.
When you do, you'll be able to answer questions, give feedback, and even take part in discussions. This allows you to interact with your audience, build relationships and trust, and up your conversion rate.
Tip 18: Get Some Social Proof
To really make your site shine, you should get some social proof. This ups your authority and gives you some credibility.
As a result, you build trust with your audience, and you'll get more leads. To do this, you could get some reviews on social media, display good reviews on your site, or even get some other photography sites to link to yours.
Tip 19: Chat, Even When You're Away
The ultimate goal with your site is to introduce your work and services to your audience and convince them to contact you. So, what better way to impress customers than replying immediately when they leave a message or have questions.
Here, a chatbot can help you to give your customers the answers and information they need when they want it.
Tip 20: Boost Conversions With Pop-Ups
It's a proven fact that pop-ups improve conversion rates. They eliminate distractions from the equation.
In simple words, they don't give visitors much choice and move them to make a decision. For this reason, if you want to up your conversion rate significantly, a pop-up is a good idea.
The Bottom Line
When you want to create a photography site, it's obvious that you want it the best it can be. Hopefully, this guide helped illustrate some actionable tips you can use to improve your site. If you want to improve your site or know more about our services, visit our website, or contact us for more information.
