Howdy! As you all know, I am in the process of getting ready for the big move to San Antonio. While I am going through my closets, decluttering my apartment, I thought I would go ahead and do a little housekeeping on my website and blog as well. So, in this week’s blog post, I will be letting you know about my website update and what you can expect going forward.
How the Website Update Started
I think for all small business owners, it is a good idea to take a detailed look at your website since it is the public front of your company. Your website reflects who you are as a business, and any broken links or misspellings will denigrate the public’s trust in your company. It has been about two years since I updated my site, so some housecleaning was in order.
I started the process by taking a look at other photographer’s websites. I tend to be a minimalist: both in terms of home organization and in website design. What I found when comparing sites is that my website – along with that of other photographers – were displaying too much information on each page. The result was that my website was beginning to look a bit cluttered. Thus the goal for this redesign was to streamline the language and links, and come away with a clean site that was easy to navigate both on a desktop and on a cell phone.
The Grid – An Easier Way to View Photos
My first task was to redesign the display of my photos. Originally, my photos were displayed in a carousel format, so that you had to click to the next photo to view everything. Quite frankly, this format is exhausting. Most people want to be able to look at everything at a glance, so the grid format was my best option. My portfolio and individual stories are now in a format where you simply click on whatever topic of photos you want to view, and you can scroll down to see everything.
In addition to a general portfolio section, I also have an area marked ‘Stories.’ This section highlights six different photo shoots with a more extensive display of photos from each shoot. This may be a bit redundant, but my aim was to give people a more in-depth look at what a photo shoot looks like in case you don’t want to go to my full client galleries.
Informational Pages
The rest of the site has been streamlined as well, and I personally find it much easier to read. The ‘About’ section now includes information about how I operate as a photographer, a few kind words from past clients, my biography, and links to my other websites. All pricing information is listed under the ‘Investment’ section. Finally, I have links to both my client galleries, and my blog. And as with the streamlining of my websites, I have focused all of my social media efforts on Instagram (@KellyWPhotog for wedding/portraits and @KellyWilliamsPhotographer for travel photography). This is the year I got rid of Facebook and Twitter and haven’t looked back.
Same Format Across All Websites
Once I had a streamlined format that I liked for my wedding website, I simply copied over the formatting for both my corporate event and headshot website and my travel and photojournalism website. As with my wedding website, I also updated my photos across each website. This includes some new travel locations and photo essays. You can check out the results here:
- Kelly-Williams.com – Travel photography and photojournalism
- KellyWilliamsCorporate.com – Corporate event and headshot photography
Blog Updates
My blog — Blog.KellyWilliamsPhotographer.com — has been updated as well, though it is more of a minor update. Same template, but now with a front-page slider so you can easily see my top-ten blog posts.
So those are all the updates for now. I welcome feedback, so please have a look and let me know if there is anything you would change or would like added to the site.
More photo adventures coming next week!
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Interested in booking a photo shoot in New York City or in San Antonio, Texas? Drop me a line, and let’s talk about your photography needs.
