Whether it's your first time building or you're a seasoned pro, creating a website is easy with PhotoBiz! Here are our best tips for building (or refreshing) your site so you can get more customers online.

Templates make it easy for you to build quickly and have a great site that works well for customers. 

Your template needs to be :

• Fast Loading 
• Mobile Responsive
• Easy to build on
• Bea-utiful!
• With a company you trust

With PhotoBiz, every template does all this and more. All templates are included for free, and you can change with a click without starting over. Templates are completely customizable, so you’re not locked into layouts or colors, fonts, pictures, spacing. You can change and fine-tune everything so you build. 

Making a plan for your website will save you time and make your website perform better. That's because when you make a plan, you can build a website that is focused on your true goal!

     Q: Wait, what’s my goal?

     A: To get customers and make money! (Sheesh!)

For 99% of websites, your goal is to make money. It's just a matter of how. 

Ask yourself, "What does my customer need to see to make a purchase, book a session, or use my contact form?"

Let’s say you’re a newborn photographer. Your site needs to: 

• Welcome people who need pictures of their babies = Home page
• Show them great pictures of babies. = Gallery
• Convince them you’ll be great to work with. = About page
• And let them book you. = Contact Page

Of course, you want to create an experience and make it wonderful... but you can get stuck building pages forever and ever.

Your website needs to convince casual browsers to become engaged customers. Every page needs to move customers toward your goal. So sit down and think, "What pages do I need to have so my site gets me sales?" And then go from there!

People shop with their eyes. Great photos are going to make a huge difference no matter what your website is about.

Show your BEST work. RECENT work. Pick about 25 photos that look like they go together. These will make up the core visuals of your website. 

If you need photos, get them NOW. Even if you are a professional photographer, you still need a headshot.

On each page, don’t overwhelm people. Use about 25 images per gallery, and less than 10 per info page. 

This will help on loading speed (especially if your customer is on their phone). An average customer will only scroll through a dozen or so photos, so don't waste time or resources dumping a hundred or so shots on a page. Instead, show your best work first, then ask them to take the next step and book you.

Text is hugely important for a successful website.

Your customers are going to read what you put on your site… and so are search engines like Google. So you need to tell your story using words that resonate with people and include keywords that will help you get found on google. 

You don’t need to write a book... just a few sentences per page will do.

Even on gallery pages or contact pages, text is tremendously helpful for telling about your business, establishing a voice, and building a rapport with clients.

HERE IT IS

THIS IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT

Remember your goal? Now's the time to give people a way to buy your stuff, contact you, book a session, or otherwise get you PAID.  

• Add a Contact Form so visitors can get in touch.
• Set up a Store to sell products if you have them.
• Create Order Forms that take payments.
• Set up Packages & Print options to take orders via Proofing.

With PhotoBiz, everything's included so you can make money with your website in lots of different ways. We never take a cut of your profits, and have always offered ways to sell with no commission fees! You can build unlimited forms to drive subscriptions, make contracts, and even take payments. 

Once you have your forms & store items, drop in buttons and CTAs (Calls To Action) to help people navigate around your site and accomplish your goal! 

Ready to launch? Let’s put it up! 

Our 5-Star support team is here to connect the wires and launch that site! If you have a URL, tell us and we’ll hook it up for you. If you need a URL, we can help you get one! 

Once your site is live, blast it on social to tell your customers. Sign up for a Google Business Page. (It's free!)

And when your site has been up a while, evaluate and see what's working and what can improve. You can always grow, change, evolve, refine your website to work better and harder for you online.

We are always adding new tools, designs & features. Give us a call at 1-866-463-7620 if you want to know what's new, or keep reading the blog! Our team is here to help however we can so you can build the best website possible for your business.