Website Queries

[wrdm]

I've recently put together my website and I have a few concerns about it. Of course, I'm open to all suggestions on how to improve anything!! The site is for the purposes of sales and marketing.

1. I feel that there is something missing, but I can't quite figure it out.

2. I have my blogsite linked, should it be appear in the same site window?

I look forward to and welcome all comments.

Perthshire Wedding, Portrait and Event Photographer - Martin Ward Photography

[AnonymousKiwi1]

Just had a quick look.

On the home page, the link to 'view and order you photos' needs some capital letters.
In the portrait section you've repeated the line about taking on the ideas of the client.
There's a shot in the Maternity section where the little boy looks less than happy to be there - may be take that one out?

[BuddhaPi]

a couple of quick observations in terms of marketing...specifically search engines..

1. no content on the home page = nothing to index.
2. use of frames ( portrait page) is a search engine does find this page it's going to get stuck with the frame..frames to web developers are link selective coloring to photographers.
3. there no no meta - tags on the site = a must have for marketing purposes
4. you are not using search engine friendly URL's
5. having you email address visable on the contact page only invites spam, as the spammer will harvest this address in no time..the form itself will be sufficient..
6. use of flash will be eliminating all of you apple users and is a dead technology for the most part...

[wrdm]

Thanks so far this is really helpful, I've made a few quick adjustments.

BuddhaPi - a few questions back to you if you would be so kind.

The website is a template through "Online Picture Proof" (I use them for the Client Area) so I don't have too much control of the layouts unfortunately.

Point 2 - the frames issue, could this be resolved by simply removing the photo?
Point 3 - you mention meta-tags, are these part of the HTML coding? If so I'm guessing I have no way to actually change them?
Point 4 - Could you show me an example of a friendly URL?

The "admin" area has a section for SEO, it allows me to set Page Titles, Keyword and descriptions of each page I don't know if this is relevant to any of the above now or not though?

[Biomech]

Meta tags are in the source code. Right click on your page, click "view source" to see the code. The meta data is at the top. This contains things like your title, your description and your keywords. From here, you have them all filled in so that will be that part in the admin area for "SEO". As below, make titles descriptive and no longer than 66 characters (I think). The description is the text that shows up in Google. Keywords aren't as important these days as people just fill them with junk.

SEO:
Basically everything that has text wants to be descriptive. So for a page about say Dave's wedding, you might name the page "Jill and Dave's Wedding Photography in The Bay Area" (You all do come from 'The Bay Area' right? That's the only place I ever hear reference here ;P) .... so there you've caught the search term "Wedding Photography in the Bay Area" which is something people will search for.

Likewise, "About Us" has no value, whereas "About Martin Ward Wedding Photographer" has value and meaning .... and this is what search engines are essentially looking for, websites that have value and meaning appear higher in the list of results because Google (et al) decides that they are more relevant. (I see now you're from Scotland :P)

The quick way to do it is to think whether the text is something people will search for. It's not easy and can make things sound retarded so it does take skill and practice to make it sound right AND make it have maximum value :P

Also, I think your images are getting resized because I'm seeing a few squashed heads and that (boy and Dog)

Hope that helps

[mshockley]

Just my two cents: I have read several times the advise to always have external links-your Blog for example- open in a seperate window. That way viewer simply closes when done and is back on your site. So I feel you have that set up correctly.

[BuddhaPi]

Originally Posted by wrdm

BuddhaPi - a few questions back to you if you would be so kind.


Point 2 - the frames issue, could this be resolved by simply removing the photo?
Point 3 - you mention meta-tags, are these part of the HTML coding? If so I'm guessing I have no way to actually change them?
Point 4 - Could you show me an example of a friendly URL?

The "admin" area has a section for SEO, it allows me to set Page Titles, Keyword and descriptions of each page I don't know if this is relevant to any of the above now or not though?

removing the photo won't remove the frame as the frame is a seperate entitiy, and if you're using a template, you'll probably be stuck with it.

meta-tags are in the html, the section for seo in your control panel will allow you to add the proper tags.
an example for a good se friendly url would be
Perthshire Wedding, Portrait and Event Photographer - Martin Ward Photography as opposed to your wedding page which is
Weddings - Martin Ward Photography

also see biomech response

[wrdm]

More thanks to everyone, I think I've got a stressful night ahead of me here now trying to get this sorted boohoo.

The instructions for the front page slideshow is to upload all images at a ration of 770 x 418 (pixels, landscape) which makes life real easy . . . . . . need to figure out which images are getting messed up and try to sort