Website wins

Website wins. We all could do with knowing how to get up the Google rankings and how to improve our online enquiries or sales, right? Visitor standards are pretty unforgiving when it comes to how long they give your site before deciding whether to stay or go; ‘dwell time’. The smallest delay or slightly unresponsive button can lead to losing that visitor for good. They demand perfection. They want a fluid experience when they are researching for a specific product or service.

Imagine that people have not experienced browsing a webpage before. Make it as simple and as intuitive as possible.

Here’s our list of top 10 website wins – in no particular order.

1. The page fold rules. The top of the homepage is golden. Before you scroll, is the prime real estate. It’s, therefore, the place where you need to grab people’s attention. The temptation is cram everything important into that one space. Avoid that cluttered look – it does not inspire confidence.
2. Visual impact is key. We live in an age where image and film content provide the stimulus to our digital experience. Instagram and Pinterest are testaments to that. Your site has to show your best side and your best or most unusual work will win people over. A picture (or photo) paints a thousand words, Frederick R. Barnard, 1921.
3. Do not assume anything. Whilst the site must look amazing, you must also imagine that people have not experienced browsing a web page before. Make it as simple and as intuitive as possible.
4. Make buying easy. If a customer is buying a photo frame, using a code or reordering prints, be triple-certain that the journey to ‘sale complete’ is flawless, fluid and uninterrupted. As easy as walking into a shop. The user experience needs to be super slick. Ask family/friends to try it out and give honest feedback.
5. Do not be too clever. If you have a photo-editing page or special service as part of your site, be certain you spend the money on it to make it as good as it can possibly be. If you cannot, forget about doing it. It will be more hassle than it’s worth. Don’t do it half-baked, it’ll reflect badly on you and your brand.
6. Keep it social. Make the journey between all your internet shop fronts as clean as possible. Social buttons on your site need to route to the correct link. Links to your social profiles must work properly.
7. Content is king. If you are going to release regular content and imagery on Instagram, make it engaging and regular. Connect your website to give as much chance for sales and traffic as possible.
8. Prepare to fail. As with your camera gear, things inevitably break down and you need a backup plan. Your website is no different and you need to make sure you have a holding page to place if things go wrong and a team you can rely on to fix it. Is the site properly backed up and securely hosted? Do you have an expert team to call on fast to sort things out in the event of a meltdown? Site downtime could be critical to your business.
9. Listings. The Internet is one big list and people find you by searching. The more you appear in other places, the more likely it is people will find you and go to your page. You can never have enough mentions elsewhere.
10. You do not have to sell online. But you better have a very compelling reason not to and your offline game must be watertight. Selling online is the norm for most businesses now. Appreciate face to face selling is key for many photographers, to sell the high-profit margin products, but the online after the sale can supplement this nicely. Indeed, pure online sales are consistently growing in this industry.

If you do not have a web presence at all, then this must be addressed as a matter of urgency. theimagefile can help and for £90 +VAT can build you a professional looking website with very little effort on your behalf, one that can help you generate sales income too! Website wins are not to be sniffed at.