Photography Websites for Photographers

These days, building photography websites is a piece of cake! A photographer without a photography website is not taken seriously, in my opinion. I’ve said that for years and I feel that it applies now more than ever. This is so because of the onslaught of the social media and social networking phenomenon such as Twitter and Facebook.

Many photographers use Facebook as their ‘website.’ That's OK – but, it’s not the same. Don’t get me wrong, currently, a Facebook presence helps in your ongoing quest to get better and more widely known as a photographer – and establish your reputation. But, a photography website is perceived as having much more value and credibility that Facebook, in my opinion.

Here’s a quick side note: Facebook is just the latest phenomenon. There have been and will continue to be other phenomenon’s. You may not remember this, but, Yahoo used to be the #1 search engine. Alta Vista and Netscape were powerhouse phenomenon. So was Napster. If online trends follow online trends, although Facebook is huge today, they too, shall fade. They may not fade entirely. But, sometime in the very near future (in 'internet phenomenon' terms that might be sooner rather than later - or, it might not) their platform may not be perceived as ‘useful’ as it is now.

Back to photography websites: There are many methods for photographers to have their own websites. Many are very good. Some are outstanding. And some are just a waste of money. One of the problems is that it can be difficult to know the difference before you spend your money.

My recommendation and my preference is that photographers build and manage their own websites. With all of the advanced options available, this isn’t as difficult as it was just a couple of short years ago.

There are ‘do-it-yourself’ options and there are ‘done-for-you’ options. Just a few years ago, both options were available, but very limited. Today, there are far more simple to use options. Yet, there are very distinct differences. For example, many photography website building options built ‘flash’ sites. Without getting too technical, ‘flash’ websites historically are useless for search engine optimization SEO (which is the major factor for new customers finding your photography website). Flash websites are very impressive and entertaining. Most of them offer a great showcase to display photography work. But, without being able to apply SEO (search engine optimization), they have no value/existence in the eyes of the search engines.

Now, however, there’s an option that produces ‘flash type looking’ websites that can be optimized – which I talk about later in this article.

The ‘do-it-yourself’ websites for photographers and the ‘done-for-you’ websites have arrived!

If you’re looking for the best and most cost-effective ‘do-it-yourself’ option, then you cannot go wrong with Weebly. What they offer is awesome. Building your photography website using their website building tools may be the easiest thing that you ever do on the internet! It is literally drag and drop! They are always making improvements and upgrading. And one of the great things about Weebly is that you can build and manage a fully operational and optimized photography website using the Weebly free version. Of course they have a pro version that provides more awesome options. But, the free version is complete. The free version doesn’t have any advertising, except for a small Weebly link (that you can remove with the pro version). I use their pro version and I recommend the pro version very highly. But, the free version provides all the tools that you will need to build a legitimate website – your way! (Here's a free course on "How To Build Photography Websites" using Weebly)

I’ve recently found and am using Photocrati, a ‘do-it-for-you’ company that builds very good websites for photographers. The options that Photocrati offers photographers are amazing. Get this – they offer ‘flash’ type websites that can be optimized. In fact, their websites are Wordpress blogs, and Google and the other search engines love Wordpress blogs because of their search engine optimization properties. So far, I really like Photocrati because their control panel is so easy to use and I really like easy. Easy is one of the main reasons that I like and recommend Weebly so much. We have enough “workflow” activities to do without also having to manage a complicated website.

New! Comments