Website Branding Mistakes | When most photographers start out, they get this feeling of a mad scramble: I need a logo, I need stationary, I need packaging, I need a cool site, I need cool site music, I need, I need, I NEED. Well are here to tell you the first thing you need to do is breathe, sit down with a Diet Coke and think about who YOU are. Because you are your brand and you need to try and figure this out right out of the starting gate.
Website Branding Mistakes | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com
Logo insanity | Website Branding Mistakes
There are a lot of graphic designers (sadly a lot of ‘wannabee’ ones, too) offering ‘logos.’ A logo doesn’t have to be overdone with bells and whistles. It should be clean and easily identifiable. And preferably use a font other than comic sans. It is very hard to be original with a logo, we completely understand that – from trees, to birds, to fruit–everything has pretty much been done. So my advice is keep it simple, and try and make sure your logo doesn’t compete with the image it is watermarked on. Clients are buying your style and images, not your cute logo.
Don’t use flash! | Website Branding Mistakes
Prior to 2007 when the iPhone was introduced, there was a big push toward Flash based websites. Flash seemed perfectly suited for photographers because it created a movie-like experience using pictures and music. Photographs could be set up to fly in and fade out on screen while music played in the background. When the iPhone and iPad came on scene, everything changed. Apple decided not to support Flash based content, essentially rendering Flash websites obsolete. Photographers everywhere scrambled to find alternatives.
Since then many photographers have flocked to WordPress. WordPress doesn’t use Flash, so you can rest assured that smart phone and tablet users will be able to see your content. In the long run, moving away from Flash based websites has been a good thing since they’re difficult to optimize for search.
Trying to be a Jack-of-all-Trades | Website Branding Mistakes
When you dive into photography for the first time, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by how much there is to photograph. There’s landscape, portrait, fashion, children, wedding, macro, food, real estate, sports, underwater, aerial and automotive photography – just to name a few!
Think of each of these as specialized trades under the general category of “photography.” You’re unlikely to find a professional wedding photographer who also specializes in food or real estate photography. Nor is a portrait photographer necessarily skilled at capturing beautiful landscapes. Each field requires a great deal of time and practice to master.
It may be tempting to set up a website advertising a variety of photography services. For example, we bumped into a website offering real estate and wedding photography side-by-side. Not only does this water down your perceived skill, it’s also confusing to visitors. Imagine a bride-to-be clicking over to your website and having to navigate through real estate photographs to find information about your wedding photography. It would be confusing and frustrating. The two fields simply don’t go together.
The bottom line is to pick one or two related areas of photography for each website you develop. If you’re interested in wedding and real estate photography – no problem! Since one doesn’t have anything to do with the other, consider marketing them on two different websites. That way you can focus your services and potential customers can quickly find what they’re looking for.
Website Branding Mistakes | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com
Old text and promotions | Website Branding Mistakes
We spotted a giant 2006 banner on a famous photographer’s website. REALLY!? You haven’t checked your website out enough to catch that outdated snippet in 7 YEARS!?
If you can’t keep up with promotions listed on your website, save them for your e-mail newsletter and keep them away from your portfolio.
The post Website Branding Mistakes | 4 Biggest Blunders Photographers Make With Their Websites appeared first on Media Novak.
