WordPress Blog Design for Photographers
Every photographer needs a web site to display a growing catalog of images. The WordPress system has a number of innovative blog and content management features that make it ideal for photographers looking to share their work with the widest possible audience. As an amateur photographer and full-time web designer, I have used a variety of content management systems, blog systems, and custom web design for creating photographer’s web sites in my web design studio. I have found that WordPress provides the best value for photography blog and web design, and is a cost effective solution for small business budgets. It is also a robust system that can support large photo collections with ease. The New York Times uses WordPress for its online photojournal (as does this web site). Here are a few of the benefits WordPress offers that can meet any photographer’s needs:
Photo Gallery Management
A photographer’s blog differs from normal blogs or web sites in that they emphasize the image rather than the text. WordPress provides basic photo blog management tools along with extensive features that can be added through plugins. You can batch process uploading files, automatically re-size images, show exif data, watermark images, with freely available and customizable plugins. Also, there are a variety of gallery scripts that determine the layout and functionality of your photo gallery. No other content or blog management software has the depth of functional and visual choices as WordPress.
Web Site / Blog Administrative Tools
All of the gallery tools offered in WordPress come with an interface designed to be understood by the typical non-technical user. After all, you’re a photographer, not a web developer. If you have any experience using a basic word processing software, then you are already familiar with the WordPress administrative interface. Typically, most of my clients, who are busy small business owners or entrepreneurs, are trained to use WordPress in about a half hour. After uploading photos and adding content once or twice, they become comfortable with the WordPress interface. Because WordPress has a deep worldwide base of users and developers (more than 60 million downloads of WordPress 3.0 worldwide), there are countless tutorials, online videos, and support forums that address any issues you may face in managing a photography blog, gallery and web site. We also provide full training and support for our WordPress clients.
WordPress Blog and Web Site Design
One of the pitfalls that must be avoided when designing a web site and/or gallery for photographers is over-design. The focal point of your web site must be your photography, not the design that surrounds it. WordPress is ideally suited for a wide range of tasteful, smart web design options that will compliment your photography. There are certain “best practices” that should be adhered to when designing page layouts for photographer’s web sites. If a visitor has to spend time trying to figure out how your site works, it becomes a distraction from your photography. Simple, clear page layout and navigation tools are combined with subtle, tasteful web design in the best WordPress sites for photographers. The WordPress platform allows for a wide range of design choices. It is up to the web designer to make those choices wisely.
Search Engine Optimization
A great looking web site is of little use for marketing and promotion if it cannot be properly indexed in search engines. Skillful search engine optimization (SEO) must be designed into the framework of your web site. WordPress is considered by Google spokesmen Matt Cutts to be the most search engine friendly software available today. “WordPress automatically solves a ton of SEO issues,” according to Matt. Matt discusses the virtues of WordPress in the video embedded below. In addition to the excellent default optimization tools, there are freely available plugins that extend the SEO power of WordPress. We understand the intricacies of Search Engine Optimization, and can help you to benefit fully from the SEO tools available in WordPress.
Social Media Integration
Photographers should not overlook Social Media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. These tools are vital for effective online marketing, and provide access to a huge online market beyond the reaches of your web site alone. Here again, WordPress offers superior tools for integrating Social Media marketing into a photographer’s blog or web site. We can help you to choose the best solutions for integrating social media into your marketing strategy.
Consider Us for your WordPress Photography web site or blog
This web site (petersonlive.com) is a working example of our expertise in creating expandable, effective web sites for photographers using WordPress. We can design a WordPress web site to your exact specifications. We also offer a highly cost-effective template customization solution which is our most popular option. We select an existing WordPress template, and customize it to meet your needs. Your color preferences, logo, navigation wording and other preferences are added to an existing WordPress template. This offers the greatest value and is the most cost effective way to have a polished, expandable WordPress Blog or web site that meets the needs of busy photographers. Please contact Donald Peterson at 1.917.267.9281 if you have any questions regarding WordPress for photographers. Click here to see more samples of our web design. -Donald Peterson, Newark1.com Web Design Portfolio & Guide
