The Most Annoying Question On A Photography Website

After seeing thousands of photography websites there is one thing that is still very common and makes me insane.

It’s something related to the way that photographers use their portfolio and their blog. It’s a confusion that usually translates into what is for me the most annoying question one could ask right in the front page of a photography website.

Do you want to go to the blog or the website?

When I see this I almost always answer with a click on the back button of my browser.

What should be what?

• The portfolio – The part of your website where you showcase your best images.
• The blog – The part of your website where you regularly post content useful to your audience. The content is shown chronologically.
• The website - It’s all the pages and the design that glues them all.
• The URL – It’s the name of a given page on the internet. This post’s URL is http://blog.buzzrain.com/the-most-annoying-question-on-a-photography-website.
• The domain – It’s the main URL of your website (eg. http://buzzrain.com), that identifies your website.

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Merge Your Blog And Portfolio

This means that your portfolio should have an URL like http://johndoe.com/portfolio and your blog http://johndoe.com/blog. Not http://johndoe.com and http://johndoeblog.com, respectively! Avoid sub-domains as well.

Your website should have a design common to all pages, including the blog, guaranteeing a seamless experience.

Joining The Blog And Portfolio Gets You More Clients

Here’s the reasons why:

• It’s great for SEO because it improves domain authority
• Your blog leverages your portfolio in terms of search engine rankings
• More awareness to your portfolio can increase the conversion rates of visitors to clients
• It’s easier to navigate and it’s more pleasant and branded experience

Examples of websites that do it right:

http://violabrun.com/
http://keatingphotography.com/
http://svenseebeck.com/

Now, I know that most photography website providers don’t allow you to do this but stay tuned and I’ll show how you can easily merge your blog and portfolio!