Mind Your Own Business – Marketing Mojo: Your Website, a Portal to Prospects & Profits

Your website is a portal to prospects and business growth—or at least it should be. If you own a high-impact, Flash-based website, it may be flying below the radar of search engines. But, if you rely on your site to generate leads, this is bad news.

I recently contacted Kim Larson, of Stevens Point, WI, a wedding and senior portrait photographer and Web developer, who made the decision to transform her cutting-edge Flash site into a stunning, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)-visible site that delivers new leads to her every week. I asked Kim to walk me through the transformation process, starting with why she decided to forego the Flash platform and exactly how she developed a new award-winning site.

1
Flash or No Flash? Whether or not you have a Flash site, make an honest assessment if your website is helping or hindering your business growth. Says Kim, “My wedding photography business relied on people finding me by searching for ‘wedding photographers in Stevens Point.’ With a flash website nobody was finding their way to www.lifeisartphoto.com based on those search terms. I was lucky if people found my website searching for ‘Kim Larson’ or ‘Life Is Art Photography.’ Generally, I received two or three inquiries per month for weddings, but wanted more. I knew I had to make some drastic changes.”

2
Know Your Focus. When you determine it’s time to revamp your online presence, your next step is to decide what factors will drive your transformation. “Clients were my primary focus,” says Kim. “I needed a website that was easy for them to navigate, that catered to my target clientele and that showcased my photography in a manner that made potential customers want to see more. Second, I needed the website to be search engine optimized to draw more traffic. I wanted prospective clients to be able to search for ‘wedding photographers in Stevens Point’ and find my website at the top of the search results. I also wanted to be found when people searched for ‘Wisconsin wedding photographer.’ These two factors go hand in hand. Search engine optimization is useless if it drives people to a website that delivers a lackluster experience; [meanwhile] a captivating website is useless if nobody visits.”

3
Develop an SEO Site. Search engines browse websites by indexing the content, which means they save the text then use it to return your website as a result when someone does a search. HTML-based websites are easily indexed by search engines, but Flash-based websites are not. “Be wary of Flash websites that claim they are indexable Flash,” says Kim. “The technology is not there yet. However, while a site that is completely Flash-based can’t be entirely search engine optimized, you don’t have to give up the benefits of Flash website galleries to have an SEO website.”

4
Know Potential Minefields. Finding a skilled, trusted resource to redo your site and being able to afford the expense are two major obstacles. As the co-owner of a small website marketing and development company, Kim had the skill and good fortune to bounce ideas off her business partner and other associates. “I hear horror stories about people having problems with their website designers,” says Kim. “I wish it were as easy to find a trusted website developer as it was for me to find a talented, trustworthy business partner and associates. I know that many website developers are extremely busy, so if you’ve found one who isn’t, ask why!” For Kim, putting herself in a potential client’s shoes to maximize the site’s impact was the greatest obstacle. “I had to think: Could they easily find my wedding galleries? Could they easily find information about my photo packages? Would the site represent me well?”

5
Evaluate Results. After your site has been revamped, how long does it take before you can expect to see the results of the redesign? “It takes less time than you might think,” says Kim. “When I submitted my redesigned website to search engines and directories, I saw results within a month. I went from receiving two or three inquiries about wedding photography per month to receiving three to five per week. And instead of only booking weddings within an hour’s drive from our studio, I also started booking weddings that were two or more hours away.”

6
Maximize Traffic. To optimize traffic to your redesigned site—“Put your website URL on everything from business cards to online forums to printed marketing materials. I made new materials that matched my website, all of which said, ‘See www.lifeisartphoto.com for more information.’ When people reached the site, they would recognize the design and know they were at the right place,” explains Kim.

– Create a blog with a custom template so it matches your main site. “I recently switched to a WordPress blog for its extra features, including organized categories and tags, improved SEO, and the ease of submitting posts to social networking sites, such as Digg and Reddit,” she says.

– Ask for links to other related sites. Linking other sites to yours will bring more traffic and improve search engine rankings. “I started by researching local wedding vendors that display links to other wedding vendors on their sites. If my site was not included, I asked them to add it. Many were happy and eager to do so,” says Kim.

– Optimize your site’s code and content. Although meta tags for keywords and descriptions are not as important as they once were, include them. “I also suggest reworking the title of your site pages, so the words that show in the top bar of the Web browser describe the page and include keywords for search engines,” she says.

– Keep track of visits. Improve your website and content by continually keeping track of who visits, how they arrive at your website and what they do once there from Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics). “I know that adding a blog (www.lifeisartphoto.com/blog/) has increased the number of ways people find my site and the number of pages viewed,” Kim says.

7
Final Pointers. To enhance your success and the impact of your site: Do research before you begin redesigning your site—find out if your visitors are potential new clients or past clients, young or old; decide whom you want to attract and make sure your website’s design and content match your target audience. “Don’t be afraid to invest money in your website,” advises Kim. “Millions of cheap Flash templates can give your business a professional face, but be sure to consider your return on investment. Because my website is such a powerful marketing tool, I have not had to invest much in printed marketing materials or ad campaigns.”

Watch for Kim Larson’s lifeisartphoto.com 2.0 within the next six months and catch her upcoming blog series on Black Star Rising (https://rising.blackstar.com), which explores  website analytics and how to interpret them.

Alice B. Miller is the owner of Plum Communications Inc. (www.plumcomm.com), the Long Island, NY, editorial services and marketing communications company that supports the photo industry. Previously the editor of Studio Photography magazine, Alice has a growing clientele that includes photographers, manufacturers, publications and associations. She is director of public relations for the International Photographic Council and an advisory board member of NyghtFalcon wedding, commercial and fine art studios.