my new site

<p>Hi there. I am just starting out and have made my own website. I have used a programme called Sandvox which was quite limiting, but I needed something easy to use. Plus as I am just starting out with this as a hobby/extra job, I don't want to throw too much money into it yet.<br>

I am in Norway, but just thought I would ask you guys to check out my page and give me any advise or tips you have to offer. <br>

Please keep it kind, :)<br>

here it is.<br>

www.victoriaamundsenfoto.no</p>

<p>Hi, I like your web site, designed simple and nice, for development in future I advise you to visit some web sites belongs to birth photographers...</p>

Okay, I'll try to keep it kind, but it really needs some work if you're serious.

Oslo is a big place and I'm sure it has some great photographers. People who are looking for photos of their newborn are

generally only going to hire somebody once. It's going to be an investment for them so they will want to make sure they

really trust that they are getting a professional. Your site needs to convince them that you are serious about this work,

you're stable and professional, and that they can trust you.

At the moment none of this is happening.

Some basics:

Color scheme: why the stark black and white? This might be good for a fine art photography site, but for this kind of

photography you will probably be better off branding with some color. You don't see toy stores or children's clothing being

marketed in stark black and white for reason. Here's an example of an effective, yet simple, use of color:

http://www.kerimeyersphotography.com

Fonts: you need to decide on a small set of typefaces. By small I mean one or two. Currently every paragraph seems to

be in a different typeface. I see Times New Roman, Georgia, Helvetica, AppleMyungjo, Kokonor, etc. Many of these will

not display properly if they are not installed on the user's computer. There are ways to use fonts beyond the basic web-

safe varieties by using tools like https://typekit.com/ but they require a bit knowledge to implement.

Mechanics:

What's up with the Gallery drop down menu? It has a bunch of links called 'baby photo.' Why not just have a link that

takes you to the main gallery page. With a drop down menu the user expects each of those entries to be entire gallery.

The random text at the bottom of pages (i.e. nyfødt foto, baby foot, etc.) is, I presume, for search engine optimization. It's

spammy and reduces your credibility. You need to find a better way to include keywords in your content.

On the front page the first thing under the menu and above the quote is an underscore that links to what looks like an

admin page. This seems like a mistake.

Nobody cares what number visitor they are—these kind of things are just more noise.

In general, if you are marketing photography services, the website needs to be visually sophisticated—not fancy—but the

work of somebody who has a keen sense of visual style. As it is, you have pages like this one:

http://www.victoriaamundsenfoto.no/products-for-purchase/large-photos/ with no color, no photos, and a bunch of black

type spread haphazardly around the page. If you are serious about this, you are almost certainly better off purchasing a

template or using a service like http://www.squarespace.com that will let you build an attractive site relatively easily. It's

worth the money, because the current site is not helping, and probably hurting your chances at success. At this point

having no website might actually be better than this—I know that's a little rough, but if you're just starting out you might be

better off working with friends and word-of-mouth until you have enough material and are willing to spend some money to

do it right.

<p>Thanks. I like the simplicity of the Website and design. I'm curious about the header above the photo on the home page. There is a small black line that has a link to "www.one.com/admin/overview.do", which is in the code and goes to the login on one.com and the vertical gray line to the left of the quote detracts from the quote. Small things. I'm curious why it's in English and not both English and Norwegian (easily done with dual versions or translation links).</p>

<p>As for the comments of others, there's merit to some about the "noise" to make the presentation cleaner, but these are easily fixable. As for style, that's yours to decide for and with your customers (ask them, not us). I'm not enamored with the idea Websites have to be sophisticated. They have to be easy for the visitor to see, navigate and use, and photography ones have to be visually appealing and engaging to attract customers, otherwise, they look and leave.</p>

<p>This is what distinguishes the types of Websites for photographers, presenting their work, selling images (products) or attracting customers. The suggestion to see what other professional portrait photogaphers in Olso and Norway have for Websites, including dual language ones, is a good one to get ideas of what works, but in the end, it's your Website and you have time to refine it from suggestions.</p>

<p>Keep going and good luck.</p>

The problem with asking customers about a website is that you have artificially selected a group who approves of

the design. Photography, especially wedding/newborn/senior photography are frequently one-time hits. The people

you will never hear from are those who went to the site and for whatever reason left without becoming a customer.

This might represent a huge percentage of your website's users and you will never know by asking existing

customers.

If you ask only the customers you will likely come away with overly-confident appraisal of the site. Analytics can

help, especially bounce rates. A large bounce rate on the front page is an indication of a design problem.

Websites are hard, don't get discouraged if your first efforts aren't perfect. Keep plugging away, looking at your

competition, and learning about design—it will come together.

<p>-Apply the suggestions given above.<br>

-Prospective clients will find your business through search engines; I do not think Norwegians google in English.<br>

-Search engines read words, use descriptive and persuasive texts on each page.<br>

-Create a description meta tag (search google about this) for each page and fill it with good enticing/persuasive description of the page content. This text is what googlers see when you appear in search results. Make sure to use words that also appear in the actual text of that page. <br>

-Write your page content around a few specific words and phrases that should attract the right visitors ( the client groups that you are aiming for). These essential words/ -phrases need to be the words that you think that people will enter in google's search window when they are looking for products/services that you are offering. <br>

Consider Using your 'about' page as the home page and adjust your text accordingly.</p>

<p>All the best! Michiel</p>