Honest opinion about my webpage

<p>Hello! Thanks for looking. I want an honest opinion on what message comes across or how people perceive my web page. I created it myself and I know I am getting some traffic, but I don´t get clients from it. So I'm trying to figure out what is wrong or missing. Please let me know if it looks like I charge too much / too little, the pictures need to be more impressive, or I need more pictures... is the page too confusing, or any feedback you have would be really appreciated. The web page is <a href="http://www.ricardobarandiaran.com/" rel="nofollow">www.ricardobarandiaran.com</a> Thanks!!</p>

Stylistically it is very busy -it's all over the place in fact - and I have difficulties with the sequencing of the flow of images

and the layout. , I'd also radically crop the "traffic stopper shot and eliminate most of the foreground.

 

You've got some good work n there but it needs to be culled better and the design elements of the website get in the way.

 

You should consider hiring someone to help edit your photo selection and be willing to listen to them.

<p>Any time I have to wait more than about five seconds to see anything, I usually move on. Anyway, the cause of this, the horizontal layout, doesn't isolate pictures, which in my opinion makes them look less important than displaying them individually. I think (and I could be wrong) that horizontal layouts are more impressive to site owners than to the people who have to use them.</p>

<p>Also, having one wedding up as a major thing on the menu bar, and having it password protected, makes it look like you've only done one, and that's the one. . . . and we can't see it. If you want something hidden, I think you need to hide it properly, and send links to the people who need to know.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for the responses I'll see how can I fix those problems</p>

<p>(I'm not a photographer and I have no idea how one sells photographs.)</p>

<p>I liked your page technically (I work with computers and liked how it delivers glitz without questionable technological choices, with the exception of the disabling of the right button, but I don't think that is what will drive people away alone).</p>

<p>I agree that it looks a bit crowded. I think each photograph should have more room for itself, in order to be able to stand out.</p>

<p>I liked your photos but I think the colours are exaggerated. Don't get me wrong, but I think they scream 'commercial' more than 'family'. That, coupled with the crowding, makes your site look more like an ecological house appliance manufacturer's than a photographer's. When, in fact, the photos are awesome!</p>

<p>Finally, I'm not immediately aware that this is a site of someone offering photographic services. I don't know how one spells that out correctly, but there must be a way. It's almost as if I looked through everything and said 'now, if only I knew who took these photos so I could hire them'. Maybe the white background doesn't help.</p>

<p>But at the end of the day, my opinion is just my opinion. And if you told us you were selling by the thousands, I wouldn't see anything strange about it, much less think it was in spite of your site.</p>

<p>I thought your site was pretty nice. I complement you on your putting your phone number on the first page.</p>

<p> So here is the deal. If you want your site to bring you gigs, people have to find it. When I did a google position report on Raleigh Wedding Photographers and Raleigh Photographer your site was not on the first 10 pages. So there is your first and most important problem. There is a very extensive field of expertise called "SEO" Search Engine Optimization. You need to get really good at that. You need to get to page one and MAYBE page two of google before you can expect your site to generate new business. If you are not there, your site is little more than an online portfolio to which YOU can refer people.</p>

<p>Here is an example. Google bots read your first page as very important. There is nothing on your first page that says you are a photographer. It says photography but not photographer. It does not say what city you are in, that you do weddings, etc. You may have this in META tags but you need a text rich front page. That front page should contain key words that lead the search engines to your site. Your domain name does not help you either. Who is going to search your name? The domain name Raleighprofessionalphotography.com was available a couple of minutes ago. Would that not lead search engines to consider your site more strongly? Go to the number one search under "Raleigh Wedding Photographers" and see what he did. His domain name contains photography and his front page clearly says who he is. (It is also drop dead gorgeous.)</p>

<p>I can see that you are doing some SEO stuff but you really need to dig into it more.</p>

<p>Finally. As you were successful before you know that you did not achieve that success by waiting for traffic on your website. Your job as a professional photographer is FIRST to sell your services. So if you are at home and not out either shooting a paying gig or trying to sell new clients, you are not at work. </p>

<p>1. Splash page takes way too long to load image. People you may want looking at your page will click off. Splash pages should not have flash or scripts that take time to load.<br>

2. Multiple fonts and colors as seen on the About page for example, aren't easy on the eye and can make people leave quickly.<br>

3. Wedding gallery loads to arbitrary image in the middle of the stream. Unclear why.<br>

4. Reviews page is blank and tells people to go somewhere else. Not a good thing. Don't ever send people off your site.<br>

5. Contact page is a mess. Your email address runs into the google+ link. Either give people a form or email, you give both. The "Top posts" section seems arbitrary and it's not in other places.<br>

6. The blog page has Popular Posts and Recent Posts. How is this different from Top Posts & Pages. You have too many categories at this point.<br>

7. The Photo Booth page is a statement about photo booths that could be on the Pricing page, if there was any information on it, along with a Google+ link. The G+ link doesn't go to a page specific to a Photo Booth so why is it there?<br>

8. I get something very different from hovering on the Galleries link than clicking on it. Clicking on the Galleries link should at least have the same links as the hover.<br>

9. The Models link should have fewer photos of one specific model. If that means a lot fewer photos, that's fine.</p>

<p>There's more, but fixing these things would be a good start. Don't take it personally, I seem to be doing this for a lot of sites lately (usually for pay :-)) and even some decent size companies have these kinds of problems.</p>

<p>I guess he got the link someone told him to get.</p>

<p>Good use of slider</p>

<p>Although, you Meta description is too long should be approx 170 characters<br>

and your Meta Keywords are too many :) Aim for 6-7 keywords that your customers are search for :)</p>

<p>Good luck</p>