[Closed] OT - Please pull my website apart and generally criticise my work.

Seems OK to me.

Missed a space at the bottom "Why choose Emerson Photography?page".

Some speeling mistakes, sit with a proof reader.
I like the slideshow on the front page, I normally get quite bored looking a photos that the photographer thinks are good, but aren't. For me the product is good/interesting enough to look further.
Not too sure about having testimonials.
Link of "weddings" takes you to quite a busy page of "weddings and portraits" and doesn't really lead you anywhere.
Photos look good.
Good luck.

Site looks OK to me (I haven't looked for any errors though) - I think the problem you have is search engine optimization. I googled a few phrases like north east wedding photographer etc and didn't see you anywhere on page 1 of google. If people can't find you they can't book you.

That's where i'd be putting my money, organic SEO. Try and get that testimonials page as full as you can, and look at the way the site works with SEO. Installing your blog on the site directly will help, as will making sure keywords, text etc is all search engine relevant. Keep the front page often updated with relevant content, a good way of doing this is by putting your last blog entry on there. If you can afford it, doing things professionally will probably cost you several hundred pounds a month but looking at what you are charging you are well placed to recoup that investment fairly easily.

The following packages are [b]both[/b] designed to be very flexible.

I dunno. There's nothing about the site that enthuses me, nor puts me off, but then I'm not currently looking for a wedding photographer.

I do hate slideshows on the landing page though. If I'm bandwidth constrained (say I'm mobile) then it just takes too long to load. I'd stick that on another page (gallery?) and keep the front page simple.

'Free embossing' after having paid £1100 is probably a line I'd take out.

Site looks slick though. Might be the problem. Ever considered setting up a more 'budget' looking site as a sideline?

Why do I ask? Bookings are down (way down). Lots of new competition with (sometimes) crap photos but cheap prices seems to be the main issue. I'm doing something wrong, but not sure what. This is my seventh year in 'proper' business and it's looking dire.

I think there are a lot of pro wedding photographers in the same boat, too many weekend amateurs prepared to do weddings for pocket money.

A mate of mine in the trade, had his trade drop from 80 weddings down to 20 pa, because of amateurs offering cheap £200 weddings!

He switched from digital and now offers quality modern, large/medium format film based weddings pictures, hand printed, not so much work, but the work he does get, pays far better.

[edit] sorry forgot to say, the website looks good to me, some nice work too 😉

Grand, thanks! Scuzz - can't find that missing space - can you point me at it please?

DonSimon - off for a proof read and you're quite right - the 'Wedding' page should ideally take clients to a page of wedding stuff minus the portrait stuff. I'll get on it.

nickdavies - I'm constantly trying to get up the SEO ladder and it's one of the few areas I actually do know a little about, but the competition is ridiculous, especially with new-start, redundancy-cheque photographers dropping thousands on SEO consultancies. That's really going to have to continue being a slow-burner.

druidh - 'both' now gone, thanks! First thing I did when I got a smartphone was to check the slideshow for speed and it loads instantly over phone network, so I'll leave it unless others report problems, ta!

billy - fair point - maybe I could reword it - the embossing costs me £30... Not sure why I'd want a budget site though - can you expand please?

Thanks for all this - very much appreciated!

A few things come to mind,what about civil partnership ceremonies, they do happen,pink pound and all that.

Prices seem a bit high for a cd disc, you need added value,how i dont know.

You dont give a registered address incase of complaint or somebody wanting to visit.

But otherwise a nice site.

You've disabled right click, this displeases me! If I want a picture I can just use whatever tools menu and view source anyway. Why do you have 2 news links, one at the top and one at the bottom? The bottom one seems a bit redundant.

The whole little rss feeds/news/links bit looks a bit like an afterthought to me and looks like it's just been slung in as it won't fit elsewhere. Personally I'd just add the rss icon in the relevant pages next to the title or something, anyone who uses rss feeds will recognise the icon anyway.

I really like the site to be honest, it would have everything I would have been looking for, lots of information, clear examples of your work etc. You will probably find that as said above, a lot of people are getting friends or cheap photographers who are very basic in their approach to do it (same as we did).

'Weddings' just aren't affordable any more and photography is probably one of the things I see on forums that people are willing to forgo against numbers of people invited..... in retrospect, I wish I'd pay more but there is such a big jump, it's either a few hundred quid or £1000 which is ridiculous. That said, you offer a much better package than 10 of the people I looked at when we were looking into it!

Edit: take out the bit about not being contactable until 2nd Feb! Out of date info instantly makes a site seem out of date....funny that :/ besides which, I really, really wouldn't do that on a website. It's your business, if you are out of circulation, get someone else answering for you. Brides need attention the very second the thought pops into their head. Seriously, could mean the difference between a full day booking and no day booking.

Not sure why I'd want a budget site though - can you expand please?

Maybe just to cover two different markets. Some will open your site and be put off because it does look plush. If a second website looked a bit more basic, with maybe the cheapest option being a couple of hundred less (I don't know your overheads and what you need to charge) you may just pick up the bargain hunters out there.

I googled a few phrases like north east wedding photographer etc and didn't see you anywhere on page 1 of google. If people can't find you they can't book you.

OP - you HAVE submitted it to Google for indexing haven't you?

My opinion - a professional could do better (especially making the site responsive - very important nowadays given that mobile access to websites will soon overtake desktop usage) but given you don't have a budget to do that it is fine - it does a job.

If I was looking at that site as a potential customer I would be thinking [b]'they won't be the cheapest out there, but they will be bottom to mid-range, certainly not the most expensive option'.[/b] Is that where you sit? If so then you are on the right track.

To me the site looks nice enough and I like your photos (which aren't too wedding-typical - no pictures of bloody cufflinks, for a start) but seeing as you asked for criticism: 😈

- if you go to your blog right now, what appears immediately underneath the words "Re@lly, re@lly b@d wedding photography..."? 😆

- can you not integrate the blog into your main site? can the blog design not have the same look and feel of the site? don't have a blog if you're not going to keep posting something (you have been and it looks good, tho).

- do you really need a blog and a news page?

- rewrite the "about" page to make it flow - we get one para about you then suddenly we're interrupted by some links (why?), then some more about you, then a photo of some cameras then "dusty old cameras" (which is in the same type as the article text but is in fact a caption), then some more about you, at which point you mention you went to art school and have a degree in photography. That's called burying the lede in journalistic circles. In an industry where there are so many amateurs, don't you want that to be more clear? Namedrop the institutions.

- you might want to stick a photo of you in a suit, at a wedding, taking photos. there are going to be plenty of unimaginative Mrs Bucket types who are going to think "what's he going to do, show up in a furry hat to the church?". The punters are spending thousands on making stuff look pretty - make them feel comfortable that you're not going to look like some kind of STWer. 😉

- On the blog page of the site: blog shouldn't be followed by an exclamation point. Should "north east" be capitalised? I can never remember - either way, do it consistently across the whole site. Don't use elipses...ever...

- I'd remove the RSS stuff from the bottom right hand corner - realistically are many people going to keep reading your website after they use you? Ditto the copyright stuff in the bottom left hand corner - it's not promoting your business.

- don't welcome me or thank me for coming to your website. Don't ask me to friend you - have a Facebook button if you must.

- the same page is described as "Why Us?", "Why Choose Us?", "Why choose E------ Photography?"

- I would have the "contact" page as the very last (i.e. top right hand corner) and the "about us" page as penultimate.

- is anyone else unable to right click on links (e.g. to open in a new tab)?

- your contact page says you'll be unresponsive until February 2012. Don't put brackets around 0191. Put your email address on the contact page.

- there's a stray character a couple of lines above the South Causey Inn bit on the venues page (which, by the way, is a good touch). You need to make the titles consistent - it is wedding photographs, photography, photographer...?

- remove half of the exclamation marks!

- On the pricing page, remove everything between "I'm" and "help!". Put the three packages into three columns so it's easier for me to see what I am getting. Show more images of the albums - this is the takeaway that I'm going to be showing off to Auntie Mary for the next twenty years.

I'm just a punter so feel free to ignore some or all of this as uninformed ramblings. I wouldn't say that any of this would jump out at me if I didn't spend a lot of time at work writing and editing documents where precision is a big deal.

as above re: contact page dates.

some of the offers are out of date on portraits too.

You need to keep the site up to date or people will go elsewhere.

Try and get the homepage to all be above the 'fold' so people don't need to scroll down just to find the footer. Other pages it's not necessary on as they have more content.

Great stuff - thanks again. Just having lunch but will come back for a closer look in a wee bit...

A few things come to mind,what about civil partnership ceremonies, they do happen,pink pound and all that.

The "Wedding Photography Gallery" needs me to click again to get to the gallery. From the front page, I need to click three times just to get to see some wedding photos.

The photos with the geezers in the kilt, the guy at Sunderland FC and the bride in the black dress need to be much more prominent. You don't want to look novelty, and they may not be typical necessarily of the weddings you photograph, but they are eye-catching photos that (if I were a bride sitting surfing wedding websites) I'd want to nudge someone and say "hey, check it out, look at this one". I can't remember whether it's Kelvin McKenzie or not but someone at the Sun in the 80s called this the "'ere, Doris" factor - writing stories that would make the readers turn to the person sitting next to them and say "'ere, Doris, have you heard this MP wants to ban page 3/that Freddie Starr ate a hamster/that they've banned conkers in schools now?".

I can't comment on the website, since I know naff all about this sort of stuff.

However...a friend of mine, someone I went to law school with runs a website full time which is hugely popular (Bridesupnorth). It's doing so well that she's ditched her career as a lawyer to focus entirely on that business. I can put you in touch with her if you like? She looks to link up with people providing wedding services.

nice site, my only concern would be the lighting seems a little odd/dark in some of the sample images. I guessing its a deliberate look your aiming for, but to my untrained eye they're not really pulling it off. You may want to look into improving your "photoshop" curves and levels skills. But the real arbiter is the customer and if they're happy that's all that matters.

I clicked through to the blog, where I saw your company name with "Really, really bad wedding photography" written beneath it 🙂

That made me Google for "Really, really bad wedding photography", for which you're the top result.

Right....

billysugger - my prices are as low as they possibly can be - I promise they're not just plucked out of the air, but based on a survival budget. Also, there's no way I'm going back to the early days of loitering around horrible working mans' clubs after a ceremony at the Civic Centre, all for £300 🙂

Mastiles - I've had the site for years. Every page has metatags, titles and keywords. All recent pictures are tagged before leaving Lightroom. And yes, it has been submitted to all the search engines.

You did raise a crucial point though (and it struck a nerve tbh) about my place within the market. I really, badly want to be in the upper eschelon of North East photographers. My work is [b]consistently[/b] as good as any in the region IMHO but I fear I'm still in that lower / middle bracket in my clients' eyes at least, and they're the ones who matter. Perhaps I just need to spend some cash and get a properly designed site - this one's a template job from Photium.

That said, I know photographers who have achieved this by simply doubling their prices 🙂 (really!).

Konabunny - thanks for all the feedback. Yes it probably is time for a new blog post - that 'Really, really bad photography' post has got more hits on my blog than pretty much any other though 🙂

I absolutely will have another look at the 'about' page and get the pertinent info to the top. I just don't like to sound as if I'm bragging (not a good trait in this industry). Similarly, I do take your point about the eye-catching, 'ere Doris photos. I'm always a little worried about alienating any of my older clients with anything too over the top or different, and that would also include gay weddings. The North East really is still very conservative in its outlook if not its politics, at least round these 'ere parts - less so in Newcastle, which isn't far away...

Lots and lots to think about - thanks again. RSS feed icon will go, will have a think about News and Blog pages and integration. The Portrait page is already now under reconstruction so please ignore the holding page...

peterfile - I have worked with Julia and am on her site - search for Don't tell the bride or just Emerson Photography on her site!

peterfile - I have worked with Julia and am on her site - search for Don't tell the bride or just Emerson Photography on her site!

Ha ha, that's awesome! Small world eh? 🙂

nice, a few spelling mistakes and I would maybe center the menu at the top, other than that, very nice.

I like your photos too, very professional. I had a look at someones photos supposedly done by a pro photographer for their wedding the other day........bloody awful, a group photo taken at a dreadful angle. Lots of B&W photos but the bouquet was in colour, made the bride look ill, but my favourite was the bride and bridesmaids had their pic taken on a chez long (spelling) but the focal point seemed to be a gas radiator and lots of rubbish and strange things just lying around like dress bags and coat hangers.

Klunk - I do specialise in dramatically lit wedding portraiture - perhaps that's what you're seeing? Not to everyone's taste, I admit, but it's one of the few things I can do easily and quickly during the crazy rush of a wedding which sets me apart from the weekend warriors.

EDIT; peterfile - aye, it is indeed! here's a link to the stuff on bridesupnorth...

http://bridesupnorth.com/?s=jamie+emerson

I just don't like to sound as if I'm bragging (not a good trait in this industry).

You did raise a crucial point though (and it struck a nerve tbh) about my place within the market. I really, badly want to be in the upper eschelon of North East photographers. My work is consistently as good as any in the region IMHO but I fear I'm still in that lower / middle bracket in my clients' eyes at least, and they're the ones who matter. Perhaps I just need to spend some cash and get a properly designed site - this one's a template job from Photium.

And another way of upping your game - and it sounds simple - charge more. Charge double. People buy based on perceptions - if you charge the lowest rates, your customers will expect the lowest quality.

The first thing I would like to say is that your photos got my attention in a good way, and IMO that really counts for a wedding photographer.

I'm sure a photographer posted on here not too long back, and website aside I thought he couldnt take a good photo!

Not my area of expertise at all, but should you be putting prices on your website? It could work in 2 ways. People will either click and imediately think they can't afford it, or click and think your too cheap (yes some people are like that)

Wouldn't it therefore be better to word in your potential market ie 'we offer value for money', or 'we offer only the finest materials etc' if you get where I'm coming from?

At least then you might get leads you may not have other wise got?

Edit: Just read the post above mine ^^

Please note, I am unlikely to be able to respond to emails or phone calls until the 2nd February 2012, but please do go ahead and leave a message and if I can respond, I will, thanks!

I'm sure you can remove that now

Looks ok to me but this tickled me "short wedding package" I immediately thought of height restrictions and under a year marriages, been to a few in each of theses categories!!

Can I also suggest you do research into your competitors ? You may of course have already thought of this ! Find out who is getting all the business and have a look at their sites.

Also, do some customer research, find out why people come to you, and what you could do better. Be prepared from some honest responses.

This link in the footer is not much good

http://www.jamieemersonphotography.com/latest.xml

[i]Klunk - I do specialise in dramatically lit wedding portraiture - perhaps that's what you're seeing? Not to everyone's taste, I admit, but it's one of the few things I can do easily and quickly during the crazy rush of a wedding which sets me apart from the weekend warriors[/i].

I understand that, dramatic lighting can be good, it's not really the point I'm making/the issue I have with them. Setting myself up to be shot down here but The lighting your using is pushing the subject b&g into the background and washing out the faces (which should be the focal point of the image. You just need to adjust the lighting in post to bring them back in a touch.

[img] [/img]

please excuse the copyright infringement to illustrate the point (mousedown prevention is very easy to get around btw). Its a global pass on the image for a quick example its a minor adjustment that needed.

Every page has metatags, titles and keywords. All recent pictures are tagged before leaving Lightroom. And yes, it has been submitted to all the search engines

Which is all great but SEO has moved on from here and these are the basic minimums that all sites will have as a matter of course. To feature well in the SERP's you need to be looking at content and advocacy and how to improve both of these.

To help here you need to start with looking at
[list][*]Home page content (and then the others)[/*]
[*]On page keywords[/*]
[*]File and image names[/*]
[*]Inbound links & gaining traffic[/*][/list]

The last point is a big one. The more popular your site the higher it will rank. If you were bringing this to me as a job I'd suggest getting yourself on Pinterest, your area of business is perfect for this.

after all the fancy marketing talk, flashy websites and sales pitches, the images are what count.

Yet the gallery is one of the hardest things to find on your site.

On the subject of your blog: maybe try Wordpress? Blogspot looks nasty, in my opinion, and the single scrolling page just feels cumbersome. Wordpress has some very nice (free) templates that would match or compliment your personal site. Also, the blog hyperlink that leads from your site should open a new tab/window so that your site remains open in the viewer's browser.

From a technical perspective: your framing is, to my eye, a little uncomfortable and ill-considered in several images and some of the darker images feel a little drenched in processing. The 'you may kiss the bride' image is just a bad photograph - out of focus, poorly framed and carries a real sense of unease. The picture of the couple standing in the castle ruins (Jesmond?) is similarly uncomfortable, although it is at least in focus. Personally, I would remove them from your portfolio/site.

The paler/softer images, like the girls in an embrace, are much more timeless and ethereal in their feel - something that people are really (typically) going to be looking for in wedding pictures. I'm not saying that all pictures should be like that, just that you really seem to be more sympathetic with that style and is probably has a broader appeal for weddings.

Use less vignette. Everyone should use less vignette. Softening contrast and boosting blacks on minimal vignette will give a more natural feel whilst still helping to pull the eye into the image.

I get the feeling that you are bored with wedding photography.

Bruneep - changed that, thanks for noticing - I'd forgotten all about it.

Mastiles - I'm actually toward the top end of the middle group price-wise in my region - everything is cheaper round here - I just want to make the leap into the next level.

FunkyDunc - Thanks for the comments. My plan is to just have one strating price with add-ons.

Hels - I keep my enemies very close 😀

Klunk - thanks for the critique - it really is always appreciated. I use both PS and LR but mostly the latter these days. I've just had another look at that image and if I were to brighten the couple any more, I'd burn out the white highlights which (for me) is a massive noob error. I do take your point though.

Three Fish - I'll probably stick with Blogger as it's directly linked in with Google and content on the blog does very well on Google (see previous post re. 'Really, really bad wedding photography' 🙂 You're quite right about the link opening in the same window - I'll get onto that ASAP.

I know exactly the image you mean in the home page slideshow and have agonised about it myself - it IS slightly soft, but for me, it carries the emotion of the moment well, so despite being less than perfect technically, I've left it in. And yes, I agree that the Jesmond couple photo ain't the best and should go - they also aren't my target market which is another good reason to lose the photo (I'm not age-ist, just being business-like!). Honestly, I thought I was pretty sparing with the use of vignettes 🙂

Whilst I accept the critique, I can only honestly assure you that I most certainly am not bored of wedding photography - on the contrary, I am still completely in love with my job - just slightly frustrated that I seem to be in the same place I was five years ago!

[i]I've just had another look at that image and if I were to brighten the couple any more, I'd burn out the white highlights which (for me) is a massive noob error. I do take your point though.[/i]

the image i posted is adjusted from your original, could be adjusted even more if i had the time to use masks.

Ah, OK I see. Yes, yours is certainly much punchier - I'll give it a whirl but leave the BG as is - hopefully the couple will jump out a little more then.

I like the slideshow on the home page. But I would change the order they load in - you want the first 2 or 3 images to have real wow impact - your first image of 2 girls hugging each other doesn't do that.

[weary-lol] I just put it there tyke! [/weary-lol]. I did ask for this didn't I? 😉 Off out for the rest of the day now. Thanks very much to all who have posted. Please feel free to continue and I'll drop in later.

images don't scale so they get lost on a big monitor, would be better if they filled the screen.
do people really read the 'about me' "i picked up a camera age 5" guff?
maybe it's just me but i would prefer to look at images and a concise pricing structure and not somebodies life story.

Mr Smith - I'm constrained by the template of the site provider to 960 px sized images - most of my would-be clients are likely to be browsing on a laptop or pad, so I'm happy enough with the size. According to my stats, hardly anyone stays on the 'About' page for more than 30 seconds, but it is a good place to drop keywords.

Nice!

Does what it says on the tin. A typical photography website on the better side.

The site is really rather good and you have done most of the obvious SEO stuff already. If i google 'wedding photographer castle' you are on the first page. You are now on to the smaller stuff but every little counts in this game:

1. Decide if you want to use the www or not and stick with it. The link you gave us doesn't use it, the link I found on the web does. Don't diluted yer 'juice'

2. You have wedding photographer repeated too many times on your home page header. You may get penalized for that.

3. Most of your anchor text is good but a couple of place say something like 'more of my photos here' where the hyperlink is on the word here. Always make the link descriptive.

4. Integrate your blog if you can or use use a subdomain rather than 'blogspot'. You will be gaining very little from your blog at the moment. E.g. Try to set up blog.youphotosite.com.

5. The photos on your blog are actually hosted on your blog. It is MUCH better to host them on your photo site and then embed them from there on your blog. That way you pass some of the 'juice' from your blog to the photo site. You don't need to do that if you can rename the blog though.

6. I would be tempted to put a footer with your address and phone number on every page to help geolocate you. Google cares about localized search for this sort of thing.

Before you start though set up google analytics to get an idea of how many people come to you via a web search. Then you will be able to see if you are getting traffic but people aren't booking or if you just aren't getting the traffic.

Good luck with this. the only person I know who did wedding photography for a living used to swear by paying for google ads but to do that you will need to spend money which means putting up your prices 🙁

I know exactly the image you mean in the home page slideshow and have agonised about it myself - it IS slightly soft, but for me, it carries the emotion of the moment well, so despite being less than perfect technically, I've left it in

I think you underestimate people's ability to recognise a 'good' photograph. OK, the subjects describe an easily recognised emotional scenario; but the complete image is shoddy. Don't you have a better example in your portfolio? If not: why not? These images are going to be assumed by potential customers to be your best, otherwise why would you pick them to represent your services/product?

they also aren't my target market

Especially considering that your business is struggling, can you afford to limit your target market? Why not just target people who are getting married? Do older people not typically have a larger disposable income? They probably also have two sets of children of marrying age - think of the referrals!!

I know I don't need to tell you this, but you're working in a highly competitive field, and getting more competitive every year as 'Bob's best mate has a DSLR you know? He'll do it for a hundred quid...' I suspect that much of your business is going to be derived from referrals (for [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/wedding-photographer-glasgow ]example[/url]). Do you advertise in any way at the weddings you attend? Apart from your photos, what do you do to increase the likelihood that customers will pass your details on? Do you give them business cards or some kind of analogue copy that they can hand over or forward to friends/relatives? Could you give them some sort of pack that has smaller, printed versions of a selection of images, with your business details subtely adorning the pages! Even just a couple of these little pass-on items could get you one extra referral from each job.

Where is your presence in the referral system? There are several referral programs for local and national photographers, including [url= http://www.yourperfectweddingphotographer.co.uk/north-east/ ]this[/url] randomly plucked from Google. They also give you as an individual an opportunity to survey/steal ideas the competition...

One small thing - swap a few of the exclamation marks for full stops - overdoing exclamations cheapens the overall tone and basically just reads badly. I only looked at the Why Us? page.

oh, while we're at it, the words 'Emerson Photography' at the top of your page are actually in the background image so while you and I can see it, Google can't. Yes, you have it at the bottom of the page but that isn't visible until people scroll down. You get more points for having your name 'above the fold'

Try giving your background image a real name instead of '793_444886344d027a613005a.jpg.jpg'

Give your background image some 'alt' text such as 'Emerson Photography'

Not enough 'H1' tags. Google uses those to work out the important text on a page (maybe) - ie. don't just bold text to make a new heading, use and H1

ok, yes I'm just wasting time until I have to go pick up my daughter.

For gawd sake lose that no right click malarky. It's not big and it's not clever. It's annoying me and I'm just looking to help you. As a customer I might want to open the gallery up in a new tab at the same time as looking at the prices. Hey, so someone uses a photo of yours. The right click doesn't stop them anyway. And I can't get to hairy dog site either without leaving your site (i.e. customers leaving your site..).

Yep, loose the furry hat. Don't necessarily have to have a suit and tie kinda picture but I think it comes across slightly 'crazy' - will he or won't he turn up for my wedding.

Daft point - if you're hoping for Newcastle weddings potentially maybe less Sunderland Stadium of Light photos - could be putting the poor diddums geordies off, they're not that bright. 😛

Consider getting a pause (even if just hovering over the image) on the slideshow - let people see each image rather than having to wait for it to come round again. Just imagine some bride getting the groom to look up from the footy to see a nice photo on your site, and it's gone.

Don't use the title as your keyword spamming tool - it should be something like "Top quality wedding photography with Emerson Photography" or something. I'd suggest also putting "Emerson Phographers - " as the first text on all your titles. Meta name description probabaly needs a makeover too.

Put a few more uses of the word 'wedding' but be subtle. Maybe "I'm Jamie Emerson, a wedding and portrait photographer based in Houghton-Le-Spring and covering [u]weddings in[/u] the whole of the North East, including Sunderland, Durham, Newcastle and surrounds. I will also travel throughout the UK if required. ". You have the word wedding just once on your landing page. Check out http://www.takingthepic.co.uk/ (taken at random) - Google robots are more confident this is a wedding photographers because it mentions weddings a lot more. Though don't go over the top!

I'd also lose the "please look at my 'why I'm good page'" aka Why Choose Emerson Photography off the intro text and I'd be tempted to move the first paragraph from your 'why us?' page onto the homepage instead. You need a bit more density of wrding on the homepage for the search engines to pick up on and decide what you are about. Alas, photos are nice but Google et all can't see them and know you are a wedding snapper.

On your about page the last line paragraph caught my eye - just the words 'my hobby', I'd either hide it more in the wording or maybe flip it round to say "professional photography is still my hobby..." or those kinda lines.

And I know 'I enjoy shooting...' means taking pictures but maybe a different phrase?!

Personally, I'd be tempted to combine the about us and why me pages as they are doing the same job. Maybe you want to change 'about me' to 'about you' and do some slushy prose about how you look after the bride and groom, and how special their day is blah blah blah.

Your main selling point is not even on the navigation - Gallery link needs to be on your main nav. I'd probably go to the gallery first as a punter rather than find out you like guitars and ride bikes.

And I don't think it's 'properly insured professional photographer', maybe 'fully insured'?

Despite what I said above, it's a nice site. Don't think I'd be paying megabucks to SEO experts (they're rarely that). Skim some of the relevant points people have said here and it'll be slicker. 😀

Get the keyword density up a bit and it might help the google rankings.

And if you can, it might be worth getting some free site analytics - Google Analytics is free and fairly simple to plug it. It will give you some stats on how your pages are performing - are people actually looking at the gallery - do you need to make the link more prominent etc., bounce rates etc.

Its really hard to think what people get from your site without some cold hard statistics.

I don't know much about websites, but know a bit about photography having worked in the industry for a few years (assisting Ad and fashion photographers in London and then on my own)

I'd consider working on your artistic and technical skills. I had a look through the shots on your website and although there were some good ones, a lot were average. I might be coming off a tad harsh, but I think honest opinion is more useful if you are struggling in the competitive world of wedding photography.

I found studying the masters of landscape photography, helped with composition in fashion photography and photographing people in general. Working with models is also useful as you can learn every single angle and get better at directing people.

Mixing natural light with flash is an art in itself. I was obsessed with lighting when I was a student and would spend ages lighting different things at different angles to understand how light worked. A good understanding of light (hard, soft, shadows, shapes etc) will stand you in good stead to compete against the masses of wedding photographers who have no idea how to light.

Good photoshop skills are a must. If you can retouch photos to a decent level, you can create your own actions which will have your own signature style to them. At the moment your pictures look like they have been tweaked a bit in lightroom, but are not quite right in terms of colour and contrast and do not have a particular style.

I think that it would be helpful if you came up with a style that people can recognise, whether that be framing/composition, lighting style or retouching. Retouching is the easiest way to stamp you own style onto an image.

Something that I have noticed that the top wedding photographers do, is capture amazing candid photographs. I don't have much of a clue about this as I was never much of a reportage photographer (even though it is the style I most admire) but if you can get your head around finding the balance between directing and shooting reportage style, your work will stand out dramatically.

Hope you find something useful in this and don't take it as me just bashing your work, as you have some great shots in there.

"Why us?"

There's only you isn't there?

The royal "us"?

I'll post some feedback when I get on my laptop, on my phone at the mo. Amazing the level/amount of response you can get on STW - cant wait to do the same with my new site when it's (eventually) ready 😉

Cheers all. I do have Google analytics and yes, it's very helpful. They've just done away with the old version and I'm yet to get to grips with the new display, but I'll persevere.

A few people have mentioned the disabled right click issue. If I want to open a new window whilst keeping the page I'm on open, I use Ctrl + left click, hth 🙂 I had no idea it was an issue tbh.

grum - yes, an incredible amount of feedback, almost all of which is very useful. Criticism is always hard to take, but I accept it's necessary to understand how others view your work.

Sorry I'm too shattered to respond to all the comments - they have all been read and taken on board - some of it will definitely be acted upon over the coming week.

A few people have mentioned the disabled right click issue. If I want to open a new window whilst keeping the page I'm on open, I use Ctrl + left click, hth I had no idea it was an issue tbh.

First pitfall in web development - assuming someone knows some strange keyboard combo will fix the issue. If you have to explain something to someone then it's not working. I'm a web developer and I don't use the ctrl key. Remember that some people on your website would probably struggle with the concept of the ctrl key at all, let alone how to use it.

I think there's some great constructive criticism, nobody is slagging the site off per se so I think that's positive.

That's the first wave of changes implemented - the 'About' and 'Why Us?' pages have been amalgamated into one page, which makes a lot of sense. I've tried to keep it personal - with wedding photography, as with all services, clients buy the person first, then the product, so I have left in some personal details. My qualifications and other big-me-up stuff is now more prominent, as suggested.

The home page now has a better mix of keywords and phrases and some of the photos have been removed.

Various typos and out of date text have been sorted. I will try and find a better photo of myself, preferrably at work to replace the scary hat photo... Next steps include a complete gallery overhaul and a pricing structure simplification (one price for all day, one price for half day).

breatheeasy - yes, overall I'm hugely grateful for all pointers but believe me, it really isn't easy to have complete strangers pick the flesh from your baby (so to speak) - especially on STW where the sh1t sandwich is unheard of (compliment - criticism - compliment). But that really is why I asked here, I suppose - I knew I could count on brutally honest feedback. I don't have to agree with all of it, but it's all helpful.

So once again, thanks to all who have contributed!

I'm sure you know already but the stuff that breatheeasy suggested is all good, and the way that Google search works you have to do even the small stuff to rise above everyone else as they are all doing the obvious stuff as well 🙁

If it helps here is the link to help you rename your blog to use a subdomain of your main site. You will of course need to set up blog.jamieemersonphotography.com with wherever you have your name registered first but then the rest is quite easy

http://support.google.com/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=58317

It if all looks like gibberish then ask again here. The info. is often blunt but usually high quality as well

as with all services, clients buy the person first, then the product

really? i would say the images are what sell the 'product', as long as the first interaction suggests you are not a sociopath then things can progress, if the images are mediocre that email or phone call is never going to be made however wonderful your personality is.

Maybe that's the case in the commercial world, where photo editors know their onions, but there are a huge number of non-awesome photographers out there, doing very well on force of personality alone. Domestic clients can really and truly be a bit clueless when it comes to photography, and I honestly don't think I do them a dis-service by saying that. They've never had to choose a photographer before - why should they know their split-toning from their spot-colouring? (shudders).

There are just [i]so many[/i] PASSIONATE gals and guys about who say all the right things and who happen to have hit on a particular fad or wedding zeitgeist - it doesn't matter that their portfolio looks like it's been dipped in dogshit (oh, that's just soooo vintage *squeal*) and consists of one wedding and a day with a couple of wannabes from Model Mayhem.

Hopefully though, these people are not my clients - I would LOVE to shoot for people who really do appreciate good photography, and indeed, have shot the weddings of some photographers who I'd consider to be very good indeed.

Following on from that, and to answer the point made on page one about just marketing towards everyone who's getting married - that is simply a bad idea. I have a very set idea about who my target demographic are. It's where i spends me marketing dollars. It's a prove fact that we're likely to sell our services to those who most closely resemble us and is the reason that very good salesmen use 'mirroring' techniques. That's not snake-oil - it's just good business. Casting your net too wide just means missing out IME.

EDIT; leffeboy - thanks for that. I'm afraid it does all look a bit like gibberish right now, but I'll have a proper read of the article later today.

Following on from that, and to answer the point made on page one about just marketing towards everyone who's getting married - that is simply a bad idea.

I didn't say have one 'thing' to market towards everyone, which I would agree doesn't make sense; I said that you should consider everyone who is getting married to be your target. What that means is being able to cater for more tastes, and what that means is broadening your portfolio and being able to give as many people as possible what they ask for. It also means improving considerably on developing your styles/repertoire; but there really isn't going to be [i]that[/i] much variation in what people expect/want. You're struggling; you can not afford to turn people away - which is basically what you're wanting to do at the moment - and you don't appear technically skilled/developed enough to offer 'something special' to this (non-existent) target market that you think you've identified. It sounds more like an excuse for something than a genuine business strategy. Get better at what you do and then, [u]maybe[/u], you'll be able to pick and choose. No shit sandwich, sorry.

Lol! thanks for the blunt reply Three Fish! It's not a case of my being a prima-donna and picking and choosing my clients - it's a strategy based on very solid business principles, drummed into me through years of crappy sales jobs, followed by dozens of dull business seminars. The basic message repeated time after time is,; don't ever, ever think that your target market is the general public. Find your target market (and it certainly does exist, thankyou) and stick to it. And despite the downturn this year, I have been doing this with a degree of success since 2005, so I must be doing [i]something[/i] right - the way you paint it, I've just picked up a camera and have no clue at all - not the case - five years in education as a mature student and seven years working full time as a photographer. That doesn't necessarily make me good in your eyes, but I do feel I've learnt a thing or two...

you don't appear technically skilled/developed enough to offer 'something special' to this (non-existent) target market that you think you've identified. It sounds more like an excuse for something than a genuine business strategy. Get better at what you do and then, maybe, you'll be able to pick and choose.

Tbh though, that last bit of the post just stinks of nastiness - care to put your URL up so I know who I'm dealing with? No? Thought not... Genuine critique is always welcomed - piss-taking from an unknown with a Flickr account is not.

Tbh though, that last bit of the post just stinks of nastiness - care to put your URL up so I know who I'm dealing with? No? Thought not... Genuine critique is always welcomed - piss-taking is not.

Much of my work is non-public at the moment as I'm putting six months of work together into collections; but you can see a small selection on Behance for preview of an upcoming exhibition. I'm in the process of arranging some more exhibitions locally and have also had expressions of interest from people in Berlin and Amsterdam. I'm meeting with a curator over in Amsterdam in a couple of weeks, so it's all very exciting at the moment! My 'market' is a bit more niche than yours, I appreciate; and I'm grateful that I do not rely on photography to earn my living. I can just do it because I enjoy it.

So by the same token, why not attempt to sell your images to everyone who has eyes? You see where I'm going here? Your photography really isn't that much more 'niche' than mine, truth be told.

Bleedin' nartists 😉

Just popped back in, in the hope of a link from the lighting guru. Still nothing - no surprise there then... I did have a quick Google though; four photos of drainpipes and rooftiles? Srsly?!

Get better at what you do and then, maybe, you'll be able to pick and choose.

Well sunshine, an art degree doesn't impress me, mostly because I have one in Photography as Conceptual Art. I've done all that dithering about trying to capture the sound of a raindrop (or whatever) at uni, and long since got over it. Perhaps you can come back to me when Aunt Euphemia's trust fund dries up, and you've put in a few years hard work lighting a bride and groom during a fast-moving, ever-changing wedding day, when there's no time to set up a tripod and consider the parallels between a drainpipe junction and the cutting edge of an urban reality before taking the photo.

Then maybe you can come back and tell me I can't light a photo properly.

Harrumph.

Just popped back in, in the hope of a link from the lighting guru.

I beg your pardon, I thought from your response that you'd followed the link to my Behance project, which I then proceeded to unlink. I didn't respond to your questions because they appeared somewhat rhetorical. I won't respond to your latest assumptions as I don't really see what I would gain from doing so. Well done with the degree, by the way; you must be very pleased to have qualified. I can not boast of any formal arts training, let alone a degree, so I think perhaps you may have Googled upon somebody else's pictures. I do have some quite nice drainpipe shots in my back-catalogue, though.

Harrumph, indeed.

At the risk of repeating a suggestion, because I haven't read the whole thread, can you change the web address to just [b]emersonphotogrpahy.com[/b], then it matches the 'company' name?

I see that it has now made its way to the front page - but why is the gallery (prob the most important thing on your site for someone quickly browsing for a photographer) still not on the top selections? It should be at the top and one of the first things people see how to get to without scrolling..