Very good article Don! - and timely for me, as I've been in the process during September of going back over my Website during my occasional "remodel and update," both with the front-end and back-end. I still use Wordpress and Divi as a theme, based on what you advised way back in 2014-2015. SiteGround is my hosting service... I migrated there from Blue Host many years ago. I like their service much better, support is absolutely stellar, and their add-ons like their Speed Optimizer, Premium CDN, Site Scanner (for Security) etc are all excellent. I recently switched from Yoast SEO Premium to The SEO Framework and I absolutely love it - much better IMO.
Thanks for the list of things to cover! I've been doing most of them for some time - but you gave me some new ideas and verified the others as things I should be doing. Specifically, your suggestions on the About Page - mine needs a revamp; and detailed descriptions on gallery pages is something I'm going to add. Also, I'm going to add pricing ranges. I like your idea of filtering out potential clients. My time is precious, and talking to people who want something for nothing is a waste. I'm in the process now of building a "Commercial" page on my Website, which will also enable me to reduce the size of my Home page - which will speed up my loading time. Right now my desktop speed and performance rates extremely high on several speed test sites (such as Pingdom and others); however, my mobile speed is slow. I will be adding the WPtouch plugin in October, as October will be my "work on Mobile optimization month." Ha!
My leads and clients come from 3 sources: direct referrals; social media (Facebook is by far the most productive for me and where I live - both for consumer and commercial work, but I post on Instagram as well); and of course my Website. I would say that my commercial clients come to me about 50/50 from Social Media (Facebook) and my Site. For a couple of years now I've been diligent in asking them how they found out about me. The bigger commercial projects (regional to me) definitely come through my Site and all of the hard SEO work I've put in over the years. I rank in the 3-Pack in Google searches on virtually all categories of keywords relevant to me. Clients like the National Park Service, the Delta Music Museum, and Ballys Casino are recent examples. My business is not huge, but it keeps me busy as a hybrid photographer and I enjoy it very much.
Lastly, the SEO and Website work I'm doing are a sub-category of an overall Marketing and Sales focus that I'm currently working on. You know: Lead Generation, Lead Nurture, and Lead Conversion. Besides the website front end and back end, I'm trying to improve social media and direct referral efforts. Then too are all of the CX and UX efforts I'm trying to improve on. I've been using Bloom.io for a couple of years now and it's been a HUGE help (quotes, invoicing, embedded lead forms, etc... but the Projects Workflow section has truly been a game changer for me). Also on the CX/UX front - I recently abandoned my old gallery app for Pic-Time, and it's going to help for sure. Their clever utility of being able to write a Blog post from a gallery you load is amazing, and the marketing, sales, and SEO is all built-in to the Gallery.
All, I've gone on too long... but thanks for all you've done for me and what you continue to teach and preach! I very much appreciate it. Keep up the great articles and posts. - Mike
Very good article Don! - and timely for me, as I've been in the process during September of going back over my Website during my occasional "remodel and update," both with the front-end and back-end. I still use Wordpress and Divi as a theme, based on what you advised way back in 2014-2015. SiteGround is my hosting service... I migrated there from Blue Host many years ago. I like their service much better, support is absolutely stellar, and their add-ons like their Speed Optimizer, Premium CDN, Site Scanner (for Security) etc are all excellent. I recently switched from Yoast SEO Premium to The SEO Framework and I absolutely love it - much better IMO.
Thanks for the list of things to cover! I've been doing most of them for some time - but you gave me some new ideas and verified the others as things I should be doing. Specifically, your suggestions on the About Page - mine needs a revamp; and detailed descriptions on gallery pages is something I'm going to add. Also, I'm going to add pricing ranges. I like your idea of filtering out potential clients. My time is precious, and talking to people who want something for nothing is a waste. I'm in the process now of building a "Commercial" page on my Website, which will also enable me to reduce the size of my Home page - which will speed up my loading time. Right now my desktop speed and performance rates extremely high on several speed test sites (such as Pingdom and others); however, my mobile speed is slow. I will be adding the WPtouch plugin in October, as October will be my "work on Mobile optimization month." Ha!
My leads and clients come from 3 sources: direct referrals; social media (Facebook is by far the most productive for me and where I live - both for consumer and commercial work, but I post on Instagram as well); and of course my Website. I would say that my commercial clients come to me about 50/50 from Social Media (Facebook) and my Site. For a couple of years now I've been diligent in asking them how they found out about me. The bigger commercial projects (regional to me) definitely come through my Site and all of the hard SEO work I've put in over the years. I rank in the 3-Pack in Google searches on virtually all categories of keywords relevant to me. Clients like the National Park Service, the Delta Music Museum, and Ballys Casino are recent examples. My business is not huge, but it keeps me busy as a hybrid photographer and I enjoy it very much.
Lastly, the SEO and Website work I'm doing are a sub-category of an overall Marketing and Sales focus that I'm currently working on. You know: Lead Generation, Lead Nurture, and Lead Conversion. Besides the website front end and back end, I'm trying to improve social media and direct referral efforts. Then too are all of the CX and UX efforts I'm trying to improve on. I've been using Bloom.io for a couple of years now and it's been a HUGE help (quotes, invoicing, embedded lead forms, etc... but the Projects Workflow section has truly been a game changer for me). Also on the CX/UX front - I recently abandoned my old gallery app for Pic-Time, and it's going to help for sure. Their clever utility of being able to write a Blog post from a gallery you load is amazing, and the marketing, sales, and SEO is all built-in to the Gallery.
All, I've gone on too long... but thanks for all you've done for me and what you continue to teach and preach! I very much appreciate it. Keep up the great articles and posts. - Mike