I’m going to work backwards through the methods listed above. Search engines, while the most common way for “good” traffic to come to your site, are one of the most difficult methods to do well. So, it’s going to get left until the end.
Direct Access
If you watch your web server statistics you will notice that direct access is not a common method for people to come to your site. But the traffic that comes from direct access will often be very good, that is very likely to be looking for your services. Often they saw your web address somewhere and are typing it in.
What we need to do is to make sure people know that when they need wedding photography services in Phoenix they can type in bobsphotography.com and find a wedding photographer.
Offline Promotion
This is often an overlooked method to get visitors to your site.
Your web site address should be on any document that leaves your studio. This includes business cards, invoices, advertisements, mailers, envelopes, etc. The idea is to make your web address show up everywhere your phone number does.
To expand on advertisements – Some people, myself included, will go to a web site for information before picking up the phone. Most, if not all, will go to a web site before coming in to your studio. You want to make sure you give your potential clients as many methods of contact as possible.
One other idea that seems popular is to put your web address on your car. I’m not a fan of this idea, but I’ve noticed quite a few photographers driving around Houston.
Domain Names
People use domain names to find sites, but the computer uses a number. What happens when I type in www.prophotoforum.com to come and visit here is that my computer looks up the address and gets 66.244.251.18 back. Originally each domain had its own number but we started running out of numbers, so we share. Without getting too in depth, each number is a computer and each computer can have multiple domains.
Let’s take an easy domain name, microsoft.com. It actually maps to two addresses, 207.46.130.108 and 207.46.250.119. You can type in either of these numbers to get to their site, but microsoft.com is much easier to remember.
The best possible scenario is to have a short, memorable domain that relates to your company. Think HP.com for Hewlett Packard or GE.com for General Electric. They’re short, their easy, and they directly relate to the company. Unfortunately with the millions of domain names already registered, the odds of getting a BSP.com for Bob Smith Photography is almost nil.
We then have to make some decisions. Do you want a short domain that’s easy to forget or a long domain that’s easy to remember but hard to type and hard to fit in ads.
My domain is a pretty good example at this point. My company is ‘Heavenly Images Photography”. When looking for domain names I wanted something short that would look good when printed, so H I Photo was a fairly logical choice. The problem that I found was that hiphoto.com, hiphoto.net, hiphoto.org, and hi-photo.com were all taken, settling me on hi-photo.net for my domain name. I also checked heavenlyimages.com, .net, and .org. They were all taken.
What I found is that while the domain name was short and looked right when printed, it didn’t work well when said. Referring someone to my site became H I dash P H O T O dot N E T. I also had several people tell me “Hi Photo, how cute.”
Turns out that heavenlyimagesphotography.com, .net, and .org were all available, so I registered them just so I had something easy to tell people. All 4 domains wind up at the same place, so it doesn’t matter what is typed in. Just a short caveat, if you’re going to go with multiple domains pointing to the same site search for “301 redirect” and make sure you set it up right, otherwise search engines may penalize you.
More about domain names
Domain names are getting really cheap, so there’s no excuse not to have your own. Think about it this way. You’re getting married and have it narrowed down to two photographers. Same price, same style, same personality. One has the web address bobsphotography.com and one has bigisp.com/users/websites/19d02ds04/photography.html; which is going to be viewed as more of a professional?
To go slightly off topic for one point – Having your own domain name also allows you to have better email addresses. Back to the two photographers above; which would you feel more comfortable with, one with the email address bob@bobsphotography.com or the one with sexy19340@yahoo.com?
Back in the old days of the internet; you know, the 90s; domain names were only sold by one company and they cost $35 a year. I paid $8.95 last month to renew my domain for this year. There are dozens of companies that you can register through. Personally, I use GoDaddy and have always had a good experience. I’ve also used NetworkSolutions.com, but they were more expensive. ICann.org is in charge of the .com and .net domain names and they have compiled a list of registrars if you’re so inclined. Of course, you would probably be better off just asking a friend what they use and if they’re happy with their choice.
A good site to look for domains is whois.sc. Their ‘name spinner’ allows you to enter words you’d like in your domain and the page will return several possibilities along with the availability of those domains.
Next Time: Links from other sites and Directories…
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