5 Common WordPress Mistakes Made by Photographers

WordPress is a fantastic platform for photographers to share their portfolios and promote their business.

If used correctly, WordPress can launch a photographer’s career to the next level.

Unfortunately, many photographers do not utilize WordPress to its full potential and end up missing out on more clients, an enhanced brand awareness and overall development of a strong online presence.

Here are the top five mistakes photographers make when using WordPress:

1. Non-readable Image Filenames

Image filenames are often overlooked as a tool to search engine optimize. Instead of using a generic filenames such as “picture1” or the automatic numbers filename assigned by your camera, you need to assign filenames that will work for you. Descriptive keywords are the best option for filenames on the web. If you have photographed a shark attack in California, label the photograph as “shark-attacks-california-surfer.jpg.” Do not go over four keywords, and always use a dash (-) and not a blanks space. A dash increases visibility by 20%.

2. No Content Delivery Network

Location of the server affects the rate of a page load. The closer your visitors are to your content, the faster their page will load. Use Content Delivery Network to provide a team of servers located around the world that contains copies of your static media content.

For example, if your website visitor is from New York, their content will come from a server located in New Jersey. This is preferable to them loading the data from a server half away around the world in Hong Kong.

There are many CDN options on the market. One of the most popular is the Amazon Web Services S3 account. It is inexpensive and integrates nicely with the W3 total Cache plugin, the host.

3. Resize Photos before Uploading

Do not give freebies away. When you upload your original, high-resolution images in WordPress, you are making your digital negatives available for download. It is best to resize your images to the maximum size that will show the integrity of the image, but it is a less desirable download than the digital negative.

4. Forgetting to assign Featured Images

WordPress 2.9 has a feature that many photographers fail to use. It is called “Featured Images,” and it allows you to assign specific posts, pages and galleries to be featured. Some themes use this feature to create thumbnails on the homepage and archive pages.

If you are using WordPress 3.1, the Featured Images option may be hidden. To show the Featured Image box, you will need to click on the Screen Options link in the top right corner when editing a Post or Page and check the Feature Image box to activate the feature.

5. Don’t use Flash

Do not use Flash for your WordPress. Your content will not be searchable. If you do use Flash content, you will need to make sure you have an alternative non-Flash website that describes the content contained inside the Flash. It is the best of both worlds.

Avoid these mistakes to get the most out of your WordPress website. If used correctly, with proper structure, optimization, and implementation of proper WordPress plugins, you can develop a strong online presence for your brand and photography business.