Have a look at my website please ?

[John Young]

I put this in the business sectiion and bascially got no response so its either perfect (doubt it) or its so bad people don't have the heart to tell me


I have completely redone my website after my search position started to drop. It's gone from 5 to around 14 and my site needed more work on the mobile side so I thought I would do the whole thing to see if it would help my Google rank.

I had loads of structured data errors when my blog was on WordPress so I moved blog to Zenfolio and at least that has dropped from errors in the hundreds to around 12 now and still dropping.

Any advice / thoughts appreciated especially relating to seo

www.johnyoung.co

Also I have the domain www.johnyoungphotography.co.uk - would that be better for Google than the .co one I use now ? I am sure I read somewhere that Google prefers you to use the country code you are living in. I never really realised it at the time but .co is a Columbia code. It was just what was offered to me at the time I was looking for a domain and all the others were taken. But years later I also bought the johnyoungphotography one but never used it

 

[Alastair]

Very quick observation, viewing on a mobile device it takes two clicks to get your phone number (menu>contact) which is two more than is ideal. Otherwise looks clean, easy to read. Quotes/testimonials should always have names against them to look believable.

Will check on laptop and read through the copy fully later..

 

[John Young]

Very quick observation, viewing on a mobile device it takes two clicks to get your phone number (menu>contact) which is two more than is ideal. Otherwise looks clean, easy to read. Quotes/testimonials should always have names against them to look believable.

Will check on laptop and read through the copy fully later..

Than you - so would you put the phone number on the first page ? home page ?

Thanks for advice on testimonials I will look at that, not thought of that

 

[nog]

Loaded nice and quick, looked at the client area and some of the pics need straightening

 

[nog]

Oops must have put the jinx on it

This site can’t be reached
www.johnyoungphotography.co.uk’s server DNS address could not be found.

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

 

[John Young]

Oops must have put the jinx on it

This site can’t be reached
www.johnyoungphotography.co.uk’s server DNS address could not be found.

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

It seems to work OK fro me after refresh ?

Some of my pics are wonky

 

[John Young]

Does anyone know if its a good thing to have a few different pages for different areas ?

I used to have one for Durham and one for Newcastle etc but then I read it was bad practice and google did not like it. I have since read its good SEO - so which is it

 

[nog]

Does anyone know if its a good thing to have a few different pages for different areas ?

I used to have one for Durham and one for Newcastle etc but then I read it was bad practice and google did not like it. I have since read its good SEO - so which is it

Loading ok now but if I was looking for a tog for my wedding and they had wonky photos on their website ....

 

[Alastair]

Than you - so would you put the phone number on the first page ? home page ?

Any business website (for any type of business) I'd always have the phone number and email address on the homepage and the header or footer of every page. It's the #1 thing that visitors are looking for - you should think like your visitors first and a business owner second.

Have you thought about the domain johnyoung.photography - it's shorter, to the point and the .photography domain is often overlooked by photographers.

There are a couple of photos I wouldn't have chosen as portfolio pieces, e.g. this one http://www.johnyoung.co/index_htm_files/1941.jpg or the one at the top of the contact page.

Some more notes on the copy:

• The phrasing, sentence/paragraph structure and punctuation could all be improved across all pages. Confusion of singular and plural is frequent, and particularly noticeable on the pricing page.
• There are inconsistencies across the site, e.g. according to the Homepage you work with your wife but on the About Us page she doesn't get a mention in relation to the business.
• The sentence structure and punctuation of the testimonials could be massively improved - some of it is crap and suggests poor attention to detail, e.g. "Just a massive thank you from me and Jonny to you and your wife John for a fantastic service and photos of our special day couldn't have gotten a better photographer for quality and service." You are allowed to contact the client with suggested changes to their quotation when the grammar needs to be improved to represent your professionalism.

If words aren't your speciality there are plenty of copywriters available. Professionals pay professionals.

 

[CraigDHD]

The page header changes on nearly every page...
logo header on home
no header on portfolio
logo header on about
logo header with different allignment on testimonials
big image banner on portraits
no header on prices
completely different site for client area
big image banner for contact
different site again for blog

The blog and client pages link to another site which also have seperate about and contact pages. Overall the whole site jars I'd like to see more continuity page to page they all seem to have different widths for the content and If you need to go to a different site for blogging and galleries I'd like to see them styled the same way and have their navigation items match the main site to keep navigating consistent.

For me if I was viewing I'd like to be able to view bigger versions of the portfolio images and I personally wouldn't use .co as a domain when I see it I usually think it looks like a typo and should be .com or .co.uk I'd go with your www.johnyoungphotography.co.uk domain

 

[mickledore]

Also I have the domain www.johnyoungphotography.co.uk

I get...

Problem loading page.
Server cannot be found.

 

[John Young]

Loading ok now but if I was looking for a tog for my wedding and they had wonky photos on their website ....

Which photos are wonkey ? Are they wonkey as in angled on purpose and you dont like that or are they jusy wonkey ?

Any business website (for any type of business) I'd always have the phone number and email address on the homepage and the header or footer of every page. It's the #1 thing that visitors are looking for - you should think like your visitors first and a business owner second.

Have you thought about the domain johnyoung.photography - it's shorter, to the point and the .photography domain is often overlooked by photographers.

There are a couple of photos I wouldn't have chosen as portfolio pieces, e.g. this one http://www.johnyoung.co/index_htm_files/1941.jpg or the one at the top of the contact page.

Some more notes on the copy:

• The phrasing, sentence/paragraph structure and punctuation could all be improved across all pages. Confusion of singular and plural is frequent, and particularly noticeable on the pricing page.
• There are inconsistencies across the site, e.g. according to the Homepage you work with your wife but on the About Us page she doesn't get a mention in relation to the business.
• The sentence structure and punctuation of the testimonials could be massively improved - some of it is crap and suggests poor attention to detail, e.g. "Just a massive thank you from me and Jonny to you and your wife John for a fantastic service and photos of our special day couldn't have gotten a better photographer for quality and service." You are allowed to contact the client with suggested changes to their quotation when the grammar needs to be improved to represent your professionalism.

If words aren't your speciality there are plenty of copywriters available. Professionals pay professionals.

Thank you for the indepth review I appreciate it

As far as the domain goes its one thing that has concerned me a bit since buying it years back. When I bought it that was offered to me and I thought .co sounds good like a company or something and the other .co.uk and .com were taken. But I later found out its a country domain for columbia. Saying that I did rank for years at position 5 with that domain but maybe Google have now changed their mind (as they often do)

I do also have www.johnyoungphotography.co.uk - would that be better ? and would I suffer using a new domain as my domain does have some age authority being around for so long

I will check my text - spelling etc is not my strong point and I see what you mean with the testimonials I just copied them word for word

 

[John Young]

The page header changes on nearly every page...
logo header on home
no header on portfolio
logo header on about
logo header with different allignment on testimonials
big image banner on portraits
no header on prices
completely different site for client area
big image banner for contact
different site again for blog

The blog and client pages link to another site which also have seperate about and contact pages. Overall the whole site jars I'd like to see more continuity page to page they all seem to have different widths for the content and If you need to go to a different site for blogging and galleries I'd like to see them styled the same way and have their navigation items match the main site to keep navigating consistent.

For me if I was viewing I'd like to be able to view bigger versions of the portfolio images and I personally wouldn't use .co as a domain when I see it I usually think it looks like a typo and should be .com or .co.uk I'd go with your www.johnyoungphotography.co.uk domain

Thank you I will check those things out - the blog and client area are off site. (Zenfolio) I did used to have a built in wordpress blog but I got LOADS of structured data errors on Google and I thought it might hurt my ranking so I removed it and put it on Zenfolio. Errors have dropped from hundreds to almost zero.

I am thinking of using the other domain but will I get hurt for ditching my old domain in google as I understand you get more google juice if your domain is older or is that not linked to the domain name ?

I get...

Problem loading page.
Server cannot be found.

Its not been set up yet

 

[Alastair]

I do also have www.johnyoungphotography.co.uk - would that be better ? and would I suffer using a new domain as my domain does have some age authority being around for so long

To be honest, I suspect that's a minor decision to make compared with currently having you blog on a different domain to your website. Google loves new content such as regular blogs, tweets, etc. I'm unsure whether you gain any of this Google juice by having such content on your Zenfolio domain.

If you have .co.uk I'd definitely use it, even if it's just a redirect to the .co - I'd likewise do the same with a .photography domain as well. I use .photography, but keep the .co.uk pointing towards it as well.


By the way, do you have an aversion to naming venues?

 

[John Young]

To be honest, I suspect that's a minor decision to make compared with currently having you blog on a different domain to your website. Google loves new content such as regular blogs, tweets, etc. I'm unsure whether you gain any of this Google juice by having such content on your Zenfolio domain.

If you have .co.uk I'd definitely use it, even if it's just a redirect to the .co - I'd likewise do the same with a .photography domain as well. I use .photography, but keep the .co.uk pointing towards it as well.


By the way, do you have an aversion to naming venues?

Yeah I'll set the domain up now.....

So do you think I should just make a blog page on my site ? I did have a wordpress blog attached but I got loads of structured data errors - I would think I would get better google juice from zenfilio than I would with my own blog as they have a BIG web presense

 

[Serendipitous Sid]

...So do you think I should just make a blog page on my site ?

Dunno what Alastair will think, but as I've said at least once before on one of your threads, the blog on our site was the single biggest factor in getting people onto it.

 

[John Young]

Dunno what Alastair will think, but as I've said at least once before on one of your threads, the blog on our site was the single biggest factor in getting people onto it.

So is yours a wordpress blog attached to your site or something else ?

 

[Serendipitous Sid]

So is yours a wordpress blog attached to your site or something else ?

It was a Wordpress blog attached to the site. Worked a treat for us. Apparently Google loved it for that, and for the fact that I religiously posted meaningful text-heavy content at least once a week.

 

[John Young]

It was a Wordpress blog attached to the site. Worked a treat for us. Apparently Google loved it for that, and for the fact that I religiously posted meaningful text-heavy content at least once a week.

I had a wordpress site on my domain (added from cpanel on hosting) but I got nothing but structured data errors all the time and no traffic at all no matter what keywords I used etc

Would a blog page added to my site that was not wordpress work or should I stick with zenfolio and see if I can use their bigger influence to get traffic ?

 

[Bobsyeruncle]

I'd reword the bit about your children as it doesn't read right...
"I am 46 married to Katie who is a nurse in a local hospital and along with my two children we live in the small village of Waterhouses close to Durham with my two children Bethany and William."

I'd change it to....

"I am 46, married to Katie, who is a nurse in a local hospital, and along with my two children Bethany and William, we live in the small village of Waterhouses close to Durham."

Also, I hope your subjects are conscious but I'm assuming you mean self conscious


"I understand that being photographed can
make some people nervous and conscious"

 

[big soft moose]

reading this bit made my head hurt

"
Working with my wife Katie we have many years experience photographing weddings in County Durham and although we are mainly Durham
Wedding Photographers we are also North East Wedding photographers as we cover the whole region or further if needed
Being a Wedding Photographer is my full time job and working with my wife Katie we have photographed many beautiful weddings in and
around the North East and we always feel very privileged to be part of such a special day. When we photograph a wedding we are as
unobtrusive as possible capturing those little moments that will never be repeated that show the fun, laughter and of course the love on your
wedding day. Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life so its very important to have a wedding photographer who is
professional, friendly, courteous and unobtrusive. However its also important that you are comfortable with your wedding photographer so I
always try to have some fun on the day, after all your wedding day should be as stress free as possible"

For starters the first line is confused and unclear, all you need to decide is what you are covering and say so e.g " Covering County Durham and the Northeast" , or "based in County Durham but covering the whole uk"

moving on you mention working with your wife katie twice in quick succession

Also the " we are as unobtrusive as possible blah" is a cliche - because no one is going to write "I am an obtrusive arse" - the basic rule of thumb with these is less is more , so something like

My wife Katie and I are based in County Durham but offer wedding photography across the north east region, we have photographed many beautiful weddings and excel in capturing the little moments that make your day special...

 

[nog]

Wonky
Christine & David and the pic on the left

 

[John Young]

I'd reword the bit about your children as it doesn't read right...
"I am 46 married to Katie who is a nurse in a local hospital and along with my two children we live in the small village of Waterhouses close to Durham with my two children Bethany and William."

I'd change it to....

"I am 46, married to Katie, who is a nurse in a local hospital, and along with my two children Bethany and William, we live in the small village of Waterhouses close to Durham."

Also, I hope your subjects are conscious but I'm assuming you mean self conscious


"I understand that being photographed can
make some people nervous and conscious"

Thank you I have done both of them changes - I never even noticed the conscious was missing the "Self" part

reading this bit made my head hurt

"
Working with my wife Katie we have many years experience photographing weddings in County Durham and although we are mainly Durham
Wedding Photographers we are also North East Wedding photographers as we cover the whole region or further if needed
Being a Wedding Photographer is my full time job and working with my wife Katie we have photographed many beautiful weddings in and
around the North East and we always feel very privileged to be part of such a special day. When we photograph a wedding we are as
unobtrusive as possible capturing those little moments that will never be repeated that show the fun, laughter and of course the love on your
wedding day. Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life so its very important to have a wedding photographer who is
professional, friendly, courteous and unobtrusive. However its also important that you are comfortable with your wedding photographer so I
always try to have some fun on the day, after all your wedding day should be as stress free as possible"

For starters the first line is confused and unclear, all you need to decide is what you are covering and say so e.g " Covering County Durham and the Northeast" , or "based in County Durham but covering the whole uk"

moving on you mention working with your wife katie twice in quick succession

Also the " we are as unobtrusive as possible blah" is a cliche - because no one is going to write "I am an obtrusive arse" - the basic rule of thumb with these is less is more , so something like

My wife Katie and I are based in County Durham but offer wedding photography across the north east region, we have photographed many beautiful weddings and excel in capturing the little moments that make your day special...

Yes I agree it is a lot of blurrrrrrbbbb - I did it to get some google juice but I will look over it again to see if it can be improved

 

[big soft moose]

the thing about google juice is that no matter how good your SEO no google bot is ever going to book you ... therefore its not a good idea to put seo ahead of how the real live client views your site

 

[John Young]

the thing about google juice is that no matter how good your SEO no google bot is ever going to book you ... therefore its not a good idea to put seo ahead of how the real live client views your site

Yes very true and in an ideal world would be great BUT they need Google to fond you in the first place (unfortunately)

 

[CraigDHD]

Yes very true and in an ideal world would be great BUT they need Google to fond you in the first place (unfortunately)

Sorry to derail slightly but do you find that to be true in real bookings?

I would have thought most would come from a word of mouth or a reccomendation of some kind, do you find a lot of bookings come from a cold google search?

 

[big soft moose]

the thing about google juice is that no matter how good your SEO no google bot is ever going to book you ... therefore its not a good idea to put seo ahead of how the real live client views your site

indeed (not withstanding craigs point about WoM , and also adwords etc) so its always a balance to make your SEO work withou sounding unatural or off putting to prospective clients

 

[John Young]

Sorry to derail slightly but do you find that to be true in real bookings?

I would have thought most would come from a word of mouth or a reccomendation of some kind, do you find a lot of bookings come from a cold google search?

Yes in the past I would say 80% of bookings were from people finding me on google..

 

[Alastair]

So do you think I should just make a blog page on my site ?

At this point, what I think is that you should stop getting piecemeal advice from the web. It may be time to stop the DIY approach and find a professional that can help you get it right. Professionals pay professionals.

 

[Meeten]

Some observations (take them with a pinch of salt)
I am no way qualified other than a keen photographer and someone who has seem a LOT of websites.
The below is just ramblings and observations, you are welcome to take on board or ignore.
Remember, opinions are like ar5e'oles, everyone has one ....

Try and keep the section with the hyperlinks the same on all pages - adds continuity.

Packages - I found myself comparing the difference between silver and gold to see what the extra cost gets me. Perhaps have (for Gold), same as above with the addition of ......

About me - you talk about yourself (good), your photography (good) and then family (good) - however, I think it is better suited to incorporate yourself and family together, and end with photography. Leave a memory of photos, rather than where you live with our wife and kids.

Too many testimonials. Shorten the number shown and perhaps add a link to show more?

On the contact page, I am getting This page can’t be displayed

Blog - nice touch, but get someone to proof read before you post,

Prose / grammar / spacing.

eg Platinum for example is very durable and touch and Titanium is scratch resistant and very light which is why supper cars use it in their construction.

Titanium super cars? in exhausts perhaps? not seen carbon fibre wedding rings (yet.....)

no rule that says yours and your partners?

did this start from you and your partners? I can see where you are coming from, but it seems disjointed.

Its the same with the hair there is no right or wrong

Its the same with the hair, there is no right or wrong

I'm not the oracle on grammar, so happy to be proven wrong. But there are a number of corrections to be made.

Homepage. Lovely image to open up with. Very warming and different to the typical bride in wedding outfit.

I didn't know there was a What our bride & grooms have said about us section - only by scrolling did I notice it.

I'd perhaps have thumbnails of the images you have (I'd want to see larger versions anyway), and this will allow the testimonials to be seen without the need to scroll through.

 

[big soft moose]

the same sort of thing as mentioned previouslly applies to the 'about section' - stop stating the obvious and take out the uneccessary verbiage that no one cares about .. theres also a bit of a disconnect where you say that

a) you are a full time wedding photographer
b) that you work with your wife katie
c) katie works at the local hospital

I presume you mean that you are a full time wedding photographer, and you sometimes work with your wife who isnt ... but it isnt totally clear - personally i'd drop the Proffesional, full time bit and just say "I am a wedding photographer" - how many proffesionals feel the need to tell you they are proffesional and full time ?

I'd also say on packages and prices you are too cheap for the quality of your images ...

Also on the blog - its Carat not Carrot for rings - only Bugs Bunny thinks a 22 carrot ring is a good idea

 

[John Young]

Thank you both for the for the great in-depth look at my website its much appreciated and I will certainly take some of the advice on board.

Meeten - My spelling and grammar are certainly not my strong point. With regard to the Titanium and cars I was meaning the mechanical parts like engines etc but maybe I am wrong there to

Pete - Thank you for your kind comment on my photos I appreciate that and I will have another look at the about me section and sort bugs bunny ring out

 

[Meeten]

John, you are probably right (titanium)
A blog is a great idea, but it needs to be engaging - and not have the reader feel the need to challenge.

I would like to add that a some of the images you presented were wonderful.
It's not all bad! Keep up the good work on the images and a bit more effort on the website (like you have asked about here), and I am sure that you will do well.

If I set up a website, you are welcome to tell me what for - thick skin may well be tested!

 

[John Young]

John, you are probably right (titanium)
A blog is a great idea, but it needs to be engaging - and not have the reader feel the need to challenge.

I would like to add that a some of the images you presented were wonderful.
It's not all bad! Keep up the good work on the images and a bit more effort on the website (like you have asked about here), and I am sure that you will do well.

If I set up a website, you are welcome to tell me what for - thick skin may well be tested!

Thanks about the images at least I am getting something right. If that is all I am happy as that's the main thing.

I honestly don't mind you pointing out the stuff that needs attention that's the reason for this thread as you can easily miss stuff when doing it yourself and to be honest I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to look at my site - thank you

 

[GT von]

There are an awful lot of errors in the HTML for the site, you might want to rebuild it and I recommend going with HTML5.

 

[mused]

One Important point your tag line on home page seems to be more than 60 characters " Durham Wedding Photographer | North East Wedding Photographer | County Durham Wedding Photographer" reduce it to less than 60 with important keywords I think you are targeting Durham Wedding Photographer.

 

[John Young]

There are an awful lot of errors in the HTML for the site, you might want to rebuild it and I recommend going with HTML5.

Just like my car these days as long as it works I don't care so much what goes on under the bonnet

One Important point your tag line on home page seems to be more than 60 characters " Durham Wedding Photographer | North East Wedding Photographer | County Durham Wedding Photographer" reduce it to less than 60 with important keywords I think you are targeting Durham Wedding Photographer.

Thank you - Yeah I did have it smaller but added to it as I read somewhere more is better. I'll look at that again

 

[GT von]

Just like my car these days as long as it works I don't care so much what goes on under the bonnet



Thank you - Yeah I did have it smaller but added to it as I read somewhere more is better. I'll look at that again

The problem with non compliant sites is that you don't know what the site looks like to your visitors using different browsers and for a photography site, image can be important to some admins and developers, if you don't care how it looks, why ask for a critique?

 

[John Young]

I have check the site on different browsers and all seemed to be OK as far as I could tell.

I do care about how it looks which is why I asked for opinions on here and it generally seems to work but needs some tinkering and I have some good ideas from the kind folk on here

 

[GT von]

Then you need to address the numerous syntax errors first and foremost. Then you can control how it looks to all visitors.