One of the main parts to building a photography business is building a website for customers to go to. It ensures a secure place for you to showcase your amazing photography skills and allow potential clients to contact you easily.
If you want to share your photos and have an established website for potential customers to reach you, we cover all you need to know in how to create a photography website in WordPress.
Just a disclaimer, if you are new to building websites, you may feel overwhelmed in the beginning but there is no need to stress. We are going to show you step by step how you can create your website! Just take it one piece at a time and you will be a website creator in no time!
4 Steps to Creating a Gorgeous WordPress Site
Step 1: Choose a Site Builder
Of all of the websites, WordPress makes up X% of them for their site builder! Crazy right? There are many options to choose from. It really depends on what you want your site to do. You can pick a different site builder besides WordPress, but I have found that it works really well for me, PLUS with so many websites being built on WordPress – you get the benefit of having a lot of tutorials and guides on how to use this resource. Keep this site builder in mind as you go to the next step.
Step 2: Choose a Host/Domain
Like the plethora of site builders, there are many hosts you can choose from. 1&1 Ionos.com and BlueHost.com are just some options. You will find that you can get a great deal on your first month to a year depending on the host you go with. After that period, the price will go up slightly. This is an investment.
You can sign up for hosting and then you choose your domain. This will be your website link. Ours: annaloaderphoto.com. Domains are relatively cheap and sometimes can be acquired for free with the purchase of your host.
One thing to keep in mind is depending on your site builder, the host comes with it. For example, if you create a site on Wix.com, they will be your host and your site builder. This is also true for Weebly.com, Shopify.com, and GoDaddy.com
Some of my favorite photography websites to look at have been through Squarespace or ShowIt. Jenna Kutcher and Amy and Jordan both use ShowIt and it’s a beautiful platform with so many gorgeous and unique themes to choose from.
Questions to Ask When Looking for a Good Host and Site Builder
- What is the monthly or annual cost?
- What is the minimum time required for the monthly or annual price?
- Is your domain name included in the price?
- What type of support do they offer to their customers?
- Will the host website support your chosen site builder easily?
Step 3: Themes
Log into your dashboard on WordPress and there you will be able to pick out a theme for your website. This will help streamline creating your brand. Choose a theme that best suits your business. WordPress has many free options to choose from, as well as some that you can purchase.
If you can’t tell by now, there are many options to choose from in every step! This ensures that you can create your photography website exactly the way you want. Themes are easily interchangeable, so don’t fret about testing out different options to see what works best for you.
Step 4: Creating Pages and Content
On your dashboard on the left, there is a tab that says “pages.” You should have a landing page there already. From there, you can edit that page and insert your content. You can use WordPress to set up your content, or you can use plugins that can help you build your website. Plugins are simply tools that you add to your dashboard that can help you run certain tools and tasks on your website. One plugin that can be helpful is Elementor. You can use drag and drop features to add structure to your website.
As you need more pages, you can create more by simply clicking “Add New Page” found on the left under the “Page” tab.
You can create a menu for people to navigate your site. You can lead them to your blog, prices, your portfolio, and other places. Make your menus easy to navigate to keep users on your site longer.
