I think it's time for me to upgrade my website and I've been looking at how other wedding videographers and photographers present their work on their websites.
I'd be interested to know everyone's thoughts.
Which websites are the best in the industry in your eyes?
I'm not talking about the work but the website, how everthing is presented, graphics, texts, ideas, layout etc
Is less more? Blogs?
Please let me know your thoughts!

That's a tough one. No, actually not. Zillions of video/photog sites out there. Just look/browse and see what they do and how their presentation is. No one can tell you what works best for you. You have to see for yourself which ones are appealing/interesting eye catchers.
I myself don't have a site but I see a lot of variations but they all follow a certain pattern of presentation, if you know what I mean. Click here for this, here for that, client feedback/reviews, gallery, photo galleries, slide shows etc. Background music and variety of recent wedding is a must. I would make it simple and not too cluttered. Content must pop and hold the viewer's attention. Take your time and make a stunning site. Keep it updated regularly. Good luck.

I"m in favor of a clean website with a white background and just the bare essentials, the best work on the frontpage, one page with reactions from clients, a page with your packages/price and a contact page. There are some that have a blog but a possible client isn't going to sit through more then an hour of watching trailers that date back a few years, I find it much more effective to only post your best work, like I have only 6 films on my site and every year I refresh them with equally good or better work, never with something that's less good. If I have a really good trailer that might stay on the website 2 or more years, as long as it is representative for the way I currently shoot then I leave it on there.

I think you have both made good points.
I'm thinking along the same lines as Noa, only show the best stuff and keep it clean, simple but attractive.

Also very important, make sure it's mobile friendly, google also takes that into account.

Background music and variety of recent wedding is a must.

Do you mean music that plays in the background when you open a website or music used in trailers?

I think mobile friendly is very important. My present site is a Wordpress site that is pretty clumsy on a mobile.

Music when you open the site and page/topic navigation. About me/us/ contact info/ main gallery/trailer choice page.

99% of brides have their phones seemingly glued to their hand 24/7 so a mobile friendly site is critical I think. We use Mobirise which is free too and in the editor it shows you how your site looks on a computer, tablet and smart phone ...very useful and easy to use!!

Alot of the DIY web builders from the web hosts have pretty fluid layouts & themes now. They're safe, supported, and less glitchy & support needed for them, which can be a pain when it's an anciallary branding & marketing portion of what we do. "Set it and forget it"

Wordpress is great, but challenging to build some of the slicker themes (Parallax, Scrolling) and miss a few updates and plugins seems to get hacked into.

I think a large image on the Home page is wanted. I agree alot of brides are probably on their phone.

Music when you open the site and page/topic navigation. About me/us/ contact info/ main gallery/trailer choice page.

Yuk, that's so 90's like, that is on top of my most annoying things list ever when I open a website, a music piece that repeats it self every time I revisit or when I open a new page. Not even websites that sell music do this and if they did, I might understand because that's their business but for anything else you just would scare away your visitors.

So you mean to say that music added/inserted is too 90'ish ?Then what do you put as the audio track to the presentation ? Seems the only original audio are the vows, if shown. Anything else is inserted audio gotten from elsewhere. So, music is fine when inserted over the predominant slo mo clips and the rest of the show but is preferably muted on page topic selection. Music doesn't have to repeat itself, just as a different low volume tune, perhaps Mozart or Vivaldi. Nah, too old fashioned.

Just that we don't misunderstand eachother, you actually do mean music that starts to play when you open a website?

If you do mean this I could not disagree more with you, I have seen a lot of weddingvideographers websites, no-one is using music that plays in the background, that was probably hot more then 10 years ago but it is not done today.

I found this already 9 year old article: Why You Should Avoid Background Music On Your Website - Doodlekit (http://www.doodlekit.com/blog/entry/37742/why-you-should-avoid-background-music-on-your-website) which you should read as it's still mostly up to date for todays standards.

Right. Mr. Huffman says so and presto it is considered gospel.
let's start with number 1 on his list of why not's.

1-" People aren't visiting your website to listen to music"
If that's the case, then why put music with the sample clips ?
2-"super slow to load and 'choppy' to visitors with slower connections"
Does that connection really does get faster when viewing sample clips WITH VIDEO ?
I imagine it would slow down instead.
3-"15-20 second long song segment loop a thousand times."
15 to 20 seconds to make a topic/page choice ? really ?
4-"What songs you like, others may detest"
So the songs in the sample clips they won't detest ?
5-"Nothing fun about trying to listen to two tracks at the same time"
Right on, they still have to choose which one to mute. Muting the website music will also mute the
sample clips audio.
6-"hitting a website that all of a sudden starts blaring"
I do think as professionals as we are that we are perfectly capable to solving that "blaring" opening
page ear shattering volume level.
7-"legal right to broadcast the song"
What about all the other songs that are embedded with the sample video clips, are they all royalty free ? paid for? or perhaps
unique scores written by the videographer ?
8-"Not every browser is capable of playing every type of music file"
Is that an excuse or a real reason? Article was written 9 years ago. Then how come it will read the sample clips audio ?
All web sites I visited way before 9 years ago read opening page fine.

Now, my question is what is the real reason music does not/isn't recommended/ shunned on the opening site page.?
I think I know the answer and in my opinion is not any or all that's on the list.

Hi Arthur

I guess this all stems from the videographer moving away from documentary style wedding video to the so called creative/cinematic style of "film" which essentially needs music set to the vision. All the clips I have seen on sites is certainly not royalty free so it's not legal..the bride wants "a thousand years" as her walk in song and instructs you to use it on the highlight/trailer too. I remember back in the 90's we used to have a midi file playing on each page and was the "in thing" - Facebook seem to disable audio on all video clips by default which is annoying and they autoplay their videos but mute the sound so you need to enable it and by then the video has already started so you need to go back to the start...annoying!!

You are referring to sample clips, well, duh, ofcourse you use music in that because that is what you are selling as a videographer.

There are some weddingvideo websites that have a trailer that automatically loads when you visit a page which I personally also find a bit annoying as I would like to decide myself when I play a film, you reload such a film anyway from the beginning so then it's better to just let your visitor decide when and what they want to look at.

I have a feeling this is a age thing, am I right in guessing you are in your 60's or 70's Arthur? I don't want to offend you but it reminds me of my dad who got to be 70 and he also was a weddingvideographer, he never understood why I wasted my time in making weddingtrailers, he even didn't care about having a website to display his work and he still loved those cheesy transition effects with flying hearts that where introduced when he got his first Casablanca from Macrosystems at the end of the 90's. I"m also sure he would have liked music playing in the background when he opened a website and preferably something from the old days.

I"m in my 50's but I try to keep up with today's trends, music that starts playing when you open a website is not a trend anymore, it was 10 to 15 years ago, together with flashy icons but it does not add to the user experience, you automatically turn such music off anyway because that is not the reason why you visit a wedding website, you want to see wedding trailers, what the videographer has to offer and what the price is.

Music or no music...each to their own.

Anyway, I've been looking into some website builders and they are far easier to use than Wordpress which I have been using up till now. I particularly like Squarespace.

Well, you wanted to hear everyone's thoughts about website design, do you consider using background music when you open a website a must? Not sure if I am the only one here that thinks this is outdated. I have seen quite a few websites from more kown weddingvideographers but backgroud music is never a part of their website design.

I am alas guilty of having my website open by having a sample video play automatically. A policy I am reversing with a new update to my website. Background music is terrible as an idea and one that can only belong to the 90's when websites were new and novelties like that seemed amusing. I would frankly laugh if I ever came upon a website that had some background tune playing whilst I browsed, which would quickly turn to annoyance as I sought the mute button.

I browse for info not to listen to a sweet tune. For every person that might like a little background music, you'll have a dozens more going aaarghhhhh!!! Not the reaction I would seek for a Professional Website adverting my services.

Hey Steve

When I changed my site last year (I also had demo video playing automatically) I shifted the videos to a "Gallery" page and they have to click to play them. However on my details page where I had a video, I changed that to a info slideshow with captions and no audio at all, a decision that was based on the fact that Facebook by default mute audio which one assumes is done for a reason. If you are especially doing the fancy cinematic wedding film style then the music/audio is essential but the bride needs to be able to click the video to play it as the default option.

Then again has anyone asked the ladies what THEY would like to see in a wedding website... they would be a very good exercise and having a bride point of view rather than us assuming what bride's want

Then again has anyone asked the ladies what THEY would like to see in a wedding website... they would be a very good exercise and having a bride point of view rather than us assuming what bride's want

Thing is Chris, if I asked 10 Brides for their opinions, I'd get 10 different opinions. Tell me how many Business websites have you been on that asks your opinion on what you want from their website. I mean I occasionally fill in some surveys that websites run on themselves for all the good it does. Feels more like a feel good exercise than anything else.

Surely good marketing is knowing your customers and targeting your website and brand accordingly. Plus a website should reflect yourself since they are hiring you. There is a personal touch to our business - Brides are not working with a faceless brand.

You are correct, of course Steve and I wouldn't be surprised if 50 brides all gave a different answer. It would be nice though if they all had much the same answer "What I would like is ....." but that simply isnt going to happen. As an example you see posts right here about "should I post my prices" and everyone has a different opinion!! Guess the best is to simply present yourself and your product in the best possible way.

If you are especially doing the fancy cinematic wedding film style then the music/audio is essential but the bride needs to be able to click the video to play it as the default option.

Maybe I understand you wrong but do you mean audio/music that is in a trailer? It doesn't matter if it's a "fancy wedding film style" or just a simple website with straightforward documentary style, both should have audio in their trailers, a bride won't find it normal to look at a muted film. You just pay for a music license and you can use the trailer on any platform.

Then again has anyone asked the ladies what THEY would like to see in a wedding website... they would be a very good exercise and having a bride point of view rather than us assuming what bride's want

That seems like a easy to answer question, they all want to see a film, they want to know what you offer and what it will cost them. Anything else you provide them is less important but might help in convincing them to contact you, like client reactions, or a blogpage that is regularly updated and goes a few years back, although you might not want them to see a film that you made 10 years ago. :)

A bit more on topic: I"m using Kalium as wordpress theme: https://themeforest.net/item/kalium-creative-theme-for-professionals/10860525
It's very versatile and clean and the possibilities are almost endless, I used a template that was very minimalistic so that the focus was on the content.

Its important to get a design which reflects you and your brand. Photographers love black for some reason :)

For us we have a video banner front and centre. It's what we do afterall. No background audio on a website. That is a very dated technique and you have to think about people at work who might browse to your site. suddently their speakers are blasting out some song and they either navigate away from your page or turn it down anyway. Let them look in peace and play videos with sound as they wish.

Mobile friendly is a must. Our site is fully responsive and the new version im working on right now is even more so. Google loves a good friendly site and will seriously kick you in the nuts if you dont have mobile friendly site.

Speed is also important. Consider using a CDN to speed things up.

HTTPS is also loved by google and will give you an instant rankings boost.

Avoid keyword stuffing. This is where people do things like "We are the best wedding videographer and filmmaker in the south east, north east, bedford, southampton, hertfordshire as well as london, basingstoke, newport and chelmsford but also cover dover, kent, scotland, wales and the world while also providing services to...." you get the picture. Google is very wise to keyword stuffing and it will actually hurt your google rankings.

What does google look for? Well crafted content, a user friendly layout and a few technical bits. Ignore those free SEO reports which tell you to make H1 headings and have a print.css file.

What does google look for? Well crafted content, a user friendly layout and a few technical bits. Ignore those free SEO reports which tell you to make H1 headings and have a print.css file.

Nice looking site. Not for nothing but your page titles could be better optimized tho. For instance your About Us reads "We're Danny, Julie and the rest of the team" and your Contact Page reads 'Contact Team Minty Slippers". Neither does anything for Google, which does factor this into their formula. You can edit these easily by installing the Yoast SEO plugin for your Wordpress site.

We've actually just got a report back from yoast. We paid for their website review and they seem cool about the titles but saynwe need more content and a few other tweaks. The new site has that sorted. An important thing to avoid is stuffing keywords in titles. Google doesn't like that.

I would say a proper review by a decent company is Australia.

I don't do weddings at all, but what other builders do you guys like? I'm still using my old Iweb site which I'm sure severely fails ever SEO/mobile-friendly criterion out there.

Do folks care if your site looks like 10,000 others (cause you used a certain builder/template)?

My site is very simple 'cause I just don't have that much to show. . .a little bit about the gear I have, video samples, suppose I could put a resume somewhere, not much to it.

Hi Josh

I used Namo Web Builder for many years and was comfortable with it and my sites looked good BUT only on a computer! I have a lot of clients who do everything except pee with their mobile phone so of course my site looked terrible to them. I guess if most of your clients are unlikely to use a smartphone to gather data them you are fine as you are but sadly I had to change. I now use Mobirise ..it's free to use so it suits my budget and allows you to see what the site will look like on a phone, tablet or computer. If you have to make a change to a phone/tablet friendly site then it's worth a try.

Ok thanks.

I don't do weddings at all, but what other builders do you guys like? I'm still using my old Iweb site which I'm sure severely fails ever SEO/mobile-friendly criterion out there.

Do folks care if your site looks like 10,000 others (cause you used a certain builder/template)?

My site is very simple 'cause I just don't have that much to show. . .a little bit about the gear I have, video samples, suppose I could put a resume somewhere, not much to it.

Templates are totally cool. Ours is a template but we like to tweak the hell out of it so its not like any one elses.

The problem with a totally bespoke site is the developers seem to love using their own, custom written engines and not the standard stuff like wordpress. The problem is this then means that only that developer has a clue how the site works and you cant extend it with the common wordpress plugins.

Custom sites that are decent are also very expensive. We had one, second worst business decision weve ever made. Site was too basic, messy code and hard as hell to tweak, plus it cost us a stupid amount of money. Our latest one is a template and tweaked to hell by me.

Some great website building systems out there now where you can make a totally unique looking site using some simple visual based editors. Visual Composer for Wordpress is a great one and very expandable with plugins. They also result in clean, google friendly code.

Also thanks. I will look into that.

I like mine. Lol

Seriously though, the site is important. In fact my last two brides specifically mentioned they went with me because my site was the best and most professional looking of all the looked at in the area.

I designed it from scratch in Adobe Muse which is included in the adobe CC subscription.

I like to keep things very basic and easy to navigate. Not a lot of fancy stuff.

Having a mobile friendly version is very important for google SEO.

www.kyleroot com

Very nice site Kyle, Im impress and it is very well structured. Having a nice website paired with beautiful highlights will do the trick. A well optimize site for SEO Google ranking also is a big factor.

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www.iClickFilms.com

i must admit that I haven't looked at my site in a good while now and worse I don't think I ever checked it on a mobile, maybe it's because I hate mobile phones :-)

My site is a single page site which is looking a bit jaded probably at this stage, another new years resolution!