Best wedding Videographer/Photographer website

[Noa Put]

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.

[Andrew Maclaurin]

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.

[Noa Put]

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 Not sure if I am the only one here that thinks this is outdated.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.

[Steve Burkett]

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.

[Chris Harding]

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

[Steve Burkett]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

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.

[Chris Harding]

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.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

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.

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

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. :)

[Noa Put]

A bit more on topic: I"m using Kalium as wordpress theme: https://themeforest.net/item/kalium-...onals/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.

[Danny O'Neill]

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.

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by Danny O'Neill

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.

[Danny O'Neill]

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.

[Josh Bass]

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.

[Chris Harding]

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.

[Josh Bass]

Ok thanks.