The Contact page is a critical component of your photography website, often underrated. You simply can’t keep doing the default (bad) things and wonder why people are not contacting you.
This type of page doesn’t cut it anymore:
Simply having samasitu contact form there is the absolute minimum. But you could be doing a lot better. A default contact form is not enough to encourage visitors to leave you a message.
We’ll have some great examples of photography contact pages later in the article, be sure to check those out for inspiration.
But first, let’s dive the WHY? and HOW? of building an effective Contact page for your photography website:
The importance and myths of having a Contact page
As I mentioned in my guide on Photography Website Mistakes, not having a contact page is one of the easiest ways to avoid clients.
People come up with many excuses for not having a contact page:
“I already have the email on the About page or in the footer”
That’s not enough, visitors are used to clicking on “Contact” in website navigation to get to the contact info, don’t make them waste time looking for it.
“I’m just starting out, I don’t expect getting messages for a while”
This way, you surely won’t.
“My design is too abstract or creative to include a separate Contact page”
Usability trumps aesthetic. Try to find a good balance (by testing things).
“I’m not looking for clients”
That’s OK, but people still should be able to get in touch with you for requests, suggestions, praise, problems etc., or just for sending you Chuck Norris jokes. Why miss out on that?
“I’m not selling anything (just showcasing images), so don’t need a Contact page”
Same thing, see above. Networking is not just about getting work, it’s about developing relationships, making friends in the industry etc.
“I prefer contacting clients directly myself”
Potential new clients prefer contacting you instead 🙂
These arguments simply don’t justify not having a good Contact page.
What to include on your website’s Contact page
A) The absolute minimum
- Email address (as a link)
Always make sure it’s an email link, so people can click on it to write directly in their default email client. Don’t make it text-only (without a link), that forces people to manually copy-paste it.
And worst of all, don’t make it just an image, making people type it in manually. I suspect a good portion of people won’t go through this hustle.
If you’re concerned with spam, looking into email obfuscation strategies you can implement. Still getting some spam? Think about it this way: it’s a small price to pay for making things easier for your visitors.
And make it professional: firstname@yourdomain.com or contact@yourdomain.com
It looks a lot more amateurish to see personal Gmail/Yahoo/etc. addresses, so consider creating an email account with your hosting provider (and then add it to your favorite email clients of course).
While we’re on this topic, don’t forget to follow the best practices for email signatures.
- Location/Address
A location should always be visible on your site, and the Contact page is a great place to have it on.
Even if you’ve already mentioned your location somewhere else on the site (like on the About page or in the footer).
Even if the location is already in the name of the site/business.
Even if it’s already in the logo.