8 photoblog mistakes you must avoid
Bloggers often ignore some basic points when making a photoblog or making a photo feature for any blog or website. These include inaction or wrong actions relating to design as well as content.
1. Putting many high-resolution images on the blog
You should not put more than one or two high-quality photographs on the blog. One or two you may, because you might like to expose your talent to prospective buyers and other visitors.
High-quality photos mostly have a high pixel value, which may lead to slow loading of the page. In addition, stealing of photographs is rampant on the web. Stealing hurts in many ways and the worst non-commercial damage that someone can do is to edit the photo and misuse it especially if it has a person (especially children and beautiful faces). It is more difficult to morph low-quality photos.
2. No 'alt' attribute, caption or title on the photos
Photos cannot be read by search engines, at least as of now. So, they cannot index the photo unless it has some keyword associated with it.
Putting an alt attribute in the HTML tag of the photo is the best way to tell search robots what the photo is about. Alt attribute also is read out when a visually challenged person uses a screen reader. So, photos that lack this small but important piece of tag lose attention.
3. Not giving details about individual photos
Photos not only capture things, but they also capture action and moods. They also capture unusual occurrences that look out of this world. Most photos speak for themselves. However, photos are mute as far as telling time, event and place unless they are of a famous event, place or person.
Not giving the right caption and details hurts search engine visibility, it also does not create the right impact on the viewer's mind, which in turn reduces its chance of being appreciated and purchased.
4. Recommending bad products
To earn money through affiliation and product reviews, photographers often recommend cameras and accessories. That is fully legitimate, but some photographers are seen recommending obsolete and defective products without disclosing their problems and also without disclosing that they have received payment for the review/ recommendation.
This is unethical conduct and can spoil the reputation of the photo blogger very badly.
5. Not clearly displaying terms, price
When the photoblog is maintained with the intent to make money by selling photographs, the terms including copyright details and price must be given through a common page and must also be tagged with individual photos. Many photo bloggers forget to do that.
If a buyer in hurry likes your photo but does not find the terms, he is likely to go to another website/ blog to look for photos.
6. Navigational problems
Many photoblogs suffer from navigational issues. There is no proper menu bar to list categories; it is difficult to browse all types of photos or a particular category of photos quickly because archives are messy and can be seen only sequentially one after the other; it takes many clicks to find photographs other than those on the home page; and so on.
On the other hand, some photo blogs expose all photos in one go. This too can be confusing, especially when the visitor is viewing the blog on a smartphone or tab.
7. Wrong design choice
Many photo-bloggers do not apply mind on design, which leads to the blog looking cluttered or mixed-up, confusing, too gaudy, too experimental, even amateurish.
Sometimes a designs totally unsuited to photoblogs is applied. Sometimes an unsuitable background image or color is used. Sometimes the thumbs are too small. Sometimes photos of different dimensions are used without caring whether they match with other photos.
8. Slow blog
A website can be slow for various reasons, including too much matter (especially images and video) on a page, hosting issues, bandwidth issues, and technically bad site-structure. In the case of photo blogs, there is a risk of the blog going slow due to a large number of photos getting loaded on the browser in one go (see point 1 above).
Slow loading blog is bad SEO. It also makes visitors leave the blog and go to other places.
Why let your blog suffer when these problems can be solved with just a bit of application of mind?
1. Putting many high-resolution images on the blog
You should not put more than one or two high-quality photographs on the blog. One or two you may, because you might like to expose your talent to prospective buyers and other visitors.
High-quality photos mostly have a high pixel value, which may lead to slow loading of the page. In addition, stealing of photographs is rampant on the web. Stealing hurts in many ways and the worst non-commercial damage that someone can do is to edit the photo and misuse it especially if it has a person (especially children and beautiful faces). It is more difficult to morph low-quality photos.
2. No 'alt' attribute, caption or title on the photos
Photos cannot be read by search engines, at least as of now. So, they cannot index the photo unless it has some keyword associated with it.
Putting an alt attribute in the HTML tag of the photo is the best way to tell search robots what the photo is about. Alt attribute also is read out when a visually challenged person uses a screen reader. So, photos that lack this small but important piece of tag lose attention.
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| Blog photos must go well with the design, look good. |
3. Not giving details about individual photos
Photos not only capture things, but they also capture action and moods. They also capture unusual occurrences that look out of this world. Most photos speak for themselves. However, photos are mute as far as telling time, event and place unless they are of a famous event, place or person.
Not giving the right caption and details hurts search engine visibility, it also does not create the right impact on the viewer's mind, which in turn reduces its chance of being appreciated and purchased.
4. Recommending bad products
To earn money through affiliation and product reviews, photographers often recommend cameras and accessories. That is fully legitimate, but some photographers are seen recommending obsolete and defective products without disclosing their problems and also without disclosing that they have received payment for the review/ recommendation.
This is unethical conduct and can spoil the reputation of the photo blogger very badly.
5. Not clearly displaying terms, price
When the photoblog is maintained with the intent to make money by selling photographs, the terms including copyright details and price must be given through a common page and must also be tagged with individual photos. Many photo bloggers forget to do that.
If a buyer in hurry likes your photo but does not find the terms, he is likely to go to another website/ blog to look for photos.
6. Navigational problems
Many photoblogs suffer from navigational issues. There is no proper menu bar to list categories; it is difficult to browse all types of photos or a particular category of photos quickly because archives are messy and can be seen only sequentially one after the other; it takes many clicks to find photographs other than those on the home page; and so on.
On the other hand, some photo blogs expose all photos in one go. This too can be confusing, especially when the visitor is viewing the blog on a smartphone or tab.
7. Wrong design choice
Many photo-bloggers do not apply mind on design, which leads to the blog looking cluttered or mixed-up, confusing, too gaudy, too experimental, even amateurish.
Sometimes a designs totally unsuited to photoblogs is applied. Sometimes an unsuitable background image or color is used. Sometimes the thumbs are too small. Sometimes photos of different dimensions are used without caring whether they match with other photos.
8. Slow blog
A website can be slow for various reasons, including too much matter (especially images and video) on a page, hosting issues, bandwidth issues, and technically bad site-structure. In the case of photo blogs, there is a risk of the blog going slow due to a large number of photos getting loaded on the browser in one go (see point 1 above).
Slow loading blog is bad SEO. It also makes visitors leave the blog and go to other places.
Why let your blog suffer when these problems can be solved with just a bit of application of mind?
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