So you’re ready to start sharing your photography business with the world, congratulations! You’ve been looking into what you need to launch your website and between the cyberpunk terminologies and endless options, you’re having a difficult time figuring out where to start. Well not to worry, we're here to help! In this article we’ll demystify the process of creating a website by discussing the three most important components you need to get your siteoff the ground: a website builder, a domain, and a web host.
It’s design time! The first step to creating your photography website is finding a reliable website builder. Website builders provide the tools needed to design and create your site - no coding required. Once you start looking for a website builder you’ll see that there are many available. Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, they all take a different approach to the same product, with their own unique benefits and pitfalls.
When it comes to photography websites, we noticed that one of the comments we heard from photographers over and over was that they were finding themselves overwhelmed with their website builder. This is why we designed ours in collaboration with industry leaders to create the only website builder designed specifically for photographers! Oh, and did we mention that it's mobile optimized?
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Once you’re happy with your website you’ll need a domain. Your domain is your website’s address, and among the billions of websites on the internet your domain will allow your clients to find you quickly and easily.
Choosing your domain name is an important step. A well chosen domain name will help build your SEO, brand recognition, and make it easy for your clients to pass your information along to their friends (gotta love that word of mouth!). GoDaddy, Google Domains, Namecheap, there are many platforms you can use to purchase your domain. Focal will even purchase a domain for you with any annual subscription - go ahead, save yourself the hassle!
READ NOW: 6 Tricks for Choosing Your Photography Domain
The final essential element for your photography website is a web host. If you think of your website as your digital house your Web Host is your property, it’s where your site exists. Your web host stores all the files for your site and makes them accessible to visitors online.
Once again there are numerous web hosting providers like Bluehost and HostGator, and like it or not you will need to subscribe to yet another service in order to launch your website. Unless, of course, you use Focal. All of our website plans include hosting as part of your subscription, meaning you get everything you need to launch a website in one place. We like to keep things simple.
And that’s everything you need! While it might seem intimidating at first, nothing should hold you back from launching your website. By understanding these three components you have everything you need to share your website with the world. Now get to it, we can’t wait to see what you create!
