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Company: Mike McFarlane
Project: Mike McFarlane Landscape Photography

http://www.mikemcfarlane.co.uk/

Dates: Feb 2007 to May 2007

How did the project start?

I started a landscape photography business at the beginning of 2007 and needed a site that I could use as an online portfolio of my photography for art buyers and commercial clients. I also wanted to make this a resource for other photographers to use by including articles about photography and whilst most art buyers prefer to buy their art in galleries I did want the site to include e-commerce.
I had an existing website that I had built myself which had helped to clarify in my mind what I wanted from my website, but the design, usability and accessibility were very poor.

What options did you consider?

I approached a range of different web design agencies, considering both their costs and past work.
In the end I found it more useful to base my decision on the design of their own personal site which reflects their own tastes and abilities, rather than client work which is not always 100% the designers own.

What help and expertise did you receive?

Initially I received a lot of help from the Emerge project and Derwentside Industrial Development Agency, both in Consett.
Once I had selected my design agency www.scandinaviandesigns.co.uk and discussed the initial brief I really left him to it. I wanted a top end website, so left it to my designer as the creative to produce such a site to my brief.

Did you face any challenges or learn any lessons?

Even with a hands off approach to the design and development of a website, there is a huge amount of work to do in producing high quality content for the site.
We did basic SEO, but agreed that good rankings would come from good content.

What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?

I am confident that when I refer someone to my website that it will give an appropriate message about my photography and business. This confidence is based on the increase in responses to emails that I send to potential clients, both galleries and commercial clients.
Traffic and visitor time spent on the site have increased significantly.
Google ranking for 'landscape photography' or similar places my site on page 1, often position 1.
A small community of regular visitors come to my site, interacting with the site and me, and this is allowing me to build my mailing list and form relationships/friendships with new people.

What are your plans for the future?

To include stock photography and a secure client area for job approval/download of their commissioned images.