Feedback and Suggestions Please!

Beeze

Hello! I've been a Smugmug user for years, but my page became a mess and frankly something I started to ignore. I recently decided to launch 2.0 with a Smugmug upgrade, my own URL, and FB page. My goal is to show only my best work, especially in non-travel galleries, and eliminate much of the crap. I welcome any and all thoughts and comments on anything you think I could do better. My focus is bird and wildlife photography, so more to come eventually in those galleries. Thank you! rljohnsonphotography.com/

Cygnus Studios

I would put the links in the menu instead of forcing viewers to click on browse.

With the full image on the homepage, the links and facebook icon aren't exactly standing out. Same with the footer.

Once you get to the gallery pages, that dark grey leaves quite a bit to be desired.

denisegoldberg

You should consider changing to the mini-footer; there is no reason for you to include SmugMug links in your footer that take your viewer away from your site. To change to the mini-footer:

• Customize
• Content and Design
• Click Entire site
• Click Settings
• change the setting for the footer

I recommend selecting a larger photo size on your gallery pages.

Going from a photo background on your homepage to a black background feels pretty jarring to me.

Clicking on your logo takes the viewer to your home page. Why do you also need a "home" menu item?

Your keywords are a mess - http://www.rljohnsonphotography.com/keyword. It looks like you are allowing keywords to be created based on your image file names. Unless your file names are meaningful I would turn that option off. You will then need to edit / delete keywords to clean them up.

Beeze

Thank you both! I am a novice with set-up and design, so really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Question - I thought keywords were used so others could search through your content? Should I eliminate them or make them more meaningful?

denisegoldberg

@Beeze said:
Question - I thought keywords were used so others could search through your content? Should I eliminate them or make them more meaningful?

You should make them more meaningful. For example, you have keywords "trinidad0001" through "trinidad0091". Why didn't you use the keyword "trinidad" for all, removing the number entirely.

Compare your keyword page at http://www.rljohnsonphotography.com/keyword with my keyword page at http://www.denisegoldberg.com/keyword to see a difference.

Again, I suspect you have filename keywording turned on. You can turn it off by going to:

• account settings
• discovery
• search
• filename keywording

Turning it off does not clean up the existing keywords. You will need to do that yourself by editing the keywords.

Beeze

Thanks again, I see now. I also see that I have only scratched the surface on the amount of customization that I can do. I have a lot to learn!