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I'm Melissa Arlena(my friends call me Mel) and I help photographers get found on Google.
Read more about me
I'm so glad you're here
May 27, 2024

Short & sweet episode comparing the major players for website design & hosting. A bit on the boring side, but its a major decision to make that can impact your SEO efforts.
Rate & review us right now! Pretty please 🙂
Want to apply for Mini Mentoring?! Dm Alison @keep.it.moving.podcast
Grab your free Move Your Business Checklist from Alison
Blog Post Topics to get those ideas flowing from Melissa.
00:00:07 [Alison]
Hey.
00:00:07 [Alison]
I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.
00:00:10 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:16 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine businesses.
00:00:21 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges privately on Marco Polo, and now we’re bringing our polos public.
00:00:27 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.
00:00:33 [Alison]
Alright, guys.
00:00:34 [Alison]
Welcome back to the show.
00:00:35 [Alison]
Last week, we had a our first mini mentoring session.
00:00:38 [Alison]
So if you’re at all interested in, applying for that, there’s gonna be some actually just DM us.
00:00:43 [Alison]
I don’t know if we’re gonna put a link in the show notes, but DM us if there’s not.
00:00:47 [Alison]
Okay.
00:00:47 [Alison]
So today actually, before we get to that, we need you, episode today, to rate and subscribe to the podcast.
00:00:55 [Alison]
Okay?
00:00:55 [Alison]
Put a rating in there, some stars, mention our names in there if you want, but whatever app you’re in, we need you to subscribe and rate it so that, more people can find us.
00:01:03 [Alison]
And of course, share it on the gram, keep it moving, hashtag keep it moving pod.
00:01:06 [Alison]
Today’s a long time coming.
00:01:08 [Alison]
We have been circling and dancing around this topic with other people and friends on polo for several months now.
00:01:14 [Alison]
Melissa even told me that I needed to change my website for months, maybe a year before I actually did it.
00:01:21 [Melissa]
Oh, I can still remember sending that poll.
00:01:23 [Melissa]
I was like, look, I feel like we’ve been friends long enough at this point that I can give it to you straight.
00:01:27 [Melissa]
I did the whole I don’t know if we’re PG or not, but the shit sandwich of I’m going to, you have beautiful work.
00:01:33 [Melissa]
Your website sucks.
00:01:35 [Melissa]
You could be better than book more clients.
00:01:37 [Alison]
Your website sucks.
00:01:38 [Alison]
Wrong, but it took another person for me to finally bite the bullet and do it because it is a big deal.
00:01:43 [Alison]
Like, your platform is a big deal.
00:01:45 [Alison]
It matters a lot.
00:01:45 [Alison]
And Melissa knows more about this than any other person I know right now because she’s, like, elbow deep, eyeball deep into so many different platforms.
00:01:54 [Alison]
So the website plot you’re using to host and to structure your website and design your website absolutely matters.
00:02:01 [Alison]
It matters a 100% because when I switched mine from flow themes I don’t even remember the year now.
00:02:08 [Alison]
It’s been at least two years, but I switched from flow themes, WordPress best, rest in peace flow theme, over to Showit.
00:02:14 [Alison]
I had a marketing girl that I was working with to help me to do most of it, to design it, relaunch it.
00:02:19 [Alison]
I hired her not to get a new site.
00:02:21 [Alison]
I hired her for a completely different project.
00:02:23 [Alison]
She got into my back end to set up all the apps and structures and whatnot, things we were gonna do.
00:02:28 [Alison]
And then she followed me.
00:02:29 [Alison]
Allison, I can’t use my apps because you need a new website.
00:02:33 [Alison]
And I was like, oh, you’re not the first person to tell me that.
00:02:38 [Alison]
And so we completely changed our entire marketing game plan because we couldn’t do what she had planned.
00:02:44 [Alison]
Time was of the essence because I was moving.
00:02:46 [Alison]
Surprised.
00:02:47 [Alison]
And so I got into a whole website out of it.
00:02:49 [Alison]
And within six months, my clicks and impressions tripled.
00:02:54 [Alison]
Still to this day, I don’t know.
00:02:55 [Alison]
She didn’t know.
00:02:56 [Alison]
Melissa doesn’t know.
00:02:57 [Alison]
Nobody knows what what changed.
00:02:59 [Alison]
It’s still WordPress based, but I went from FlowThemes and some hosting site over to Showit, and things have only been better in every way.
00:03:08 [Alison]
So I sad little story.
00:03:10 [Alison]
Melissa, bore us to death with website
00:03:14 [Melissa]
and, yeah, so that’s the thing.
00:03:15 [Melissa]
So I’m gonna be very upfront and just tell you guys, my opinion on websites is going to be different than other SEO experts, and they are very correct when it comes to technical things.
00:03:25 [Melissa]
So if you’re a technical person and you want the top notch, all the bells and whistles, you want this thing to be, like, decked out, like, website, then absolutely go listen to them and do that kind of thing.
00:03:37 [Melissa]
Most of the girls I talk to, they want to do photography.
00:03:40 [Melissa]
They don’t figure out how to build their website or figure out which the best one is.
00:03:44 [Melissa]
And then when they’re designing yeah.
00:03:46 [Melissa]
Designing and updating, they don’t wanna have to learn all of it.
00:03:49 [Melissa]
They want something that’s very easy for them to learn.
00:03:51 [Melissa]
So we’re gonna talk about the different ones.
00:03:53 [Melissa]
So when I give you my opinions on stuff, I’m filtering it through the lens of my goal is for you to feel comfortable with your website to be able to update it while also cautioning you of there are some sites that are very easy to update that aren’t the greatest for SEO.
00:04:06 [Melissa]
So there may be a little bit of, you might wanna think about moving over to something else, but I’m also not gonna tell you to go get this platform with this theme because it is just the best for SEO.
00:04:17 [Melissa]
And if you don’t do it, you’re not gonna rank.
00:04:19 [Melissa]
I’m not gonna give you that answer because I want you to be comfortable to update your website.
00:04:23 [Melissa]
Hey, fellow photographers.
00:04:25 [Melissa]
Melissa Arlena here.
00:04:26 [Melissa]
Does SEO feel super overwhelming to you?
00:04:29 [Melissa]
I get it.
00:04:29 [Melissa]
But guess what?
00:04:30 [Melissa]
SEO doesn’t have to be complicated.
00:04:32 [Melissa]
I’ve spent fifteen years in photography and ten years in IT before that, cracking the SEO code so that you don’t have to.
00:04:40 [Melissa]
Whether you’re eager to learn or you just want somebody to take care of it for you, I’ve got your back.
00:04:44 [Melissa]
With my SEO coaching and done for you services, you’ll get noticed online, attract more of your ideal clients, and keep doing what you love most photography.
00:04:53 [Melissa]
Ready to boost your website’s visibility without the headache?
00:04:56 [Melissa]
Visit pictureperfectrankings.com, and let’s make SEO simple and effective for you.
00:05:01 [Melissa]
Let’s get your calendar booked.
00:05:03 [Melissa]
And literally, I just saw somebody yeah.
00:05:05 [Melissa]
I just saw somebody this week who said her some SEO company she worked with convinced her to move her website over to something else that’s WordPress based from Showit, and now she’s afraid to touch it.
00:05:14 [Melissa]
Like, when they’re updating anything or do anything.
00:05:16 [Melissa]
And I was like, oh, your website’s not doing
00:05:17 [Alison]
you any good.
00:05:18 [Alison]
Serving you.
00:05:19 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:05:19 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:19 [Melissa]
We’re gonna talk about the players.
00:05:21 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:21 [Melissa]
The players that I most often see are and I’m gonna go from, like, the bottom.
00:05:26 [Melissa]
The bottom is Wix.
00:05:28 [Melissa]
And this is where I will tell you, I know Wix is simple and easy to use.
00:05:31 [Melissa]
I know everybody’s, well, Melissa, it’s like drag and drop and so much fun, and there’s all these templates.
00:05:34 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:05:35 [Melissa]
But Wix is not great for SEO.
00:05:37 [Melissa]
I know they tell you they’re great for SEO, but I can also tell you I’ve worked with and looked at hundreds of websites, and I think I’ve seen, like, two Wix, and they were not ranking well at all.
00:05:49 [Melissa]
In all of the different areas that I work with clients in, like, big cities and stuff like that, I have never seen a Wix site in the top five.
00:05:56 [Melissa]
There may be areas, maybe there it is, but where I’ve seen it in the clients I’ve worked with, I just have not found that to be the case.
00:06:01 [Melissa]
I see your Wix website as you just got started in photography and you’re working with a Canon Rebel, and it’s fine to get you started.
00:06:08 [Melissa]
But at some point, you gotta upgrade to a full frame, but you wanna get some better lenses.
00:06:12 [Melissa]
It’s gonna be the same thing with the Wix website.
00:06:14 [Melissa]
At some point, you’re gonna wanna upgrade.
00:06:15 [Melissa]
And in my opinion, you wanna upgrade sooner than later because, actually, just googling this before Alice and I went live, I have heard in the past that it’s really hard to move your blog post over on Wix to WordPress.
00:06:26 [Melissa]
And just the latest article I found was actually talking about it does take some, like, coding and stuff.
00:06:30 [Melissa]
Like, you have to use a custom RSS feed.
00:06:32 [Melissa]
There’s there’s stuff that
00:06:33 [Alison]
Oh, what?
00:06:34 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:06:35 [Melissa]
The average photographer is not gonna know how to do.
00:06:37 [Melissa]
So instead of building up this empire on Wix and then finding out, like, it’s not transferring well or you have to recreate every post from scratch, let’s not do that.
00:06:45 [Melissa]
So I do tell clients when they come to me and they say they have a Wix website, I tell them, I would rather you not spend your money with me on SEO.
00:06:52 [Melissa]
I’d rather you spend your money on a new a better website to start with.
00:06:54 [Alison]
We gotta highlight that.
00:06:55 [Alison]
Did y’all hear that?
00:06:56 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:06:57 [Alison]
Melissa doesn’t work with Wix websites.
00:06:59 [Melissa]
No.
00:06:59 [Melissa]
I don’t work with Wix, and I don’t want you to waste your money with me.
00:07:02 [Alison]
Don’t wanna sugarcoat that too much.
00:07:04 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:07:04 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:07:04 [Melissa]
Go
00:07:04 [Alison]
get a better website.
00:07:05 [Melissa]
The next one is Pixiset.
00:07:07 [Melissa]
So this is very popular with people.
00:07:09 [Melissa]
I know Pixiset has has been trying to make their sites better and stuff.
00:07:13 [Melissa]
And I think, actually, FlowThemes, which we’ll talk about, they purchased some FlowThemes, I believe, like the blocks and stuff, or they hired the flow themes.
00:07:21 [Melissa]
Think about it.
00:07:21 [Melissa]
They may have bought flow themes.
00:07:22 [Melissa]
I can’t remember.
00:07:23 [Melissa]
But, anyway, they are actively working on trying to make it a better platform and stuff.
00:07:27 [Melissa]
There are some people that tell you pixie set websites won’t rank.
00:07:30 [Melissa]
I can tell you, I know a girl who’s number one for her keyword in a good area that she’s got pixie set website.
00:07:35 [Melissa]
So it’s not a 100% true.
00:07:37 [Melissa]
I don’t love pixie set because it it’s a pain in the butt to work with when it comes to, like, your headers and the site structure on things, and so I don’t love pixie set.
00:07:47 [Melissa]
But if you’re willing to, like, do the work to get it and butts with your headers and do what you need to do, then pixie set against pixie set.
00:07:53 [Melissa]
Again, I want this to be something that you’re comfortable creating blog posts, that you’re comfortable updating your work, adding text, things like that.
00:08:00 [Melissa]
I want you to be happy to work on your website because the more you work on it and you’re happy with it, the more you’re gonna be wanting to share it and do all the things that are gonna help your SEO.
00:08:07 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:08:08 [Alison]
And those things are important.
00:08:09 [Alison]
You’re gonna hear a theme.
00:08:10 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:08:11 [Alison]
So take note.
00:08:11 [Alison]
Just put them in there.
00:08:12 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:08:12 [Melissa]
And so with Pixie Set and stuff like that, we don’t work on that in our done for you service, but we do for group coaching and stuff.
00:08:18 [Melissa]
I do work with, clients on that.
00:08:20 [Melissa]
So then the big one and then the next one would be Squarespace.
00:08:23 [Melissa]
Squarespace is forever.
00:08:24 [Melissa]
They have a lot of themes and a lot of template design type things.
00:08:27 [Melissa]
Squarespace is one that also headers and stuff like that can be a little harder to manage.
00:08:32 [Melissa]
I just worked on a client’s website, like, a month or two ago, and and she was joking around.
00:08:36 [Melissa]
She was like, I hope you don’t hate Squarespace now because I had to figure out some custom coding.
00:08:41 [Melissa]
There was a lot more that went into it.
00:08:43 [Melissa]
Not the type of stuff that anybody else wants to do, but the fact that I did IT for ten years, it doesn’t scare me to figure out what code I need to put in.
00:08:49 [Melissa]
So I’m not against Squarespace.
00:08:50 [Melissa]
Definitely Squarespace sites can rank well for SEO and stuff, so that’s not a bad platform either.
00:08:55 [Melissa]
So if you’re looking at something, I would say Squarespace is fine to go with.
00:08:59 [Melissa]
It doesn’t lay it doesn’t have the WordPress back end, but it’s not a terrible option kinda thing.
00:09:05 [Melissa]
I prefer word based sites.
00:09:07 [Melissa]
WordPress is everywhere.
00:09:08 [Melissa]
There are giant corporations whose websites are built on WordPress, so it’s not a back it’s not a backdrop that you can go wrong with.
00:09:15 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:09:15 [Melissa]
So when you say okay.
00:09:16 [Melissa]
Melissa, you say WordPress.
00:09:17 [Melissa]
Is that wordpress.com?
00:09:18 [Melissa]
No.
00:09:19 [Melissa]
It’s not wordpress.com.
00:09:20 [Melissa]
You would self host WordPress, or if you’re with, Showit or ProPhoto, they’ll host it for you.
00:09:26 [Melissa]
And that’s where I’m gonna break this down.
00:09:27 [Melissa]
So if you Showit is really that’s the one that a lot of people love.
00:09:31 [Melissa]
Like, I have a Showit site.
00:09:32 [Melissa]
Allison has a Showit site.
00:09:33 [Melissa]
Mhmm.
00:09:34 [Melissa]
I also have a ProPhoto site.
00:09:36 [Melissa]
My photography website’s on ProPhoto in there for fifteen years.
00:09:38 [Melissa]
I’m good with it.
00:09:39 [Melissa]
I’m not going anywhere on it.
00:09:40 [Melissa]
I like it.
00:09:41 [Melissa]
It’s all set up.
00:09:42 [Melissa]
I too don’t wanna screw up my SEO, so I’m like, amen.
00:09:46 [Melissa]
It’s good for what it’s doing.
00:09:47 [Melissa]
I don’t have any issues.
00:09:48 [Melissa]
I’m still booking clients, so I’m happy.
00:09:51 [Speaker 3]
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00:09:53 [Speaker 3]
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00:09:57 [Speaker 3]
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00:10:01 [Speaker 3]
Learn more at uvahealth.com/driven.
00:10:06 [Speaker 4]
Every day, truck and bus drivers are out there keeping America moving to keep our roads safe.
00:10:10 [Speaker 4]
But large and heavy vehicles don’t stop like cars.
00:10:13 [Speaker 4]
They need more time and a lot more space.
00:10:16 [Speaker 4]
When you cut in front of a truck or bus too closely, you take away the space the driver needs to stop safely.
00:10:21 [Speaker 4]
That space isn’t extra.
00:10:23 [Speaker 4]
It’s essential.
00:10:24 [Speaker 4]
So remember, don’t cut it too close.
00:10:27 [Speaker 4]
Give trucks and buses room.
00:10:29 [Speaker 4]
Stay back.
00:10:30 [Speaker 4]
Stay safe.
00:10:31 [Speaker 4]
America’s pros rely on you.
00:10:33 [Speaker 4]
Paid for by FMCSA.
00:10:35 [Melissa]
And then my picture perfect rankings is on Showit because I wanted to become more familiar with Showit and stuff.
00:10:41 [Melissa]
So I love Profoto.
00:10:42 [Melissa]
I’ve been with them for fifteen years.
00:10:44 [Melissa]
Their interface compared to Showit is so clunky.
00:10:47 [Melissa]
It is a lot more work just to space things out.
00:10:51 [Melissa]
There are things that I get annoyed I can’t do on ProPhoto that I can do on Showit, but I will say hosting wise and stuff like that, I used to self host my ProPhoto site.
00:11:01 [Melissa]
And I hosted with SiteGround.
00:11:03 [Melissa]
So when I say self host, that’s what I mean.
00:11:04 [Alison]
Oh, okay.
00:11:05 [Alison]
I did that.
00:11:05 [Alison]
I did that.
00:11:06 [Alison]
I don’t
00:11:07 [Melissa]
know what that is.
00:11:07 [Melissa]
I hosted with SiteGround, and SiteGround kept telling me your site’s too big, your site’s too big.
00:11:12 [Melissa]
You need to steer like, they kept wanting to take more and more money.
00:11:14 [Melissa]
So I did switch to ProFotos where they do the hosting, and there’s probably a lot of you out there who have ProFoto, and you’re like, I don’t wanna go to their hosting.
00:11:23 [Melissa]
Like, it’s expensive.
00:11:24 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:11:24 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:11:25 [Melissa]
But I will say this.
00:11:27 [Melissa]
They know ProFoto.
00:11:29 [Melissa]
They know what the hosting all the settings that need to be happening on the back end of the servers to make that theme run well, the guys know it because they created it.
00:11:37 [Melissa]
And when I moved my site over, I think it was supposed to be, like, 20 or 30 gigs was supposed to be what was moving over.
00:11:42 [Melissa]
And I told the guys, I was just telling you, SiteGround’s telling me all this.
00:11:46 [Melissa]
I’m like, I’ve been with y’all forever.
00:11:47 [Melissa]
I don’t know what to do to make it any smaller.
00:11:49 [Melissa]
I don’t wanna delete stuff.
00:11:50 [Melissa]
And the guys came through, and they were actually able to clean up my site, and they were able to get rid of all of this stuff because they knew what files I didn’t need anymore because it was all from them.
00:11:59 [Melissa]
And they brought it all down, and my speeds went up, and my rankings stayed, if not got better kind of things.
00:12:05 [Melissa]
So I’m I would say if you are a ProPhoto user and you’re happy with the design platform and stuff, then go ahead and do the move to having them host for you.
00:12:14 [Melissa]
It is where photo guy support is top notch.
00:12:17 [Melissa]
Like, I’ve never had an issue in fifteen years that they haven’t been able to get figured out pretty quickly for me.
00:12:21 [Melissa]
So that’s one that I highly recommend.
00:12:24 [Melissa]
Showit, I recommend also because, again, it’s like the what do people call it?
00:12:28 [Melissa]
It used to be like, oh, it’s like Photoshop.
00:12:29 [Melissa]
No.
00:12:29 [Melissa]
Now it’s like Canva.
00:12:30 [Melissa]
It’s like the Canva version of websites.
00:12:32 [Melissa]
Like, now Oh, yeah.
00:12:33 [Melissa]
Say the Photoshop version anymore.
00:12:35 [Melissa]
We’re all like, it’s the Canva version.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
So it’s drag and drop.
00:12:38 [Melissa]
It’s easy to use.
00:12:39 [Melissa]
There’s beautiful designs.
00:12:40 [Melissa]
There’s tons of designers out there.
00:12:42 [Melissa]
There are some SEO curves that you wanna you wanna pay attention to and stuff.
00:12:46 [Melissa]
With my GroupGram, I have all these videos for, like, how you set things up for SEO, and I probably have at least a dozen videos that are specific to Showit.
00:12:53 [Melissa]
So if you are a Showit user, it’s watch this video.
00:12:55 [Melissa]
I’m gonna walk you through exactly what you need to do thing.
00:12:57 [Melissa]
So it makes it really easy for people.
00:12:59 [Melissa]
And then the other two big ones that I consider these, if you like playing with WordPress, if you aren’t scared of learning a new platform, if you’re not scared of maybe doing a little bit of coding or just it doesn’t even have to be full on coding.
00:13:12 [Melissa]
Just once you start diving in and messing with stuff and figuring out blocks and being comfortable with that whole scenario with what is a block, Melissa?
00:13:22 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:22 [Melissa]
If you’re if that is one of those where you’re like, I don’t wanna deal with that, I wouldn’t go with these.
00:13:26 [Melissa]
But if you’re into, I want the top notch, I want all the bells and whistles on the car, I want it to go super fast, and I wanna jazz it up, then I would look into Cadence is the big one.
00:13:35 [Melissa]
That’s the new one out there.
00:13:37 [Melissa]
Very streamlined on, like, speed.
00:13:39 [Melissa]
They’re starting to have more templates and stuff for it, more flow themes type block type scenarios for that also.
00:13:44 [Melissa]
And then Elementor has been around forever, so that’s another great one.
00:13:48 [Melissa]
A lot of custom website designer Elementor, so that can be a good option too.
00:13:52 [Melissa]
As far as, like, what edges out and stuff like that, again, I don’t look at that as much as I look at what makes you comfortable to update your website.
00:14:01 [Melissa]
I have plenty of girls who are ranking number one with with Showit websites, with someone with pixie set websites.
00:14:07 [Melissa]
So just because something is the bigger, better, faster, latest, and greatest, doesn’t mean you still can’t rank with a different platform kinda thing.
00:14:16 [Melissa]
So keep that in mind.
00:14:17 [Melissa]
And then if you’re on flow themes, you you got a ticking time clock on that one.
00:14:22 [Melissa]
They did go out last year, and I think they’re giving I think they’re giving people, like, another six months.
00:14:28 [Melissa]
I think they gave them a year, and then, like, support ends for it.
00:14:31 [Melissa]
So then if you have a which ProPhoto did the same thing.
00:14:33 [Melissa]
They said, hey.
00:14:33 [Melissa]
If you don’t upgrade, support’s ending.
00:14:36 [Melissa]
So just keep that stuff in mind too that you’ve got a little bit of time, but you do need to start thinking about switching over.
00:14:41 [Alison]
This episode is brought to you by Keep It Moving Coaching with me, Allison Bell.
00:14:45 [Alison]
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my seven moves, it’s that every move is different.
00:14:49 [Alison]
Every business is different and every location is different.
00:14:52 [Alison]
What has worked for me may not be as fruitful for you or vice versa.
00:14:56 [Alison]
And it’s always overwhelming.
00:14:58 [Alison]
Starting over again just sucks.
00:15:00 [Alison]
There are phases of exhaustion, thinking I can’t do this, deceit, or just plain overwhelmed about the next right step.
00:15:07 [Alison]
That’s where I come in.
00:15:08 [Alison]
With one on one coaching, we’ll get together virtually face to face.
00:15:12 [Alison]
I’ll get to know your business, your unique struggles and challenges.
00:15:16 [Alison]
We’ll work together to decide the next right step for you to keep it moving.
00:15:20 [Alison]
The goal, relocate and restart your business from the ground up faster.
00:15:26 [Alison]
Minimize income loss and get found quick.
00:15:28 [Alison]
You’ll have full access to me for all of your questions.
00:15:32 [Alison]
It’s never too late to get a head start, but you could be losing time if you wait too long.
00:15:37 [Alison]
Even if you’re not sure where you’re moving to, head over to alisonbell.co to apply today.
00:15:42 [Alison]
That’s alison with one lalisonbell.co right now.
00:15:50 [Melissa]
So that goes to the big thing.
00:15:51 [Melissa]
So it’s ease of use, SEO friendliness, keep those things in mind, a few others, photo biz.
00:15:56 [Melissa]
What was the other one you mentioned, Alison, before we start chatting?
00:15:59 [Alison]
Oh, Into the Darkroom.
00:16:00 [Alison]
I had it into yeah.
00:16:01 [Alison]
I had it into the that was my second that was my first real site.
00:16:05 [Alison]
My very first site was a Tumblr.
00:16:06 [Melissa]
Oh, there you go.
00:16:08 [Melissa]
I started off with Profoto, and then I had a Flash site on Bluehost.
00:16:12 [Melissa]
That’ll show that anybody who there’s a lot of people out there.
00:16:15 [Melissa]
Oh, yeah.
00:16:15 [Melissa]
I remember that.
00:16:16 [Melissa]
That was like, I’m in school.
00:16:18 [Melissa]
I was one of the first people that kinda switched over to what we called a blog site, which was Yeah.
00:16:22 [Melissa]
Your website and blog on one.
00:16:24 [Alison]
That was my into the darkroom was a blog site.
00:16:27 [Alison]
It was awesome.
00:16:28 [Alison]
I loved it.
00:16:28 [Melissa]
That was the beginning way, way, a whole month ago.
00:16:32 [Melissa]
But basically, if you’re thinking, okay, I wanna change over my website, I would also come up with a especially if you’re flow themes and you’ve got some SEO already, you wanna go in and look at and figure out what are what’s ranking right now, make sure you’ve got a list of that kind of stuff, take a look at those pages, make sure when you update to new pages that you’re carrying that same information over.
00:16:53 [Melissa]
The last thing you wanna do is just switch over to a new website and ignore everything on your old site if you were already ranking, because then you’ll just you could end up just dropping in rankings and stuff.
00:17:02 [Melissa]
But, yeah, so those are the big ones that I look at.
00:17:04 [Melissa]
Most of my clients are on, like, Pixiset or Showit.
00:17:07 [Melissa]
I’ve had a few Pro Photos, a few Elementors, a few I would say predominantly, it’s Showit.
00:17:12 [Melissa]
Showit does have some of its drawbacks when it comes to, like, speed and stuff like that.
00:17:15 [Melissa]
It can be a little finicky.
00:17:16 [Melissa]
Mhmm.
00:17:17 [Melissa]
But but I’ve got plenty of people who ranking it without a problem.
00:17:20 [Melissa]
It is a long boring spiel on things, but
00:17:22 [Alison]
But it’s important.
00:17:23 [Alison]
It is the basis and the foundation for so much more.
00:17:27 [Alison]
Like, you gotta we gotta know what we’re doing.
00:17:29 [Alison]
We gotta start with a good foundation, so to speak.
00:17:31 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:17:32 [Melissa]
And so any of these websites and stuff, if you are switching over to something new and you want to you wanna get it set up for SEO and everything, I do have a group coaching program that you get out, Picture Perfect Rankings group SEO coaching.
00:17:43 [Melissa]
So if you got to the website, we’ll link it in the show notes.
00:17:46 [Melissa]
And, basically, I walk you through all the things you need to do for your keyword research, your homepage, your portfolio pages.
00:17:52 [Melissa]
We talk about layout designs, not just the individual SEO aspects.
00:17:56 [Melissa]
So if you are switching your website, it’s a great time then to go ahead and start looking at your SEO too and, like, figuring it out and putting it and doing it together at the same time.
00:18:05 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:18:05 [Melissa]
I’m working on my website homepage.
00:18:07 [Melissa]
Let me also focus on the SEO along with the design so that when I hit public, whole thing is done and ready to go.
00:18:14 [Melissa]
It’s a beautiful new website, SEO is all updated, and then I can focus on blogging.
00:18:18 [Melissa]
And it just skyrockets to the top.
00:18:20 [Melissa]
That’s all
00:18:21 [Alison]
still Just kidding.
00:18:22 [Alison]
That’s the hope and plan.
00:18:23 [Alison]
But Yeah.
00:18:24 [Alison]
It’s more than it.
00:18:25 [Alison]
Guys, this is awesome.
00:18:27 [Alison]
If you have any questions for Melissa or me, hit us up on the links in the show notes on Instagram and share this episode if you found it helpful.
00:18:36 [Alison]
Leave a review or rating in your app and subscribe.
00:18:39 [Alison]
Download it on repeat and share with a share it with one friend.
00:18:42 [Alison]
Thanks so much, guys.
00:18:43 [Alison]
Bye bye.
00:18:50 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:18:51 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying the show, would you do two things for us?
00:18:54 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:18:55 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:18:57 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, no spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.
00:19:02 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:19:06 [Melissa]
If you have questions, you can reach out to Allison on Instagram at alison bellebotog, or you can find me, Melissa, in my Facebook group, Picture Perfect Rankings.
00:19:15 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links, and we’re so excited to have you guys here.
Tired of being invisible on Google? Learn the 5 SEO mistakes keeping photographers from getting found (and how to fix them) in Melissa’s free masterclass: 5 SEO Mistakes Killing Your Photography Business Masterclass

Thinking about a pivot or transition in your photography business? Book a free 15 minute discovery call with Alison to talk through your next move.
Ready to streamline your content? Melissa’s got you covered with her 35+ Blog Post Topics freebie—grab them here: https://35topics.com
Looking for your next clients? Grab Alison’s list of 39 FREE ways to get more bookings—no ads required: 39 Ways to Get New Clients – Alison Bell
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I’m Melissa Arlena, founder of Picture Perfect Rankings, where we help portrait photographers get found on Google and transform from invisible experts into market leaders. With 18+ years of photography experience and an IT background, I’ve helped hundreds of photographers break free from feast-or-famine cycles by achieving page 1 rankings that attract their dream clients through search. Learn more about Melissa.
I'm Melissa Arlena(my friends call me Mel) and I help photographers get found on Google.
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