Start with a template:

There was once a time when having a beautiful website meant paying a web designer to build a custom site from scratch. Fortunately, those dark (and expensive!) days have passed. Creative website providers like Squarespace, PhotoFolio, Pixpa and Photoshelter offer awesome all-in-one portfolio pages, with hosting, email, powerful page building tools and a rich collection of templates. And if you want to get elbow-deep in code, you can set custom CSS or even monkey around on a deeper level.Of course, some website builders and templates are better than others. Be sure to use professional tools and avoid badly designed “free” options that suck up too much time and energy.Some folks don’t like the idea of working with a template, though a lot of the arguments against it are outdated. The cost is reasonable, the sites get great SEO, and clients aren’t judgmental about “look-alike” sites. There’s benefits outside of ease of construction, too. When you use a template, you get a thoroughly-tested, responsive design that looks good on all screen sizes. Good templates are easy for clients to navigate and simple to update with your latest work.

If you’re at loss where to find a high-quality photographer website template, check out design & photography templates in the TemplateMonster marketplace. In this category, you’ll find more than 4000 photography-related designs and assets. All the designs are unquestionably responsive, SEO-friendly and easy-to-customize. See a sample below

Pick a Focus and stick with it

When a corporate client or art director visits your site, they want to know what you’re good at as quickly as possible. For example, they’re looking for the best portrait photographer for the job, not a generalist who has some portraits thrown in with food, architecture, sport and reportage. Clients should know what you’re best at from the moment they visit your site.

If you don’t already have a specialization, you’re going to to find your niche. This can be hard, and sometimes even emotional. Ideally, you want to find the overlapping portion of the Venn diagram containing what you’re good at, what you find creatively satisfying and what the market desires. Once you determine your specialty, describe it in commonly-understood terms. Genres like portraiture, lifestyle, food, architecture, sports, reportage and product all have well-understood definitions and skillsets associated with them.

A lot of photographers, especially early in their careers, want to be all things to all people. They want any job they can get, and their portfolio reflects that. When I was a hungry, young photographer, I did the same thing, eager to get literally any work I could. However, I didn’t realize that this wasn’t what clients are looking for. If an art director sees a site like that, they’ll often skip on to the next, recognizing the photographer as inexperienced or unfocused.

Use helpful gallery titles:

Once you’ve settled on a niche, you need to build galleries that clearly convey your specialty. Part of that process is creating helpful and accurate gallery names to describe your work.Avoid vague gallery names like “people,” “places” and “things.” Clients aren’t looking for a “things” or “places” photographer; they’re looking for a product or architectural photographer. Make sure you fulfill this expectation. On the best websites, clients can tell your speciality just by looking at your gallery titles.

Show only your best work:

This probably seems blindingly obvious on paper, but many photographers talk themselves into showing sub-par work without realizing it. Maybe you have an emotional connection to a portrait, or it took a six-hour hike to get in position for a particular landscape. Unfortunately, if that doesn’t translate into a high-quality image, the client won’t care. There’s no way for them to share the personal connection you have with the image, so make sure that any image can stand on its own as your very best work.

Create a meaningful “about” page:

Your About page should be first and foremost useful to clients. As much as you might want your potential clients to know what you’re like, your About page is not the place for long, personal anecdotes. Clients aren’t interested in knowing the model of your first camera or which landscape photographer speaks to you. They want to find out what you’re good at, how experienced you are and why clients like working with you.

Provide real contact information:

Sharing contact information on your About page is good, but it isn’t enough. Clients should not have to think about where to find your contact information. Make it blindingly obvious: have a page titled Contact in your navigation bar. When clients click on it, they should see your phone number and email address right away. If you have a studio or office, include that address as well.