Disclaimer: SLR Lounge received free samples of the product(s) mentioned in this article.
Last year, we decided to more officially expand from wedding photography to family, newborn, and maternity photography, even though we were always doing these other services, just under one brand (Lin and Jirsa Photography).
Weddings were our focus and the rest were in our peripherals, taking on the shoots when they came around but not heavily marketing for them. So instead of being a one-stop shop, doing anything and everything under the sun, we decided to spin off another brand that we called Line and Roots Photography.
This, of course, required a new website. We could have gone with a Wix or Squarespace site, but I’ve always loved custom WordPress sites. The flexibility, customization, and SEO make it a clear winner for us.
[RELATED: You’re Nothing Without SEO! | Why I Moved My Website To WordPress]
Why Flothemes?
When it comes to WordPress themes for photographers, there isn’t a better company than Flothemes. They were built by photographers for photographers, so they have a perfect understanding of our needs. When looking through their themes, here were our priorities:
- Great looking design
- Mobile friendly
- Large image display
- Room for text on the home page (In order to include keywords)
We decide to move forward their “Crowd Theme.”
Overall Results
After, using it for about 6 months, we can say that we are very happy with the theme as well as the progress of the new business.
We are ranked on the first page of Google for our primary keywords in our targeted region (for newborn photography and maternity photography). Moreover, the business is returning solid revenue and sustainable margins.
Of course, this isn’t all attributed to the new WordPress theme, as we did start with a solid base of customers from our wedding work and strong links from our other websites.
However, the presentation and aesthetic display of our work on the theme undoubtedly contributes to our success. Moreover, the SEO-friendly design allows us to find that perfect balance between displaying beautiful imagery and including enough keyworded text throughout the website.
Let’s review some of the main benefits and features of Crowd:
Sufficient Text on Home Page
Ranking high in Google is difficult without keyworded on-page text, and this is the challenge with many beautiful themes for photographers.  So many are so image-heavy that they leave little to no room for text. ‘Crowd’ strikes a good balance of displaying big and beautiful images while leaving room for text.
Perfect Categorization and Display of Services
Crowd was the perfect theme for our business because the three column thumbnail display perfectly aligned with our three services. If you don’t have three services, you can link to any three things here or remove the section entirely.
Instagram Showcase
Our new Instagram account is on full display at the bottom of the homepage. As we teach in our SEO and Web Marketing courses, connecting your website to your Instagram account is good practice, with your website driving traffic and growth to your Instagram and your Instagram showing social proof for the quality of your work.
Intuitive Backend
Flothemes have put as much thought into their backend as they have their font end. This lets you get to a highly customized, fully-branded look without any knowledge of computer programming languages. You can see their full documentation here.
 Video Documentation
If you’re interested in seeing how their backend works, check out some of their videos below.
