Digital Marketing, Website Design

Best Examples of Website Photo Galleries

Sam Natello - January 16, 2021

 

Website photo galleries are one of the most “fun” elements of many websites.  Photo galleries are appropriate for most businesses in a large variety of industries.  In this article, we will explore what makes a great photo gallery and look at several inspirational examples of photo galleries for websites of all kinds.

What Makes a Great Website Photo Gallery?

I’m just going to say it …

If you don’t have great photos you will not have a great photo gallery!

Many businesses simply do not do a good enough job capturing great photos.  It’s understandable, but it’s a problem.  One of the benefits of working with a professional digital marketing agency like DotCom is that we think about these sorts of things so you don’t have to.

 

Quality Photos Needed!

As stated above, everything starts with great photos.  Professional-quality photos, properly lit and properly composed can make your website photo gallery and your business look like a million bucks.

Diversity of Photos

No matter how great your work is, or how attractive your team is, or how impressive your facilities are … a large number of photos of (basically) the same thing is not compelling content.  There is a “story” that you tell through your photos.  This story should be carefully planned and managed in your website photo gallery.

Website Photo Gallery Features

There are a number of great features that website photo galleries can have.  In some cases it may be appropriate to be able to group and filter your photos in categories.  This is particularly useful when you have a large number of photos.  In other cases a single photo may represent an entire project or group – clicking into the primary photo can reveal a large number of related photos.  There are great tools that can allow website visitors to easily SHARE photos on social media or enlarge them to get a better view.  There are many other features that website photo galleries can have.  In the examples below, you’ll see even more.

 

Google Ranking and Website Photo Galleries

As a digital marketing agency, DotCom is ALWAYS considering the impact of every feature and decision on the Google rankings of your website.  A photo gallery can be a great boost to your Google rankings if it is designed and developed properly.  

 

It would be easy to get waayyy off topic here … however, this is such an important topic that we simply MUST outline a few key points related to website photo galleries and SEO (search engine optimization).

Ability to control the photo filename.
What?  Well, when you take a photo it is often auto-named something like photo000121.jpg  – your website designer can then rename it using keywords that relate to your business.  If we were doing it for ourselves we might name the photo something like naples-florida-web-design-agency-001.jpg – see? 

Now, THAT is actually not the problem we are talking about here.  Once you add the photo to the photo gallery – many photo galleries automatically rename the photo – killing your SEO benefit!  This is particularly true with many of the WordPress photo gallery plugins.  Watch out for this!

 

Ability to add additional text.
Photo galleries which include a TITLE and/or a description that can be added to each photo are awesome for SEO.  If you make sure to fill-in this content thoroughly and include all of your appropriate KEYWORDS … you will be able to pack in a huge number of keywords on this page.  We have included several examples of website photo galleries that have this feature so you can see how it all works out.

 

Inspirational Examples of Website Photo Galleries

The following examples are (mostly) intended for clients of DotCom.  We tend to try to avoid crappy WordPress whenever possible – so these examples of website photo galleries were designed and/or developed by our team.  These are not off-the-shelf wordpress photo galleries.

 

  • https://luxuriallc.com/portfolio.cfm
    This website photo gallery has fair number of features.  Notice that there are CATEGORIES up top that allow you to filter the results.  The animation is pretty slick.  Each photo allows for a short DESCRIPTION which allows us to add tons of additional KEYWORDS into this page.  This is great for Google rankings/SEO.  Mouse over any photo to see the additional text come up.  Honestly, there are better examples for SEO purposes but this one is solid.  The photos enlarge nicely and all the transitions are clean. 
  • http://pirainobuilders.com/portfolio-of-custom-home-construction.cfm
    This photo gallery groups things into PROJECTS.  So as you click on any photo on this first screen, you will then be taken to a group of photos all related to that project.  This gallery was not initially intended to work this way so I can definitely see even better ways to handle this, but it’s a good example to review.

    Also, keep in mind, the second level (the PROJECT DETAILS screen) can have detailed write-up / descriptions of the project – which could include before/after photos, a customer testimonial for that project, videos related to that project, etc.  It would be AWESOME for Google/keyword ranking and just great compelling content.  
  • https://rosefence.com/gallery.cfm
    This is a very unusual approach to a website photo gallery – that we custom developed for this client.   The initial plan here was to click into each photo then have the entire section to the right – where they could add titles and descriptions (great for Google ranking) … then each photo can be saved/shared socially.  I love the plan but the client just never kept up with it. 

    Another feature they didn’t keep up with which was probably my favorite of all of them is that each photo has that big red button at the bottom that says VIEW PRODUCT DETAILS.  See that?  The intent was to link it back to the actual PRODUCT DETAILS (this is especially true for fence sections and railings) – so people could see the name, the specs, the options, etc.  I think that would be amazing to link a photo with the product it used … but the client just hasn’t kept up.  Most clients have us handle these sorts of things for them – so outdated websites don’t happen but that just wasn’t the case with this particular project.
  • https://drewberman.com/photo-gallery.cfm
    This one is just a solid block of photos, no spacing.  clean, simple.  Some people like this approach better.  This looks particularly good when you have a bunch of beautiful photos.  
  • https://spraybeachinn.com/lbi-photo-gallery.cfm
    This is as simple as it gets when it comes to website photo galleries.  No frills – but it is super clean and easy to use for website visitors

 

Best Examples of Website Photo Gallery Templates

Sometimes, it’s preferable to simply find an existing template for your photo gallery.  WordPress has a bunch of pretty good ones, especially if SEO isn’t a priority.  Here are a few of our favorites.  Yes, even we are forced to work with WordPress when clients demand it.

 

 

Have You Seen Other Awesome Examples of Website Photo Galleries?

Did we miss other awesome examples?  Sure we did … tell us about them!  

Sam Natello is the founder and top dog at DotCom Global Media. Sam is expert digital strategist who has worked with some of the top brands in the world. In addition to running one of the premier website design and digital marketing agencies in the U.S., Sam also serves on the board of directors for multiple high-performing companies, is an author, and has spoken at business conferences across the United States. Read his inspirational story "From Homeless to CEO." Feel free to send a message to Sam with any questions or comments.

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