Beginners Guide

Choosing a Platform for Your Real Estate Photography Website

Choosing a Platform for Your Real Estate Photography Website

Whether you’re new to real estate photography or you just haven’t gotten around to making a website for your real estate photography business, it’s a very good idea to make one as soon as possible.

It can be an intimidating project, however there are some extremely simple and helpful website building solutions available. Likewise, if you’re more tech savvy, there are some great options out there that will help land you more clients.

This article will outline the various website platforms that you can use to build your own real estate photography website.

Table of Contents

Creating a Real Estate Photography Website: Understanding Your Capabilities

The best way to get started building your real estate photography website is to be honest with yourself about your technical knowledge surrounding website creation. Ask yourself a few of these questions before making a decision:

  1. How much do I really know about creating a website?
  2. How much time and effort am I willing to invest in learning how to build a website and creating one from scratch?
  3. How much money am I willing to invest in this website?
  4. How important is this website going to be to my overall business model?

These questions are important because the answers will guide you in the right direction. For example, if you really don’t know much about building a website and you’re not willing to spend the time learning, it’s best to choose a platform that makes it as easy as possible.

On the other hand, if you are coming into this with a decent amount of knowledge, or you are really interested in learning about website creation, then you can opt for a more hands on platform that can offer some greater overall benefits.

It’s important to choose what is going to work best for you. Don’t pick a difficult to learn platform if you know that you’ll get frustrated and quit. Likewise, don’t pick a simple website builder if you know you’ll be annoyed with the lack of features.

The 3 website builders that we’re going to look at are Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress. They’re arguably the 3 most popular website platforms today and have their own pros and cons.

Top 3 Platform Choices for Creating a Real Estate Photography Website

Squarespace

Squarespace is a very well known website builder that I’ve personally used for my real estate photography website for years. It’s ideal for an easy portfolio and listed services style website.

Of the 3 platforms, Squarespace falls in the middle in terms of how easy it is to use, although I would say that it’s actually very simple. Wix may have the slight edge in this category, but Squarespace is definitely made for beginners.

There are a large number of templates that you can choose from that are specifically designed to display a photography portfolio. That’s the reason that I originally selected Squarespace and I haven’t had any complaints.

It’s extremely simple to upload photos and display them in a beautiful looking gallery. I’ve never had an issue with uploading or image quality.

You can check out my website here for an example of what can be achieved on Squarespace once you have a full understanding of how to use all it’s features.

All I really wanted from my website was a place to easily display my portfolio, list my offered services, and offer possible clients an easy way to get in contact with me.

I wasn’t too concerned with popping up in Google search results since I instead choose to use Google My Business to rank in the search results.

To read more about using Google My Business to rank in search results, check out our article Why Your Real Estate Photography Company Needs to be Listed on Google Business.

Wix

As I mentioned above, Wix is probably the easiest website builder to use overall. It has a very simple and intuitive drag-and-drop building method. It’s only slightly easier than Squarespace, but for some that still might be important.

Much like Squarespace, there are a lot of templates that you can choose from which are geared towards photography and displaying your portfolio. You’ll definitely be able to find one that you like.

Although I personally haven’t built an entire website on Wix, I have helped a number of different colleagues and friends with their Wix sites.

Overall, I’ll say that I like Squarespace more for displaying a real estate photography portfolio, but Wix is still an excellent choice.

If we’re being honest, I probably like Squarespace more simply because I’ve been using it for years and years. Overall, Squarespace and Wix are extremely similar and are both great choices for any beginner.

WordPress

Undoubtably the hardest to use of the 3 websites builders we’re discussing, but also the one that is going to offer the greatest results if you are either already knowledgable or patient enough to learn.

Starting a WordPress website isn’t something that should be taken lightly if you’re a beginner; and honestly unless you are interested in building websites and willing to stay dedicated, I’d recommend you choose Squarespace or Wix instead.

WordPress will have a large learning curve and it really doesn’t make displaying photos that easy. You need to make sure they are sized properly and optimized prior to uploading them, or they might suffer from a loss in quality.

However, if you are willing to take on the challenge, WordPress is the best and most powerful website builder overall. Heck, this article that you’re reading right now is on a WordPress website.

I’ve built a number of different websites with WordPress and there are absolutely good reasons for building a real estate photography website on WordPress.

However, for my wants and needs, Squarespace had everything covered and was much faster and easier.

The best parts of using a WordPress site are going to be things like ranking higher on Google search results and the ability to include almost an unlimited number of features.

WordPress simply gives you more control of your website. You can optimize your site to do exactly what you want it to do and there are tools available to help you. If that interests you, WordPress might just be the choice.

What is The Goal of Your Real Estate Photography Website?

Once you establish a goal for your real estate photography website, the choice will be easier. Make sure to answer the questions that were listed in the beginning of this article before choosing.

If you just want a simple website that displays your real estate photography portfolio and lists some services, Squarespace would be my first choice, closely followed by Wix.

If you want total control and plan to use your website for more than just aesthetic display purposes, WordPress is the better choice. Just make sure you’re going in with the understanding that there is a MUCH larger learning curve.

If you’re in need of some inspiration for what you’d like your real estate photography website to look like, check out our article 7 Examples of Great Real Estate Photography Website.

Additional Resources

If you’re just getting started in real estate photography, check out our Beginners Guide. It’s full of helpful articles and tips that will guide you in the right direction as you begin your real estate photography journey.

You can check out our Gear section as well to see reviews and recommendations on the latest real estate photography gear.

If you’re more interested in other resources that can help your real estate photography business, check out our Business Resources page.

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About author
Matthew Digati is a professional Real Estate and Architectural Photographer. Matthew has worked as a Real Estate and Architectural Photographer since 2015 and has photographed properties and projects all over the United States.
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