We have been tirelessly working towards creating this beautiful new theme for photographers and other creatives.

Photocrati 10 is new, robust, flexible, customizable, fast, SEO rich, and future thinking.

Why Photocrati 10? Well, it’s our 10th birthday this year!

It uses the Customizer for all theme settings, recommends the block editor for page and post content, and has a preset system making it even easier to launch a new website in a flash. Pun intended.

It is worth noting that because this is a brand new theme framework, you will not be able to swap out Photocrati 10 from previous versions. However, between the new preset system and the stunning customizer controls, we are confident you can switch to the new theme and have an incredible site in little to no time.

For existing users, log in to the Photocrati members area, download Photocrati 10, and install and activate it. You can even install it alongside the existing Photocrati theme you have running. From there, you can run demo imports to start with one of the new demos, or just customize from the default design.

Photocrati 10 is dramatically more powerful and more polished than the current version of Photocrati and we cannot wait for you to try it out!

For those who already started the process of switching over to Photocrati 10, you can find documentation for the new theme here.

Fortunately, we’ve put together a checklist you can use to keep your site in top form. Addressing these tasks on a regular basis will help you avoid issues such as slow page load speeds and subpar security.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what WordPress photography site maintenance entails and why it’s important. Then we’ll share our checklist for staying on top of key security and optimization tasks. Let’s dive right in!

Understanding the Maintenance Needs of Your WordPress Photography Website

Hopefully, when you set up your photography website, you took into account factors such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), performance, and security. However, WordPress recommends carrying out certain steps on an ongoing basis to make sure these elements of your site remain consistent.

There are a few things that contribute to this need. Firstly, the internet is an ever-changing entity. Security best-practices, performance standards, and search engine ranking factors don’t stay the same from year to year, or even month to month. Carrying out regular maintenance can help you stay on top of your game.

Additionally, over time your WordPress photography site will likely accumulate some unnecessary files that weigh it down. This might include excess images, plugins you no longer use, or older themes you’ve deactivated. Tidying up the data stored in your site will keep it running smoothly and securely.

A Quick Checklist for Maintaining Your WordPress Photography Website (5 Key Tips)

Making time to do regular maintenance on your photography website can help you keep your customers satisfied and get your images out in front of visitors. We have five key tips you can use regularly to make sure your site is performing at its best.

1. Make Sure You Have the Latest Version of WordPress Installed

Keeping your site updated with the most recent version of WordPress is vital. First, it means any vulnerabilities WordPress developers have found and rectified will be patched on your website. This is key to reducing your chances of getting hacked.

Upgrading is pretty easy. WordPress will notify you when a new version is available:

It’s advisable to make a backup of your website first, but then you can simply click on the Update Now button to install the upgrade. You can navigate to Dashboard > Updates to check for new versions as well.

2. Clean Out Any Unused Plugins and Images

When it comes to plugins, failing to run updates can lead to the same risks we mentioned in regard to letting your WordPress installation lapse:

Additionally, when you leave unused tools installed on your site, it can become cluttered up with unnecessary files, making it more likely you’ll encounter conflicts and decreased performance. It’s best to remove plugins that are no longer helpful to you.

Similarly, excess images can also slow down your site, even if they’re not published on the front end. It’s wise to periodically go through your Media Library and assess your photos. If there are any that aren’t in use on your website any longer, consider removing them.

3. Evaluate Your Website Theme for Quality and Performance

One way to make sure your photography site is really running at top speed is to do an assessment of your theme. There are several reasons why it may become a poor fit for your site over time, including:

• A lack of appropriate layouts for your photo galleries or e-commerce pages
• Poorly optimized code that slows your site down
• An inability to ‘scale up’ and handle an increase in visitors or advanced functionality

Our Photocrati theme is optimized for displaying large quantities of images while also supporting your photography blog and e-commerce functionality for selling prints or digital downloads.

That said, if changing themes isn’t an option for you at the moment, you can still optimize yours to improve its performance with a plugin such as WP Rocket Cache.

It can help slim down bulky code for faster page loading.

4. Review Your Image Optimization Process

Image optimization is one way to improve your loading times as well as your User Experience (UX). It’s also important for boosting your search engine rankings and therefore your site’s visibility.

When you’re performing regular site maintenance, consider evaluating your optimization process and looking for ways you can improve it. For example, using a plugin such as Imagify to automate compression can reduce the size of your media files when you upload them.

However, keep in mind that image optimization is about more than just page speed. Making sure all of your images have ‘alt’ tags is also vital:

This is a short description of your image. Since search engine crawlers can’t actually ‘see’ your photos, alt tags give them something to read so they can properly index your visual content for image search results.

5. Develop an Image Security Plan

We already mentioned that running updates is a key security best practice. However, as a photographer, you also have to consider how you’re protecting your content from copyright infringement.

There are several ways you can do this on your website. One is to use a plugin that provides security features built with photographers in mind, such as NextGEN Pro:

NextGEN Pro enables you to easily create beautiful, mobile-friendly galleries for your website. You can also password protect your content, add watermarks to images, and even disable right-click functionality on your site to discourage unauthorized downloads.

Conclusion

Adapting a maintenance checklist for your photography website means you can spend more time out doing what you love – taking more beautiful photographs. Not only can you streamline your workflow, but you’ll be offering your customers a better online experience.

Keep these five tasks in mind when evaluating your website to keep it running smoothly:

1. Update your WordPress installation.
2. Delete unused plugins and images.
3. Evaluate your WordPress photography theme.
4. Review your image optimization process.
5. Develop your image security plan.

Are you ready to tackle your new photography website checklist? Share your thoughts and questions with us in the comments section below!

Fortunately, techniques such as deep linking can help improve the navigation of your site and, more specifically, your galleries. This strategy also makes your photography site more user-friendly.

In this post, we’ll explain the concept of deep linking and its benefits. Then we’ll provide you with three steps for using it on your photography site. Let’s get started!

What Is Deep Linking and Why Is It Important to Photography Sites?

Deep linking is the practice of creating unique URLs for internal pages or elements on your website. It’s a common technique that is sometimes used to improve navigation when directing others to your site.

For example, a deep link on your photography website could look something like http://yoursitedomain.com/page/. This is a specific URL that differentiates the content from your homepage.

However, you can also use deep linking to point to specific images in your galleries. For example, such a URL might look something like http://yoursitedomain.com/gallery/photo.

There are many benefits to using this practice on your photography website. Primarily, it facilitates a photography site filled with galleries that are not only easier to navigate, but easier to share as well.

Individual URLs for each of your images can simplify the process of sharing them with clients and potential leads. Let’s say you want to refer a client to a specific image in one of the galleries on your WordPress site. Instead of making them click through the photos until they find the right one, you can share the unique address for the relevant piece.

How to Use Deep Linking on Your WordPress Photography Site (In 3 Steps)

Unfortunately, you can’t create gallery deep links to your images with WordPress alone. However, you can incorporate them with help from a plugin. Let’s take a look at how you can implement this technique on your photography site in three simple steps.

Step 1: Install the NextGEN Gallery and NextGEN Pro Plugins

NextGEN Gallery is the most popular WordPress photography plugin. It’s free and lets you add a variety of image gallery and album displays to your site:

You’ll need it to use NextGEN Pro, which is the premium version of the plugin that comes with a built-in deep linking feature. After you install and activate NextGEN Gallery, you can upgrade from your WordPress dashboard by clicking on Gallery > Upgrade to Pro in your sidebar.

After you download the .zip file for NextGEN Pro, you can upload it to your WordPress site by going to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin. Once you’ve activated it, you’ll see a new Ecommerce link in your dashboard sidebar.

If you’re a Photocrati Pro customer, then you’ll be happy to know your theme comes with NextGEN Pro!

Step 2: Turn on the Pro Lightbox Effect

One of the premium displays that’s included with this plugin is the Pro Lightbox. In addition to showcasing your photos in large, easy to see pop-up windows, this feature enables image commenting, social sharing, and the deep linking gallery setting.

To enable deep linking, simply navigate to Gallery > Other Options > Lightbox Effects in your WordPress dashboard:

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Under the section heading What lightbox would you like to use? there will be a dropdown menu. Select NextGEN Pro Lightbox. Then click on the Save Options button in the top right corner:

Once the Pro Lightbox effect is enabled, visitors will be able to open this display by clicking on any image in one of your galleries.

Step 3: Test to Make Sure the Deep Linking Feature Is Working

If you have the NextGEN Pro Lightbox and deep linking enabled, the unique URLs for each of your images will be created automatically. To test it, you can visit the front end of your photography site.

Navigate to one of your galleries and open the lightbox display. You will be able to see each image’s deep link in the address bar of your browser. If it’s working correctly, you will notice that the URL changes slightly for each photo as you click through them.

Conclusion

Optimizing any WordPress site for optimal usability can be a tedious task. However, this is particularly true when it comes to image-heavy photography websites. The good news is that there are techniques you can use to significantly enhance the User Experience (UX) and navigation of your site, including deep linking your photo galleries.

As we discussed in this article, you can deep link images in your galleries by following three simple steps:

1. Install the NextGEN Gallery and NextGEN Pro plugins.
2. Turn on the Pro Lightbox effect.
3. Test to make sure the deep linking feature is working.

Do you have any questions about deep linking for your photography site? Let us know in the comments section below!

You need a responsive image gallery grid. But with the thousands of gallery plugins, it can be overwhelming to determine which to use.

If you’re a Photocrati customer than you’re fortunate to have the power and flexibility of NextGEN Gallery combined with NextGEN.

With NextGEN Gallery you get more than just gallery displays. You get a full image management suite with all the features photographers need.

Inside of NextGEN Pro is multiple grid style display types. The first is the classic Masonry style. Then there is the more modern Mosaic style. Finally, coming soon to NextGEN Pro is the Tile gallery. Each of which is a responsive image gallery grid and can enhance the look of your site.

Now, if you do not use NextGEN Gallery or NextGEN Pro, and you’re using WordPress 5.0 or newer with the block editor, check out CoBlocks. Inside is a gallery block that could suit your needs. Mind you, there is no gallery management system you get with NextGEN Gallery. But if you need a simple responsive image gallery grid, then CoBlocks could suffice.

The update is available within your site’s dashboard as a quick auto update.

Here are the changes in 3.0.

• NEW: Redesign of NextGEN Gallery backend interface
• NEW: New NGG introduction video on Overview page and added to Insert Gallery Window
• Changed: Location of NextGen Gallery menu item in the main WordPress admin menu
• Changed: Upgraded Select2 to latest release (4.0.5)
• Changed: Updated link href to ‘image delete’ & ‘recover’ links
• Changed: Image descriptions may include <img> elements with src, alt, title, id, class, name, rel, and style
• Fixed: Removed use of screen_icon() from plugin
• Fixed: Color selection widget keeping unsaved values between page refreshes
• Fixed: Prevent caching of display_tab.js which can break the IGW

For Photocrati Pro users, NextGEN Pro was updated at the same time.

“What plugins do you recommend for selling things other than photos? For example, I want to sell gift certificates for the holidays and make it easy to order online.”

There are multiple ways you can offer gift certificates to your customers.

Simple

The first, simplest, and our personal favorite is a simple contact form with an e-commerce option.

There are multiple contact form plugins offering e-commerce options, like Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms and more. The goal here is to have a simple form, asking for all the information you would need to send the gift certificate to the giftee.

With these plugins, you can add Stripe or PayPal payment for ease of checkout. And if you pick Gravity Forms, you could also pick up a PDF generation addon which can generate and send the gift certificate automatically.

Complex

If you happen to be using WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads on your website, then you’ll be happy to know there are gift certificate add-ons available to you. Most photographers aren’t using those e-commerce systems, though, as they’re not ideal for selling photographs. They’re really designed to sell anything and everything, and there is a big difference between image-centric e-commerce and general e-commerce when it comes to selling photographs.

But WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are popular e-commerce plugins in the overall WordPress community, so it’s worth mentioning them.

• WooCommerce Smart Coupons offers gift certificates (there are also third-party add-ons)
• Gift a Product is a third-party plugin for Easy Digital Downloads

The reason we classified these as a complex method is that, in order to sell gift certificates through them, you need the full e-commerce solution installed and configured on your site. Even if you’re not going to use the rest of the features.

Our Recommendation

We like to say keep it stupid simple. The contact form plugin method is simpler and makes more sense for most photographers. Because you likely won’t be using a complex solution like WooCommerce to sell your photographs to clients. You will, however, be likely to use a contact form plugin in multiple ways. Like for contact pages, client questionnaires and more.