Visual strategy

[clotairedamy]

Currently working on a project for a  talented photographer  and retoucher from Europe who specializes in glamour, fashion, editorial.  I'm a very analytical person and I want this website to have a highly visual impact and a good SEO implementation.

My question is:

Is it recommended to  display the portfolio section on the frontpage or on a separate page. There is also the possibility to include some files on frontpage and have a separate Portfolio page with more projects. Which path are you recommending?

Thanks

[EGOL]

I always ask my visitors what works best.

I create multiple designs and run each of them, collecting data from services like google analytics and crazyegg.  This allows you to observe visitor activity, sales and ad income, then use that data to inform the design process.

Some of my pages have been through 15 or more different formats.  And, the income difference between what I started with and what I settled with has been as high as 10X.

If you have a lot of traffic you can toss a design up and know how its working within a few hours.  If you don't get much traffic it might take a few weeks to get enough information to take action.

I have learned so much from doing this and my income is much higher.

I am surprised that lots of designers are not offering "optimization" services to improve the effectiveness of their clients' websites.  So many of them think that "what I produce is golden".  Or, maybe they are afraid to admit that their designs are based only upon their personal visual preference and that they don't have any idea of how effective they are going to be with visitors.  I got started on this when a professional designer redid one of my sites and visitor actions and income fell through the floor.

[clotairedamy]

That's true EGOL, I'm in the same situation with my personal website, been trying to optimize the architecture for months and at this time I'm still undecided , weekly I'm changing the order, resize the slides, adding content to the page, optimizing the keywords until I get some results. I work closely with theme developers and I make some technical suggestions after i test the template with different tools.