How do I get my photography website found on Google?

One page per thing you sell

A single 'Services' page cannot rank for maternity, boudoir, elopements and commercial work at once. Each service, and each location you genuinely serve, needs its own page with real copy, real images and real pricing signals.

Guides answer the searches that come before booking

People search 'what to wear', 'how much does it cost' and 'ideas' long before they search for a photographer. Guides that answer those questions bring in visitors early and keep your name in front of them until they are ready.

Technical basics photographers usually miss

• ✔Compressed, correctly sized images with descriptive file names
• ✔Unique title tags and meta descriptions per page
• ✔A working sitemap submitted in Search Console
• ✔A complete, categorised Google Business Profile
• ✔Internal links from guides to service and booking pages

Google Business Profile basics

For any creative business that serves a local area, a complete Google Business Profile is one of the most direct ways to be findable. Fill in every field honestly: correct categories, service area, business hours, and a description written for a person, not a keyword list. Add real photos of your actual work, and keep the profile updated as your services or areas change.

This is a foundation, not a shortcut — it works alongside a real website and real work, not instead of them.

Service pages instead of one do-everything page

A single homepage trying to describe every service you offer, in every location, makes it hard for both visitors and search engines to understand what you actually do. Dedicated pages for each core service — for example, separate pages for portrait sessions, elopements, brand photography, or whatever your specific offerings are — give a clear, specific answer to a specific question someone is searching.

Each service page should describe who it is for, what is included, and what to expect, in your own words, with your own images. Thin pages copied from a template rarely help.

Image file naming and alt text

Every image you upload is an opportunity to describe what it shows in plain language. Rename files from generic camera names to short, descriptive file names before uploading, and write alt text that genuinely describes the image rather than stuffing it with repeated keywords. This helps visually impaired visitors using screen readers and gives search engines accurate context about your work.

• ✔Rename files descriptively before upload, for example newberry-florida-elopement-portrait.jpg
• ✔Write alt text as a plain description of the scene, not a keyword list
• ✔Compress images so they load quickly without visible quality loss
• ✔Keep a consistent naming pattern across your whole site

Page speed and internal linking

A slow-loading site loses visitors before they see the work that would have convinced them. Compress and properly size every image, remove unused plugins or scripts, and periodically check how quickly your key pages load. Internal linking — linking from a blog post or gallery to the relevant service page, and from a service page to your contact page — helps visitors find their way to booking and helps search engines understand how your pages relate to each other.

Measuring what is working

Basic tracking of where visitors come from and which pages lead to inquiries turns SEO from guesswork into an ongoing, improvable process. Review this every few months rather than daily, and use it to decide where to invest more time — a new service page, more work in a particular style, or an updated Google Business Profile — rather than chasing every new tactic that appears.