SEO for Photographers

There’s so much more to SEO than sprinkling a few keywords throughout your pages. Anyone with a photography business can take steps today to optimize their website content and images for greater visibility and more visitors. 

Once you set up and style your online portfolio, you can take a methodical approach to SEO, zooming in on optimizations that will bring the most value to your site.  

Read on to learn how to strategically apply SEO to reach more potential clients and customers for your unique business, whether you’re selling prints, offering photo packages, teaching online courses, or simply showing off your portfolio.

Why SEO matters for photographers

What value can SEO bring you and your photography-related business? Here’s what you can gain from your targeted, consistent SEO efforts:

• Higher online visibility

• Wider audience reach

• Showing up in more search results

• Greater online presence in your geographic area

• Higher prominence in your niche

• Business growth

• More clients

Many customers don’t go looking for a specific photographer when they want art or photo services. Instead, they’ll search generally for what they want, like “Paris skyline print”, “family photography New York”, or “photography class”. SEO helps your website appear in those searches and reach your ideal customer. 

Squarespace websites have built-in tools to help your website’s SEO from a technical standpoint, but there are some changes you can make to optimize your site too. 

1. Optimize your photography website’s SEO

As a photographer, your images are the heart of your business. Great SEO ensures you don’t just have a beautiful website, but people can find your work. Let’s cover core areas to consider for your website, like your images and portfolio.

Image optimization

Whether you photograph weddings, landscapes, people, homes, or something else, your website will be full of images. 

While that’s a good thing for displaying the breadth and depth of your work, it’s not always so great for site loading speeds. That’s one factor search engines consider when ranking sites, since a slower website is less helpful to a searcher. To prevent slower loading, optimize all your images.

• Compress your image files. Huge file sizes slow down your website. Use an image compression tool to reduce image sizes without sacrificing resolution. Aim for 500KB if you can, and test larger sizes from there.

• Make your images clickable. Make your images clickable to keep users on your site longer—the longer they hang around, the better for your SEO. 

• Optimize for different devices. Pay close attention to image size on a mobile device versus a desktop. Adjust sizes so that users can view your photos clearly on different devices.

• Come up with descriptive file names. Give each image an intuitive, descriptive name, one that makes it clear to users and search engines what it’s depicting. 

File names matter for searchability, so renaming image files for more clarity is a great way for photographers to improve their SEO. If it fits naturally, add a target keyword to your image file name. Squarespace recently released a time-saving feature that lets you rename an image in one place and have this change propagate across your website.  

See more tips for optimizing your website images

Portfolio optimization

Another essential SEO step for photographers is optimizing your portfolio pages. Your portfolio is about showcasing your work, but how you organize it can help you rank for relevant searches and help visitors navigate more easily.

• Use portfolio pages. Squarespace lets you use portfolio pages to showcase your products and services. Take advantage of the various layouts to present your images in the most impactful way.

• Leverage your pages. Use portfolio pages to create distinct sections for different services, packages, or photography styles (e.g., weddings, portraits, commercial). This helps potential clients quickly find what they're looking for. 

• Target specific keywords. Each portfolio page can be optimized for a specific keyword or niche. For example, a page showcasing your wedding photography could target keywords like "[Your City] wedding photographer" or "destination wedding photography."

• Organize strategically. Organize your galleries in a logical and intuitive way, making it easy for visitors (and search engines) to navigate your portfolio. Consider grouping images by style, theme, or project.

• Optimize each page name. Use naming conventions that make sense for each portfolio page and gallery you present. Create strong titles with clear descriptions.

Read the full guide to SEO for portfolio websites

On-page optimization

After optimizing your images and your portfolio, you can complete key on-page optimizations to boost your site’s SEO power even further. 

• Title tags: For each page, create a title tag—the text that appears in your browser tab and search results—that includes your main keyword for that page and your geographical location.

• Meta descriptions: Write a compelling, keyword-rich summary for each page. Use Squarespace’s AI writer to help you come up with strong meta descriptions and title tags.

• Header tags (H1, H2, H3): Include keyword-optimized headers on your pages. Organize your content in a way that fits logically under each heading or subheading, and use keywords naturally, never forced.  

• Image alt text: For each image, you can write alt text that describes images for accessibility. In addition to making your pages more accessible to visitors, you’re giving your website an SEO boost, since search engines check alt text to identify what an image is about.

• Internal linking: A great way to encourage visitors to stay on your site and keep browsing is to link to other relevant pages on your site in your copy.

After you’ve optimized your images, portfolios, and pages, you can work on your searchability off of your website, also known as off-page SEO.

2. Build off-page and local SEO

Plenty of SEO opportunities exist outside of your website. Try these tips to capitalize on search within other platforms and local SEO possibilities. 

• Social media: Build social media pages and link them to your website. Social media helps you connect with potential new clients and simplifies sharing your work. Encourage clients to tag you in their posts featuring your photos to increase your visibility and reach.

• Event partner collaborations: Partner with other businesses (wedding planners, event venues, etc.) to offer your services at events. This provides exposure to new audiences and potential clients if they share your work.

• Local directories: Ensure your business is listed accurately on local directories and online maps, improving your local search visibility.

• Testimonials: Reviews by happy clients on directories or social media give you the social proof you need to encourage new clients to work with you.

3. Get a handle on UX

Creating a great user experience (UX) for your site visitors is just as important as having quality work. Search engines favor websites that offer a positive user experience, so let's explore some key UX principles.

• Organized structure: Guide your visitors effortlessly through your site with clear navigation and logical content grouping. Use drop-down menus and group similar items together.

• Make it intuitive: Put yourself in your visitor's shoes. Ask a friend to navigate your site or try it yourself. Identify any confusing areas and simplify the navigation for a smoother experience.

• Achieve consistency: Maintain a cohesive look and feel throughout your site. Squarespace provides a great foundation for fonts, colors, and buttons, but pay attention to consistent headers, section styles, and spacing. This builds trust in your professionalism.

Good UX makes it easier for search engines to understand and rank your website pages and keeps visitors on your site for longer with a good browsing experience. By prioritizing UX, you'll create a website that ranks well and converts visitors into clients.

4. Adapt your SEO for your niche

Use your expertise to your advantage to create SEO opportunities custom-fit for your photography niche. Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Niche keywords: What type of photography do you do? As a wedding photographer, you might specialize in destination weddings, elopement photography, or faith-based weddings. Find variations of your niche to come up with keywords to use.

• Client expectations: What do your clients expect of you? Their expectations can turn into keywords you’ll want to include in your image alt text, page meta descriptions, and section headings. Examples include “experienced commercial photographer”, “outdoor graduation photoshoot”, or “professional food photography”.

• Clear categories: People often look for specific types of photographers. They’ll search for terms like “baby photoshoot,” “product photography,” “family photoshoot,” “drone photography,” “photo restoration,” or “headshot photography,” for example. Turn the categories you specialize in into pages and include keywords for your images, tags, and page content that match the category.

Capitalize on your specialties and, where practical, add a geographical tie-in to help potential customers find you. By tailoring your SEO strategy to your niche, you will likely grab the attention of qualified leads. 

5. Keep tracking and improving your SEO

Once you’ve optimized the bulk of your site, you can keep going with less investment of your time. Set goals and key performance indicators (KPIs), and track your rankings, organic traffic, and conversions to see the progress that you’re making. SEO takes time to bear results—often three to six months or more, so be patient after making updates.

Make sure to do some regular maintenance at least once a year. In as little as 10 minutes, you can make any necessary changes.

• Optimize images to reduce file sizes and maintain fast page loading speeds.

• Add alt text descriptions to your images.

• Navigate your website like a new user to ensure it’s intuitive.

• Optimize your mobile experience.

Success with SEO for photographers is an ongoing effort. By staying updated on the latest trends and continuing to optimize your portfolio, you’ll keep seeing the improvements you need to reach a wider audience.