If you’re wondering how to create a photography website, you might be thinking you simply need to showcase all your portfolio pieces, a paragraph about you, and a way to get in touch…and call it a day.
This may have been the case 10 years ago, but now with websites in conjunction with social media bring in multiple avenues of traffic, you need a little bit more than images and a contact form.
After designing websites for photographers for years, I can tell you that the prettiest website in the world isn’t going to do much for your business if people can’t find it, don’t understand what you offer or have no idea where to go next.
Your website has a job. It needs to be the employee that is working for you 24/7.
Your website has a few jobs but some of the important ones are…It needs to tell people who you are, what you photograph, where you work and why someone should choose you. It should make it incredibly easy for the right person to look through your work, connect with you and eventually hit that inquiry button.
And ideally? Google should understand all of those things too. Since the moment you publish any website it isn’t immediately found online, but there are steps you can take to help push things along much faster!
So before you spend three hours deciding between two almost identical fonts (I get it), or deciding which color palette will bring in luxury clients, here’s what I would actually focus on when creating a photography website.
1. Start with the people you want to book
Before you pick a designer, a template, font or colour palette, you need to know who you’re trying to attract.
What photography is your main focus? (for example you photograph weddings, and family photography, but maybe weddings is the one that takes the cake! So that would be your main focus, it doesn’t mean you can’t photograph other things but this will be where you put your energy]
What kind of client are you hoping lands on your website?
What are they looking for when they get there? Are you using their language?
Your website doesn’t need to appeal to everyone—and honestly, it probably shouldn’t.
If you photograph weddings, families and brands but you’re really trying to grow the wedding side of your business, someone shouldn’t have to dig through your website to figure that out.
Your images, words, portfolio and services should all be pointing the right person in the same direction.
You want someone to land on your website and immediately think:
Yep. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for.
Once you know who you’re talking to, creating the rest of your photography website becomes a whole lot easier.
2. Choose a website platform you can actually use
There are a LOT of website platforms out there.
I personally design in Showit, and I’ve been using it for years. One of the biggest reasons I love it, especially for photographers, is the amount of creative freedom you have without needing to know how to code.
You can make your website feel completely like your brand, but you can also log in next month and change a photo or sentence yourself without calling your web designer every time. Which I believe is so important. Nothing worse than feeling like you can’t change anything by yourself without freaking out.
Your photography business is going to change. Your portfolio will change. Your pricing will change. Your services might change and your website should be able to grow with you.
When you’re learning how to create a photography website and doing it yourself, choosing the right platform doesn’t have to be complicated, make sure it’s something you’re actually comfortable using after the website launches.
3. You really don’t need 20 pages
More isn’t always better.
For most photographers, I would start with the essentials:
- Home
- About
- Services
- Portfolio
- Contact
- Blog
Then build from there based on what you actually offer.
One thing I do recommend is creating separate pages for the services you really want people to find.
Let’s say you’re a photographer in Austin offering weddings, engagements, families and brand photography.
Instead of putting all four services onto one page with a tiny paragraph about each, your main services can have their own pages.
Why? First, it’s a much better experience for your potential client. Someone interested in brand photography can land on a page entirely dedicated to what they’re looking for.
But it also gives Google a much clearer understanding of what that page is about.
You can absolutely keep the website clean with the Services page, however make sure you can link out to the individual page itself through the services page. This helps keep your navigation clean but allows for pages on the back end to be individualized.
A full page about brand photography in Austin gives Google a lot more information than one sentence buried halfway down a generic Services page.
Which brings me to one of my favourite things to talk about…
4. Please put words on your photography website
I KNOW. You’re a photographer and you want the photos to do the talking.
And visually? Absolutely.
But if your entire homepage consists of beautiful images and phrases like:
Capturing the moments that matter.
Your story, artfully told.
Preserving memories for generations.
…we have a slight problem.
What do you actually do? And where do you do it?
A human might be able to figure it out by looking through your galleries. Google needs more context.
Your website copy doesn’t need to be stuffed with keywords or sound like it was written for a search engine. It just needs to clearly explain your business. If you’re a family photographer in Denver, SAY you’re a family photographer in Denver.
Something as simple as:
I’m a Denver family photographer creating relaxed, natural imagery for families who want their photos to actually feel like them.
Now your potential client knows what you do, and Google does too.
This is one of the biggest things I want photographers to understand when learning how to create a photography website themselves:
Your photos create the feeling. Your words provide the context. You need both.
5. How to Create a Photography Website Google Can Understand
SEO has somehow become this big scary thing people think they need to hire someone to “do” after their website is built. But some of the most important SEO decisions happen while you’re building the website.
What are your pages about? What services are you trying to be found for? What locations do you serve?
What would your ideal client actually type into Google when they’re looking for someone like you?
Those answers should influence your page structure and copy.
You’ll also want to pay attention to things like your page titles, meta descriptions, headings and image descriptions.
None of this means writing awkward sentences like:
Denver family photographer specializing in Denver family photography for people looking for a Denver family photographer.
Please don’t. 😂
Write for humans first, the goal is simply to make it incredibly obvious what you do, who you do it for and where you do it.
Not sure whether Google can actually find your website?
I created a free 5-Minute Google Guide for Photographers that walks you through a few of the simple things I think every photographer should set up.
No complicated SEO jargon. Just the basics to help Google find your site and start collecting useful information about how people are discovering you.
GET THE FREE 5-MINUTE GOOGLE GUIDE
6. Curate your portfolio instead of showing everything
You don’t have to show every great photo you’ve ever taken. Actually, please don’t, show the best work that would bring in the person who wants to hire you!
If you want more editorial work, show editorial work.
If you want more families, make sure a family can land on your site and immediately see themselves in your portfolio.
If you want to move into higher-end weddings, your portfolio should reflect the kind of weddings you want to continue photographing.
Think of your portfolio less like an archive of everything you’ve done and more like:
Here’s what I can do for you.
Curating your work also makes your website feel more intentional. Twenty incredible images can sometimes make a much stronger impression than seventy-five images someone has to scroll through.
7. Make sure the mobile version actually looks good
You spend hours making your desktop website perfect.
Then you open it on your phone and suddenly a heading is across someone’s forehead, a button is floating in the middle of nowhere and your carefully cropped hero image has lost half the bride.
Welcome to website design. 😂 Don’t treat mobile like an afterthought. People are finding photographers through Instagram, Pinterest, Google and referrals, and a lot of them are clicking through from their phones.
Before launching, go through your entire website on your phone. If I have to recommend one place to look better than desktop it would be MOBILE since 90% of users are always browsing on their phones.
Click the buttons.
Submit the contact form.
Check your image crops.
Read the text.
Make sure the fonts aren’t microscopic. Not everyone can read an 11 point font, some people have reading disabilities or struggle with glasses. You must take this into consideration when reviewing your website.
Make sure someone can easily get from your homepage to your services to your contact page without needing a map and a compass.
A huge part of learning how to create a photography website is realizing that you’re not designing it for yourself. You’re designing the experience for the person using it.
8. Give people somewhere to go next
This sounds incredibly simple, but I see websites miss it all the time and it’s easy to drop off and lose interest these days with everyone’s short attention spans.
Every page should have a next step and don’t make someone finish reading your About page and then… that’s it.
Tell them where to go. People desperately need direction, and are happy when it’s less thinking on their part and naturally flows them to where they’re going.
View the Portfolio.
Explore the Experience.
See the Services.
Check Availability.
Let’s Work Together.
Your website should almost gently walk someone through your business.
They might land on your homepage, click into your portfolio, read about your services, head over to your About page and then decide they’re ready to inquire.
Great! Make that journey easy.
9. Set up the boring Google stuff
It’s not sexy, but we’re doing it. 😂 Once your website is ready, there are three free Google tools/settings I don’t want you to forget:
Google Analytics helps you understand what’s happening on your website—how people are using it, which pages they’re visiting and where your traffic is coming from.
Google Search Console helps you understand what’s happening before someone gets to your website through Google—what people are searching, which pages are showing up and whether Google is indexing your site properly.
And your sitemap is essentially a map of your website that helps search engines discover your pages. Submit it through Google Search Console.
Then leave everything alone for a bit. Seriously…you don’t need to check your analytics every day wondering why 4,000 people haven’t magically appeared.
SEO takes time. Let Google collect data. The earlier you do this the BETTER. I wasted years waiting and wished I started collection the data sooner.
The information becomes much more useful as your website starts getting impressions, clicks and traffic.
And if you’re already thinking Tina, I have no idea if I’ve done any of this, that’s exactly why I made my 5-Minute Google Guide for Photographers.
10. And then… launch the thing
At some point, you have to stop tweaking it. Waiting for the right portfolio, waiting on that next client, or thinking social media is “enough”. A website working hard for you can bring in thousands of more people organically, which is different traffic from social media and even ads.
Do not sleep on how powerful your website can be! Plus your website can and will evolve as your business grows (mine has) so I’m not going to be shocked when you say yours does too in 1,2 or 3 years.
The important thing is getting the right foundation up! An online home that represents your work, explains what you do, helps the right people find you and gives them an easy way to hire you.
That’s ultimately the goal when you’re figuring out how to create and launch a website for your photography business.
Not perfection, a website that actually works for your business is the goal here.
You also don’t have to start with a blank screen
If you’ve made it this far and you’re thinking that this is sooo helpful, I’m glad :)!
Okay…but I still don’t want to build this whole thing from scratch. Or maybe you’re thinking my website has been ok for years, can I change it? Should I change it? How do I change it?
Fair. That’s exactly why I create Showit website templates for photographers using the exact strategy of all my custom design clients.
I’ve taken the strategy and structure I use when designing websites and built it into templates, so you don’t have to stare at a blank screen wondering where the heck everything is supposed to go.
You bring your photography, your brand and your personality. The foundation is already there, use it! This isn’t cheating, this isn’t “not standing out” this is creating a foundation so that you can keep going, and use your energy in doing the things you’re freaking good at. Rather than trying to now learn the skill of a designer.
Customize the fonts and colors, images, and text, keep what you need and hide what you don’t then launch. It’s that easy, so you can start with the proper foundation rather than a massive gallery, posting on social media and hoping for the best that those inquiries come through.
Because yes, I want your website to look beautiful.
But I also want it to do something for your business.
