I look at a lot of wedding photographer websites. They are some of the best-looking sites in any industry, and some of the worst at getting found. It is almost always the same handful of mistakes. Here they are, and what to ask if you decide to hire someone to fix them.
Mistake 1: renting your rankings from The Knot
The Knot, WeddingWire and Zola rank for “wedding photographer [city]” in almost every market. When you pay to be listed there, you are paying to sit on their page next to twenty competitors, and the couple sees their brand, not yours. There is nothing wrong with being listed. The mistake is having no page of your own that could rank, so the listing is your only door. Build your own city wedding page and let the directory be a bonus, not a lifeline.
Mistake 2: full-size photos on every page
Your site is slow because every image is the size of a print. Google ranks slow sites lower, and couples on a phone give up. Resize photos for the web before uploading. They will still look great on a screen. This is the easiest fix on this list and the one I see most.
Mistake 3: no words
A slideshow, a logo and a form. Google cannot read a photo. It needs a heading, a paragraph and a page title that say what you do and where. Even three sentences under the slideshow changes what Google can see. The website pages guide shows where the words go.
Mistake 4: hiding prices
Couples search for cost before they search for you. A site with no price range loses them to a site with one. You do not have to post a full price sheet. A starting price is enough.
Mistake 5: no Google listing, or a half-finished one
“I work from home, so I cannot have one.” You can. The Google Business Profile guide shows how. A finished listing with fresh reviews is the fastest win in this whole industry.
Mistake 6: a portfolio grid instead of venue pages
One giant “Portfolio” page ranks for nothing. The same photos split into one page per venue, each with the venue name in the title, rank for every venue search in your area. See the venue gallery pages guide.
Mistake 7: Instagram as the only website
Instagram is great for showing your work to people who already follow you. It is terrible for being found by a couple who does not. Google barely shows Instagram posts for “wedding photographer [city].” A website with real pages is what ranks. Keep posting on Instagram, but point it at your site, not the other way around.
Mistake 8: changing your business name every year
“Jane Doe Photography” becomes “Jane Doe Photo Co.” becomes “JD Weddings.” Every rename splits your reviews, your listing and your links. Pick a name and keep it. If you must change it, change it everywhere at once and keep the old website address pointing to the new one.
Mistake 9: hiring the wrong help
A lot of SEO companies sell wedding photographers the same package they sell to everyone else: a blog post a month and a monthly report nobody reads. Before you hire anyone, ask these:
- “Can you show me a photographer or wedding business you rank?” Not a screenshot. A site you can search for yourself, right now, on your phone.
- “What are the first three things you would change on my site?” If the answer is vague, so will the work be.
- “Will I own everything you build?” Pages, listing, photos, logins. If they keep it when you leave, walk away.
- “Is there a contract?” Good SEO shows up in a few months. You should not need a year-long contract to find out if it is working.
- “Who does the work?” The person on the sales call, or someone you will never meet?
Honest answers to those five questions tell you more than any sales deck. If a company cannot answer the first one, nothing else matters.
Want this done for you?
I run a wedding photography site in Tampa Bay myself, so I can show you one, and there is no contract. If you want to know which of these mistakes your site is making, the audit is free.