Most photographers ask me to check their SEO expecting a two-minute yes or no answer. It’s never two minutes, but here’s the honest version: photography website SEO usually breaks down in the same five spots, and you can check every one of them yourself in about twenty minutes.
Are Your Image File Names Doing Anything For You?
Every photo you upload either helps your SEO or wastes the opportunity completely. If your images are still named DSC_4821.jpg, Google has no idea what’s in them.
Rename your files before uploading, using your actual keywords. “indianapolis-wedding-photographer-first-look.jpg” tells Google exactly what the image is and where it belongs in search results. This one habit alone fixes more photography sites than anything else on this list, and it costs you nothing but a few extra seconds per upload.
Does Every Image Have Real Alt Text?
Alt text is the written description attached to an image, and it’s one of the most overlooked parts of photography website SEO. It tells Google, and increasingly AI search tools, what’s actually in the photo.
Write alt text the way you’d describe the image to someone who can’t see it: specific, accurate, and including your location or niche where it makes sense. “Bride and groom first look at a Greenwood Indiana barn wedding” beats “wedding photo” every time. Skip the keyword stuffing though, one honest sentence per image is plenty.
Are Your Page Titles Actually Titles, or Just “Home”?
If your homepage title tag says “Home” or your services page says “Services,” you’re handing Google nothing to work with. Every page needs a title that includes what you do and where you do it.
Your title tags are one of the first things Google reads to decide what a page is about and who to show it to. “Wedding Photographer in Greenwood, Indiana” tells Google (and a searcher scanning results) exactly what they’re getting. This is a five minute fix in most website builders, and it’s one of the biggest gaps I see on new client sites.
Is Your Blog Actually Connected to Your SEO Strategy?
A blog with no keyword behind it is just a diary. A blog built around what your ideal clients are actually Googling is a growth engine.
Before you write another post, check whether it targets something real people search for. This is where a full keyword deep dive matters more than posting frequency. Two focused, keyword-driven blog posts a month will outperform eight random ones almost every time. Curious what that looks like in practice? You can see how we structure client blogs.
The Part Most Photographers Skip: Google Search Console
You can’t fix what you can’t see. Google Search Console shows you exactly what’s happening with your site: which pages are indexed, what you’re ranking for, and where you’re losing clicks.
If you’ve never connected it, that’s step one before any of the above matters. It’s free, it takes ten minutes to set up, and it’s the only place that shows you the truth about your actual SEO, not a guess.
Not something you want to DIY every month? That’s the actual job. Hi, I’m Emma. Let’s Chat!
Frequently Asked Questions
Photography website SEO is the process of optimizing your images, page titles, alt text, and content so your website shows up when potential clients search for a photographer in your area. It combines technical setup with ongoing content like blogging, and it’s different from general SEO because so much of a photography site is visual, not text.
Only going forward, you don’t need to go back and rename years of old images. Start renaming new uploads with descriptive, keyword-rich file names immediately, and prioritize your homepage and top service pages if you want to fix older images first.
Most photographers start seeing meaningful movement in 3 to 6 months, with results continuing to build after that. SEO is a long game, not an overnight fix, but once it’s working it keeps working around the clock without ongoing ad spend.
Squarespace covers the SEO basics well: titles, descriptions, and alt text. It just doesn’t offer the deeper plugin access that platforms like Showit paired with WordPress do, which matters more the more seriously you’re blogging. For a closer look at the platform differences that affect your SEO, we broke it down in a dedicated post.
