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A couple looking for their wedding photographer first finds supplier directories and matchmaking platforms. A business that wants portraits comes across stock photo libraries and chain studios. These sites are powerful; I won't tell you otherwise. Yet they show neither your eye nor the places where you've already worked. Google reads text, and most photographers' websites contain almost none. That's where I help you.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroSeven results, only one photographer
A couple are planning their wedding near Jarnac and are looking for a photographer. The page shows them directories, platforms and a magazine. You've photographed several weddings in this area, and your site is on the seventh line. Move it up.
Fig. 1. Seven results for a wedding in Jarnac. Only one has already photographed in the area. (The other six list profiles. You're the only one showing the venue the couple has booked.)
What this means for you. I get your shoots published with their venue, their season and a few lines of story. None of the other six results has any of these pages.
SEO for a photographer is the work that makes their website and Google Business Profile show up when a couple, a family or a business in their region is looking for an imaging professional. It means separating specialities onto distinct pages, publishing full shoots with their venue and context, describing each important photo and lightening the files so pages load fast. It is judged by the number of quote requests that match what the photographer wants to do.
The problem
On “wedding photographer” and a department, the top results are directories listing dozens of profiles. You can be on them, but there you're compared on price and three thumbnails. Your site needs to receive some of these visitors without going through them.
A full-screen gallery pleases the eye. For a search engine, it's an almost empty page: no title, no place, no caption. It can't guess that these photos were taken at a wedding near Cognac.
Your posts drop out of the feed within days and don't belong to you. Someone looking for a photographer for next year doesn't scroll back through a feed. They type a search, and they need to find you there.
An audit, for real
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
Capturing the moment
A passionate photographer, I capture your emotions and turn them into memories.
Contact meFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
What your customers type
Here are six example searches for a photographer based in the regions. They don't apply to everyone. Your list will depend on your specialities and will be drawn up during the audit.
What works
Weddings, portraits and corporate photography are not aimed at the same people. Each of these activities has its own page, vocabulary, examples and price. A head of communications shouldn't have to wade through three wedding galleries to find your workshop shoots.
I have you publish complete series rather than a selection of your best images. Each series has its title, its place, its season and a few lines on how it unfolded. That text is what lets Google connect the page to a search.
Every important photo gets a clear file name and a short description. I also have the file sizes reduced and their loading tuned. A slow photographer's website loses its mobile visitors before the first image.
It matters for family shoots, portraits and local searches. I check the category, the service area, the photos and the links to your pages. If you have a studio, the address and appointment hours are on it.
A wedding venue, a caterer or a corporate client can mention your name and link to your website. These local links fit your business. I help you ask for them simply, in exchange for the images you already provide them.
What costs dearly
A “Gallery” page where a wedding, a newborn and a factory follow one another matches no search. Visitors can't tell what you do first and foremost. Neither can Google.
A string of letters and numbers says nothing about the image. A readable name and a description of a few words give Google something to understand the photo with and show it in image search.
With no reference point, some visitors leave and the rest write to ask what the website could have told them. Giving a starting point filters enquiries and saves you time.
Some templates load every image at once, in full resolution. The page takes long seconds to open. I first check whether adjusting the settings is enough, before talking about changing tools.
The method
Four steps, which I carry out with you. Choosing the images stays your job, I take care of what surrounds them.
One-minute test
Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you.
What it brings in
A ranking doesn't pay a salary. What counts is what it brings: enquiries, customers, revenue. Move your page up and see what it could bring in.
Example assumptions, open to challenge: 350 searches a month for a wedding photographer in your département, 3% of visitors make an enquiry, one enquiry in three is signed (this varies a lot from one trade to another), €1,500 per client. Click-through rates by position are orders of magnitude, and they have been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the calculation with your figures
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
Charente has many wedding venues: manor houses, estates in the middle of the vineyards, halls by the river. It also has businesses that need images, around Angoulême and in the cognac industry. National directories ignore these places. With Newp, which I co-founded in the département, I build your pages around them.
Requests for professional portraits and corporate shoots are concentrated in the urban area. A page that names Angoulême, your studio or the area you travel to, with examples by type of commission, answers these searches.
Around Cognac, businesses in the industry commission photos of cellars, craftsmanship and products. If you do this work, give it a simple page, with examples published with your clients' agreement.
From Jarnac to Barbezieux, receptions take place in properties that couples search for by name. Every story published with the venue and the town becomes a way into your website.
Beyond Google
Couples and businesses also ask an AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Mistral. An example: “we're getting married in June at an estate near Cognac, which photographer knows this kind of venue?”. The AI doesn't see your images. It reads what is written around them.
So a photographer's website with no text has nothing to offer it. A story titled “June wedding at a wine estate near Cognac”, followed by a few lines on the light, how the day unfolded and the venue, gives it facts it can reuse. Your Google Business Profile, your reviews and the websites of the venues where you work complete the picture. I make sure they all describe your business in the same words.
Question asked to an AIWe're getting married in June at an estate near Cognac. Which photographer knows this kind of venue?
Three ways to find your photographer:
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
These three photographers are textbook cases I made up. They match three formats, from a one-off helping hand to monthly support. The right format depends on your commissions, not on the size of your website.
To start: an audit of the Google Business Profile, and the website can wait.
To start: a few hours of coaching, or a short training course to do it himself.
To go further: monthly support, because the website sells.
In practice
Pricing
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
Fancy a game?
The big chain has sat up there for years, hogging every click. Grab the piece and slide it into the slot.
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds to topple a giant.
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
Yes, on different searches from theirs. They hold “wedding photographer” at national level. They are absent from searches that mention a venue, a style or a small town. I target those searches, and I don't promise you any ranking.
Not necessarily. If they bring you profitable commissions, keep them. I suggest counting what each source brings you, then deciding. The website, on the other hand, stays yours whatever happens.
You tell me about the shoot in a few sentences, out loud if you prefer. My team puts these notes into shape. You proofread, because they are your images and your tone.
No, if it is well placed. A title, a line for the venue and a short paragraph under the first image are enough. The rest of the page belongs to the photos. I work with your design, not against it.
With a short format: an audit of your Google Business Profile, a few hours of coaching, or a short training course to learn how to publish your stories. If your commissions already come through word of mouth and your diary suits you, SEO isn't urgent, and I'll tell you so. Monthly support makes sense when you open up another speciality, sell prints online or offer workshops.
It's your call. My view is that a starting price or a range avoids plenty of pointless messages. Those who write to you afterwards already know what to expect.
Only with their consent, and it's up to you to obtain it in your contracts. For businesses, also check what the transfer of rights provides for. I put nothing online without your go-ahead.
Five complete, well-described series are better than fifty isolated images. After that, one story added after each notable commission is enough to keep the website alive.
The Google Business Profile can change within a few weeks. Story pages take several months to settle in, and weddings are booked well in advance. I set no deadline. With monthly support, you see the figures at each monthly report.
Yes. I run my own online shops, where each product sells first through its photo. I deal with the same questions of file size, file names and descriptions there. I have been doing SEO for fifteen years.
See also
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