You can be an exceptional photographer and still be completely invisible to the clients actively searching for someone like you. Not because your work isn’t good enough — because Google doesn’t know you exist. This episode fixes that.
What you’ll learn:
SEO for photographers isn’t dark magic. For a local photography business, roughly 90% of what moves the needle comes down to three things: your H1 tag, your image alt-text, and your site speed.
Your H1 is the main headline on your webpage and one of the strongest signals Google uses to understand what your page is about. “Capturing the Essence of Your Soul” is lovely — but nobody is searching for it. “Wedding Photographer in Austin” is what actually gets you found.
Alt-text is the written description attached to every image on your site. Google cannot see your photographs — it reads the label you give them. A file named “_MG_5422.jpg” tells Google nothing. A file named “golden-hour-bride-groom-portrait-austin-texas.jpg” with a matching alt-text description tells Google exactly what it needs to know.
Site speed is a documented Google ranking factor, and photographers are almost universally the worst offenders — uploading massive unoptimised files directly from Lightroom. Images destined for the web should be under 500KB. Free tools like Squoosh make this straightforward. I also recommend using a file format such as WebP to bring down file sizes.
Finally, we cover Google Business Profile — the free local listing that puts you on the map, literally, when someone searches for a photographer near them. A complete, well-reviewed profile can outperform a first-page organic ranking for local search intent.
Key takeaways:
- Your H1 should contain your location and your photography niche — not just your brand tagline
- Rename image files descriptively before uploading and fill in alt-text every time
- Google Business Profile is the highest-leverage free tool available to a local photographer
This week’s homework — Rename and Replace: pick your ten strongest portfolio images, rename them with location and subject keywords, re-upload with proper alt-text, and confirm your H1 contains your niche and city. Then claim and complete your Google Business Profile if you haven’t already.
Do you want more episodes like this one? Let us know on Instagram, Threads, BlueSky, or Reddit and we will make sure to keep them as a part of our regular offerings.
