Your website should be working overtime (so you don’t have to) to book your dream clients, but what if it’s actually turning them away?
If you’re putting heart and soul into your Instagram content, email marketing, and Pinterest strategy, but your inquiries aren’t reflecting that effort, your website might be the missing piece. After auditing hundreds of photographer websites inside my mentorship program Book It, I’ve discovered that even photographers who’ve invested four figures into professional website design are still missing these three crucial elements that convert visitors into booked clients.
In this episode, I’m sharing the exact website mistakes I see over and over again — and more importantly, how to fix them so your website becomes your biggest selling machine. Whether you’re working with a basic template or a custom design, these foundational changes will help you stand out from the crowd and attract couples who are ready to book your highest packages. Listen to the episode below, or keep reading for a summary of what’s covered.
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Why Your Website Is Your Most Important Sales Tool
Your website truly is the reason you’re not getting the inquiries you want. While it’s paired with your portfolio, your brand, and your marketing, your website is so incredibly important because it is your biggest selling machine. Maybe you’re in the group of photographers who have never put a whole lot of effort into your website, or maybe you have spent a lot on your website design. Regardless of where you’re at, you’re going to get a lot out of this episode because I’ve audited probably hundreds of photographers’ websites over the years, and I see the same patterns and the same things that I’m mentioning over and over again.
Everything you’re doing on Instagram, TikTok, email marketing, or Pinterest — all of it points to your website. Hence why you need it to be your biggest selling machine. And yet what I see happen most is photographers don’t put much effort into their website. Maybe they have the most basic Squarespace website, or their Showit template is obviously one of the free ones (I love and recommend Showit by the way – you can join with my code CHEDUCATION to get one month free). Or worse than all of that, I’ve seen it happen countless times where photographers will pay a designer a four-figure investment to redo their entire website, and yet it still is not what’s needed in order to stand out from the crowd and really funnel people through your website from a design or copywriting perspective.
Website Mistake #1: Your Homepage Doesn’t Answer the Essential Questions
Your homepage needs to be so clear on who you serve, what you do, where you’re based, how you work, and your why. The first three questions need to be answered immediately—before the fold, meaning before someone even has to scroll.
The Three Questions That Must Be Answered Above the Fold
Who You Serve: They should know immediately who your dream client is. You need a tagline that you can share about the kind of clients you love to work with or the type of images that you create that naturally ties into what your dream client is searching for.
What You Do: Are you a wedding photographer? Are you a family photographer? Sometimes I will look at photographers’ websites and truly, if I didn’t know you were a photographer and I was auditing your website, I wouldn’t know if you’re a planner or a florist. I have no idea because you’re sharing things that planners and florists could also share. Make it very clear what you do and what kind of photographer you are.
Where You’re Based: All of these questions need to be answered above the fold before someone scrolls. Even if you are a destination photographer, if you share where you’re based, you’re more likely to get inquiries and bookings for your local location. And that’s really important to most people, even if they are destination photographers. Most of us are not going to be traveling for 30 of the 40 weddings we do a year. Even if you only did 15 weddings a year, you’re probably not going to do half of those as destination weddings. So you do need local work, and sharing where you’re based shows expertise and authority in that location as well.
Why These Questions Matter for Your Website Visitors
I’m sure you know this, but our attention spans are so short and they’re just becoming shorter and shorter. If you look at any kind of research over the last few years, especially with short-form video content, we have very limited capacity in our brains to make sure that we’re not wasting our time. If you can make it really easy to let couples know immediately that they’re in the right place, that’s how you do that—with these three questions being answered immediately. They shouldn’t have to hunt around your site to figure these things out. It should be very clear right away, and this ensures that they don’t just bounce off of your site, even if they would be the perfect fit.
In addition to these three questions, make sure that the portfolio you’re showing in that above-the-fold section truly is the best of the best—what you really want to photograph again and again. I can’t tell you how many times I will see photographers who typically shoot in multiple different niches just have families and newborns and maternity and weddings and couples filtering through a few different images. Or worse, they only have one photo and it’s not one that’s really going to connect with who they said they serve.
The Psychology Behind Clear Website Messaging
This is a thing in psychology where if we can connect our verbiage and what we’re saying to our work, to the portfolio, to what they’re actually seeing with their own eyes that we are saying we will create together, then that’s just going to further create more of that like, know, and trust factor with you immediately. This is incredibly important whenever someone is coming onto your website as a cold lead. If you can let them know that they’re in the right place by those three questions and also the portfolio that you’re sharing connects, that’s going to be what makes them decide to keep scrolling on your website rather than clicking out and going to somebody else’s website.
How You Work and Your Why
The other two questions—how you specifically work and most importantly your why, which translates into why they should choose you and why you would be the perfect fit—these two questions you should answer throughout your homepage. You can do that in a lot of ways, not just by copywriting, but by sharing how you work, the kind of work that you do, the kind of style that you have, and even more importantly, your approach of how you do what you say you do.
The thing I see a lot of times is photographers just saying, “I capture authentic, genuine moments.” While it might be true that you may truly capture authentic, genuine moments, number one, that verbiage is way overused and it’s not helping you stand out. If potential clients are looking on multiple photographers’ websites and we all kind of sound the same, how are you doing yourself any favors? Number two, even if it is true that you really do capture these authentic, genuine moments, how can you explain that in a different way that really gives more insight into how you work, into your approach, and how you get that end result?
Website Mistake #2: Portfolio Overload Instead of Curated Galleries
This one is huge and it’s something I really dive deep into in Book It because it is a foundational element to attracting your dream clients. You cannot attract dream clients without the portfolio that they really resonate with. You also cannot be a photographer without a portfolio. A lot of times you might think more photos equals better portfolio, but showing everything you’ve ever shot is actually hurting your bookings.
The Problem with Massive Portfolio Dumps
You only want to show the best of the best. You want to show your niche. You want to show what you want to attract. I know that’s common knowledge, and yet it’s something that I still have to address with literally every single website audit I ever do. I am not the kind of mentor who thinks that you only need to focus on one niche. I think you can strategically have multiple niches, but having curated galleries allows clients to envision themselves in your work and they can actually see what their full gallery could look like.
How Curated Galleries Transform Your Website
Having curated galleries really speaks to your specific type of couple. For example, if you want to book more intimate outdoor weddings, your gallery specifically from an intimate outdoor wedding can be linked on your galleries page, and then that specific client who’s excited about having their own intimate outdoor wedding can click onto that gallery and see that entire blog. Not only is this going to help you from a portfolio perspective, but also from an SEO perspective if you’re blogging with SEO in mind.
A Real Example of How Curated Galleries Book Clients
I have a real experience with this. There’s this one wedding venue in Colorado called Black Canyon, and it is not an easy wedding venue to photograph, especially the ceremony site. If you look up the venue, you’re going to understand immediately because you will see that there’s this big gorgeous door that opens up to this beautiful backdrop of mountains, and yet they’re always so blown out. Then everything inside the room ends up either really dark, or everything in the room is exposed correctly, but then the mountains are blown out. Obviously, if someone’s getting married there, they want both—you want the people in the room and the couple and their wedding party to be in the correct exposure, and you also want the mountains.
I have a blog on my website of this specific wedding venue and a gallery that I shot there, and I’ve gotten countless inquiries where people are like, “The venue recommended you to us and this is why we’re choosing you—you’re it for us because every other photographer doesn’t photograph the space well,” or “We saw your gallery on your blog and this is where we’re getting married and we want you because you photographed it so well.”
This is about speaking directly to the couples that you really want to work with. It’s about showing them you are the photographer. Your portfolio should absolutely help someone understand that you are perfect for them and that they’re perfect for you.
Website Mistake #3: Generic Service Pages That Try to Appeal to Everyone
This might be the biggest game changer of all three that I’m giving you today because most photographers will have one services or information or investment page that tries to appeal to everyone. Wedding photography, engagement sessions, family photos, branding—all of it is jumbled together on one page. Here’s what happens, my friend: when you speak to everyone, you are speaking to no one. That’s not something that I’ve come up with or coined myself. That is just general marketing knowledge that whenever you are speaking to everyone, you speak to no one.
Why Separate Service Pages Are Essential
Your wedding couples don’t care about your family session pricing. Your elopement couples don’t need to scroll through information or copywriting about the traditional 12-hour type of wedding and that kind of coverage. You really want to create separate service pages for each offering that you have—a dedicated wedding page that speaks only to wedding couples, a separate elopement page for those who are wanting a more intimate type of celebration, a separate lifestyle or family or branding or seniors page that is speaking directly to those kinds of clients.
Again, not only is this going to help you from an attraction standpoint, this is also going to help you from an SEO standpoint. On each page, you really want to use language and portfolio that makes that specific type of client feel so seen. You want to help them envision what it’s like to work with you, address their specific concerns, their specific dreams and desires, get them into a dream state through your copywriting and through your portfolio that you’re showcasing and through your website design.
Creating Service Pages That Actually Sell
Help funnel them through the entire process on this experience page and make sure that you’re really sharing anything and everything that you can for where they are in their buyer journey. The information that they need is going to help you a lot. There is truly so much that I could say about your services page from the design and the format and all of the things to be sure that you include and how to talk about your clients and their specific dreams and their vision and getting them into that desire state.
Your services page is one of your most important pages, if not the most important page of your website. I see so many photographers just jumble everything together, and with the design, it’s basic where it’s like, “My package starts at $3,000 and includes six hours of coverage, a complimentary engagement session, and 500 edited photos.” That’s it. How did that help build any kind of value or communicate any kind of trust that they should have in you or any kind of transformation that they should expect through working with you? What’s in it for them? What’s the benefit?
Key Takeaways:
- Your homepage must answer who you serve, what you do, and where you’re based before visitors scroll
- Curated galleries that show complete wedding days or sessions help clients envision their own experience
- Separate service pages for each offering speak directly to specific client types and improve SEO
- Generic language like “authentic, genuine moments” doesn’t differentiate you from other photographers
- Your website should be your biggest selling machine, not just a portfolio display or inquiry link
What’s Covered in This Episode:
- The three essential questions your homepage must answer above the fold
- Why portfolio overload is actually hurting your bookings
- How curated galleries help clients envision working with you
- The psychology behind clear website messaging
- Why separate service pages are crucial for different client types
- Real examples of how these changes lead to more inquiries and bookings
Resources Mentioned:
- Join the Book It waitlist (enrollment opens August 19th and you’ll get first access to 1:1 time, up to $1000 off, my Meta and Google Ads trainings, and more)
- Register for the free workshop on August 12th: Booked and Valued. As mentioned, if you register and show up live, you’ll have the chance to get your website audited by me as a bonus!
- “Find Your Why” and “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek
- Instagram: @itsclairehunt
Thank you so much for listening to this episode! I hope these three website changes give you clear action steps to transform your website into the selling machine it should be. If you’re ready to dive deeper into these strategies and get personalized support for your photography business, I’d love to have you join us in Book It when doors open again. Don’t forget to connect with me on Instagram @itsclairehunt and let me know which of these three things you’re going to tackle first!
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