A photography website has one job: make the right client want to book you, then make it easy. The work does most of the selling. The site’s task is to show it well, load it fast, and get out of the way.
1. Decide who you are selling to
A wedding couple, a marketing manager commissioning product shots and an art buyer want different things. Pick the clients you want more of and build for them first. If you shoot several genres, give each its own gallery and its own page explaining what booking looks like — but lead with the work that pays.
2. Edit the portfolio ruthlessly
Fewer, stronger images win. Twenty to forty images per gallery is plenty; visitors judge you by your weakest frame, not your best. Show complete stories where clients buy stories — a wedding from preparation to last dance, a product from hero shot to detail. Refresh galleries as your work improves rather than letting them grow forever.
3. Structure the site
- Home — a few of your best images and one line on what you shoot and where.
- Galleries — one per genre or client type.
- About — you, your approach, and a photo of you. People book people.
- Services and pricing — what is included, how long it takes, and a starting price if you are comfortable publishing one.
- Contact — a short enquiry form asking for date, location and type of shoot.
4. Keep images fast
Photographers are the people most likely to upload 12-megabyte images, and the people most hurt by slow pages. Export for the web: modern formats such as WebP or AVIF, sized to the largest they will display (around 2,000–2,500 pixels on the long edge is plenty for full-screen), and served at smaller sizes to phones. Lazy-load images below the first screen. A gallery that takes eight seconds to appear on a phone loses the visitor before they see the work.
5. Write the words, too
Search engines and AI assistants read text, not pixels. Give each gallery a short introduction, each image descriptive alt text, and each page a title that says what and where — “Documentary wedding photographer in Asheville” rather than “Portfolio”. Name your image files descriptively before you upload them.
6. Make enquiring easy
Put an enquiry button on every gallery, not just the contact page. Ask only what you need to reply usefully — date, location, type of shoot, rough budget — and say how quickly you respond. If you use a client-management or booking tool for contracts and deposits, link to it rather than recreating it.
7. Protect your work, sensibly
Right-click blocking annoys visitors and stops nobody. Practical protection is serving web-sized images rather than originals, keeping your copyright notice and metadata, and using client galleries with access controls for full-resolution delivery. A visible watermark on portfolio images is a trade-off: it deters some copying and distracts from the work.
8. Social proof
Real testimonials from real clients, with their permission, beside the relevant gallery. Publications and venues you have worked with, if they are happy to be named. Never invent or paraphrase a review into something the client did not say.
9. Keep it moving
A portfolio last updated two years ago tells clients you were busy two years ago. Add your best recent work every month or two. On Curb, that is a message: send the images and a line about the shoot, and the gallery is updated, laid out properly and live, usually within the hour. See portfolios on Curb.
