QUICK TIPS

It’s about what problem you’re actually trying to solve.

On calls with photographers, platform confusion usually sounds like this:

“I want it to look great, rank on Google, deliver galleries, blog, sell… and be zero maintenance.”

That unicorn doesn’t exist 🦄

Here’s the clearer way to think about it:

The goal isn’t picking the “perfect” platform.

It’s avoiding the wrong one for your priorities.

If you’re stuck between options, that’s usually a sign you need strategy first — not more feature comparisons.

Where are you currently stuck: design, SEO, or maintenance?

Getting inquiries is high up on the wish-list of most photographers. However, a whopping 85% of popular photography websites are missing any sort of contact information anywhere on the homepage.

That means no email, phone, or contact form, not even in the footer, only relying on a navigation menu link to the Contact page.

Although most popular photography websites don’t do this, you should consider having your contact information easy to find, even on your homepage, besides having it on your dedicated Contact page.

Nested dropdowns (menus inside menus inside menus) are a bad idea.

Stick to one level of dropdowns whenever possible. Two levels max — and even then, only if you’ve tested that it works well across devices.

Remember: clean, simple navigation always wins.

DEEP DIVE

After a lot of great feedback on last week’s email, I decided to write more on this topic and to make a few extra important points.

Most photographers have heard about the marketing funnel. It’s that classic model where prospects enter at the top, move to consideration in the middle, then convert at the bottom. But here’s the blunt truth: that tidy funnel doesn’t match how people actually discover, evaluate, and choose creative services today.

Today’s customer journey looks more like a pinball machine than a straight funnel – and that has big implications for how you grow your photography business online.

In the old funnel model, a potential client goes from awareness to interest to decision in a predictable sequence. That was neat, but it’s no longer how real human brains behave.

Now:

It’s exactly like a pinball machine: buyers are the ball, marketing channels are bumpers and flippers, and your job is to light up the board so prospects don’t fall out of play before they become clients.

Funnels feel intuitive because they promise structure. But they hinge on a key assumption: prospects all enter at roughly the same place and proceed through phases in order. That’s simply not true anymore.

Instead, people:

This reality makes measuring attribution almost impossible with old-school models, and traps creative businesses into thinking that only clicks or sessions matter.

It’s not just the journey that’s pinball-shaped – individual search behavior itself has changed.

Studies show modern SERPs (search engine results pages) are packed with different elements like knowledge panels, featured snippets, videos, map packs, and AI summaries. Users’ eyes bounce around these varied elements in a nonlinear pattern, which shifts what gets seen and clicked.

That means SEO isn’t just about ranking #1 anymore. It’s about being visible across the spaces where people find answers, whether that’s direct search results, AI summaries, or related resources they encounter elsewhere.

When you think in terms of pinball instead of a funnel, a bunch of practical marketing problems crop up that the old model never helped you solve. According to Rand Fishkin’s SparkToro follow-up, common issues include:

Each of these is a subtle but real leak in your conversion machine – the site, social profiles, content, and reputation you’re trying to build.

If the classic funnel is obsolete, what should you replace it with?

Your audience won’t read one blog post then fill out a contact form. They’ll see you on a social platform, then in search results, maybe in a newsletter, and perhaps in a community conversation before taking action. Being present at multiple touchpoints matters far more than dominating just one.

People don’t want generic marketing anymore; they want relevance and clarity. Whether it’s a blog post that teaches them something, a video that answers common questions, or a social story that showcases your personality – useful content wins.

Because prospects bounce around so much, the first place they encounter you doesn’t need to be on your website. It could be a community post, an AI answer that references your content, or a podcast interview. What matters is that they start to recognize and trust you.

Clicks and sessions are nice, but they aren’t the whole story. Look at engagement quality:

This aligns with your own advice that traffic alone won’t save your photography business – trust, clarity, and conversion do.

Your older article on photography business funnels still holds valuable lessons about clarity and friction, even if the shape of the journey has changed. Here’s how to integrate pinball thinking with the things you already teach:

Think of your site as part of your brand’s home base, not the only place prospects can engage with you.

Here’s the take-away for photographers:

The world has moved past the clean funnel. Buyers bounce around. They discover you in unpredictable ways. And they decide based on trust built over time across multiple touchpoints.

That means your marketing has to be:

And it means letting go of the idea that there’s one “right” path from discovery to booking.

Because today, that path isn’t a straight line, it’s a pinball machine.

If you want help applying this to your photography business (from refining your SEO to creating the right content mix or rebuilding your website so it actually converts in this messy journey), just let me know, I’ve helped hundreds of photographers make this real profitably.

SEO TIP

Your contact form isn’t just a form — it’s a conversion funnel.

If your website is getting views but not leads, here’s what might be broken:

Quick wins:

And yes, track user behavior with tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar — see where people drop off and fix it.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK