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ForegroundWeb Newsletter
YOUR WEEKLY DOSE OF PHOTO WEBSITE ADVICE & INSPIRATION.
IN TODAY’S EMAIL:
⚡️ 3 Quick tips: homepages, custom fields, mentors
🧠 Deep dive: businss positioning troubleshooting
🔍 SEO: AI searches changing traffic patterns
QUICK TIPS
1. 🔍 Your homepage isn’t a portfolio. It’s a filter.
Most photographers treat the homepage like a greatest-hits gallery.
But in a recent website review, this was the real issue:
Visitors couldn’t tell who the site was for, or what to do next.
A few fixes made a big difference:
Rewrite the H1 to clearly name the audience and outcome
Swap a single hero portrait for a collage that shows the actual service
Change “Let’s chat” to “Learn more” and send people to the service page
Your homepage should qualify visitors, not entertain them.
If someone can’t answer “Is this for me?” in 5 seconds, they’ll bounce.
2. 🏷️ PhotoDeck adds custom metadata fields
PhotoDeck’s custom metadata fields let you tag your photos with your own structured data, beyond the basic built-in fields like titles, captions, or keywords. You can add business-specific info — things like “Season,” “Client Project,” or “Usage Rights.” It’s metadata tailored exactly to your workflow.
🔍 Why it matters: Instead of relying on generic keywords that get messy fast, custom fields help you:
Standardize tagging by enforcing a controlled list of values.
Improve searchability by turning your custom fields into easy dropdown filters for visitors.
Add internal context using free-text fields for notes you don’t need to display publicly.
🧰 How it works in practice:
Create fields with predefined values (single-choice or multi-choice) so your tagging stays consistent.
Use free-text fields for internal notes, project IDs, or anything not meant for the public.
Choose where each field appears—internally, publicly on your website, or inside search filters.
Custom metadata fields turn a big, chaotic image library into a well-organized, searchable system that helps both you and your clients find exactly what they need. If your catalog is growing, this becomes a game-changer.
3. 🧭 You don’t need one mentor — you need the right ones
A mistake I see photographers make all the time:
Looking for one person to solve everything.
That’s not how growth works.
You need different mentors for different roles:
Strategy → clarity on what actually matters
Execution → fixing what’s holding you back
Stability → peace of mind once things work
That’s exactly how I think about websites.
I’m not here to teach you everything about business.
I’m here to make sure your website stops being the weak link.
No overpromising.
No “magic platform.”
Just leverage where it counts.
If your site feels “okay” but fragile, confusing, or exhausting to maintain — that’s a signal.
DEEP DIVE
Positioning troubleshooting
First of all, see if you resonate with this photographer:
“Sometimes, no, oftentimes it surely feels as if the mountain is sinking…but thankfully there are still many, many gold nuggets to be found in the gravel. The digging for them, unveiling them and cultivating them however is significantly more cumbersome and time consuming than before. One has to continuously pierce through a tough curtain on the recipients / prospects side of gatekeepers, pre-occupation, lack of time and attention, competition, do it in house approach, “my niece has a camera and shoots for us…”, etc. etc. When once however these nuggets are polished, and shining, as gold does, they work rewardingly based on old standard well proven business principles.”
Let’s address some common positioning concerns:
“I’m worried about serving too small of a market”
Positioning your photography business by niching or specializing can be scary at first because you instinctively fear having a smaller target audience.
But don’t forget that the “conversion rate” will become so much higher, because it’s a lot easier to market your services to those people.
They trust you more because they see that you specialize in exactly what they need. And over time, you also learn the nuances of working in that niche, allowing you to further improve the quality of your work and how you serve your clients.
Positioning can help you:
justify premium fees (above market averages)
attract more and better clients (who are choosing based on quality, not just on price)
serve your clients better (by becoming an expert and learning all the nuances of your niche)
promote your business more easily (because your message resonates with the right people)
clarify your priorities (choosing between distractions and opportunities, as they align with your positioning)
“Can I add extra specialties/niches to my existing photography website (as a temporary side-business)?”
Because of the pandemic, you might have understandably decided to add new services to your website, while your main type of work is on pause.
And that’s perfectly fine, assuming that the target audience is similar. Otherwise, your temporary photography side-business should have its own separate site.
This particular decision is explained in greater detail here: Having separate photography websites or merging them?
“I don’t know how to create content to attract a new market”
This is a mindset problem: you’re seeing yourself only as a do-er.
But you’re not just a photographer that takes photos of X. You’re someone that knows how to take photos of X.
And you can create a ton of educational content for your target audience, helping position you as an expert.
You can package that expertise in a number of (scalable) ways: training courses, workshops, info-products, consulting services.
“My industry has a lot of gatekeepers I can’t get past”
It sounds like you’re just looking for shortcuts.
The internet has removed most gatekeepers of the past. You can now self-publish a photo book, sell images without access to a gallery, etc.
Sure, there are still gatekeepers at specific publications or brands, which you can’t get to without the right connections.
The solution is to be so good they can’t ignore you.
Become the expert, the go-to person in a small niche you’ve carved out for yourself, and the gatekeepers will come looking for you.
“There’s too much competition in my niche”
With proper positioning, you’ll have less competition.
Enough competition to act as validation that you’re in a field worth pursuing. Somewhere you know your work will make an impact.
But because you’re unique in some way, you’ll no longer have overwhelming levels of competition.
“Whatever I try, people don’t seem to pay attention”
Again, be so good they can’t ignore you.
Look around. There are many many great photographers who still (regularly) produce eye-catching work.
Sure, it’s become harder now. When seeking the attention of your target audience, you’re not only up against other photographers in your niche. You’re also up against TV, social media, games, etc. The entire digital culture is pulling the user’s attention, from all sides.
But you’re focusing on the entire market when you should instead only try to focus on a small group of ideal buyers. You only need to draw their attention.
If you do a good job with tight positioning, they’ll be drawn in by your very targeted portfolio (and copywriting). You’ll have their attention.
If you’re a dog lover, would you hire any portrait photographer to take a picture of you and your “best friend”? Or would you hire a dedicated dog photographer?
“Clients don’t value my expertise (e.g.: my niece has a camera and shoots for us…)”
If they don’t see the value in your work, if they can’t differentiate your work from what their niece can produce, then you’re not worthy of their money. (Sorry, I know that sounds a bit harsh, but I prefer not to rephrase it!)
There used to be a technical and investment gap: their niece didn’t have a professional-grade DSLR and didn’t know how to properly edit photos.
Now those gaps have shrunk a lot, so you have to find other ways to differentiate yourself from an amateur.
“I hear crickets (aka: everything you tried was met with silence, you couldn’t sell any images or get any bookings)”
If we try to deconstruct this, it usually comes down to:
not trying hard enough, giving up too quickly
not choosing the right marketing channels, not trying to meet your target audience in the right places
below-average work, so your clients are not impressed
not serving a market that values what you have to offer, it’s not willing to pay for that type of work, you didn’t validate your business idea well
Narrowly positioning your business fixes all of these problems.
TESTIMONIAL
"Alex is my go-to guy for anything web related. His understanding of building and maintaining websites is second to none. The internet is in safe hands with him."
SEO TIP
📸 Google’s AI search is changing traffic. Here’s how photographers can still win
If you’ve noticed your Google traffic shrinking lately, you’re not alone.
AI Overviews are answering more questions without clicks — and that’s reshaping how we get found.
Here’s the shift:
Google’s AI now pulls from websites, YouTube videos, local business listings, and social mentions.
That means your photography website can’t live in isolation anymore — it needs to be part of a connected ecosystem that proves your experience, expertise, and trust (E-E-A-T).
Start with these:
✅ Publish clear, people-first content (not keyword fluff)
✅ Keep local & contact info consistent across your site and Google Business
✅ Pair blog posts with short how-to videos on YouTube
Want your website to actually earn traffic in 2025? It starts with building your “AI-friendly” foundation.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door."
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