QUICK TIPS

Traffic is down 30%. Inquiries are the same. That's a win.

Most photographers see a dip in Google Analytics and panic. But the visitors you lost were the ones who bounced in 4 seconds anyway. AI answered their question, so they never needed to click through.

The ones still clicking? They want something specific. They're past the research phase. They already understand what you do and where you're based. AI gave them that context on the search results page.

I've worked on 300+ photographer sites and this is what I keep seeing: raw traffic is dropping almost everywhere, but inquiry rates on well-built sites are holding or climbing.

If your bookings haven't dropped alongside your traffic, stop worrying. Your site is working harder per visitor than it used to.

The real red flag isn't lower traffic. It's lower traffic AND lower inquiries. That's a different problem entirely.

Has your traffic dropped this year? Did your inquiries follow, or stay stable?

Your hosting company sold you a CDN. Do you know if it's even active?

On a recent call, a photographer realized they'd been paying for a CDN through LiteSpeed that wasn't even turned on. And the truth is, they didn't need it in the first place.

Hosting companies bundle extras because it's easy revenue. CDN, premium backups, "advanced security," malware scanning. Some of these matter. Most are overkill for a photography portfolio.

If your site has fewer than 50 pages and no eCommerce, you don't need a paid CDN or premium caching layer. The free caching built into your host or a basic plugin does the job.

Log into your hosting panel this week. Look at what you're actually paying for. I bet there's at least one line item you forgot about.

What's the most unnecessary hosting add-on you've discovered on your account?