Google Search Console for Photographers
If you've ever wondered "is my SEO even working?", the answer is already sitting in a free tool most photographers set up once and never open again.
Google Search Console is Google telling you, in its own words, how it sees your website. Which searches you show up for. Which pages it has indexed. Which ones it ignored and why. It's the closest thing you'll get to a report card straight from the teacher.
It can also look intimidating the first time you open it. So here's what actually matters for a photography website, and what you can safely ignore.
Search Console vs. Google Analytics
These two get mixed up constantly. Google Analytics tells you what people do once they land on your site. Search Console tells you what happens before they click: what they searched, whether you showed up, and where you ranked.
For SEO, Search Console is the one to watch.
Getting set up
If you haven't connected it yet, add your site as a property and verify it. Squarespace, Showit, and most other platforms have a simple way to do this. Then submit your sitemap (on Squarespace it's your domain followed by /sitemap.xml). That's the map Google uses to find your pages.
Give it a few days to start collecting data.
The Performance report: your four numbers
This is where you'll spend most of your time. You'll see four numbers at the top.
Impressions: how many times your site appeared in search results.
Clicks: how many times someone actually clicked through.
CTR (click-through rate): clicks divided by impressions.
Average position: roughly where you ranked, on average.
Below that, switch between the Queries tab (what people searched) and the Pages tab (which page showed up). This is where it gets interesting.
Three things to look for every month
1. Keywords on page two. Filter or sort your queries by position and look for anything sitting between about 8 and 20. Those are keywords Google already connects to you. A stronger page, a few internal links, or a fresh blog post can often nudge them onto page one.
2. High impressions, low clicks. If a page shows up a lot but nobody clicks, your title tag and meta description probably aren't doing their job. Rewrite them so they answer the searcher's question and sound like a person wrote them.
3. Searches you didn't expect. Sometimes you'll find impressions for a location you don't serve or a service you don't offer. Use the Country filter and the Queries tab to see where they're coming from. It usually means a page needs clearer location signals, like your city and state in the title, headings, and schema.
The Pages report: is Google even indexing you?
Under Indexing, the Pages report shows which pages Google has added to its index and which it hasn't. A few statuses you'll see often:
Crawled, currently not indexed: Google looked and decided it wasn't worth including yet. Often a thin page or a near-duplicate.
Discovered, currently not indexed: Google knows the page exists but hasn't gotten to it. Common on newer sites.
Duplicate without user-selected canonical: Google found two pages that look the same. Common with tag and category pages.
Excluded by noindex tag: you, or your template, told Google to skip it. Fine for thank-you pages, not fine for your service pages.
You don't need every page indexed. You do need your homepage, service pages, location pages, and best blog posts in there.
URL Inspection: your "hey Google, look at this" button
Paste any URL from your site into the search bar at the top. It'll tell you whether that page is indexed. If you just published something new or made a big update, click Request Indexing. It isn't instant, but it helps.
A 15-minute monthly check-in
Once a month, open Search Console and:
Compare the last 3 months to the previous period in Performance.
Note your position for your primary keyword.
Find one page-two keyword to improve.
Find one page with low CTR and rewrite its title and description.
Check the Pages report for anything important that dropped out.
That's it. Fifteen minutes, and you'll know more about your SEO than most photographers ever do.
Want help reading your data?
Search Console is a big part of what we do inside The Exposure Sprint, my 90-day SEO coaching program for photographers. We look at your real numbers together, decide what to fix next, and track your primary keyword all the way to page one. The founding cohort starts November 3. See if it's a fit.
Not ready for that? Start with a free scan from The Light Meter.
FAQ
Is Google Search Console free? Yes. It's a free tool from Google. All you need is a Google account and access to your website settings.
How often should photographers check Search Console? Once a month is plenty for most photographers. Check sooner if you just launched a new site or changed domains.
Why does Search Console show impressions but no clicks? You're showing up, but either you're ranking too low for people to scroll down to you or your title and description aren't compelling enough to click.
What's a good average position? For your primary local keyword, aim for under 10, which is page one. For blog posts, anything under 20 is worth working on.
Is your SEO working? Google Search Console will tell you. Here's what photographers should check each month, and what all those indexing errors mean.