What pages does a photography website need? The 5 to launch with (and what can wait)

Five. That’s the honest minimum for a photography website that books clients: home, portfolio, about, services (or investment) and contact. Add a FAQ page and a blog when you have the time, and skip almost everything else until after you launch.

That’s the short answer to what pages a photography website needs. The longer answer is about what each page has to do, because a photographer’s site can have all five pages and still leave a couple wondering whether you shoot weddings in their city or what a session costs.

The pages a photography website needs, at a glance

Page	The question it answers for a visitor	Don’t launch without
Home	“Am I in the right place?”	What you shoot, where, and one clear next step
Portfolio	“Is this the style I want?”	Your best recent work, grouped by type
About	“Do I want this person at my wedding or session?”	A real photo of you and how you work
Services / investment	“What can I book, and roughly what does it cost?”	What’s included and how pricing works
Contact	“How do I book you?”	A short inquiry form and what happens after

If you’re starting from a template, check which of these pages it includes before you buy, because included pages vary from template to template. Either way, your job is making each page answer its question.

Home: tell her she’s in the right place

Your homepage has one job in the first few seconds: confirm what you photograph, who it’s for, and where. A gorgeous full-screen photo with “Capturing life’s moments” over it doesn’t do that on its own.

Compare:

• “Capturing love stories” (could be anyone, anywhere)
• “Wedding photographer for laid-back couples in Austin and the Hill Country” (she knows instantly if it’s for her)

For a real example of the specific version, look at the headline that follows the opening photos on my House of Aura template demo, which is a demo site with placeholder content, not a client’s website. It reads “Editorial wedding photography for modern couples”: what she shoots and who it’s for, in six words. Add your city or region and you’ve covered the “where” too.

Below that, a few strong images, a short intro to you, one or two real client reviews, and a button to your portfolio or inquiry form. I go through the full homepage structure in what to put on a homepage.

Portfolio: fewer galleries, better curated

Couples and families judge your style here, so this is where less really is more.

• Group by what you sell. Weddings, families, branding. If you only shoot weddings, group by full wedding stories instead of one giant grid.
• Show the work you want more of. If you want luxury editorial weddings, don’t lead with the backyard engagement shoot just because it’s recent.
• Include a few full galleries or stories, not only highlights. It shows you can deliver a whole day, not just ten great frames.

One thing that often gets confused: your portfolio is a marketing page. Client gallery delivery (where clients download their finished photos) is a separate job, and many photographers use a dedicated gallery service for it and link to it. You don’t have to build delivery into your website.

About: make it about how you work

People read this page closely, because they’re deciding whether they want you around on an important day.

Include:

• A real, recent photo of you. Not your logo, not a back-of-the-camera shot.
• How you work with people. Are you directing every pose or mostly documenting? Do you help with timelines?
• A few personal details that actually connect. “I’ll be the one with the extra bobby pins” says more than a list of hobbies.

Keep it skimmable. Two or three short sections beat one long biography.

Services and investment: should you put prices on your website?

This is the page photographers go back and forth on most, so here are the real options:

1. Show full package pricing. Visitors self-qualify, and you get fewer “how much?” emails. The trade-off is that some people will compare you on price alone.
2. Show a starting price (“Wedding collections start at $X”). This filters out mismatched budgets but still leaves room for a conversation. It’s the middle ground.
3. Show no prices and send a pricing guide after the inquiry. You get more inquiries and the chance to make a first impression with a well-designed guide, but some visitors will leave rather than ask.

Whichever you choose, describe what’s included in plain language (hours of coverage, number of edited images, turnaround, travel), and say what happens next. If you go with option 3, a branded guide makes that follow-up email look as polished as your website. My photography pricing guide templates are editable in Canva and designed to match the website templates.

If you offer very different services (weddings and newborn sessions, say), give each its own page. The questions and the client are different.

Contact: a short form and a clear “what happens next”

A contact form that feels like homework can put people off before they ever hit send.

Keep it to what you need to reply well:

• Name and email
• Type of session or event
• Date (or rough timing) and location
• A short “tell me about your plans” box
• How they found you (useful for your own marketing)

Then tell her what happens after she hits submit, something like: “I reply within two business days with my availability and full pricing guide.” That one sentence removes a lot of hesitation.

The pages that can wait until after launch

None of these should stop you from going live:

• FAQ. Great for answering the same questions on repeat (travel fees, second shooters, what to wear). An FAQ section and an FAQ page aren’t the same thing. A section of three to five questions at the bottom of your services page answers them right where people are deciding, and it’s enough for launch. A dedicated FAQ page makes sense later, once your list from real inquiries outgrows a section.
• Blog. Useful for SEO and for showing full sessions, but an empty blog looks worse than no blog. Launch it when you have three or four real posts ready.
• Reviews page. Helpful once you have plenty of reviews. Until then, put your best ones on the homepage and services page, next to what they’re praising.
• Location pages. These can help if you genuinely work in several areas and have something specific to say about each one. Don’t create a pile of near-identical city pages. Google lists pages targeted at specific cities that all funnel to one page as an example of doorway abuse in its spam policies.
• Shop or print sales, session prep guides, and a client resources page. All nice to have, none required for launch.

You’ll probably also need a privacy policy, since your contact form collects personal information. The requirements depend on where you and your clients are, so check what applies to you rather than copying another photographer’s.

A simple order to build in

If you’re building it yourself, this order keeps you from getting stuck:

1. Portfolio first. Choosing your images clarifies who you’re for, which makes every other page easier to write.
2. Services. Decide what you’re selling and how you’ll talk about price.
3. Contact. Set up the form and your “what happens next” line.
4. About.
5. Home last. It summarizes everything else, so it’s easiest once the rest exists.

Then check every page on your phone. Plenty of people will find you there first, so it needs to work just as well as on desktop.

Start with the pages already designed

If you’d rather spend your time on your photos and words than on layout, a photography website template gives you these pages already structured, so you’re filling in rather than figuring out what goes where.

You can browse all my photography website templates, with designs for both Showit and Squarespace (Showit if you want full creative control, Squarespace if you want something simpler to manage). Most of them have matching Canva pricing guides, so your website and your follow-up email look like the same brand.

Not ready to commit? Grab the free Showit website template and see how the pages fit together first.