Question: How can you grow your photography website in 2026?
Answer: Blogging is still a massive engine for traffic in our new online world.

It’s no secret we’re in a new online age.

You’d have to live under a rock to not know that our whole online world is changing. There’s more and more AI everywhere you look, the whole concept of “AI Agents” is taking over certain sides of the internet, and I saw recently that there are AI bots now… talking to eachother? Which is kind of beside the point, but all of that to say: Things are weird, and wonky, and definitely changing… rapidly.

Small business owners are scrambling to keep up, and that makes sense.

It’s not easy to keep up with everything you’ve got to do as a small business owner when things in the world around us are STABLE – let alone in this bonkers upside down world of “what is going to happen next??” And that gets even more complicated when we look specifically at those tasks you’ve got to do as a small business owner – especially a photographer or creative – that aren’t actually in your area of expertise. AKA… things that aren’t taking and editing photos, and working with other humans. The whole “we have to be online to make our businesses work” side of things.

And when it comes to those things – like handling your website, trying to grow your SEO, trying to post on social media regularly… there’s even more messaging coming from left right and center, telling you how to get a quick fix that’ll solve your traffic problems. You’ve probably had ads shown to you on Facebook, that explain how using “this one simple solution” will grow your traffic. Only to find out, that their solution? It’s a bunch of fake bot traffic driven by an algorithm that’s actually not going to help you at all.

Blogging is still a powerful strategy for small businesses like photographers, as long as you’re strategic!

No matter what it is you actually do – whether you’re a photographer, or a dog trainer – you’ll know there are some things that just… work. And fortunately for ALL of us, blogging has remained one of those things, despite the new and constantly changing landscape of AI search. All it means, is a few minor adjustments to your strategy, and then you can keep doing what you’re already doing, and benefitting from it even more!

What Should Photographers’ Blogs Focus on in 2026?

So yes, you should absolutely still be blogging. But there are a few tweaks, and re-focuses you can do when it comes to what exactly you’re creating, that will help them perform even better for appearing in AI search results, and essentially being future-proof. Now, I can’t claim that this is permanent – like I said, the landscape is changing literally minute by minute. Maybe AI will take over the world. Maybe in six months, we’ll all wonder what kind of fever dream we were having, like when NFTs were fancy for twelve minutes a few years ago.

But in the current moment, here are a few things you should be focusing on in your blog posts, to ensure they’re optimized for current search tactics!

Continue Creating Local Content

The first thing I can tell you, is continue creating local content. Make sure you have keywords about your location in your posts. And if you’re not already doing that, get started. If you’re a photographer, you have a service area – this post, isn’t a great example (you know how much I love using myself as a case study!!). This one, is designed to reach photographers all over the world – so of course it doesn’t focus in on my local area. But when I’m blogging to help grow my client base? You BET I’m making sure there are local keywords in those posts. And as a side note, if your service area isn’t super, completely, HELLA obvious on every page on your website? Change that, right now.

Answer a single question, directly

Another tweak or re-focus you can make, is always answering a single question super directly. Why? Well, if you’ve used any of the AI search tools out there, consider how they work. The user asks it a question, and the algorithm spins through its massive model full of data related to that thing, and puts together sentences (with citations, AKA the thing you want to show up in) about that thing. So if you have a blog post literally titled with the question your potential customer is asking? That goes a long way to getting you cited. This gets even more impressive when you combine it with local keywords. Getting specific is more important than ever before!

Consider placing a succinct version of your answer at the top of your post

Speaking of being specific, spoon feed the systems. What do I mean by that? Literally tell them what question you’re answering, and what your answer is. You can see an example of this at the top of my post – I’ve basically given you, and the various scrapers that’ll be reviewing this page, a Q&A, ‘tl;dr’ version of the whole post. What question is being asked? What’s the answer? Don’t make these systems guess. And to be fair, it’s not detrimental for your readers either, so… really it’s wins all around!

Whatever you do, don’t stop blogging.

I want to emphasize this so, so strongly. Whatever you do, here in 2026, do NOT stop blogging. Even if your traffic gets weird. Even if your metrics look sideways. Even if you’re getting confused about what you’re seeing in your Google Console – because yes, the landscape of search is changing. How people are finding businesses to work with, for better or for worse, is shifting. And we have to adapt with it! But that adaptation doesn’t mean abandoning strategies that have worked for us before – sometimes, it even means taking metrics with a pinch of salt, because the measurement systems have to catch up with these changes too. So, add a “AI Search” option to your “how did you find me” question on your contact form, collect your own data, don’t freak out about dropoffs, and keep blogging.

It ABSOLUTELY will continue working for you, as long as you make strategic changes to your process.