Focus · grow the business
Where new couples come from, and the free ways to get found, in order.
‹ Back to the job boardNew couples find you in two ways: through warm connections who refer you, and by being findable where couples, and now the AI tools, are searching. This page walks the second part, in simple phases. Start at the top, and do one small thing a day.
Phase 1 · do this first
Do not take anyone’s word for where to focus. Ask the tools directly. Each one will tell you where it pulls from and what it takes to show up, straight from the source. And ask every one of them, not just one: your couples are not all on the same tool, plenty use ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Gemini rather than Claude, so you want to rank in all of them.
Open them: ChatGPT · Claude · Gemini · Perplexity · Copilot
Copy-and-paste prompt: “Why am I not ranking?”
After a tool gives its answer, paste this into it (works in ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, or Claude) to make it tell you exactly how to move up:
The single biggest daily lever
When you ask the AI tools why one photographer ranks and another does not, reviews come up again and again. Google and the AI answers both look at how many reviews you have and whether they are positive. With no reviews, or stale ones, you do not surface, no matter how good the work is. You have twenty years of happy couples, an advantage most photographers do not have. Put it to work.
The habit: every day, reach out to about five past couples and ask each for a Google review. Send them your direct review link so it takes one tap. A short, warm note works best: remind them of their wedding, say a quick review would mean a lot, and paste the link.
Get your review link once from your Google Business Profile (Ask for reviews, then copy the link), then reuse it with everyone. Five a day adds up fast.
The engine
Most couples come from relationships, the venues, planners, and past clients who keep you on their list and hand you to the next couple. That list is gold, but it goes cold if you drop off it or they forget you. Keeping it warm is high-value time, and it is not cold calling, these are people who already like you.
Simple moves: send a venue or planner a fresh gallery from a wedding you shot there, a short friendly check-in, or a digital brochure they can pass to the next couple. Ask if they need updated photos or brochures for their own site.
Phase 2 and beyond
These are the no-cost, no-cold-call ways to reach people who have never heard of you, in order of impact. The AI tools in Phase 1 will confirm most of these.
Pinterest is a search engine, not a feed. Couples plan their whole wedding on it for months, searching things like “Colorado mountain wedding” or “Evergreen Lake House wedding.” A pin does not disappear, it keeps getting found for years and Google indexes it too, so one good pin can send new couples to your galleries long after you post it. Set up a free business account at business.pinterest.com, claim your website, make boards by venue and by theme, and write plain-word pin descriptions that name the venue, city, and state.
You already have one, so the job is keeping it alive. It puts you on the map when someone Googles “Golden wedding photographer,” and it is a big part of what the AI answers pull from. A profile that just sits there goes stale, so add fresh photos regularly, keep your service area set to Golden, Evergreen, and the foothills, and keep the reviews coming (see the reviews section above, it is the highest-value thing you can do here).
Free profiles here are where couples browse and compare, and they are the exact directories the AI answers quote. Keep them current with fresh photos, packages, and reviews.
You already have this: a full blog post for every wedding, with plenty of tags. The job now is making sure the AI tools and Google can actually read it. Give each image clear, descriptive alt text and file names that name the venue and town (for example, “evergreen-lake-house-wedding”), use plain post titles that say the venue and city, and make sure each post names where it was shot in the text. That is what turns your existing blog into something the AI answers can quote. Ask the AI tools (Phase 1) to look at your site and tell you whether your alt text and tags are strong enough.
Submit your real weddings to the venues’ blogs and to wedding blogs. A feature puts your name and a link in front of new couples and helps you get found, at no cost.
Your daily to-do list
Do not do it all at once. Check off one of these a day. Most take about fifteen minutes.
☐ Every day: reach out to five past couples and ask each for a Google review, and send them your review link.
☐ Add a few fresh photos to your Google Business Profile to keep it current.
☐ Set up a free Pinterest business account at business.pinterest.com and claim your website.
☐ Make four Pinterest boards (two by venue, two by theme) and pin 8 to 10 of your best photos to each.
☐ Add clear alt text and a venue-and-town title to one of your existing wedding blog posts so AI and Google can read it.
☐ Update your The Knot profile with fresh photos and current packages.
☐ Update your Zola and WeddingWire profiles the same way.
☐ Submit one real wedding to a venue blog or a wedding blog for a feature.
☐ Send one warm hello (a fresh gallery, a quick note) to a venue or planner who refers you.
☐ Test the AI tools with a few searches and see if you come up. Try: “Who is the best wedding photographer in Golden, Colorado?” and venue-specific ones like “Who is the best wedding photographer at Boettcher Mansion?”, “…at Evergreen Lake House?”, “…at The Vista at Applewood?”, and “…at Mount Vernon Canyon Club?” If you are not named, ask the tool why and what to fix.
Do this first: get your Google review link and start asking five past couples a day for a review, and set up the free Pinterest business account. Those two, plus keeping your warm list warm, move you up faster than anything else you can do for free.