Key figures
- searches for “photographe” per month in France
- 60,500
- searches for “photographe” per month in France
- Google reviews for the median listing
- 21
- Google reviews for the median listing
- Study average: 27
- median score of the 170 sites analysed, out of 100
- 70
- median score of the 170 sites analysed, out of 100
- Study average: 71
How customers search for a photographer
“Photographe” is typed 60,500 times a month in France, and with a city: 4,400 in Marseille, 2,900 in Paris, 2,400 in Toulouse, 1,600 in Nantes. “Photographe près de moi” (photographer near me) adds 110 searches a month. But clients almost always narrow the request: wedding photographer, portrait, passport photo, corporate photographer, newborn, real estate.
Each speciality has its own buyer, budget and timeline. A couple books their wedding photographer months ahead and compares styles; a company wants team portraits within the week; a passport photo is done the same day. A site that does not separate these offers answers none of them.
| Google search | Searches / month | Cost per ad click |
|---|---|---|
| photographe | 60,500 | €1.06 |
| photographe paris | 2,900 | €3.16 |
| photographe lyon | 1,900 | €1.80 |
| photographe marseille | 4,400 | €1.19 |
| photographe toulouse | 2,400 | €1.45 |
| photographe bordeaux | 1,900 | €0.96 |
| photographe nantes | 1,600 | €1.13 |
| photographe lille | 1,600 | €1.26 |
| site internet photographe | 140 | n/a |
| photographe près de moi | 110 | n/a |
| référencement photographe | 10 | n/a |
What Google shows for “photographe marseille”
Survey of 18 October 2026: the Google Maps card block (local pack) takes the top of the page. Below these blocks, the first 3 standard results visible are: business website, business website, trouver-mon-photographe.fr (directory).
- Google Maps local pack
- 1—business website
- 2—business website
- 3trouver-mon-photographe.frdirectory
What we measured on 170 photographer websites
We collected the top 200 Google Maps listings for “photographe” in Marseille and Nantes, then ran each of the 170 websites belonging to these businesses through our free analysis. 11% of listings show no website at all and 1% only link to a platform (youtube.com).
82% of photographer websites have no FAQ on the home page
Share of sites failing the check, compared with the average across the study’s 24 trades and 7 cities.
Have no FAQ on the home page: 82% ; Have no llms.txt file: 81% ; Do not have a single H1 saying what the business sells: 63% ; Have no clickable phone number or WhatsApp on the home page: 62% ; Have fewer than 400 words on the home page: 51% ; Do not describe the business in structured data: 51% ; Have no enquiry form on the home page: 50% ; Do not have a page title of 25 to 65 characters: 37% ; Do not have a meta description of 70 to 165 characters: 36% ; Have fewer than 10 internal links on the home page: 23% ; Have no share preview (Open Graph): 22% ; Leave more than 20% of their images without a description: 18% ; Do not declare a canonical URL: 17% ; Do not publish a sitemap: 12% ; Do not declare their language: 8% ; Are not mobile-friendly (no viewport tag): 4% ; Are not on HTTPS: 4% ; Block at least one AI assistant in their robots.txt: 4% ; Block Google in their robots.txt: 0%.
| Check | Photographers | Study average |
|---|---|---|
| Have no FAQ on the home page | 82% | 81% |
| Have no llms.txt file | 81% | 80% |
| Do not have a single H1 saying what the business sells | 63% | 45% |
| Have no clickable phone number or WhatsApp on the home page | 62% | 39% |
| Have fewer than 400 words on the home page | 51% | 40% |
| Do not describe the business in structured data | 51% | 55% |
| Have no enquiry form on the home page | 50% | 48% |
| Do not have a page title of 25 to 65 characters | 37% | 41% |
| Do not have a meta description of 70 to 165 characters | 36% | 50% |
| Have fewer than 10 internal links on the home page | 23% | 26% |
| Have no share preview (Open Graph) | 22% | 28% |
| Leave more than 20% of their images without a description | 18% | 21% |
| Do not declare a canonical URL | 17% | 21% |
| Do not publish a sitemap | 12% | 18% |
| Do not declare their language | 8% | 6% |
| Are not mobile-friendly (no viewport tag) | 4% | 5% |
| Are not on HTTPS | 4% | 4% |
| Block at least one AI assistant in their robots.txt | 4% | 2% |
| Block Google in their robots.txt | 0% | 1% |
Source: FindMyCompany scanner, 170 sites scanned on 18 October 2026.Read the method
| City | Maps listings | Sites analysed | Median score | Reviews (median) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marseille | 100 | 78 | 70 | 24 |
| Nantes | 100 | 92 | 71 | 18 |
The mistakes that cost photographers customers
A portfolio without a single word
51% of photographers’ sites have fewer than 400 words on the home page, a problem that comes up more often than the average of all trades. Google knows neither the speciality, nor the city, nor the style: it suggests the site to nobody.
No main heading that names the trade
63% of the sites have no single main heading that says what the photographer does, a problem that comes up more often than the study average. A studio name as a logo does not replace “Wedding photographer in Marseille”.
No simple way to book
62% of the sites have no tappable phone number or WhatsApp link on the home page and 50% have no enquiry form. The future client loved the photos; they still have to hunt for how to ask for a date.
Priority actions
Create one page per speciality
Weddings, portraits, corporate, passport photos, newborn: each with a curated gallery, how a session runs, real prices and the area covered.Write around the images
A few paragraphs per page: the location, the type of session, what the client receives. The text is what gets the photos found.Describe every image
A precise alt text (subject, location, type of session) and a readable file name. 18% of the sites analysed leave more than one image in five without a description.Lighten the galleries
Images in the right format and size, lazy loading: a portfolio that takes ten seconds to appear on mobile loses the visitor.Make asking for a date a single tap
Tappable phone number or WhatsApp and a short form (date, location, type of session) at the top of every speciality page.Complete the Google Business Profile
Real categories (wedding photographer, photo studio), regularly refreshed photos of your work, and a review requested after every delivery.
Frequently asked questions
Does a photographer need text on their website?
Yes. Google ranks pages from their text and from the description of their images. A few well-placed paragraphs per speciality are enough to take a portfolio from invisible to findable.
One page per speciality or a single gallery?
One page per speciality you actually practise. A couple looking for a wedding photographer does not want to sort through passport photos, and Google matches each page with the search that fits it.
Is Instagram enough to be found?
Instagram shows your work to people who already follow you. On Google, it is the website and the Google Business Profile that answer “photographe” followed by a city, and they remain yours.
Method
Google Maps results (up to 100 listings) for the trade’s search query, centred on the city, collected via OpenSEO on 18/10/2026. Free website analysis (lib/audit.js): home page, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, llms.txt. No paid tools. Listings without a website, platform pages (Doctolib, Planity, Facebook, Instagram, Google Sites…) and network pages appearing 3 times or more: counted in the listings, not in the sites analysed. The score out of 100 is the tool’s own, which also counts server response time (4 points out of 100). Server response times are not published: they were measured from outside France and do not reflect what a visitor in France sees. No business name or website address is published: only aggregated statistics.
Search volumes: Average monthly search volumes on Google, France, French language, Google Ads data via OpenSEO (DataForSEO). CPC = estimated average cost of an ad click, in euros.
The data covers businesses in France (websites and Google Maps listings in French cities), and searches and volumes are from Google France.