Photographer SEO Case Study: From Migration Crash to Page 1 on Google
How one focused one-day project rewired an NYC photography studio's entire digital foundation and put her on page 1.
The Situation
Anh is a portrait and graduation photographer based in New York City who also travels to North Carolina several times a year to serve clients there. She'd recently made a major move: migrating her website from PixieSet to Showit while building out her NYC presence.
The platform migration on September 12, 2025 wiped out her search visibility. URLs didn't all carry over, ranking signals dropped and Google lost track of her pages. She was serving two markets, but her website strategy hadn't caught up yet.
She wasn't posting consistently on Instagram. She needed her website to hold on its own. To generate inquiries whether she posted that week or not.
"I want to make sure my website was solid so that in the times I do fall off on being consistent on social media, I have something to fall back on."
What Was Broken
The migration didn't cause the problem. It exposed it.
- Platform migration crashed her search visibility. Moving from PixieSet to Showit with incomplete redirects meant Google lost track of her pages. Ranking signals, backlinks and indexed URLs didn't all carry over.
- SEO only covered one of her two markets. Her keywords, alt text and page copy were all built around North Carolina. None of it targeted the NYC market she was actively growing.
- Generic service pages with no local specificity. Her graduation pages didn't name schools, neighborhoods or location-specific details that signal expertise to Google or to clients.
- No content consistency. She'd fallen off social media and had no organic search infrastructure to compensate.
This is a pattern I see often when a business grows faster than its website structure. I call it the Strategy-to-System Split™.
What I Did
In a single one-day project on October 23, 2025, I rebuilt Anh's digital foundation from the ground up. The focus: make her website work for both of her markets, not just one.
Site. The platform migration left broken redirects, 404 errors and a blog that had gone completely dark because it hadn't been republished on the new platform. I rebuilt the technical infrastructure: cleaned up dead links, restored redirects and made sure the blog wasn't leading people to dead ends. Without that foundation, none of the other work would matter. Google couldn't see the site properly.
Strategy. I rebuilt the SEO strategy around how people actually search for her services. "NYC graduation photographer" became the primary target, with a separate strategy for North Carolina. Keywords, alt text, metadata and page structure were all aligned around those search intents so Google could clearly understand the two markets she serves. Two markets, two strategies, cleanly separated.
Systems. The site needed to generate inquiries even when she wasn't posting on social media. I rebuilt the service pages to work as lead-generation systems: location-specific copy naming schools, neighborhoods and landmarks so someone in NYC immediately feels she knows this city. Every call-to-action connected directly to her scheduling system so visitors could go from reading the page to booking a call without friction.
Anh asked about an SEO audit. I said no.
Starting with only an SEO audit would have analyzed problems that didn't matter yet. The foundation needed to be rebuilt first. That diagnostic happened in the room, fast, because her problem was legible: a migration crash and single-market SEO. That's the difference between a service provider who upsells and one who tells you what you need to hear. Y punto.
(Not every problem reads that fast. When the picture is tangled, with multiple offers, multiple markets and systems that don't talk, that's exactly what a Strategic Cafecito is for.)
The Results
Anh Point Photography
Latest Update: October 2026
A year after the project, "NYC graduation photographer" is still on page 1. It averaged position 9.2 from July 23 to October 22, 2026 and has sat at 5.2 over the last 28 days.
Year Over Year (Jul 23 to Oct 22)
- 20 → 9.2 position for "NYC graduation photographer"
- 52 → 99 impressions for that search
- 0.9% → 1.5% click-through rate
- 51 → 49 total clicks
Against December to March
- 8.2 → 9.2 position for "NYC graduation photographer"
- 127 → 49 total clicks
- 2.5% → 1.5% click-through rate
- 24.1 → 38.6 average position
July to October is the off-season for graduation shoots and the site-wide numbers show it. The ranking is what she carries into the next booking season.
With the infrastructure repaired, the strategy aligned and the pages rebuilt to convert, the site could finally support the business she was already running. Anh noticed the shift quickly. NYC inquiries started coming in and her rankings began climbing within weeks of the one-day project.
I pulled two comparisons to show the full picture: how the new optimized site compares to the old site before the migration and what the one-day project specifically did to the new site.
Old Site vs. New Optimized Site
June 12 to Sept 11, 2025 (pre-migration) vs. Dec 5, 2025 to Mar 6, 2026 (post-project)
She didn't just recover from the migration. She surpassed the old site. For "NYC graduation photographer," she went from position 11.4 on the old site to 8.2 by March 2026, the best ranking she'd ever had. Google was showing her to fewer people overall, but the right people were clicking, because the pages matched her market.
- 50 → 127 total clicks (+154%)
- 0.5% → 2.5% click-through rate (5x higher)
- Position 45.1 → 24.1 average position
- Position 11.4 → 8.2 for "NYC graduation photographer"
What the One-Day Project Did to the New Site
July 23 to Oct 22, 2025 vs. Dec 5, 2025 to Mar 6, 2026
This isolates what the optimization work did on the new Showit site specifically. The migration crashed her ranking for "NYC graduation photographer" from position 11.4 to 20. After the one-day project, it climbed to 8.2. Better than the old site ever achieved.
- Position 20 → 8.2 for "NYC graduation photographer"
- 51 → 127 total clicks (+149%)
- 0.9% → 2.5% click-through rate
- 63 → 258 organic search sessions (+310%)
12 of 33 inquiries came from Google, plus 1 from AI search. Over a third of her leads came from organic search.
Real data. Real results. Straight from Google.
"It is like working with the best hype woman ever. Who is very collaborative and will give her input but also make sure to talk with you and ensure that it's something that really feels like you as well."
"You're very transparent and you're not someone who will necessarily oversell. You are very much upfront about what you think is the right fit for someone in terms of next steps."
"I really liked that we revised copy for my different graduation pages. I felt really good sending the pages out knowing that they were more specific. Adding that specific info about locations and schools just makes it feel more expert, more personal."
"I'm just very happy that I'm on the first page now. I feel confident that it should go higher once I start adding more photos and blogging."
Anh Nguyen, Owner of Anh Point Photography
The Takeaway
Anh's business had already outgrown the site. Two markets, location-specific expertise, clients booking across state lines. The project was about rebuilding the backend so the site could actually hold all of that without her having to push content every single day.
Separate market pages. Location-specific copy. Clear keyword architecture. Clean redirects after the platform migration.
That's how I work. The site, strategy y systems all have to talk to each other or none of it sticks. I don't optimize pages in isolation. I fix the wiring between them.
Before the project, Anh defined one success metric: rank on the first page for "NYC graduation photographer." By March 2026 she was at position 8.2. Page one.
These results reflect 3 months after the project. As she builds on this foundation with consistent content and blogging, these numbers will only climb. Now her site generates leads whether she's posting on Instagram or not.
Infrastructure holds. Punto.
Does This Sound Like You?
- A platform migration wiped out your search traffic and nobody gave you a plan to get it back.
- The site looks great. So why aren't the leads coming from it?
- You serve two markets, but your SEO only speaks to one of them. Google can't tell the difference either.
- One website doing double duty and neither audience feels like you're talking to them.
- When you stop posting, the inquiries dry up because the site has no way to attract traffic on its own.
- Everyone keeps telling you to post more. Pues, mira, you know the problem is structural, not motivational.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long did the SEO results take?
Anh noticed the shift quickly. NYC inquiries started coming in and her rankings began climbing within weeks of the project on October 23, 2025.
The numbers on this page reflect 3 months after the project: total clicks up from 51 to 127 on the new site, organic search sessions up from 63 to 258 and "NYC graduation photographer" at position 8.2 after crashing to 20 in the migration.
What does a photographer SEO fix like this include?
Three things, in one focused one-day project. Site: cleaning up dead links, restoring redirects after the platform migration and bringing the blog back so it wasn't leading people to dead ends. Strategy: rebuilding the keyword architecture around how people actually search, with "NYC graduation photographer" as the primary target and a separate strategy for North Carolina. Systems: rebuilding the service pages as lead-generation systems, with location-specific copy and every call-to-action connected to her scheduling system.
What did the Showit migration do to her rankings?
Moving from PixieSet to Showit on September 12, 2025 with incomplete redirects meant Google lost track of her pages. Ranking signals, backlinks and indexed URLs didn't all carry over and her ranking for "NYC graduation photographer" dropped from position 11.4 to 20.
The migration didn't cause the problem. It exposed it: her SEO only covered one of her two markets.
Can I book a one-day fix like Anh did?
If your problem is that clear, yes. Send it through Projects con Intención and I'll scope it. Anh's problem was legible in the room: a migration crash and single-market SEO. Plenty aren't.
The way we find out which you are is a Strategic Cafecito: I look at your site, SEO, customer journey y systems with you, name what's actually creating the friction and tell you exactly where to start. Diagnosis first, then we build.
When This Isn't the Answer
Anh's situation was right for a focused, single-day fix. The issues were real but contained: migration cleanup, keyword architecture, location-specific pages. One day, done.
Plenty of founders come to me with something bigger. The site, the SEO y the backend are all shifting at once. Multiple offers, multiple markets, content that never connects to the site, systems that were never built for the size the business actually is now. Those aren't one-day problems, mija.
That's a full ecosystem rebuild or an ongoing seat at the table while we make the calls together. But I don't prescribe either one blind. We start with a Strategic Cafecito, where we find out what's actually happening and where to begin. The fix comes after that, never before. Punto.
Kristine Gonzalez
12+ years of receipts and agency experience helping service providers and intentional founders turn their websites into digital ecosystems that connect, convert and support sustainable growth.
