Do You Need a Portfolio or Website to Stand Out in 2026
Back in early 2023, there were lots of rumours circulating that Meta and other social media platforms were intending to start flooding their sites with AI generated content. I felt it was the right time to start my own website, so after many hours of research I settled on SquareSpace as my platform of choice, it had the drag and drop features I was looking for to showcase my work, plus blogging capability, ecommerce, and solid SEO. In late September 2023 I launched Grant Udy Photos. It hasn’t been easy, it’s been a steep learning curve and I’ve made some mistakes along the way, but those experiences have helped me grow. I’m very pleased with the platform I’ve built and what it has become today.
Uploading content to social media platforms has become increasingly difficult to get engagement over the last six months, as the platforms have been flooded with AI bots producing low quality AI generated material that makes it hard for people to know what is real and what is not. Since the beginning of the year there has been a noticeable shift: because AI generated content often isn’t entertaining, people are again seeking human connection and authentic storytelling. By writing thoughtful blog posts I’ve seen increased traffic to my website, and visitors are spending more time exploring other pages and engaging with me directly.
I believe 2026 is an excellent time to set up a portfolio or website. If you already have an Adobe account for photo processing, Adobe Portfolio is included with many plans and can be a simple, effective way to begin. It offers useful SEO settings with the ability to connect to Google, helping your portfolio appear in search results. Having a polished portfolio also makes it easy to share a single link with potential clients and showcase your best work.
There are many options for setting up a portfolio or website, ranging from hiring a professional web design company to using a variety of DIY online platforms. Most online platforms offer a free trial period before you commit, and then operate on a monthly or yearly subscription basis. Many also let you purchase a custom domain name and add a professional email address linked to your site. If you are thinking about creating a portfolio or website, below is a list of portfolios and websites to consider, so you can determine which option will best suit your specific needs. There are too many to list here, and there are numerous others available as well.
Adobe Portfolio, Wix, SquareSpace, Rocketspark, Canva, Pixieset, PicDrop, and ShootProof.
One platform to avoid is Picfair — I’ve tried it and it isn’t worth the roughly $120 + GST annual subscription. Picfair functions mainly as a DIY stock selling site, but it suffers from several important shortcomings. There are essentially no organic sales, since there’s no central marketplace search field that directs buyers to individual stores, so most photographers report zero sales unless they invest heavily in self promotion on social media. It also offers very low market visibility: compared with major agencies like Shutterstock or Adobe Stock, Picfair’s internal marketplace provides significantly less exposure to the high volume buyers who actually generate steady revenue.
With any portfolio or website, it’s good practice to display the copyright statement in the footer of your site. I also include a link to my Terms of Service in the footer. My Terms of Service outlines the Intellectual Property Rights that apply to all content on my website. A reliable source of copyright information in New Zealand is Copyright Licensing New Zealand; they regularly run free Creative Licensing workshops. I attended one of these workshops in 2024, it covered everything from your rights on social media and what happens to copyright when you pass away, to general copyright law. I would highly recommend attending one of their available workshops.
Having my own website has allowed me to grow as a photographer, and learning SEO has become a significant focus as well. There has been a noticeable change in how people use search engines, with more and more searches coming from AI powered platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and CoPilot. I now receive regular traffic to many of the blog posts I wrote nearly two years ago, which is encouraging for long-term reach and visibility.
My final thoughts are with one of my own favourite quotes.
“They have been telling us for the last couple of years that Ai will destroy photography, I believe Ai will destroy Social Media before photography”