Why We Named Our Platform Photographer Finder (And Why Naming Strategy Has Completely Changed)
How naming strategy has changed in the AI era.
Why We Named Our Platform Photographer Finder
A few months before we launched, we had a naming crisis. We were sitting around realizing the entire playbook for domain names and SEO has shifted. If we were building this in 2012, we'd have grabbed "find-photographers-online.com"—keyword-stuffed and obvious.
But we're building in 2025. The rules changed.
The Old Way vs. Now
Keyword-loaded domains used to be SEO cheat codes. Back in the early 2000s, Google loved exact-match domains. "best-wedding-photographers.com" would rank well just because of the name.
That made sense then. Google's algorithm was simpler, and your domain name was a strong signal.
Now? AI changed that completely.
When someone wants to find a photographer in 2025, they're increasingly asking ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. Not typing keywords into Google. And here's the thing: AI doesn't care what your domain name is.
When someone asks ChatGPT, "Find me a documentary wedding photographer in Austin," the AI doesn't look at domain names. It understands content. It parses structured data. Your domain name is completely irrelevant.
This is fundamentally different from 2012.
Why We Chose "Photographer Finder"
So when we were naming, we kept coming back to something that would've felt risky in 2015: just say what we do. Clear. Simple. No "best-photographer-discovery-network-platform." Just Photographer Finder.
We worried at first. Wouldn't we lose SEO by not stuffing keywords?
No. The domain name doesn't have to be an SEO hack anymore. It just has to be memorable. When a human sees "Photographer Finder," they get it instantly. When an AI system indexes us, it doesn't care about the domain—it cares that our content clearly explains who we are.
The domain name is just the address now. Not the pitch.
Why This Matters
Discovery is now multi-channel. Google still matters. So do Instagram, TikTok, email, and AI assistants. No single channel dominates.
A name needs to:
- Work across platforms (Instagram bio, Google, ChatGPT, word-of-mouth)
- Be memorable
- Be easy to spell
- Clearly say what you do
"Photographer Finder" does all that. "best-photographer-marketplace-directory.com" does none.
You see this everywhere now. Stripe. Slack. Notion. Figma. They don't keyword-stuff. They just build things people want to use.
The Real Reason We Named Ourselves This Way
Photographer Finder exists because AI is becoming a discovery channel. It's clunky right now—ChatGPT hallucinates, misses people, relies on old data. But it's improving.
When it gets better, photographers who structured their information for AI discovery will have an advantage. So we named ourselves to explain what we are, and we built a platform AI systems can understand.
We're not gaming an old algorithm. We're preparing for a new discovery landscape.
The Siri Principle
By the time Siri can actually help book a photographer, AI discovery will be obvious. And photographers who got ahead of it in 2025 will have an advantage.
We won't know if we're right until 2027 or 2028. Either way, "Photographer Finder" works. It's honest. It's clear.
That's the whole approach: a straightforward name, a platform built for how photographers actually need to be discovered in 2025.
Written by Photographer Finder Team