Marcell Services
I put this together so you actually know what goes into a website and a photo shoot — not just the deliverables, but why each piece matters.
Section 01
Analytics
Who's coming to your site and what they're doing
Most small business owners I've worked with have no idea how their website is actually performing. Analytics is what turns that hope into actual data — who found you, how, and what they did next.
Sessions vs. Users — the difference between how many people visited and how many times they came back, and why conflating them gives you a false picture of growth.
Conversion Tracking — the one thing most people skip and then regret. Counting visitors without tracking what they do is just vanity metrics.
Download the full guide for Bounce Rate, Traffic Sources, and what I actually set up on every site.
SEO
Getting found on Google without running ads
SEO has a reputation for being mysterious and expensive. It's neither. At the small business level, most of the wins come from getting the basics right — things a lot of developers skip because they're not thinking about search.
On-Page Basics — title tags, meta descriptions, and heading structure. Not optional extras, they're how Google decides what your page is about.
Local SEO — if you serve a specific area, this is where most of your wins will come from. Most small businesses barely scratch the surface here.
Download the full guide for Technical SEO, Backlinks, and what I build in from day one.
Performance
How fast your site loads and why people leave when it doesn't
People don't wait for slow websites. Three seconds is about all you get before someone hits the back button — and on mobile, even that might be generous.
Images Are Usually the Problem — a photo straight off a phone can be 5-10MB. The same image, properly handled, can be under 200KB with no visible difference.
Your Host Matters — cheap shared hosting puts a ceiling on your speed that no amount of optimization can break through.
Download the full guide for Core Web Vitals, Caching, and what I handle on every build.
Security
The basics that keep your site from becoming someone else's problem
Small business sites get attacked constantly — not by people targeting you specifically, but by automated bots scanning for easy vulnerabilities. Most of these are completely preventable.
SSL / HTTPS — if your site still shows "Not Secure" in the browser, that's costing you visitors and rankings right now.
Contact Form Spam — an unprotected form will fill your inbox with garbage and can be used to send spam from your own server.
Download the full guide for Plugin Updates, Backups, and what I flag before they become your problem.
Section 02
Cameras & Gear
What the equipment actually does and why it matters
Gear isn't everything — but it's not nothing. The equipment determines what's possible. A phone camera has a fixed lens, a small sensor, and no real depth of field control. Those limitations show up the moment you try to use the photo at any real size.
The Lens Is What Actually Matters — that sharp subject / soft background look isn't a filter. It's physics, and phone cameras are faking it with AI. It usually shows.
Sensor Size — why professional photos look dimensional instead of flat, and it's not the editing doing that work.
Download the full guide for Mirrorless vs. DSLR, Lighting Gear, and what this means for your deliverables.
Angles & Composition
How framing changes what people think without them realizing it
Where you put the camera communicates things the viewer never consciously registers. These aren't aesthetic opinions — they're consistent psychological responses to visual cues that good photographers use deliberately.
Rule of Thirds — you probably already notice when photos feel "off." Centering everything is usually the culprit, and this is why.
Negative Space — empty space isn't wasted. It's also where designers put text overlays on banners, which a packed photo makes impossible to read.
Download the full guide for Camera Height, Leading Lines, and how I plan shots around your actual web layout.
Lighting
The one variable that determines whether a photo looks professional
Good lighting covers a lot of mistakes. Bad lighting exposes everything. I've seen expensive cameras produce mediocre photos because the lighting was wrong — and the opposite. It's the variable with the highest leverage.
Mixed Light Sources — this is where most DIY shoots go wrong. Fluorescent overhead and daylight from a window don't mix. Your camera has to pick one, and the other looks off.
Golden Hour for Exteriors — for storefronts and outdoor spaces, timing the shoot around this is one of the simplest ways to dramatically change the result.
Download the full guide for Window Light, Three-Point Setup, and how I scout before every shoot.
Editing & Retouching
What good post-processing actually looks like
Every professional photo gets edited. The goal isn't to make it look like something it's not — it's to make it look like the best, most accurate version of what was actually there.
Color Correction First — if your team headshots each have a different color cast, the page looks inconsistent. This is the thing most people don't notice until they see it fixed.
Cropped for Where It's Going — a website banner, a LinkedIn photo, and an Instagram post all need different crops. One file doesn't cover all three.
Download the full guide for Retouching, RAW vs. JPEG, and exactly what you receive as a deliverable.