Galleries on Your Photography Website in 2026: When to Embed and When to Send a Link
Portfolio galleries sell your next booking; client galleries deliver this one. When to embed a gallery on your photography website, when to send a link, and how to keep a portfolio updated from Google Drive.
Short answer
Embed galleries that are part of your website, such as portfolio and recent-work pages, and send client galleries as a private link. A portfolio fed from a Google Drive folder updates when you drop new photos into the folder; client galleries work best as a link the client opens on their phone, where passwords, favourites and downloads all work reliably.
Most photographers' websites have two kinds of gallery: the portfolio, which sells your work to future clients, and client galleries, which deliver finished photos to people who've already booked. They have different jobs, and it changes whether you should embed a gallery on your website or send a link.
This guide explains when to embed, when to link, how to set each up from Google Drive, and the mistakes that make a portfolio slow or a delivery awkward.
- Two galleries, two jobs
- Embed or link: how to decide
- Portfolio galleries that update themselves
- Client galleries: why a link usually wins
- Website pages worth adding a gallery to
- Set-up checklist
Two galleries, two jobs
| Portfolio gallery | Client gallery | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees it | Anyone visiting your site | One client and their family |
| Goal | Win new bookings | Deliver, let them pick favourites and download |
| Privacy | Public | Private link, sometimes a password |
| How long it's online | Permanently | Weeks or months |
| Best format | Embedded on a website page | A link sent by email or WhatsApp |
Embed or link: how to decide
Embed when the gallery is part of your website: portfolio pages, a "recent work" page, a venue or vendor page you share with planners, a page for a public event you photographed.
Link when the gallery belongs to a client: a wedding, a family session, a corporate headshot day. Clients open it on their phone from a message, don't need to find it on your site, and can forward it to family. A password, if you use one, works reliably on the gallery's own page but not inside an embed (browsers block it).
Many photographers do both: a public highlights gallery embedded on the website, and private client galleries sent by link.
Portfolio galleries that update themselves
The usual pain with portfolio pages is that they go stale: updating means exporting, resizing and re-uploading into the website builder. With a gallery fed from Google Drive, you keep a "Portfolio" folder in Drive and the page updates when you change the folder.
- Create a Portfolio folder in Drive, with subfolders for each category you show (Weddings, Portraits, Families). Subfolders become sections.
- Share it as "Anyone with the link" (Viewer), and make a GalleryLink gallery from it. Turn downloads off for a portfolio.
- Open Share › Embed, copy the code, and paste it into your portfolio page's code or HTML block (see our step-by-step embed guide for Squarespace, Wix, WordPress and Showit).
- From then on, refreshing your portfolio means dropping your best new frames into the folder.
Tips for portfolios:
- Show 20 to 40 of your strongest images per category, not everything.
- Export at web size (2000 to 2500 px on the long edge) into the portfolio folder; the gallery creates fast previews either way, but smaller files keep it light.
- Strip location data from exports if they include clients' homes.
- On a portfolio gallery that stays up, use Pro: free galleries are shared for 24 hours.
Client galleries: why a link usually wins
- Privacy: a client gallery shouldn't sit on a public page of your website.
- Passwords only work on the gallery's own page.
- Favourites and downloads work everywhere, but some browsers (Safari) forget favourites inside an embed on another site.
- Phones: a client opens a link from WhatsApp straight into a full-screen gallery; an embed inside your site adds your menu and page around it.
If you want your branding around client deliveries, a studio page at your own address (yourname.gallerylink.live, or your own domain) gives every gallery your name and logo without embedding.
Website pages worth adding a gallery to
- Portfolio by category: one embed per page or section.
- Recent work: a folder you update after each shoot with three or four favourites.
- Venue pages: "Weddings at The Old Barn", for couples searching that venue (great for local SEO when the page text is yours).
- Mini-session landing pages: last year's sets, to sell this year's dates.
- Public events: a fun run or school fair where the organiser wants photos on their site; give them the embed code.
Set-up checklist
- Decide which galleries are public (embed) and which are private (link).
- Create one Drive folder per public gallery, shared "Anyone with the link".
- Turn downloads off on portfolio galleries; keep them on for client deliveries.
- Embed with Share › Embed; check the live page on a phone.
- Write your own heading and a few sentences above each embed: that text is what search engines read.
Related: a portfolio website from Google Drive and how to deliver photos to clients.