A Photo Gallery on Your Business Website That Updates Itself From Google Drive (2026)
For rentals, hotels, schools, clubs, events, makers and restaurants: put a gallery on your website that updates whenever your team adds photos to a Google Drive folder, with ideas, steps and privacy tips.
Short answer
Keep the photos in a Google Drive folder, turn the folder into a gallery once, and paste its embed code into your website. From then on, anyone who adds photos to the folder updates the gallery on your website, with no website logins needed. Use subfolders for sections, file names for captions, and keep downloads off for property or product galleries.
Plenty of businesses need photos on their website that change often: a holiday rental adding a refurbished room, a school posting this term's events, a club after every match day, a maker with a new product range, an event organiser on the night. Most of them already keep those photos in a Google Drive folder, and most of them re-upload the same photos into their website by hand.
This guide shows how to put a gallery on your website that updates itself from that folder, with ideas for each kind of business.
- How a self-updating gallery works
- Ideas by type of business
- Step by step
- Organising the folder
- Privacy and permissions
- Common mistakes
How a self-updating gallery works
The gallery on your website is a window onto a Drive folder. You turn the folder into a gallery once, paste a short piece of code into your website, and from then on whatever is in the folder is what visitors see. Nobody needs website logins to update it: anyone on your team who can add files to the folder can update the gallery.
Ideas by type of business
| Business | Gallery on the website | Who updates the folder |
|---|---|---|
| Vacation rentals and guesthouses | One gallery per property on its page; a "the area" gallery | Property manager after each shoot or refurbishment |
| Hotels and venues | Rooms, event spaces, weddings held at the venue | Marketing team, or the venue's photographers |
| Schools | Term events, sports day, performances | Office staff or the school photographer |
| Clubs and leagues | Match days and tournaments, one section per team | Club photographer or volunteer |
| Event organisers | Photos from this year's event, on the event's own site | Event photographer, the same evening |
| Makers and product brands | Product range with names and prices under each photo | Whoever shoots new products |
| Restaurants and cafés | The menu with photos of each dish | The kitchen or manager |
| Builders, architects and interior designers | Finished projects, one section per project | The project lead |
Step by step
- Make the folder in Google Drive and add the photos. Use subfolders for sections (Rooms, Pool, Area; or Under 10s, Under 12s).
- Share it as "Anyone with the link" (Viewer).
- Create a gallery from the folder link in GalleryLink. For products, choose catalogue mode so names and prices show under the photos; name files like "Stoneware mug 350ml $18.jpg".
- Choose downloads: off for property or product galleries, on for event photos people want to save.
- Copy the embed code from Share › Embed and paste it into your website's code or HTML block. Our embed guide has the exact steps for Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, Showit and Notion.
- Check the published page on a phone.
Organising the folder
- Order: number files or subfolders ("01 Exterior", "02 Living") to control the order.
- Captions: file names can show under photos; rename files to what you want visitors to read.
- Size: phone and camera originals are fine; previews are generated automatically. For very large sets, web-size exports keep things fast.
- Archive old photos by moving them to a different folder, rather than deleting.
Privacy and permissions
- The gallery shows only the folder you choose; visitors can never browse up into the rest of your Drive.
- For photos of children (schools, clubs), follow your consent list, and consider a link sent to parents rather than a public page.
- A password-protected gallery can't be shown inside a website (browsers block it); use a link for private galleries.
- Free galleries are shared for 24 hours; a gallery that lives on your website needs Pro to stay online.
Common mistakes
- Embedding the Drive folder itself: visitors get a file list, and some builders block it.
- A WordPress.com or Squarespace plan that strips embeds: check the published page, not just the editor.
- No text around the gallery: add a heading and a short description on your page; it's what search engines read.
- Mixing two properties or events in one gallery: one folder per gallery keeps it clear.
See also: galleries for vacation rentals and hotels and vacation rental marketing with photos.