How Anke Baumgarten saved € 5,000 with Companion and gained visibility online

Sometimes a success story begins with an unexpected cancellation…

When a colleague’s wedding photographer had to cancel the day before the wedding due to illness, Anke stepped in at the last minute. Originally, she had only brought her camera to photograph the champagne reception. In the end, she covered the wedding “all the way until 2 a.m.” That experience changed everything.

“I realized how fulfilling it was for me to see how happy the couple was about the photos and the memories they would have for the rest of their lives.”

That moment turned into a passion. The passion became a business. And the business grew into a heartfelt venture that Anke still runs alongside her civil service job in the public sector. She is the mother of two young children, works 50 % as an employee, and is 50 % self-employed as a photographer. Weddings, newborns, families, and, more recently, kindergarten photography are all part of her portfolio. 

Security had always been important to her, and yet she could feel there was still more potential ahead.

From word of mouth to visibility online

For many years, her business worked almost entirely through word of mouth. One wedding led to the next, families recommended her, and happy clients kept coming back. But after the pandemic, she clearly felt that the market had changed. Competition had increased, prices were dropping, and suddenly relying on referrals alone was no longer enough. So she decided to create her first website. Something she had not needed at all during the first five or six years of her part-time self-employment. But even after the site went live, the effect she had hoped for never came. It was not generating any inquiries.

Anke knew she needed help with SEO and visibility. So she started looking. She contacted companies, IT service providers, and marketing experts. One company got back to her with a quote: € 5,000. For a part-time business owner with a family, that was simply not realistic.

The disappointment was huge because she knew she had to change something, but she could not see an affordable way forward. It was during this phase that she discovered the Jimdo Companion while logging into her Jimdo dashboard.

Curious, she started clicking through the suggested improvements. Companion recommended adjusting her SEO titles, changing fonts, creating blog posts, and structuring her content more clearly. The SEO suggestions in particular convinced her.

“I really think those SEO keywords helped me a lot.”

She had already worked with external AI tools before, but she quickly noticed that these suggestions were different. They were tailored directly to her website and her business. At first, she hesitated because she wondered whether the texts would really fit her voice. But at some point, she made a conscious decision.

“I thought, okay, whatever, I’m just going to do it and see what happens. It can’t be that wrong.”

More than 100 % more page views in seven days

What followed was, in her own words, surprisingly motivating.

“It was kind of addictive.”

Once she had started, she wanted to keep optimizing. On some days, she implemented five or six suggestions right away. She did not feel overwhelmed—she felt supported. For her, Companion became a kind of digital partner that does not judge, but helps and shows clear next steps. Then came the moment of truth: the statistics.

“I saw how incredibly fast the numbers were going up.”

In the last seven days, her website recorded an increase in page views of more than 100%. In January, she received five inquiries through her website—before that, there had been none.

“When I looked in my email account and saw: Jimdo, Jimdo, Jimdo—I thought, wow, where are all these people coming from? Out of those five inquiries, three have already turned into bookings.”

Two more wedding consultations were still pending. For Anke, that was a huge success.

Without hiring an agency and without investing € 5,000, she had significantly increased her visibility and generated real bookings. For her, Companion did not just replace an expensive SEO consultant—it also gave her the knowledge and confidence to keep improving her website on her own.

Beyond the boost in visibility, another factor was crucial for Anke: the time savings. Earlier attempts with other systems had left her frustrated. Looking back, she describes some of them as a “disaster” because she got lost in technical details. With Companion, on the other hand, she gets concrete design and structure suggestions that she simply fills in with her own content.

More than a website: potential for her entire business

Today, she intentionally invests that saved time in her family or in strategic topics such as Instagram, shoot guides, and new offer ideas. In the long term, she wants to plan her bookings better and ideally know at the beginning of the year what her calendar will look like through December.

“My goal would actually be to have one shoot per week—even in the winter months.”

For her, Companion has long since become more than just a technical feature. It is a tool that helps her think like an entrepreneur, build structures, and make bolder decisions.

“It would be very bad for me if it were no longer there.”

Conclusion

Anke’s story shows that visibility does not have to be a privilege reserved for businesses with big budgets. She proves that a clear strategy, a willingness to change, and a smart tool can be enough to achieve real results. Instead of investing €5,000 in an external agency, she used Jimdo Companion to take control herself—and in the process, she not only saved money but also gained confidence in her own entrepreneurial abilities.

“You only live once, and you should follow your gut feeling.”

Anke followed that gut feeling and turned her website into a real inquiry magnet with Jimdo Companion.

Want more visibility for your business too?

Jimdo Companion supports you step by step with guidance tailored to your business. Try it for free now!

Are you already using the Jimdo Companion in your business? If so, we’d love to hear about your experience.
For upcoming user stories, we’re looking for freelancers who use the Companion and would like to share how it helps them in their day-to-day work—whether it’s making decisions, managing finances, optimizing for SEO, or planning their next steps.

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