The photoanode of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was investigated. P25 TiO2 nanoparticles were used to fabricate the active layer, on which a light scattering layer was coated using SiO2‐TiO2 core‐shell particles. SiO2‐TiO2 core‐shell particles with and without mesoporous (MP) surface structure were fabricated and evaluated separately for the scattering layer. MP surface helped increase the surface area and the amount of adsorbed dye. As a result, the light absorption rate of the photoanode with the MP‐SiO2‐TiO2 scattering layer increased, leading to improving the DSSC performance by about 50%. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.