How important are images on your website?
Man on motorbike in Vietnam, taken by Reena O’Neill
You’ve all heard the saying, “A picture tells a thousand words” but how does this apply to websites? Are images more effective at communicating your messages on a website?
Yes!
Images play a very important part of the design of your website.
Why should you have images on your website?
Images break up the content on the site
Text is easier to digest if it’s in short sentences and short paragraphs with great images and headers to help the user quickly scan the page and find the information most relevant to them. Users don't read websites like they might a book, they scan and jump around the content, so using images to break up the text or alongside a header help the user to do this.
Images help signpost
An image alongside text can help the user make sense of the text quickly. Landing pages with images and text are easy to scan quickly and navigate to the page the user is interested more easily.
Images help with search engine optimisation
Adding images to your site could really improve the SEO for your pages. It’s important to remember that search engines (like Google) can not ‘see’ images on your website. Google doesn’t have eyes, it ‘reads’ the code which makes up your site. Therefore, it’s really important to make sure you label your images with useful descriptions of what the image is.
For example, if you add an image of your CEO, label the image with their name and job title. Search engines then also have a better idea of what your page is about.
This is also important for users using screen readers that images are labelled as accurately as possible.
Images personalise the site
I always recommend that my clients add an pictures of their staff to their website. I say this because, people want to see who they are dealing with. It makes people feel more comfortable if they can picture who they are talking to. It adds trust. Trust is what will win your business.
I think this is extra important for any customer support functions. This way you are more likely to be treated like a human being rather than just a representative of the company.
Images help you see what you’re getting
Seems obvious, but it’s important to have images if you’re asking users to buy something. This adds to the point above, that if you are a service business, then ‘you’ are what they are buying.
Images represent a brand
Images are a great way to present a brand or ethos of your company. In the same way that the colours and font you choose for your site represent your brand, images can convey a sense of who you are as an organisation. You can use images to show you are professional, fun, trustworthy, or high-quality. Whatever suits your organisation.
Sourcing images
Now you’re all convinced that you must add images to your site, how do you find the right ones?
Take them yourself
When you’re starting out, you may not have a budget for photography, so taking shots yourself may be the only option. However, I do recommend that you eventually invest in professional photography.
Get a professional
There are lots of professional photographers who can offer a specialised service depending on whether you need product shots or headshots. Give them a clear brief of what you want and what you will use it for and they should be able to guide you.
[Quick tip - landscape shots are always more useful than portrait. When commission photography, be clear about what layouts you need to fit in with your website design templates]
Use stock photography
There are lots of stock photography websites like Unsplash, Shutterstock, iStock where you can buy images or use for creative comms images for free. If you’re going to use stock photography make sure you have permission to use it.
[Quick tip - be aware that something too obviously stock photography, can turn some users off as being non-personal and untrustworthy]
Commission illustrations
I have worked with some clients who just couldn’t find images to represent their organisation, but they didn’t want their site to be all text. In this case, we decided to commission illustrations which worked brilliantly to break up the text and open up the site without alienating audiences with stock or irrelevant images.
Using icons
Another way to get around not being able to find representative photography is to use icons. Similar to stock photography, there are websites like The Noun Project which allows you to search and purchase icons for your website use.
If you would like to learn more about making better use of images on your website
Get in touch