Why Pictures Are So Important For A Website

Pictorial data can bring plenty of benefits to your website; and when taken in the right way it can promote, advertise and market your business. When an image is powerful, it can share, entice, persuade and inspire a person to do business with you; a good image can even tell a story. It is not only that images can attract visitors, but even Google finds it worth indexing.

Everyone wants image b(i)ased content and website

A professionally made website can attract visitors even though they don’t convert immediately. And when you have strategically placed images and content, you will find people bookmarking it for future visits. People might not read all the content in your website, but when they see good images, it slays in their mind forever. Excellent content with enticing images will bring good returns for you, eventually.

Now that the importance of images in your website is established, how will you go about it? Are you going to get stock photos or real images? Some companies prefer to go for stock photos because they believe it saves them time and effort, but does it really convey the message of your company? People may buy stock images thinking them to be easy, cheap and quick. True, they do have a lot of advantages, but now examine the disadvantages of using stock photos in your webpage

  • They don’t convey the real meaning/message of your brand/company
  • Will not help with branding
  • They don’t look authentic enough
  • You may see the picture on your website used on several other websites and brochures
  • They don’t not give the ambience of your office
  • They don’t show the real people working in your company

Actually, what made people go into stock photos in the first place?

In the olden days, getting an image was a tedious task. You had to shoot pictures in a film camera and then wait till the images are processed. If there is anything wrong in the images, the pictures would have to be reshot. This was a tedious and painstaking process, not to speak of time and money you’ve got to put into it. But now times have changed and you have hi-tech cameras to take pictures and computers to perfect them. However, by then websites selling online stock photos were also introduced and this prompted people to go for the easiest method of getting images. And some photos were offered for free as well. But not all the photos that you get online are worth it; some are soulless and some just doesn’t suit your purpose.

What makes images so important in a website?

  1. If you are publishing an article without an image, it wouldn’t help much, but if you attach an image along with article, it would give 94% more views.
  2. If you are releasing a product, show the products in its natural surroundings to generate that genuine feeling in your pictures. You cannot post stock photos here.
  3. The images that you post must have great detail in them; the more detail, the better. Customers are always impressed with detailed images because it gives them the detail of the pictures.
  4. People have short attention span and as they have the option of leaving your websit; your visitors need to be impressed with excellent quality images
  5. People are more likely to retain the memory of what they see rather then what they read; only real photographs would be able to convey that effect.
  6. Visuals can explain your product features in an impressive manner; people are more likely to share and make it viral.

Why it is always better to use real photographs?

Images are posted not just for the sake of it or for making your site attractive and prettier, but it should convey the value of your product or service. When you use a stock photo, you will not be able to communicate that feeling of reality. The photos should be about people that are related to your business in some way or the way. If you want to show the picture of an office and your employees working in their workstations, then it would be ideal if you could show real employees in real environment. That way your photo will never be duplicated in various other websites or brochures. The biggest disadvantage about stock photos is that you never know how many times a particular picture has been used in other places. You could lose your credibility in using such images.

To take real pictures you might have to hire a photographer and set aside an entire day for shooting; but it is worth the effort. Such images can bring a kind of reality that words cannot. If you invest in photographs, that would only add to the authenticity of your company. The lighting, the angles and the actions of your “models” would always be real and not staged. If the pictures are not real and bought from a stock photo website, you could be conveying the wrong image about your company. Of course, the photos shouldn’t be only about your firm, but it must inform the buyer what all benefits he would stand to gain when he associates with your company.

Interesting links about the topic:
Why Images Are Said To Be The Important Part of Your Website Strategy
Why It Is Important For Your Website To Have Good Images

Pictures: Flicker.com / Elizabeth/ aydnmercan


The author: Reema Oamkumar is engaged as a thought leader at www.Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.

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