8 Reasons Why You Should Be Strategic When Choosing Your Website Photos!
Relevant imagery plays a HUGE role in the overall design, user experience, and effectiveness of your website!
Humans are very visual and tend to look first and ask questions later. Essentially, this means our brains will focus on the imagery before reading the wording on a website.
The purpose of brand imagery is to communicate the right messages with your target audience so that they develop strong emotions when they encounter your brand.
*BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE HEAT MAP PHOTO BELOW, WHICH ACTUALLY SHOWS HOW IMPORTANT IMAGE CHOICE IS!
2. Brand Identity and Consistency:
8. Load Time and Optimization:
Images on your website play a bigger role than just making you look good. If you use them strategically, you can present information in a more digestible way as well as contributing to the storytelling process.
Images are powerful in a way that they not only attract our attention, but also spark emotions and draw us in.
Humans respond to visual stimuli and data better than any other kind—the brain can process images up to 60,000x faster than text! This ALONE is a great reason to carefully consider your choices, but of course there’s MORE.
There have been many studies over the years regarding visual processing and the importance of image choice in marketing efforts. They consistently find that image choice is the best way to convey strong emotion… and drive conversion.
When choosing images for a website* there are some important items to consider to ensure that the visuals complement and enhance the content, and that you are providing a cohesive and engaging experience for visitors.
Here are eight reasons why strategy is so key when choosing pictures:
1. Communication and Context:
Relevant images help support the text, providing visual cues that enhance understanding and make it easier for visitors to absorb information.
2. Brand Identity and Consistency:
Images should be consistent with the brand's identity, values, and messaging. This helps establish a cohesive visual language, reinforcing the brand's image and making it more memorable.
3. Emotional Connection:
Images can absolutely evoke emotions and create connections with visitors. Selecting images that resonate with the target audience's feelings, preferences, and expectations can boost engagement and lead to higher conversion rates. (This is where your audience and competitor research comes into play!)
4. Accessibility:
When choosing images, consider accessibility for users with visual impairments. Alt-text descriptions and high-contrast images can help make your website more inclusive for all users.
5. Quality and Resolution:
High-quality images with appropriate resolution for various screen sizes and devices are essential. This ensures that images appear crisp and professional, creating a positive impression of the website.
6. Legality and Licensing:
Ensure that you have the necessary permissions and licenses to use the images on your website. This helps avoid potential legal issues, protecting the website owner and upholding the website's integrity. You don’t want to get busted with “borrowed” pictures.
7. Relevance and Originality:
Images should be relevant to the content and purpose of the website, avoiding clichés and overused visuals. Original and unique images can set your website apart from competitors, making it more memorable and engaging. We know this can be difficult, especially when a business is first starting out! Not everyone can pay for a beautiful branded photoshoot. Stock photography is fine, just try to use unique images. Many stock photography sites have a free trial and a reasonable monthly rate—take advantage of the opportunity to get professional pictures from a paid site. These won’t be as commonly used as on a free site such as Unsplash.
8. Load Time and Optimization:
Large image files can slow down page loading times, negatively impacting the user experience and search engine rankings. Choose images with appropriate file sizes and optimize them for the web to maintain website performance.
Don’t forget to consider placement of pictures when designing your digital assets. Studies using heat maps show that an image can actually direct the reader's gaze towards the action you want them to take!
An example of this is two options of a photo of a baby in the hero section.
In the first instance, the baby is looking straight ahead, smiling at the reader. In the second option, they are looking to the right, towards the headline. Heat map imagery shows that attention tends to remain focused on the child in the first example, and in the second, the reader’s attention is directed towards the message.
Which is exactly what you want!
There are many ways to use pictures to increase conversions on your site, but ultimately the most important thing you can do is consider your PROSPECTS wants, needs, motivations and desires and convey THIS in your imagery.
*These rules obviously apply to all of your digital assets… Sales pages, Landing pages, articles, posts, ads, etc!