What is the first thing you notice about a website? Your eyes are immediately drawn to the photos, aren’t they? That’s why choosing the right image for your website is imperative. You can impress a web visitor by simply having the right photo on your homepage. But that’s easier said than done. Thousands of websites on the Internet don’t know how to maximize the images they choose for their sites. Worse, they pick all the wrong images that don’t even send the right message.
You can hire a graphic design expert in Kent or other cities to create animations, charts, and graphics for your website. Personalized images and graphics are always better than stock photos, but that doesn’t mean that stock photos are all evil. You can make these stock images work for your website with a few tricks. But first, there are the rules for creating and choosing the right images for your website.
Your audience is smarter than you give them credit for. They can easily identify if you are using a stock image. They all look the same. They know if you have made an effort to personalize and customize your website according to your business offerings and blog topics. Selecting the wrong images for your website has two main effects: it destroys the site’s user interface, and it affects user experience.
Go for High-quality Images
Whether you’re using stock photos or your own, always pick the ones with the highest resolution and large pixels. Your web visitors will feel robbed off a great experience if you put low-quality images on your website. The photos need to look good on all devices, and they include large screens. A low-quality photo will still look great on your smartphone’s screen, but what about on your desktop’s? The image will bleed, and the pixels will stretch out.
Entice Your Customers with Brand Relevancy
How can you make sure that web visitors are going to have a full-blown experience of what you’re offering? It’s by using images only with relevance to your brand. What are you doing using stock photos when you’re selling jewelry, for example? Why couldn’t you use your own photos? Why do you need to lift these photos from another website? The pictures you choose, even if they are stock photos, need to be relevant to your brand. They need to send the right message to your customers.
Not All Stock Photos Are Bad
Stock photos exist for a reason. They serve those who don’t have the capacity yet to produce their own photos. But if you are going to use stock photos for your website, make sure to choose the images wisely. Pick only the photos that reflect your brand’s message. If possible, sign up for a premium account so that you’ll have access to a larger library of files. Don’t download the first image you see on the search result. These are most likely the images that other web designers and developers are using for their websites.
These are the basic golden rules of choosing images for your website. There are more rules to follow such as optimizing the images for SEO, showcasing the products on real people, and putting call-to-action on the image. Those three above, though, should put you in a good position to start designing your website with the right images.
