Images on a website do more than paint a pretty picture or make your design look good. When used effectively, they help capture your audience, guide their attention, tell a story and keep users engaged. When optimised for SEO, they can also help your website search results, increasing organic traffic.
Websites with pixelated, low quality or unrelated imagery, not only drive users away, but can have a negative impact on your brand and sales.
To help you effectively incorporate visuals into your design, we’ve outlined a few dos and don’ts when it comes to website imagery.
Use high quality imagery: While this point may seem obvious, we come across a lot of websites that have poor quality images embedded throughout their design. Use images with high resolution, around 72 pixels per inch (PPI), which is the standard resolution for web images. High quality doesn’t necessarily mean large file size; you can keep your image sizes under 1MB for quick page loads. We recommend hiring a professional photographer who can bring your brand to life through high-quality imagery. If investing in a professional photographer isn’t a viable option, try using a high resolution camera and following these best practices to ensure that your photos look as professional as possible: A DIY Guide to Beautiful Product Photography and How to Shoot Your Own Website Photos.
Use images relevant to your brand and website copy: While it can be tempting to embed an image on your website for the sake of filling white space, studies show that users ignore images used to “jazz up” web pages and only pay close attention to relevant imagery. Be strategic when selecting images for your website and selective when deciding where to place them. The images you choose for each web page should always relate to your brand and the content surrounding them.
Use captions: Captions on images help readers learn more about your content and add extra value. Keep them descriptive and concise, and provide users only with critical information that the image doesn’t explicitly display.
Optimise all images for SEO: Optimising images for SEO can help you rank higher in search engine results. Some SEO best practices include adding descriptive, keyword-rich and hyphenated filenames, using responsive images that work well on different devices and choosing the right file type.
Overcrop: Overcropping can cause the image to lose contrast with the background, making the subject look off-balance, or significantly reducing the quality. When cropping images, try to remove only the unnecessary elements or unused space, give the subject enough room to breathe and keep the image large enough to avoid losing resolution and ending up with a pixelated photo.
Overwhelm users with too many images: Too many images on a page can be overwhelming and confusing to visitors. Incorporate meaningful and relevant images that entice visitors to learn more and help make your web pages more informative, engaging and memorable.
Solely rely on stock imagery: While stock imagery can be a good solution, websites that rely solely on it miss an opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competitors. If you need to use stock imagery, choose high-res and high-quality images that relate to your audience and reflect the content you are trying to communicate online.
Choosing the right imagery for your website is an important component of your online success. Remember, every detail counts when it comes to giving your users the best online experience and converting engagement to sales.
