7 Tips to Choosing the Right Photos for Your Website

When it comes to choosing photos for your website, it’s important to stand out from the competition. The good news is that beating your online competition is pretty easy since most businesses don’t try that hard to do it.

One of the easiest ways to beat your competition is to choose the right photos for your website. In this post, we’ll give you 7 tips for choosing the right photos for your website.

Which Photos Can I Use on my Website?

1. Select Quality Photos

Our number one tip when it comes to images is to make sure they are quality images. When you take the time to ensure your images are of high quality, you’re presenting your brand and business in the best possible light.

Your images should be in high resolution to ensure they look good no matter the screen size your visitors are using.

Your images should also be sharp and clear so that people visiting your site can easily see and understand what’s on the photo without having to zoom in, pinch, or guess.

If you’re taking your own photos, make sure the lighting is good, otherwise your images will be too dark.

Lastly, avoid clipart and using overly rendered images as they will send the wrong message to your audience.

Choosing the Right Photos

2. Use Original Photography When Possible

Whenever possible, use original photography. Your website visitors as well as your potential clients and customers want to know who is behind the brand. This allows them to make a connection with you and see that there are humans behind the business. In other words, your own original images are always more authentic.

If you have to use stock photography, use it as a secondary source of photos. Check out the 15 best free stock photo websites. Another word of advice is to always make sure you’re using images that you have permission to use and give credit if necessary.

3. Make Sure Your Photos Are People or Product Focused

Depending on the nature of your business, your images and photos should be people focused or product focused.

For example, if you’re a church, you want images with people as opposed to using photos with buildings, empty classrooms, nature or books. Images with people will give others a sense of your community and allow them to see the difference you’re making in their lives. In addition to that, research shows that photos of people boost conversion rate.

If you sell products then use good, engaging images of products. This will help potential buyers to visualize how your product looks as well as how it can be used. Product photos are incredibly important when it comes to e-Commerce businesses since customers can’t physically touch, inspect or feel the item they are about to buy.

You can also use photos of people utilizing your products or showing the results of using your products. This allows people to visualize themselves using your products and the outcomes they should expect.

Choosing Photos for Website

4. Use Landscape Images

With monitor screens becoming bigger and responsive web design becoming the norm, wide landscape oriented images, that are not cropped too tightly, are most versatile.

You can use them on your website as well as in various promotional materials for your brand and business. They can always be cropped in if necessary and it’s easy to create images of different dimensions from landscape images than from portrait images.

Finding Images for Website 5. Be Unique And Interesting

Another important tip when it comes to website images is that they should be unique and interesting. Here are a few questions to ask yourself so you can evaluate if you’re images meet the above criteria:

  • Do people look good?
  • Does it grab attention?
  • What does it communicate?
  • Is it related to content on the page?

Keep in mind that people want to browse without reading. Your images should help tell the story and make it easy for visitors to understand what your business is all about as they skim the contents of your website.

6. Evoke An Emotional Response

On top of helping you tell the story behind your products or services, your images should evoke an emotional responsive. Research shows that purchase decisions are driven by emotions. As such, your images should take advantage of that.

A few ways to use images that evoke an emotional response includes:

  • Photos of someone happy with your product or service
  • Photos of someone having fun

Photo Selection for Website

7. Ensure Your Images Fit with Your Style and Brand

Our last tip is to ensure your images fit with your style and brand. Otherwise, you won’t maintain brand consistency and that will create confusion with your visitors who are already familiar with your brand. In addition to that, images that don’t fit your style, can send a completely different message than you originally intended.

As you choose the images to be used on your site, ask yourself if the image truly fits with your style. If you can easily answer yes, keep it. If you have even an inkling of a doubt, move on to the next image.

Another question to ask yourself is, does the image resonate with your audience. If you’re sure that your audience would react positively to the image and easily associate it with your brand, keep it. If you’re having doubts, it’s better to err on the side of caution and opt for a different image.

What’s Next?

Need help with a custom design or choosing the right images? We can help. Contact us today and request your free quote.

We focus on beautiful web design that delivers results for your organization. Our specialty is creating customized WordPress websites.

We build brands stronger, fueled by creativity, and inspired by people.
We focus on transforming consumers into believers.

About Us

Johnny Flash Productions

Johnny Flash Productions is a creative agency based outside of Washington D.C. that focuses on digital strategy, web design and development, graphic design and event production that helps businesses get better results from their marketing.