Although enjoyable, selecting images for your website can be time consuming, so we’ve spoken to our professional web and graphic designers at PeoplePerHour to bring you some tips. These will enable you to sort the wheat from the chaff, ensuring you find the perfect picture sooner.
Quality Capable of Scrutiny
If you have a web designer, they’ll probably recommend the ideal size of image you are looking for, allowing you to streamline your search. Low quality images that are grainy, blurry, or stretched immediately make your website come across as amateur and cheap. It’s important to find the right size according to the web designer’s specifications, who will usually suggest no smaller than a length or breadth of 500 pixels in 300dpi, in order to resize or adjust it.
Even with great quality images, you still need to consider the user experience. For example, the larger the size, the longer it may take to load, losing you valuable visitor interest. Assess how many images you’ll need altogether and ask your web host or developer for ways to reduce the size of a great image without affecting the overall quality. As a tip the proper resolution for the web is 72dpi.
All of this information can be passed onto your logo designer or web banner illustrator too, ensuring every image for your website reflects the quality you want to be known for. When you choose a web designer or logo illustrator through PeoplePerHour, you’ll not only receive the design expertise but the professional knowledge too.
Promotional Pictures
When choosing photos for business, you need to consider their ability to promote your products or services. Clear, easy to absorb images are best. Resist the urge to crowd to save time and space. Products can be promoted perfectly on a simple white background with shots taken from a few angles to highlight the quality, while simple action shots can show what you can do in a flash.
Although these may seem bland, being able to tell visitors what you do in an instant is invaluable to retaining attention. For instance:
● A man fixing a car would highlight a breakdown service
● Children playing would indicate child care
● (As shown below) Pictures of baked goods would indicate a bakery
You could also use your own photo or a team photo in the About Us section. However, to add extra promotional ability; consider adding a prop related to your services. A freelance photographer from PeoplePerHour will be able to do this for you along with the simple product shots.
Stock Photos
Having access to a great stock photo website is essential for appealing to your target market with images. There are millions of photos you can choose from to enhance your overall appearance and to add style to your website. This also saves you a lot of time and money and when coupled with a bespoke illustration and logo design, the effects can be incredible.
As there are so many to choose from, it’s a good idea to narrow your search by being more specific with keywords. A search for “animals” or “sport” will yield thousands of results, which may not be relevant to your business at all. Instead, narrow it down by adding as many terms as you can.
Stock photos also have a range of styles from classic to contemporary, corporate to quirky, so you need to find those that reflect your business personality. Choose ones that complement your current style and are popular with your audience rather than the images you personally like.
In summary, here are Seven Steps to Success:
● Streamline your search by finding out the size of the images you need
● Ensure you choose sizes that can be adapted to your website without losing quality
● Choose images that reflect your services so visitors see at a glance what you do
● Hire a professional for bespoke images of your products or your team
● Streamline stock photo searches by adding information to your search
● Choose images that reflect your business not your personality
● Make images work for you by attracting, engaging and retaining visitor interest
Images are proven to increase conversions, lower bounce rates, and enhance the quality of a website. You can use specialist infographics, illustrations, stock photos, or bespoke pictures to market your message through the power of this money making media stream!
Martina Mercer is a freelance copywriter at PeoplePerHour, where you can find freelance professionals with all the talent you need in one convenient online community. Whether you need a logo, a website, blog content, help with PR, Accounts or Legal, PPH is your go-to resource to get any Job Done fast, reliably and at lower cost.
