Images can be very effective in capturing the attention of clients. The downside of images is that unless used in moderation, they may distract customers and inadvertently direct attention away from reading your content.
Another thing to bear in mind is that too many images, and particularly large images, may well slow down the time it takes for a user to load your site within their web browser. It is extremely tedious for a visitor to wait for a site to load because the images are too large or are irrelevant. Frequently people will just click away rather than wait.
The trick therefore is to ensure that images are used sparingly and, where they are used, that they are relevant to the subject content. In order to decide what images to use, it is important to consider the nature of your business. Fresh, bright pictures of fruit or flowers are fine for a holiday company or a restaurant, for example, but would not necessarily be as appropriate for a firm of accountants.
Many businesses that offer services, such as the construction industry, will use photographs of completed projects to complement their web copy. This can work well providing that the pictures are flattering. Too often though, a building company will post pictures of ‘in progress’ projects that don’t show the customer the quality of workmanship the company is professing to offer.
It is far better to display eye-catching pictures of completed projects, which have been taken from a flattering angle. This supports and reinforces stated levels of quality workmanship within the text and should help to generate visitor enquiries.
Estate agencies, as an example, can sometimes be their own worst enemy when using images. Pictures are often taken from poor angles, include clutter and regularly fail to highlight important selling points of a property. Much emphasis is placed on the view from a property, but it must be remembered that many buyers would prefer to see pictures of bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms rather than 3 or 4 shots of views from various angles. With property sales and rentals up to 10 different shots is recommended.
One last word about images, do ensure that images have been sized accordingly, are optimised for web use, and have a title allocated to them. This title text will be displayed in the event that a picture is slow to load.
