You must have heard the phrase, “an image says a thousand words.” Though you might not find this phrase to be accurate literally you can’t deny the importance of images when you have to convey some messages to a large number of audiences.
Since the internet has become home to a larger section of the world population, making the best use of images for your website is a highly important task. Let us discuss some steps to help you choose the right photos for your website. There are a few tips that would help you get it done even if you are a beginner.
What is the right image?
The definition of the right image depends a lot on your requirements. It is the way an image serves your purpose that makes it right for you. Once you fail to choose the right image, you are simply doing injustice to both your UI and UX, both.
Since people have gotten much more clever these days as compared to earlier times, they can easily recognise the quality of an image and hence the reputation of your website can’t be faked.
An image can be termed right if it appeals to your target audience and drives traffic by delivering better SEO results. However, you will never be able to get all those results with a single image if you don’t spend enough time while choosing the image.
Some tips to ensure you choose the right photos for your website
Now that you are aware of the fundamentals involved in this process, it is time to focus a bit on the ways to find the right photos. Here are a few factors you should consider before making the final choice.
Select high-quality images only
There is no place for images that don’t excel in terms of quality. When we are talking about quality, it is the pixel density i.e. resolution of the image. You can take inspiration from a large number of websites. Even though your webpage has been made to offer features like registration or submission of the form, etc. there is always enough room for including a nice and clear image in the background.
The web pages with a better image in the background are often seen to gain more interaction as compared to the blank ones. It is one of the significant reasons why you should focus on the use of high-resolution images for your website.
Add relevant images to tell stories
The main purpose behind choosing the right photos for your website is that you want to tell stories. If you are using irrelevant images, the visitors will rely on the long pieces of text to get the message hidden beneath. So, there is no practical benefit from the use of such images. When you use relevant images, things get much better.
Make sure your image is able to replace the use of text when it comes to making people aware of your motives. This is an efficient method and people have got in the habit of getting information quickly. You are simply adding to the convenience and user experience of visitors with this technique.
By relevance we mean, there should be relevance to your brand other than just a particular message or motive. Because it is the brand that people connect to, not a message or motive. Images with a particular message can be used in advertisement campaigns and other such things, not on your official website.
Try to include real people in the image
Depending on the category of products or services your business is involved in, you should always try to include real people. This is exactly where a large number of people make wrong choices. As they rely on stock photos for such purposes, the images lack their natural taste and charm. Involve people from around you who are associated with the product or service you are offering.
This technique will help your potential customers understand the utility of your product or services in a practical and easy way. Apart from that, the stock images have got so popular that customers are highly perceptive in the recognition of those images. Such a situation doesn’t leave a good impression of your website in their eyes.
Incorporate call-to-action features in your images
The design and features of websites have come a long way. Now, people don’t need to spend much time searching for the thing they want on a website, thanks to the call-to-action feature.
As you are using relevant images, visitors will definitely spend some time looking at those images. So, their experience can be enhanced further by adding a call-to-action feature. With the use of this feature, people will be able to start their journey with your brand right from the moment they see the image.
Don’t forget to optimise the image for SEO
SEO has become so important that you can’t ignore its potential for the better growth and development of your website. And you should know that SEO can be used in your images as well. There is an easy thing you can do to help your image get indexed by the search engines. All you need to do here is name your image properly.
You can add a description of about a hundred words to explain what the image is all about. And the best thing is, this information won’t be visible to the visitors to your website. If someone relies on audio-based searches like visually impaired people, your website will appear to them if the description of your image matches their search term.
Final thoughts
You can choose the right photos for your website very easily by considering the features mentioned above. There is an additional tip and it is about the format of the image you want to upload. You should always go for JPGs while uploading photos because it is able to store more colours in small sizes.
So, you won’t face issues with loading time here. When the image contains created graphics with flat areas and other elements, choose PNGs. It is a nice and convenient format for rich visuals like logos and other things. We hope this article helped you with the basics of the way to choose the right photos for your website.
