The Importance Of Website Imagery

It is difficult to avoid or deny the importance of imagery in today’s digital world. With entire social media platforms dedicated to image sharing (Instagram), video content (TikTok) and spontaneous engagement (Story updates), imagery has become part and parcel of how we present ourselves online.

And that’s not a bad thing - after all, an image really does say a thousand words.

As such, most businesses end up with a plethora of images which represent and showcase their business, team, and products - but no idea where to start when selecting and inputting those images onto their website.

In this article we explore the importance of imagery on your website and how to use visuals effectively to introduce, engage, and convert users into customers.

Why Are Images Important?

Three words: Credibility, Reliability, and Trust.

When a user can see your face or the faces of those in your team, they immediately establish a foundation level of trust in your business or company. Not only that but when, as users, we are given insight into life in the office and the people behind the scenes, we quickly start to resonate with those individuals and feel as if we know them on some level - all emotions which make buying from that business a much more enjoyable process.

In short, images tap into the emotional side of purchasing and make us feel as if we can trust the business and the products that they are offering.

Some of the other benefits of using images on your website include:

• Visuals and pictures are more memorable than words alone
• Images present another layer of SEO-friendly information and data, with the embedded information behind each image crucial in letting search engines know exactly what your webpage is all about
• Consistency across all your touchpoints. When you use images on your website, you create a visual standard to follow across all your touchpoints, from social media to email marketing and ads
• Images help your website flow, and can break up important chunks of content and text

 With so many benefits to using imagery, it seems clear that adding visuals to your website is an important part of building a user friendly and highly converting interface. But how can you make sure that implementing images on your website is as effective as these benefits promise?

How To Use Images Effectively

Getting the SEO optimisation right on your images is key if you want to increase views of your site and really drive your conversion through the roof. As you will know from all our previous blogs on SEO and search engine rankings, Google puts a lot of focus on how you present the content of your website in terms of usability and uploading images that boast the right meta data is part of this.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that your images have the right keyword and alt-tags for SEO. The user cannot actually see this information, but it lets Google know that the images you have uploaded are indeed appropriate for use on that specific webpage.

Adding captions is also crucial for accessibility, with a short and concise description sufficient for explaining exactly what the image shows and why it is relevant to your webpage.

And then we have the layout and structure of the image itself, with regards to how it sits on the page and how well presented it is. For web designers, this means focussing on how the placement of an image will affect the usability and user experience of that webpage - especially across multiple devices. Images need to support text rather than hide it, and they should be cropped in the right resolution so that they appear crystal clear and sharp.

How To Add Value To Your Website Using Images

Content creators listen up - this bit is for you.

The right image, attached to a blog or a block of content on your website, has the power to transform the “appeal” of your blog and entice people to keep reading in order to find out exactly what it is about. Where possible, we always suggest that you use bespoke imagery rather than stock imagery as this reinstates that credibility and trust that we mentioned earlier in this article, and lets potential customers know that you really are a friendly bunch behind the website. It also makes people more willing to buy from you because they have seen your team and can thus resonate more closely with your business.

Another way of adding value and using imagery in a smart and effective way on your website is to mix and match your media - from photos and videos to illustrations, animations, and even infographics where relevant. A mixture of different visual mediums can elevate the presentation and accessibility of a webpage, giving users a selection of different images to land their eye on and take in.

Using a collection of different visual styles will also give you more to share on social media and will help you to establish some kind of guideline for future image sharing in order to retain consistency and an effective visual presentation of your brand across all touchpoints.

The Takeaway

Integrating imagery onto your website is not just good for aesthetics - it also presents you with a whole new angle in terms of your SEO strategy and appealing to Google, it provides you with tons of content to use across your social media and other touchpoints for consistency, and it helps to generate that all-important credibility and trust in your brand.

For more support on how to work imagery - in its many forms - into your website effectively and seamlessly, get in touch with us and we’d be happy to help. Contact our web designers in Nottingham today on: 01159 722 050