Why Your Website Photos are Just as Important as Your Design
One of the most frustrating things to see as a Squarespace and Showit website designer is a website with stunning design—and crappy photos.
I decided to write an entire blog post on this topic because, though professional stock photos are relatively easy to find on the web, it is much more difficult to get a professional photoshoot for your website or brand that produces photos you can actually use on your website.
So, are your photos worthy of your website?
This blog post will cover everything you need to know about shooting your own website photos, and why spending ample time and money on them is important for your brand.
Photos Influence the First Impression
When a new visitor arrives at your website, the first thing they notice (and therefore, what informs their *very important* first impression) is the visual content—including photos.
If your photos are not aesthetically pleasing and/or do not align with your brand or message, this can leave visitors with a bad first impression of your brand, and even cause them to navigate away from your site altogether (increasing your bounce rate.)
For this reason, investing your time, energy, and money into the photos on your website isn’t just a good idea—it’s necessary in order to evoke professionalism, trustworthiness, and authority in your area of expertise.
Professional Images Elevate Your Brand
Your website photos (or your brand photoshoot) can make or break your professional image.
While well-lit, high-quality images of you in a business setting can help you gain credibility with your audience, blurry, low-quality images or selfies cheapen your services.
Though getting professional images taken and optimized for your website is more expensive than snapping selfies on your phone and hitting “upload,” it’s an investment that will make you more money in the long run, because you can confidently charge more for your professional services.
(And, you won’t be scaring potential customers away with less-than-pleasing images that look like you didn’t put much thought into them.)
In my work as a Squarespace and Showit website designer, I always encourage my clients to get a professional brand photoshoot done for use in designing their website.
It adds a personal and professional touch that can’t be as well-executed with stock photos!
Your Photos Should Reflect Your Brand’s Colors and Story
When planning a brand photoshoot, it’s important to be mindful of your brand’s color palette.
It is much better to dress according to your brand’s colors than to try to create your brand’s color palette off of the outfit you wore on the day of your photoshoot!
If you don’t already have your brand colors or are having your website designer also tweak your visual branding, then play it safe and dress in neutrals.
Likewise, you should take photos in a location (and participating in activities) that directly relate to your business practice. For example, if you are a photographer, ensure you get photos of yourself with your camera or editing photos online instead of only lifestyle images (like simply walking up and down a street).
Your office could be a great place to have your brand photoshoot, as long as it’s cleaned up and well-lit. It not only adds a personal touch to your photos, but ensures you will get pictures that directly relate to your business for your website.
Are My Photos Website-Worthy?
It can be difficult to determine whether the photos you already have will work for your website, or whether you should get another photoshoot done.
While a good rule of thumb is that if you have significant doubts about your website photos—whether about their quality, alignment with your brand, or something else—it may be best to get another photoshoot scheduled, here is a quick checklist you can use to determine if your current photos deserve a place on your website!
(Hint: If you answer “no” to any of these questions, you should probably plan for another brand shoot!)
Are the images high-quality and free of blurriness, graininess, or discoloration? (In other words, can you tell these photos were shot by a professional photographer, or do they look like they could have been the work of an iPhone?)
Do the images align with your business niche and/or show you doing activities that relate to the activities you do in your business practice? You should have at least a few photos that feature props, locations, or activities relating directly to your business.
Do the colors in the images match or compliment your brand’s color palette? If not, it’s definitely time for a reshoot!
Do you have the commercial rights to the photos? Be sure to ask your photographer about this before signing the contract.
Are you truly happy with these pictures? You should be thrilled with the way you are depicted on your website—and, if you’re not, it’s definitely time to get another photoshoot on the calendar. Especially if your last photoshoot was 2 years prior, a lot changes during that time in business.
If you answer yes to all of these questions, it’s likely that these website photos are good to go for widespread commercial use—so congratulations!
If not, that’s okay—and, if you have already been using them on your website, that’s not the end of the world, either.
Sometimes you just need a total website redesign and revamp to take your business to the next level—and I am proud to say that I’ve done that for MANY clients.
With that being said, if you are seeking more guidance on how to build a website that attracts visitors and converts them to paying clients, I would love to chat with you!
I offer a variety of services, including branding and website design, and SEO strategy.
I have created websites from scratch and done revamps—and worked with a variety of businesses!
You can learn more about me and what I offer below. Until then, enjoy the blog, and don’t be afraid to reach out if you have any questions for me!
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