Why High-Quality Images are Crucial for Your Website
You’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to create the best website that effectively describes your product, generates leads and converts sales. Have you thought about the role images play in your website strategy? The right images will help your business look more professional, personal and bring your product or service to life.
Website images come in many forms: photographs of your products; stock photos illustrative of your services; a GIF of your product in action; a cartoon humorously capturing the customer journey; or an infographic explaining the benefits you offer. Any of these could be right for your website depending on your brand, but they should always be high-quality and representative of what you wish to convey.
Let’s explore the benefits of adding high-quality images to your website.
Images tell a story
A photograph will tell your customers much more about your product than hundreds of words could. The image you use conveys your brand: your product, your personality and your vision. The right image will help your customers understand you instantly, or at least pique their interest enough to encourage them to learn more.
Websites with images get more views
Webpages with images get more views and have a lower bounce rate than webpages without images. This increased engagement means customers are spending more time on your website, and therefore more time getting to know your products or services and your brand with increased opportunity to make a purchase.
Images offer additional SEO
Image files on your website add another opportunity for search engines to determine what your site is about. Because the search engine can’t see your image you need to use metadata, or the hidden information about the picture, to tell search engines what it is.
Any image added to your site should have specific and accurate descriptors in the alt text and title tag fields. These fields help tools like screen readers for the visually impaired understand what the image on your site is, so adding this text not only boosts your SEO ranking but also keeps your website accessible. A strong image file name helps search engine bots recognize your image and why it’s relevant.
Images help you win the click in search results
Type your favorite food in the search box and scroll through the results. Look at all those delicious pictures! Search results pages now heavily feature images where possible. If the bot can tell you have a picture of the search term you will be more likely to appear higher in the rankings, and with a great picture a customer is more likely to click on your website.
Images power social media posts
When you post a link to your website on social media it will pull the featured image to include in your post. Social posts with images have much higher engagement rates than text-only posts, so including an image on the page you want social customers to discover is a seamless way to boost customer interaction.
If you invest in high-quality images whether by buying stock photos or creating your own, you can use the images both on your website and on social, maximizing your investment. High-quality images are critical especially for image-driven social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, both of which can drive traffic back to your website and ultimately convert sales.
Images offer a significant opportunity to drive and keep visitors engaged in your website, ultimately encouraging them to become customers. At IDMI.Net we offer the design expertise you need to help you find the right images for your website that best tell your brand story. For help cultivating your website’s visual identity, reach out to us today to get started.