Great Photos for Your Web Site

Photographs can make or break a web site. Good ones enhance the site and bad ones make you go “blah.” And I’ve seen a lot of bad photos on web sites over the years. We have designed a couple hundred sites and have seen a lot of sites with bad photos.

Relatable People in the Photos

You want the people in the photo to look like the people you are going after. If you make them too beautiful then they might be intimidated or don’t feel like they can relate.

Do Close Ups

I’ve seen group photos on web sites that you can’t tell who anyone is in the picture. You want to be able to see the expressions of the people. Take them as close up as possible.

Buy or Take Unique Pictures

Don’t use pictures that you’d see on every other site on the Internet. Don’t use cliché pictures -- like two people shaking hands. One of my biggest pet peeves is when two people are they are shaking hands lefty. This drives me nuts.

Don’t Use Empty Photographs

You shouldn’t have empty landscapes or rooms. It’s always better to put people in action so the site visitor can picture themselves within the scene.

We redesigned a site recently for a company that sells yacht charters. The previous site just had pictures of boats and nature pictures. It now has people scuba diving, eating a gorgeous meal, and jumping into the water. Visitors get a good feel for what they can expect when they go on a cruise.

Good Quality Pictures

Your photos should be clear and colorful, and cropped to highlight the most important aspect of the photo. We are in the process of doing a web site for a hotel and have hired a professional photographer to take pictures of the rooms, lobby and other amenities so the site visitor can know what to expect when they check in. And the photos can be used for print materials and advertisements. It’s always worth it to pay a professional to take the pictures.

We recently redesigned a site that had excellent photographs even though the overall design of the site was horrible. They had some good slideshows of their various products. Even though there weren’t people in the shots, there were still some great shots that display their products.

Inexpensive Photography is Available

Buying photography doesn’t have to be expensive. We have been using istockphoto.com for several years now. Photos for the web can be as little a one dollar a piece. You can create light tables within your account and then send a link to your client or co-workers.

So, take the time and spend the money to get some good photos in your web site. It will make you stand out from your competition.

Dave Carlson owns Green Chair Marketing Group, an Internet marketing firm in Denver, Colo., specializing in driving visitors to web sites by search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, and web site design/redesign. Call 720-922-3124 or visit his web site at http://www.GreenChair.net.

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