The right photography on your website can bring your brand to life and take the look of your website to the next level. Investing in photography can also differentiate you from the competition by giving you your own distinct look.
Whether you’ve been relying on stock photography or you’re overdue a photography refresh. This article will explore some of the ways that you can use good photography to enhance your website experience.
Make the images on your website relevant
Photography has a big role to play in visually representing your brand and your business. You can quickly make it clear what you do and how you do it by having the right photography on your website.
The more relevant your photography, the better it will be at telling your story. Commissioning your own photography ensures it’s unique and fully captures the elements that distinguish your business from the competition.
Optimise the size and format of your images
Speed-to-load is a key metric for your website so it’s important that any work you do with images doesn’t impact speed. Resize and optimise your images for web use to ensure they load quickly and don’t slow down your website.
Use appropriate image file formats like JPEG or PNG. Compress the images without compromising too much on quality to reduce file sizes.
Use photography to take your customers on a journey
How you use images on your website can build an in-depth picture of your products and services or bring stories to life in blogs and case studies.
Consider adding image galleries to your site. You can organise your photos into galleries based on themes, categories, or projects. Use image gallery plugins or features provided by your website builder or content management system (CMS) to create visually appealing and user-friendly galleries.
Use website design to make a feature of your photography
Beautiful photography deserves a beautiful website to give it the space it needs. If you’re willing to invest in the right photography then your website designer will be able to use homepage banners, sliders and featured sections to give it visual prominence.
Images can also be used within content to break up text and create visual interest. If you need to hold the attention of your customers; some well-placed photography can keep content engaging and emphasise key messages.
Optimise your images to be recognised by search engines
A search engine can’t see what’s in an image if you don’t explain it. Use the correct formatting to add descriptive alt text for each image to help search engines understand what the content is about. This also improves accessibility for visually impaired users.
Captions and descriptions are an effective way to help your customers interpret the content of an image and explain what they’re seeing. These can be especially useful in blogs and articles where images may be used to highlight an important message.
Always consider different devices and screen sizes
Your website design should be created to ensure it works with different devices. That means that a customer browsing on a smartphone will be able to interact with your content as effectively and efficiently as a customer browsing on a desktop computer.
If your website is older it may have been created before mobile devices were the most common way to browse. A web designer can help you understand what changes will be needed to get your website to perform on different screens. Try interacting with your website on a mobile device yourself – it’s a quick and easy way to see if it has any issues.
Keep your photography fresh and current
Keeping your website up-to-date is like hanging an open sign on the door of your shop. Regular changes to content and photography demonstrate to potential and existing customers that you’re actively supporting their interactions with your business.
Updating the images on your website quickly keeps your content relevant and fresh. Remember you don’t always need to get new photography taken in order to update your site. Planning ahead can help you to ensure that each photo session delivers maximum value. Try to get enough images to refresh your site a couple of times before the next photo shoot.
Choose Caddie Digital to bring your website to life
Caddie Digital can help you design and build a website that captures your brand and helps your business to stand out from the online crowd. We work with design and photography partners to build the experience your customers are looking for.
Do you have an existing website that needs a new look? Our Website Physical is a detailed website audit that helps you explore the opportunities to improve your user experience, content and search engine optimisation.
Do you want to build a new website? Our developers can help you choose the best functionality and design to ensure that your website attracts customers and helps them to interact with and buy from your business.
