“A picture is worth a thousand words” is probably a top-three cliche, but if that statement is true, it makes sense why your website needs high-quality images to drive engagement. While content is essential for any site, humans are naturally more visual learners which is why pictures need to support the content’s message and help improve the website user experience.
Think about your childhood. Your favorite books were probably filled with colorful photos, and while you enjoyed the stories themselves, but your eyes landed on the images first. Websites share this same concept, and sharp images can drive your website’s success for more reasons than one.
Improve Your SEO
If you want your website to be competitive and have a strong online reputation, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) should always be at the back of your mind. Good images boost your SEO, as they illustrate your content and support your messaging through visuals. Make sure whatever images you want to use are relevant to the content on that page.
It’s important to understand that search engines can’t “see” your photos; they rely on alt text and the image’s file name to describe what the photo is capturing. That being said, put some strategic thought into these naming elements and ensure your efforts work with any defined keywords for those pages. Along with the text elements, your images need to be scalable and sized properly, so they don’t slow your website down.
Better Conversations
Like we stated earlier, humans react quicker to images than content, and if your site is covered with high-quality photos, you’ll attract more visitors. The more visitors you have coming to your website, the more interaction your site gets.
You should aim to utilize your images to tell a story and/or better explain your offerings. Think about it this way: the more visitors get to know your services or products, the stronger the connection they build with your company, which leads to better conversion rates.
Decrease Bounce Rate
In case you don’t know what a bounce rate its, it’s the percentage of website visitors who click back to their original search engine results without exploring your website any further. A high bounce rate means your web page doesn’t meet or satisfy the needs of what they’re looking for. If you include quality photos on your site, they can encourage users to click through your pages, which can help decrease your site’s bounce rate.
Improve the User Experience
With the supporting points above, it goes without saying that the user experience is heavily impacted when you add high-quality photos to your website. Think about going to a website with NO images and only content; you would probably be overwhelmed with the amount of content and perhaps question the site’s reputation. By adding high-quality photos, you create a much more enjoyable experience on your website – one where people will want to explore your website and view all of your images (and maybe reach out to you personally to learn more).
When users are given strong images to look at, it’s better for both you and your visitors. You’ll experience better metrics, and your visitors will want to spend time on this visually-appealing website. It’s a win-win!
To learn more about website imagery, get a shout to GreenMellen today.
