What do your images say about your business?

Picture this, (pun intended) you are at a point in your life when you can finally afford to build your dream home (see above…). You’ve worked hard to get to this point and you want your dream home to be architecturally designed, environmentally friendly, modern and functional. You start searching online for “green home builders” and “designer homes” to create a shortlist of builders you want to contact.
Google brings up its millions of search results in around 0.32 seconds and you start clicking through the first few options. Here is what you find:

  • The first website is for a green home builder. Their website has lots of great information about energy ratings and who their trusted suppliers are. They have a “projects” page on their website, but it has no pictures of homes they have built.
  • You click on the next website in the search results list and the page you land on has a big beautiful image of a home this builder has built. The project details are clearly listed underneath. The home looks stunning, there are modern pillars, interesting angles and big windows (which it says in the description are “north-facing”). You click through the rest of their portfolio and other image galleries on the website. This is the sort of builder you want to work this, the pictures speak for themselves and your dream home is calling!

Professional and well-placed images on small business websites add interest and credibility. There are always exceptions to the rule, but for many clients, we find images of their products and/or services play a major role in generating qualified business. Images are compelling, if you like what you see you are more likely to take the action desired by that business, i.e. pick up the phone and call them, visit their store, purchase products online or engage their services.

Images tell a story about your business, who you are, what you do, where you do it, what you sell…what do your images say about your business?

Design is included in the cost of developing a GOOP website. Once your website goes live the design will remain relatively untouched until you decide to upgrade your website with a redesign (for many small business owners, this will be at least three or more years away). This means any images you choose to be part of the design will also remain relatively untouched. Gallery, catalogue and shopping cart images are interchangeable at all times.

Therefore, it is important to consider whether you want our web designers to use images as part of your design. If you do, we strongly recommend hiring a professional commercial photographer to take pictures of your products, business and/or services (in action). We say this for two main reasons:

  1. Professional photographers understand how to best represent your products, services and/or business using lighting techniques, placement, rule of thirds and more. They want your business to shine in the photographs and will work hard to ensure this.
  2. Our web designers need the biggest, best-quality images you can possibly provide us with. Small and/or poor-quality images are difficult for our web designers to work with because they often can’t be enlarged to fit the design (they can go “grainy”). A professional photographer will provide high-resolution photographs ideal for online use.

Even doctors’ surgeries and financial groups bode well to use professional headshots of their team for staff profiles rather than shady smartphone snaps.

We can source stock photos which can be purchased by you and used in the design of your website, however we cannot promise these same photos will not be purchased by other companies in the same industry as you and used on their websites. A good professional commercial photographer will give you ownership of the copyright of your images, meaning others cannot use them without your permission.

Our web designers would much prefer three spectacular images rather than 30 poor quality ones. So, when deciding on images to use on your website we implore you consider the adage ‘quality over quantity’. Oh, and it’s true – bigger really is better.

Based in Geelong, we build small business websites and offer help with online marketing. Need a website? Give us a call

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