OMG! This is critically important! I say this all the time:
“It’s better for you to have a really awesome photo of a potted plant on your website, than a mediocre photo of something related to your business.”
The quality of the photos matters far more than the actual content. Why? Because the quality of the image is the first impression your visitor has of your page, and a website with crappy pictures is a crappy website. Look at a dozen websites and rank them from best to worst. The best ones will be the ones with the good photography. Everything else is secondary. Everything else. All your awesome content won’t matter if the first impression isn’t good, and that first impression is made in an instant. Long before the visitor has a chance to read anything.
I don’t care (unless I’m your web designer) whether you choose to use stock photos or hire a professional photographer, but don’t put amateur photos on your website. And don’t expect your designer to Photoshop a crappy photo into a good one. Sometimes that can be done, but it’s almost always cheaper to pay for a quality photo instead.
This post is part of my blog series “10 Steps to a Better Website”. Subscribe today so you don’t miss a single post.
