Why the right images can make or break your website design

Whether you take your own photographs, hire a photographer, order custom graphics, or use stock images, the right image can make or break your business website design.

Site visitors process images faster than they process text, so photographs and graphics take center stage.

Images need emotional resonance

Can you stop yourself from smiling when you see a photograph of a happy baby? Probably not.

Think of a photograph or other image as a way to connect with the souls of your target audience. If your image lacks emotional resonance, you can't make that connection.

Images of people work particularly well for this. People recognize emotion in the expressions of others. If your images align with the intent of your content, you can help your visitors experience the same emotions portrayed in your imagery.

For instance, if you want your website visitors to feel excited, you don't want to post images of frowning, crying, or agonized people. The disconnect between the content's intent and the imagery will leave visitors confused. Instead, you'll want to use photographs or graphics of people who are laughing, smiling, or enjoying one another's company.

Images should reflect your brand

Whether you associate your brand with elegance, youth, security, hope, or some other quality, your images must reflect that identity. For instance, you wouldn't post a photograph of scantily-clad women if your brand identity is associated with chastity. Visitors would feel the disconnect and wonder why they're uncomfortable with your site.

Portraying a consistent brand image starts with the graphics on your website. They communicate your values, beliefs, and goals. Whether the images are for your about page, a blog post, or a Facebook entry, you don't want to create confusion about your brand's identity.

Images should communicate an idea or goal

Think about the idea behind the content before you take or post a photo.

What goal do you hope your content will accomplish? For instance, if you're writing a blog post about a scrumptious recipe to promote your line of cookware, you'll want to use images that stimulate readers' appetites. The graphics should also highlight your product and encourage readers to buy it.

If you analyze the purpose behind each page and choose images that support that purpose, you'll find that your business website design works far more effectively.

Images should become part of the design

Many website images contain text as well as graphics. They're integrated with the business website design to tell a cohesive story and to maximize the impact of each graphical element. If your images look like they were pasted into the site with no rhyme or reason, they won't appeal to visitors.

Seamless integration of images into a business site design starts with image selection. If you think about it in context with your site's purpose, you'll choose better imagery every time.

Images are a key component of inbound marketing and content creation. And after reading about how images can impact your web design, you're probably interested in how colors can affect the look of your website, right Read more in our blog article, "Coloring in the lines: How website colors influence customers."

Or, if you are interested in learning more about how you can better align your inbound digital marketing strategies and content creation with an agile, data-driven website, download our growth-driven design eBook..