The 7 Essential Pictures To Grow Your Business Website
See the list of pictures you should have based on your scale of website here
Many components go into making a good business website, but few are more important than good pictures that help tell the story of your business. By successfully incorporating pictures on your site, potential customers will learn more about your business and understand what you have to offer. Pictures also help to build trust and confidence in the mind of the customer.
It is essential to place these seven types of pictures on your site to help communicate your story effectively. Obviously, more pictures are better but these are the most important place to start, and if they are lacking you will be losing out on business.
Pictures on your site also increase the number of people seeing your content. Business content with related images is 80% more likely to be viewed, according to a study by Skyword. This means content without pictures may be seen by much fewer people and go to waste.
Images are also a huge factor in how consumers who conduct local search, choose who to do business with. 60% of consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business that has pictures show up in local search results, according to MDG Advertising.
Google also favors websites that have images. As you add images to your site, you will start to see it rank higher on Google results. To maximize the number of customers coming through the door, your website needs a range of pictures. Let’s explore the 7 most important pictures to have on an effective business website.
Pictures of your Owner/Manager/Staff
Having pictures of everyone in a leadership role is important to having a complete website. A short bio and list of accomplishments, along with why you are passionate about what you do goes a long way. This also helps to put a human face on your business and customers can begin to form a personal connection with you.
When people are researching a business, learning about the leadership can go a long way toward helping them make a buying decision. It also sets you apart from your competition that may not be showing of their experience as well as you are.
Community Involvement
If your business is involved in the local community, you should have a special part of your website detailing it. Many customers have a strong preference for businesses that are active in the community. Use pictures of your involvement in community service activities that show your business gives back.
Additionally, if you are a part of a trade organization or association, they will likely have badges or images that you can use on your website to identify yourself. These are usually in the resources section of their website. Potential customers see this as an extra form of credibility and professionalism.
Waiting Area/Entry
We want to emphasize how you must give the customer as much knowledge about the process of your business as possible. How often do you walk into a business and aren’t sure what to expect on the first visit? It happens to all of us, and can cause just a tiny amount of anxiety, which negatively impacts the customer experience.
Part of the equation to solving this is great customer service and a process for making people feel welcome, but another critical aspect is to have these photos available on your website to help eliminate any anxiety that comes with approaching a business for the first time.
Signage/Marketing Materials
By showing off your signage or your marketing, you are accomplishing some of the same things as showing your storefront. You are giving customers a reference when they are trying to reach you, which will make it easier for them to find you.
Additionally, you are giving customers a feel for your brand. Showing your physical branding online helps you control customer expectations. Customers will feel a sense of consistency when they reach you because they are already familiar with your brand from your website. This is a valuable asset in removing some of the friction in the buying process.
If you have a great sign outside your business, show it off. If you have a car with a great looking wrap, go for it. If you have any other physical marketing materials or iconic landmarks that make your business unique, make sure they are on your site. All these things help to tell your story online, and will make your business stand out from the crowd.
Storefront or Office Exterior
This picture serves multiple purposes. First, by seeing the outside of your business you are automatically building credibility in the mind of your potential customers. This will lay the foundation for why they should want to do business with you.
Second, it gives potential customers a reference point for when they are trying to reach you. By knowing what the outside looks like, they will have a much easier time finding you, especially if your business is little off the beaten path.
Picture of Your Product or Service
Not all fields have a visual medium for what they do, so this may not be appropriate in all cases for fields like accounting or law. But for many other businesses you will have some kind of goods or service you can show. A pet groomer can show pictures of freshly groomed cats and dogs, a landscaper can show off the yards of satisfied customers, and of course, a restaurant can show off their menu items or their staff preparing food and serving customers.
For businesses in which a transformation takes place, something special you can provide are before and after pictures. If you are in a field where you repair, beautify, or create a visible change, few things can leave more impact on a potential customer. Before and after pictures show the level of service you provide.
People can always use a boost of confidence before they entrust their home, body, or pets into the hands of someone else. By showing off your past performance, people will be much more likely to work with you.
Workspace
Conclusion
I hope you have learned at this point how essential pictures are to the success of your local website and you are thinking about the different images you can use to show off your business. Keep in mind when posting that you would likely need to create separate pages for most of these images on your site and write some content around them to give the pictures context.
Limit images to just a few per page and make sure your homepage isn’t overloaded. You don’t want your homepage to be overly complicated or too long so separate pages with images to help organize your site.
Another thing to keep in mind is to place images above the fold. This means that they should be visible when a prospective customer clicks on that page. They are much more likely to engage with your content when they see a picture right away versus having to scroll down to see something.
Now it's time for your thoughts: Are there any other types of pictures that you feel are essential for a good website? Do you have an example of how pictures on your website helped your business?