When people visit shops and websites that have no pictures, they are likely to assume the business isn’t operating or decide the business or product cannot be trusted due to a lack of information. Poor quality photos are just as bad as having no images at all, this is because visitors will easily be put off and be unable to accurately judge the quality of the products.

Unfortunately, some businesses fail to invest correctly in product images due to a lack of time, possibly because the management is focused on other aspects of the business, whilst other businesses have issues related to financial constraints. However, ensuring all your products have a gallery of high-quality images is essential to getting plenty of web traffic and increasing your conversion rate. For businesses with limited manpower and time, it is possible to hire a professional photographer, whereas for organizations running on tighter budgets, there are affordable solutions available.

In this article, you can read more about the several reasons why attractive and well-thought-out photos are a must for any business website.

Images Tell a Story

By nature, people absorb visual information much more effectively and faster compared to text, therefore it is often the case that a single photo can provide the viewer with more information about a product than a long written description. One professional food photographer in London states that creative and well-styled photos can convey key details about a product and the brand’s message. Just from a few high-quality photos, visitors to a website can quickly get an idea of what the products are for, their unique selling points, design, shape, and scale.

By using great images on your business website you can tell potential customers the story of your brand, business, and products and start to build trust in brands. Providing a well-presented image that portrays a brand message and identity provides a visual reference, so people can easily remember your brand.

They Help to Build a Brand Image

Many elements are involved in creating a beautifully designed product, however, if it is poorly branded and visually presented with low-quality images then the hard work in production would have gone to waste. Therefore, businesses need to create marketing materials such as product images that convey a brand’s message and principles. Product images that are attractive, clear, and interesting often result in people forming an emotional connection, so they spend more time looking at it and will be more likely to remember the brand in the future.

Product Images Help With SEO

In addition to images on a website being attractive, high-quality, and informative, which helps to improve sales, they should also be optimized to ensure a great user experience and higher rankings on search engines.

When it comes to search engine optimization, images on a website play an important role because they provide search engine robots with contextual information about your business in addition to affecting page loading speeds that are linked to user engagement and rankings in search results. Websites with correctly optimized product images will be easier for visitors to navigate, resulting in better user experience and increased engagement, which generally leads to higher search engine rankings and improved chances of converting web visits into sales.

Before uploading your product images to your website’s image library, you should take some time to check if they need to be optimized as many image files are too large which slows down loading times. Optimizing images for websites involves:

• Resizing images
• Compressing files
• Choosing the right file types; JPEG is usually the best option for high-quality images
• Giving file names that are descriptive, relevant to the product
• Using alt tags to help search engines index images; often keywords related to the brand and product are included
• Giving images titles that tell the user what the product is; could include dimensions and other key product information
• Add image captions to provide the viewer with additional information about a product
• Use unique images rather than stock images

More Clicks and Longer Visits

Since Google has shifted its focus to searches on mobile devices, it is even more important that there is an emphasis on visual content as search results increasingly display an image accompanied by a meta description, which can provide a competitive advantage when it comes to organic searches as images with text are more likely to be clicked on.

There are certain things you can do to increase the number of clicks on your website and the duration visitors stay browsing and reading about your products. First, you should upload at least one high-quality image to each page on your website, these images should be clear, easy to read, and well-branded. Secondly, to gain more visitors from search engines, you should make sure images are unique and try to follow guidelines from Google to set thumbnail images for each webpage.

Image source:https://pixabay.com/photos/shopping-online-e-commerce-fashion-4000414/

Social Media Integration

It is possible to display the same product catalog and images to existing and potential customers on social media platforms as you have on your website. This allows for seamless integration between the sales channels on social media and your web store, furthermore, your product images will reach a wider audience and grow brand awareness, especially if you choose an image that goes viral.

Social media posts that include images are known to result in greater user engagement and to get the most out of your website images it is recommended to add social media sharing buttons, so visitors can conveniently and quickly post them to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.  

Running a business involves many challenges, and one of those is figuring out how to correctly market your products online, so enough sales are made to support the business and make a profit. Online marketing covers many areas, however, one of the most important aspects of selling products online is displaying high-quality product photos on a website that are going to improve the chances of a visitor buying something.

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