Why Quality Website Photography Is Vital For eCommerce
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is especially true in the digital age.
Photos make an instant impression on us as we scroll our social media feeds.
Not only do they make your content stand out, but you’re more likely to click on a news article with a dramatic photo.
BUT, great imagery should not only be limited to social media!
Great website images can attract shoppers browsing Google Images – and ensure visitors to your eCommerce site stay and shop a while.
Here’s how you can turn smart website photography image choices into more sales.
Why Quality Website Photography Is Vital For eCommerce
Know Your Brand, Show Your Brand
Like anything, the images you choose for your website photography need to be aligned with your brand. You know your brand best. So, consider what feeling you want to create. Use images that speak for you and explain your brand.
Your brand is the image customers have of your business – and you can help shape your brand by careful website image selection!
Sound circular? It’s not. It’s essential that each of the photos on your site reflect the correct perception of your brand. And that’s not just the images that show your products or services, but decorative images and photos of staff too – these should fit in with the look and feel of your branding.
Hot Tip: Ditch clichéd stock imagery. Today’s online shoppers want authenticity. So, try to use your own imagery. Be yourself, and ensure your branding is personal and genuine.
Why You Should Optimise For Speed
Choosing the right imagery is one thing, but you also need to make sure that the website photography you do choose is optimised for your site. Images that aren’t optimised can slow your website down and disrupt the viewing experience for your audience.
It’s not just as simple as shrinking the file size. You want to make sure your website images are optimised to be sharp – and still load quickly. Correct image optimisation is all about reducing the file size of your images, without sacrificing quality – this will keep your page load times low.
If your pages take too long to load, you could deter potential customers. Fast page loading is crucial.
Otherwise, you may find people don’t stick around to see the page load, rather they give up and look elsewhere, A study by Google revealed 53% of mobile website visitors will leave if a site doesn’t load within three seconds.
Slow loading time isn’t just annoying. Its impact can be much farther reaching. It can be a negative Google ranking factor – meaning that Google will not even list your website in web searches, making it hard for customers to find you. Plus, slow load times can lead visitors to abandon the checkout process.
How To Optimise Your Website Photography
So, we know that optimising your images can speed up your site which is good for business! But, you can also optimise your website photography for SEO which will improve your chances of being found online.
Here’s how you can optimise those images for both:
- Keep website images well below 1MB in size. Resize photos before uploading.
- Choose JPEG format over PNG and GIF formats and get the best quality for the smallest file size.
- Label image files descriptively and in plain language to help SEO.
- Use alt tags. Like image file naming, be descriptive and use relevant keywords so you’ll show up in Google image and web searches.
- Keep thumbnail images small – having lots of these can cause slow loading.
DIY Website Photography – Or Professional Photographer?
So, you know you need quality images for your site. But, do you need to invest in professional photography?
The good news is that you don’t need to pay for professional shots – just ensure those you upload are good quality. Taking your own will ensure you have unique images and that you remove any copyright concerns. You will need a quality camera (your smartphone will do the job) – and product shots should be carefully staged to make them look professional.
No good with a camera? Then a professional photographer is worth the investment. Shop around – every photographer has their own style and price range. Choose one in keeping with your brand.
In some instances, stock photos are an easy option. If you do use stock photos for decorative images, choose one that are on brand – and check copyright. If they’re free images – attribute, attribute, attribute!
Creative Web Designs Can Build You A Better Shop
To attract visitors to buy and buy again from your website, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.
Starting from scratch and need a site built? Want to optimise your existing eCommerce site?
Get in touch with us! Creative Web Designs create Shopify websites focused on high conversion rates and we’d love to help you boat your eCommerce business!