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Why Your Website’s Photos Aren’t Cutting It

Visuals are an important component of the internet and popular websites are often those that are heavily photo-based. Websites like Buzzfeed and Reddit get an amazing amount of hits because of their photo-content.

Visuals are an important component of the internet and popular websites are often those that are heavily photo-based. Websites like Buzzfeed and Reddit get an amazing amount of hits because of their photo-content. People on the internet are far less likely to read content if it isn’t accompanied by high quality, relevant photos. Great photos on a website are like an instant assurance that the website itself is of high value.

Unfortunately, most websites don’t spend the necessary time and energy picking the right pictures for their website. Here are some common mistakes to avoid when choosing the perfect If you’re taking a photograph from one web source to another, be aware that their photo might not adjust to your site’s format correctly and may need some major editing. The picture specifications of your site are very different from another website. Often these pictures end up looking blurry or stretched because the measurements aren’t exactly the same. When this happens it’s important to resize the picture until it’s of perfect quality. A professional web designer can tell you what sized pictures work best on your site.

Pictures Aren’t Relevant

The photos on your website should be perfect companions to the content. That means you don’t want to put a beautiful picture on your website just because it looks good. If your website’s content is about your business’s plumbing services or political blogging, you want pictures that directly connect to the subject at hand so that viewers are never confused. Promotional photos are an amazing resource for finding these sorts of pictures.

photographers

There’s nothing worse than finding the perfect picture for your website only to discover that it’s been tagged at the bottom or has a copyright attached. If you have pictures on your website that have a tag at the bottom, it makes your website look very unprofessional. The best solution is to find pictures that are clean, without tags, and available for community use. There are resources to find pictures in the creative commons all over the internet. If there’s a copyrighted picture you like, you can ask the picture’s copyright owner if they’d be willing to license it to you.

Photos Don’t Look Professional

Try to focus on using professional photos for your website as amateur photos can make your site look unprofessional. Stock pictures usually look very professional and there are more than enough choices for any subject, occasion, or genre. If you aren’t interested in generic stock pictures, you can hire a photographer to take pictures of your business or get the help of a web designer who can give you photography tips.

photographers

Pictures Aren’t Engaging

Eye catching photos are the key to a successful web page. If your pictures look dull and don’t stand out, viewers are more than willing to click away from your website in a matter of seconds. It’s important to spend extra time looking for visually stimulating pictures. If the picture catches your eye while scrolling through many pictures, chances are it will catch your viewer’s eye also.

Finding the right pictures for you website is essential to keeping viewers around long enough to view your content. If the pictures you currently have aren’t cutting it, you need to spend time and energy searching for better ones. It’s truly the best way to ensure your website is successful.

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Couchable is a web design blog created by Tyler Herman. Not really updated anymore because I'm busy doing freelance design work and busy launching my little WordPress theme shop Real Theme Co. You can read a little more about my at my personal site Tylerherman.com