Even if you do not have much text content in your site, good, sensibly-used images can do the job for you, e.g. infographics (graphical representation with words). Sometimes we are tempted to use an image in our website just to have one, or to fill up white spaces. It is true that, a page in a website looks ‘bare’ without an image or two, but using images to fill up blank spaces is not the right way to use images as well.
In fact, there are high chances of incoherent images leaving a bad or negative impact about your website, or even your products and services. The following are some of the best and tactful ways which you should keep in mind while implementing images in your website.
A proper image or picture can ‘speak’ a million words with your visitors on your behalf. However, as far as usability is concerned, filler images used in your website serve no purpose. But when each of your images illustrates a concept, and at the same time, can answer to all the queries, what, why, where, who, when, or how relating to your product or service, it is extremely valuable.
While creating your website, you should keep in mind that the images you use are all labelled correctly, using HTML Alt tags on your images. This tag acts as an alternative text to the image against which you are using, and the tag looks like this:
<img src=”…” alt=”the description of your image”>
This tag is not merely picked up by the Google’s crawler for your web page ranking (and gives your images a good ranking in the Google Images search results), but also helps in providing a description of your image in case it fails to load.
Almost all of us know that any kind of copyright infringements can cost us dearly. Hence, it is always safe and wise to use your own images on your website in order to avoid such issues. If you have a flair for photography, you can click photographs of your subject, or else, have your own professional photos clicked. The latter might cost you a little, but is worth it. You can also subscribe for good quality stock photos online, or even the free ones available at sites including Unsplash, Pixabay, etc.
AT the same time, you might as well want to have your own logo or site mascot, which will not merely give you a unique identity, but will also make you recognizable on social media platforms, helping you in generating brand recognition.
Try using pictures of real people in you pages, including the landing pages. Several studies have shown that web designs that display human faces could create a stronger impact on the minds of the visitors and pursue them successfully, compared to those without it. One of these studies have shown a clear 102.5% increase in visitor-signups in one of their web apps, soon after they added a photo of a smiling in the landing page of the app.
Try not to use very large images, but rather, medium to small ones. Large graphics and pictures prolongs the loading time of your site, which might annoy your targeted visitors and make them leave your site easily. Also, content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress recommend keeping images smaller to around 30kb, while the relatively larger ones are recommended not to exceed 60-100kb. Plus, if your site contains thumbnails, their sizes add up as well, no matter how small they are, especially when there are a lot. Hence, you should consider optimize all your images by size, accordingly.