Stock Photos – Should You Use Them On Your Website?

When planning a website, a business needs to consider whether they will use stock images or real application images to accompany the text content that will give users an idea of what they stand for, what they offer and who they are.

The importance of using images within a website cannot be overstated, as images break up text and keep the user engaged visually. An image needs to give the visitor a sense of size, scale, detail, context and brand, allowing them to get a feel for the business through the website imagery.

ITSys Developments, the website experts, can help you to decide what is best for the images on your website, and will be able to organise the best available stock photos in cases where this is the best option. Otherwise, advice on what a professional or in-house photographer could capture of the business will be forthcoming.

While stock photos may look professional and slick, real photos give an authenticity to a company or brand that cannot be faked.

The other issue with stock photos is that there are only so many for any particular industry, topic or idea that you may be trying to portray, and often you will need to use the same image that has been used countless times, maybe even by some of your competitors. By using images that are original, custom, and of the team, product or service that you are trying to represent, the business is instantly given a level of credibility that could not have been delivered by your average stock photo.

Of course, there are exceptions, and you will need to consider them on a case by case basis, but in a scenario where images of what the company does or provides are not available, stock photos are a must, as a website without images is a terrible representation of your business or brand.

From an e-commerce perspective, when people are using images to decide whether or not to buy something, 67% of online shoppers rated high quality images as being “very important” to their purchase decision, which was slightly more than “product specific information”, “long descriptions”, and “reviews & ratings”, according to MDG Advertising. Good quality product photos for your e-commerce store is important to showcase your offering to your clients.

This means that a company needs to find the balance between a real image and a quality stock photo, as taking poor quality photos and putting them on a website will have the opposite effect, making the company appear to be low quality, like the photos they use on their site.

Speak to the ITSys Design Experts who can advise you on the best approach for photos for your website.