The benefits of professional photography for your website
In today’s media-driven world, photography and its place in digital marketing cannot be underestimated. With an estimated 95 million images and video clips shared to Instagram every day (source: worldstream.com) and 88% of UK adults over the age of 16 owning a smartphone in 2021 (statista.com), it is important to understand why professional photography is vital for your website.
Why is photography important for a website?
Attract the attention of customers and clients
From ecommerce businesses and luxury self-catering accommodation to car dealerships and engineering companies, your website is the shop window for your clients and customers, and the first impression you will make on them. Professional commercial photography will showcase your products, services and personnel and attract the attention of first-time visitors, who will make up their minds in seconds whether they like or trust what they see.
Brand Identity
The style and quality of professional photography on your website will give your products or services credibility, which is crucial to your brand identity, setting you apart from your competitors. For example, when choosing where to dine out, potential clients will be looking for attractive images that show delicious, mouth watering food, so creative food photography will reflect the quality of your brand and the calibre of your business.
Photography and SEO
Quality images help website visitors understand your content and will add value by increasing user engagement and accessibility. However, badly taken, amateur photography can do the opposite, putting visitors off if they are poor quality or if they have to wait too long for the image to load. Great images are a further SEO element that will help you be seen in search results and drive more traffic to you.
Should anyone with a camera or camera phone take pictures for my website?
The simple answer to this is no! Just because someone in the office has over 2,000 images on their smartphone’s camera roll does not mean their photography skills will make your business stand out online.
The benefits of a professional commercial photographer
Experience
It takes more than a camera to produce exceptional images. At TJS, our in-house photographer understands the lighting required for a great shot and has the experience and equipment to create the perfect shot. He also has the photographic composition skills to reflect and capture your company brand in photographs.
Original and unique images that avoid copyright issues
While there are many websites offering stock images (images that are licensed for use and which are copyright-free), you may find yourself using the same or similar images to your competitors. This kind of image can be bought by anyone, making the chance of a similar business having the same image quite high, and it is impossible for generic images to portray your business accurately. Commissioning a professional photographer will avoid the pitfalls of using images found on Google; all images used for commercial purposes must have permission to be used from the owner of the image, usually the photographer. Where this has not been sought, it is copyright infringement which can incur a fine.
The quality, size and format of professional images
Our photographer works closely with our designers to compile a list of the image spec required for your website, understanding completely the pros and cons of the popular file formats and which should be used where. His experience allows him to take images of an appropriate size that can be resized and scaled when required, without distortion.
The impact of image size on load times
He also works closely with our web developers when page load time has to be considered; Google is notorious for penalising rankings based on user experience which is seriously impaired if pages take too long to load because images are too large. A professional photographer understands the effect of resizing on image resolution quality, and will produce clear, sharp images that will not hinder site speed.
TJS’s photography expertise encompasses commercial and industrial photography, creative food photography, creative product photography, aerial drone photography and much more. Our full range of commercial photography services can be seen here. If you are interested in professional website photographs to give you unique content that cannot be replicated in a stock image, and that is copyright-free and will give your business authenticity and credibility, call us today for an informal chat on 01507 525500.
