A Sample Website Photography Shot List

If you’re in the process of designing and developing a new site for your small business, keep reading to find our sample website photography shot list.

You’ve heard it said “a picture is worth a thousand words.” But what if pictures could also mean a thousand customers (or more)? The pictures you use on your website could be one of the greatest assets to your sales, or sadly, the reason you miss out on new customers.

You wouldn’t think that images would have that much to do with your products or services, but the truth is, all images inspire or turn off audiences in seconds. Visitors simply see images and either identify with it or are instantly turned off.

That’s why we want to highlight the importance of good photography and imagery for your website and what you can do about it!

Using the right photos can make a huge difference in the overall impression and effectiveness of your website on new visitors. We’ve seen many decent websites that are ruined by poor  choices or low quality photos.

When visitors come to your website, they are making a snap decision on the credibility of your company and what level of trust they will have. While they may not come for the photos themselves, your website is setting a tone. This is your chance to create a story that will influence your prospective customer through imagery.

Great photos of your people, products, and services can and will have a positive impact. One study found that 75 percent of shoppers consider product photographs while purchasing online. On top of that, 67 percent of consumers say that the quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting and buying the product.

Great pictures are also great for SEO. The captions you use to label your images is more content for SEO purposes. If it is a genuine description of the image, with some added keywords incorporated, the content will show up for both web and image searches, giving you more opportunity to be found.

Custom photos are highly recommended for small businesses. When you create content for social or your website, you’re thinking about the customer – or at least, you should be. It’s really about what’s in it for them. So, your content should always be tailored to creating an experience for them that is enjoyable and that they can relate to.

For instance, many of our service-based clients have brick and mortar locations. Rather than using images from stock photo libraries, we’d recommend custom images that highlight their atmosphere, people, equipment, and products. It’s also good to include images of customers enjoying the location. Not only will people identify with those in the pictures, but they also will familiarize themselves with your location before they swing by for themselves. Meeting visitors on their terms heightens the likelihood of rapport and retention – which almost always turns to revenue!

Lastly, custom photography shows others that you’re proud of your people and place! Capturing pictures of what you’ve built helps to establish connection and invites people to join you on your mission (whatever that may be). Walk visitors through your story and make them feel part of the journey.

Professional service corporations love to use handshaking photos. They love them. You will see them plastered all over their websites. The problem is, because they’re used so often, they become instantly boring. Yes, we want to see people being friendly, but these images lack so much depth. Aim to highlight dynamic photos with different poses and interactions between people. It will keep visitors more engaged and less prone to wandering to a more interesting website.

Smiles sell. Also known as the smile appeal, smiling faces in marketing transmit a message to customers that your product or service makes people happy and solves their problem. Emotions are contagious, even if just in a photo.

By far the most important part of choosing images for your website is selecting images with high resolution. When adjusting the size of an image, always keep dimensions the same and crop if necessary. If you increase an image past its original size, you’re bound to decrease the quality. The best way this can be avoided is using original images – all the more reason to use custom photography.

Even though we want to encourage you to be dynamic with the poses and types of pictures being taken, there’s something to be said for similar styling. A great example of this are the pictures used for the “Our Team” section on a website. While it’s tempting to just tell everyone to send in their favorite pic of themselves, this usually means you’ll get a mixed bag of professional vs. non-professional headshots (or worse, selfies).

Have team pictures be in a similar pose with a similar background. This then keeps the focus on key information about these folks. Or with product pictures, try and keep the lighting and background the same. It will make it easy on the eyes and ensure people don’t leave early. From composition to lighting to saturation, picking a style of photos that fits your brand turns perusing your website into an experience.

You heard right. You want to sprinkle photography across all pages that people will land on. After all, isn’t the idea that you’re constantly driving people to your site from varying platforms? Wow them on every page. Some types of photography we recommend using across your pages includes:

• Headshots for your team page
• Location/Facility pictures for your location/contact page
• Product images for your ecommerce page
• Services in action for services you offer page
• People and culture images for your About Us page
• Bold, unique angled photos for your Home Page
• Photo Gallery for additional About Us information
• Hero Banner Photos
• Title Photos for blogs
• Demonstration photos

If you need additional ideas for photos you can and should use on your website, be sure to check out our blog on 9 Branding Photography Tips for Your Small Business.

Having a branded, custom photo library at your company’s disposal gives you the ability to utilize these assets aside from just your website. Repurposing these assets helps build brand recognition. This can include, but isn’t limited to:

• Social Media
• Marketing Videos
• Product Packaging
• Presentations
• Banners
• Brochures

We hope this sample website photography shot list is helpful.

Always look through the ‘lens’ of your customer. Consider custom photography for your website and make sure to share dynamically. Focus on your customers’ experience and over time, you’ll get a solid idea of just how much quality images play a role in your bottom line.

If you just aren’t sure about what your website is telling your users, feel free to give us a call or email as we’d love to sit down and help out.