The 5 mistakes to avoid when adding images on your sites

Before I start describing these photo blunders, I would like to add that I am in fact guilty of some of these errors. It is not always easy to take good images to relay your message and we are all keen to make our sites modern and attractive.

It will depend on the type of business you are running how you portray your company with images. The mistakes I have listed here are only a general rule of thumb and will not apply to everyone. They will, however, make you think before putting new images on your site and that is the purpose of the article. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words...

1. Not showing your product. Ask yourself, what is your product. If your business is a sailing school then the product is the instructor, the boat or classroom and the accredited course. If your business is you giving services then you are the product. If I went into a shop to buy something I would not be happy just seeing half a product, I would want to see it from all angles.

2. Using Stock Images of people. We have all used stock images and they do have their uses but they will not sell your product as much as your own images of locations, boats, and people. We all know that the receptionist photo on sales sites is not the real receptionist so already the company is lying to us. Your chief instructor might not be a David Beckham lookalike but he is part of the product package and that is who the customer wants to see.

3. Missing the Human Element. I look at hundreds of marine websites every week and only a tiny minority of them have images of the Director/Principal/CEO and the team members. Yet we all know that the business is built by the people rather than the product. Add the human element and you provoke an emotion from your prospective clients. Emotions sell products.

4. Not allowing people to click on your images. This is a missed opportunity. If you are talking about a particular training course and have an image with students on a boat,  then use this opportunity to keep them on your site by offering something else if they click on the image. For example 'see more photos of our yacht' with the click on the image taking them to the interior pics of the boat. Do not waste an opportunity to showcase your products/services. People are going to try and click on the image in any case because that is what we do.

5. Putting all the images in a gallery. Look at your google analytic's and see how many people click on your gallery page if you have one. If you have images use them on your site and social media pages, do not hide them away in a gallery.

I could list another 10 image blunders which relate to the quality of the image but there is a great deal of free editing software available so really there is no reason to have poor photos even if they were taken on your iPhone or Samsung. The photos in the image grid above were all taken with my Samsung phone.