What’s Best for Your Website?
When a user comes to your website, the visuals or eye-appeal are one of the first things they will likely notice. Unique, strong, professional images can build credibility instantly with users. On the other hand, low-quality images can do the complete opposite. A question we get a lot from clients as we build them a new website is, “Should I use only original photos or can we use stock photos on my website?” The answer? It really depends on a few things.
Original Photos Add Authenticity… When They’re Good
Showing your own unique and custom photos on your website and marketing material is a great way to connect with your visitors and users and to personalize the material to give those visitors a better idea of the people, products, or services behind your brand. Original images can do a lot to help build trust and set your brand and company apart from competitors.
But – and this is the big key – only if those photos are high quality. We’ve unfortunately had to put together websites where clients provided original photos that just weren’t good enough. They were sometimes blurry, grainy, stretched, poorly lit, or looked like they were taken decades ago (but not in a good historic sense, think looking at a cheesy 80s tv show).. In those cases, original photos might be doing more harm than good for the brand and user experience.
Stock Photos Can Be a Good (Temporary) Fix
Stock photos and images likely won’t give the same personal touch, but they can give your website a clean, professional, and modern look if original photos aren’t ideal. You can then plan for a time to get better original photography. There’s an endless selection of good stock images available online that can match your company’s brand’s and colors. When they’re used strategically, stock photos can fit in perfectly fine as a sort of stand-in until you have originals ready to use instead.
Quality Over Everything
The question here isn’t so much about whether your images are original or stock. It’s about whether they look good and are high quality. Everything on your website, from wording to images to coding needs to be high quality. The look of your website needs to match the professionalism and attention to detail that your company offers. So if your original photos don’t quite match that level, don’t be afraid or ashamed about using stock images – for now. Make it a key goal to upgrade when you can. To be perfectly honest, we use stock photos on the Full Scope Creative website. On our blog, most of those are all stock photos, for example.
When you do get the right photos – crips, clear, high-quality, on-brand originals – they’ll make your site uniquely yours. And that’s what will really leave a lasting impression.