When designing a professional website, it’s important to select the right elements that will positively impact your company’s objectives. One of the most important elements to include is photography. At Thrive Web Designs, we understand the value that custom images bring to a website and why it’s well worth the investment in the long run. That’s why we’d like to provide you with the following reasons why real-life photography is preferable over using stock photos in professional web design.
Your Images Vs. Someone Else’s
No matter how professional a stock photo looks, it’s someone else’s vision and interpretation of the message you are trying to convey. With professional, real-life photography, you are in complete control over the emotions your images evoke on your website. For example, remember your last vacation? When you look through the photographs you took at the time, you are probably flooded with emotions and memories of your trip. However, if you were to look up standard stock images of the places you visited, you probably wouldn’t feel those same emotions. That’s why professional, real-life photography beats stock photos any day when it comes to evoking the thoughts and emotions of your online visitors.
New & Original Vs. Seen It Before
One of the greatest benefits of professional, real-life photography is that it provides you with the opportunity to show your online visitors something they haven’t seen before. You wouldn’t want to showcase an image that has been used hundreds or even thousands of different times on various websites throughout the web. When potential customers visit your website, you want to immediately present them with a stunning first impression. A sure-fire way to do this is with original photos that immediately show them something they haven’t seen before somewhere else. In fact, professional, real-life photography goes a long way when it comes to establishing the unique identity of your business. This just isn’t possible with the same stock images your competitors and influencers are using.
A Sound Long-Term Investment
While hiring a professional photographer may cost a little more than purchasing standard stock images online, having professional, real-life images are a sound long-term investment. Furthermore, you won’t have to spend long hours looking through hundreds or even thousands of images online to find the perfect ones for your website. Furthermore, when you use custom images, you build a portfolio that you own and can use as needed for whatever purpose. With stock images, there are often licensing limitations on how long you can use an image and what you can do with it.
Stunning Images Vs. Good Enough
When it comes to your website, wouldn’t you rather provide potential visitors with stunning, unique images rather than good enough stock photos? With professional, real-life photography, you have the ability to convey the messages you want to communicate while convincing online visitors to take action. Furthermore, with unique, real-life images, you ensure you have the perfect photos for your website. Good enough stock images rarely boost the success of your business because they never truly match your company and message.
Make Immediate Connections
When was the last time you clicked on a “contact” page of a website and found a standard stock image of a customer service agent? How obvious was is that that person didn’t actually work for that company? Generic, stock images don’t make immediate connections with potential customers because people value the trust you create when it comes to showcasing actual photos of your team. This, in turn, lays important groundwork for making immediate connections by creating a sense of trust and reliability vs the eye-rolling stock images that bare no resemblance to the actual employees of a company that we see every day online.
Thrive Web Designs
When it comes to professional web design, it’s important to keep in mind how important custom, real-life photography is to your website. Using stock images over custom images is one of the most important visual elements you can include. Want to learn more about the services we offer? Contact Thrive Web Designs by filling out our online form or call us at (208) 391-2504 today. Our team of web design and marketing professionals look forward to working with you to create something great that represents your vision.
