Why Pictures Matter for Local Business Websites

Every website should be built to convert visitors into customers. Our natural inclination is to treat them like brochures and give lots of information. Information is good, but information with pictures is better.

website-photo-album
Image courtesy of The Pink Princess

Images and pictures on a local website help convert browsers into potential buyers. One survey found that 60% of consumers were more likely to contact a business with images on their websites that also show up in local search results. If you don’t have enough relevant pictures on your website, you are probably not maximizing the value of your site.

Pictures are Powerful

The fact that pictures are powerful should not come as a surprise. In his best-selling book, Brain Rules, John Medina says

…pictures are a more efficient delivery mechanism of information than text.

…but maybe more importantly,

Pictorial information was superior in capturing attention.

People prefer pictures to text. In fact, our brain actually sees letters as little pictures, and words as collections of little pictures with a specific meaning. You can replace sentences, even entire paragraphs on your website, with a picture that says the same thing, but with greater impact. Let’s discuss how to use images for greater customer conversion.

Enhance the User Experience

Because people prefer pictures to words, images on a website make the user experience better. People will like being on your website. They may not understand exactly why, but you will. Create a website with a mixt of text and relevant pictures to make people feel better while browsing your site. The key word being “relevant.”

Avoid a website filled with stock photography. These are impersonal and don’t communicate the true flavor of your business. When possible, use pictures that you take yourself; pictures of your staff, your facility, your products, your customers.

Pictures and Local Search Results

As mentioned above, local search results with pictures get more clicks. But there is another benefit in local search results: showing up in more search results. Images work like text in this regard. The more text you have on your website, the more stuff Google has to index for possible search results. The more pictures you have on your website, the more pictures Google has to index for its images search results. Action: Put more pictures on your website to potentially show up in more search results.

Give your Website a Personality

We are attracted to people with vibrant personalities, brands with personality, and the same goes for websites. As you add images to your website, use pictures that show off your brand’s personality, not just mug shots of your staff. I posted the picture below on my Facebook page a few months back after I had my braces removed. That post received highest impressions of any status update I’ve ever posted on Facebook

webiste-pictures-with-personality

Of all the marketing advice and tips I’ve ever given, people still preferred to look at a picture of me with Hot Tamales! Because it had personality.

Pictures on Facebook and Google Places

That picture is also a reminder to use images extensively on your Facebook page and on your Google Places page. In fact, the pictures conversion principle works the same on Google Places as it does on websites. According to this report, 60% of customers put more consideration on Place pages, which have images.

So get the camera out, start snapping pictures and add them to your website, Facebook page, and Google Places page. Are you maximizing images on your website and online assets?


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