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In order for your business to make a good first impression on potential clients, it’s important to offer a professional website. High-quality images are an integral part of this professional appearance and vital in creating a great website that represents your brand well. Conversely, poor-quality images on your business website can negatively impact sales in a number of ways, in some cases causing more harm than good.
Why Are Pictures So Important?
You have likely heard the adage, a picture is worth 1,000 words countless times. Interestingly enough, this saying was mostly attributed to Fredrick R. Barnard, who actually penned the words “one look is worth a thousand words” in Printer’s Ink in 1921. It appeared in a piece that commended the effectiveness of graphics in advertising. According to Fredrick, he was inspired to create this saying by a Chinese proverb that states “one picture is worth ten thousand words.” Regardless of its genesis though, the idea that pictures can convey a message more effectively than words alone has been proven time and time again.
In fact, according to Skyword, any content that is presented with a picture will get up to 94% more views than those presented without an image. This is perhaps due to the fact that as humans we can understand a visual scene in 1/10th of a second, which is, of course, much faster than reading something and understanding that text. While it is true that images are important, the value of having good-quality images and those that convey the correct messaging cannot be overstated. Otherwise, you can do more harm to your brand than if you simply left out the images. That’s why a picture is worth 1,000 words— until it’s not. Read on to learn more:
Four Ways Poor Images Can Harm Your Brand
1. Poor Visual Appeal
We all love beautiful, high-quality images. Low-quality images can make your website look unprofessional and unappealing to visitors. This can lead to a high bounce rate, as site visitors are less likely to want to spend time on a website that simply isn’t visually appealing. In other words, if they don’t like what they see, they are likely to just move on to the next brand or try another site.
2. Decreased Credibility
In today’s world, people are bombarded with information and have learned to become more discerning about the sources they trust. Unfortunately, having low-quality images on your website can communicate that you are less credible and not trustworthy. It communicates to a site visitor that your company doesn't pay attention to detail. If you are willing to overlook poor-quality visuals for something as important to your website, it leaves a prospect to wonder what details you would overlook in your customer service.
3. Negative Impact on Search Engine Rankings
Poor-quality images can also negatively impact your search engine rankings. Search engines use a variety of signals to determine the quality of a website, and the use of low-quality images can be processed as a negative signal. Consequently, your site might be placed further down in search engine results which can reduce the number of customers who can find you through a search process. This can be especially detrimental if you rely on search engines to guide customers to your website.
4. User Experience
Using low-quality images can also negatively alter your user experience overall. Just consider that blurry or pixelated images are hard to look at and can be difficult to understand to understand why poor image quality can negatively impact user experience. Therefore, not investing in high-quality images for your site can create a negative user experience for customers on your site. You also want to make sure that all images are viewable on mobile devices as many modern consumers use their hand-held devices instead of their computers to look up and/or purchase products and services.
Bottom Line: Poor Images Can Do Harm
If you assume the use of images either poor or high-quality is pretty inconsequential to your business website’s overall appeal and success, you could not be further from reality. The truth is that your business can and will suffer a significant loss in sales if you continue to use poor-quality images on your website.
Therefore, you should invest in high-quality images that accurately portray your products or services and ensure they are optimized for the web in order to provide the best user experience possible. In doing this, you will increase your website’s conversions and sales. Contact us today to learn more about how to implement high-quality images within your website. 
