"Yes And" your website design with photos

It’s not enough to bell and whistle your website...

...it needs a personal touch, too.

The other day, I had a consultation call with a potential speaker client, and she shared with me her updated website with placeholders for photos she wanted to capture.

There were 5 total pages - Speaking, Coaching, Podcast, Books and About.

The site looked compelling, complete with dazzling typography and really cool animated elements from page-to-page. It felt impressive. 

The problem? 

Out of the 5 pages, there were only 3 placeholders for photos. And two of them were on the homepage. The majority of them were loaded with copy, colorful banners and animated icons floating on the screen. 

I spent the rest of the conversation talking to her about the need to incorporate more image content - specifically, photos of her - onto each and every website page. 

At first, she was apprehensive, and disagreed about the need to add any more images onto the page. 

Her thought was that the website had a high level of production value and positioned her as the authority in her space of expertise as is. 

I explained that while having the fancy bells and whistles helps contribute to a favorable first impression, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. 

The other piece is to give her audience the chance to connect emotionally with her directly through photos. 

This piece is important for two reasons:

First, sharing photos that illustrate aspects of her personality through her facial expression and body language creates familiarity with her, the human being, and affords viewers to qualify whether or not they want to learn more about them based on the vibe they get from the sentiment of those photos.

Also, it’s one thing to talk about how she offers her specialized form of transformation through the massive amount of copy on each page; it’s quite another to show her audience what that looks like through photos.

Photos from the stage. Lifestyle portraits that reveal how she works with her clients on a day-to-day basis. Photos of her book. Images of her coaching a client virtually.

Fancy animations, a vivid color palette and beautiful typography can never achieve these objectives on their own. There needs to be that personal touch. 

In addition to those personal touches, there’s a logistical reason to incorporate more images to her page, as well. 

Who enjoys reading an endless scroll of text with no visuals? It’s boring. 

People need to rest their attention from time to time so they can absorb what they’ve just consumed. Incorporating portraits is a great way to create that visual break.  

Otherwise, people will get tired of reading and bounce off her page, perhaps forever, who knows.

By the end of the conversation, she had jotted down some notes and said that before she calls back to continue our conversation about a session, she planned to talk with her website designer to make the necessary adjustments. 

Turning to you…

Take an honest look at your website and determine whether it needs an injection of lifestyle portraits and other image content to help your audience not only get a sense of your personality, but also make the user experience on your site more compelling and interesting.

Need help? Set up a time to chat with me and let’s see if we’re a fit to work together.