Good Website Images vs. Bad Images

Real people doing real things beat generic stock almost every time. Here's how to tell the difference, and how to get better photos on your site.

The rule we've always pushed

Good website images show real people doing things your visitors want to do. When we built sites in 2010 and didn't have real photos yet, we'd use stock as a placeholder, with the plan to replace it. Usability research from that era, led by Jakob Nielsen's work, found that people tend to ignore generic, decorative stock photos and pay attention to images with real information in them. That's still true.

What makes an image "good"

• It's real: your team, your space, your product, your customers (with permission).
• It carries information: it shows the product, the result or the place, not just a mood.
• It fits the page: the photo supports what the text says.
• It's sized right: big enough to look sharp, compressed enough to load fast.

What to avoid

• Handshakes, headsets and people pointing at blank screens
• The same stock photo your competitor uses
• Huge, uncompressed files that slow the page down (see Is My Website Slow?)

Don't forget alt text

Every meaningful image needs a short description in its alt text. It helps screen reader users, and it helps search engines understand the image. Our accessibility checklist covers it.

Getting it done

Get the camera, or the phone, out. Natural light, a clean background and a few minutes of effort beat any stock library. To add images yourself, follow our guides for Joomla or WordPress.

Want a design built around your own photos? See our website design work, or start a project.