When you take on the task of building your website, your checklist grows incredibly fast. It becomes daunting to consider keyword research, organic content, digital media advertising… even photography. With all of the decisions we make about branding, wire frames, and landing pages, one thing remains undervalued: photos.

It’s time to talk about stock photos, and how their convenience doesn’t help your site make conversions . We know that not everyone has the budget to implement professional photography when they are getting their website off the ground. This month, we’re going to talk about why original photography might be more helpful for marketing and sales- but we’re also going to give you tips on how to make the most of a stock photo, if you still feel it’s the best option for you right now.

Here are three reasons why you are better off using original photography:

1. Stock photos aren’t usually authentic. Ever stare at a stock photo of someone eating a salad, bursting with laughter? Oftentimes, we see photos of people engaged in an action or activity that might be relevant to a product or service we provide, but their expressions are disproportionate and exaggerated. This decreases a client’s relatability to our content.
2. Your competitors are probably using them. If you think about your mindset as you build your site, and search terms you’d use to find the perfect photo- they’re probably closely related to your industry. Your competitors are very likely thinking the same thing as they develop their own websites. Unfortunately, with sites like UnSplash and Shutterstock, they have access to the exact same images. This can lead to difficulty in brand recognition for your potential customers and clients.
3. They are too generic. If you sell the most powerful pool vacuum and want to appeal to an audience with a pretty photo, you might pick a beautiful stock photo with one of the most beautiful pools, nestled in well-crafted landscape design, and sunlight dancing off the water. But you miss the value-add of your product. Sometimes, the most effective photo is the photo of your product at work.

So what can you do, if you’re crunched for time and/or money as you build your site? There are a few things you can do to make the most of a stock photo:

1. Use a reverse image search. Check out just how many times a photo has been downloaded for use. Get an idea of how many companies are already using that exact image.
2. Crop the photo, or make it your own. There are ways in which you can take an image and crop out the excess, add graphics and lettering to make it informative, or even change the colors and placement of the image once you’ve downloaded it. Many people can achieve a unique appearance by simply adjusting a few features of a stock photo.
3. Take your own photos. Don’t underestimate the quality of a smartphone’s camera and some good natural lighting.

As always, we hope to help you in your journey through your web design woes, and then take time to celebrate three of our clients and their new websites. Here are three businesses who have entrusted Jason Hunter Design with improving their online presence: