A visitor decides whether you are a real business before reading a word. And they judge it almost entirely on the images.
That is what the stock photo of a smiling office costs you: it is not merely neutral, it actively says you have nothing of your own to show.
Want us to look at what your images say?
Send us your site and we will tell you which photos help you and which hurt.
Stock or your own
It is not absolute. The line runs through what the image shows:
| Type of image | Stock? |
|---|---|
| Your premises | Never |
| Your team | Never |
| Your products | Never |
| Work in progress | Never |
| An abstract concept in an article | Acceptable |
| Illustration or icons | Acceptable |
The first four rows are the reason somebody will trust you. A mediocre photo of your actual shop sells more than a flawless stock image of a shop that does not exist.
And one thing people forget: faces. A photo of the people who will answer the phone reduces hesitation more than any copy — see how it works alongside the words in website copy.
Which photos you actually need
Eight, and they cover almost any business:
- One strong image on the home page — the premises, the work, or the product in use.
- Two or three of the space, in daylight.
- One of the team, or of you if you work alone.
- Three to five per service, real examples.
- Before and after, where it makes sense.
- Details — materials, tools, hands working.
- Customers with permission, never without.
- One for social, square, from the same shoot.
The fifth is the most persuasive in a service business. It needs no equipment: same frame, same light, before and after.
For e-shop products, shooting technique has its own rules: product photography.
The cost in speed
Images are nearly always why a site loads slowly — and slow loading costs you visitors before they even see the photo.
| Use | Maximum width | File size target |
|---|---|---|
| Full-width image | 1920px | Under 200KB |
| Image in a column | 800–1000px | Under 100KB |
| Thumbnail | 400px | Under 50KB |
Indicative targets — confirm by measuring your own site.
Three things, in order:
- Reduce the dimensions first. A 4000px photo displayed at 800px is pure waste.
- Save in a modern format (WebP or equivalent). Typically 25%–35% smaller at the same appearance.
- Turn on lazy loading for anything below the first screen.
The first line solves 80% of the problem and requires no technical knowledge. How speed gets measured overall: website speed.
Is your site slow?
Send us the address and we will tell you how much your images weigh.
Alt text: what to write and what not to
Alt text describes the image to anybody who cannot see it — and it is read by search engines too.
- Right: “Carpenter assembling an oak cabinet in the workshop”
- Wrong: “carpenter Ioannina carpentry Ioannina furniture joinery”
- Wrong: “IMG_20260811.jpg”
- Empty (correctly): decorative icons that add no information
The rule: write what you would say to someone on the phone. Keyword stuffing is one of the few things that can actively harm you.
And an obligation people skip: accessibility is not optional for many businesses. Alt text is the cheapest step towards it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a professional photographer?
For an e-shop with many products, it is worth it. For a services site, a good phone in daylight covers most of it.
Can I download images from Google?
No. They are somebody else’s intellectual property and claims are expensive. Use your own or licensed images.
How many images per page?
As many as explain something. A service page with 3–5 real images persuades; with fifteen it tires the reader and slows the page.
What about AI-generated photos?
Useful for abstract concepts. Never for a product or a space the customer will see in reality — the discrepancy reads as misleading.
Do I need permission for photos of customers?
Yes, in writing. The same applies to employees.
The first step
Open your home page on a phone, on mobile data rather than Wi-Fi.
If the first image is slow to appear, or if what you see could belong to any other business, you have found both problems at once. How image and structure work together: UX/UI design.
Next step
Book a free 30-minute call with the team at The Dev Alley. We will look at your images and what needs replacing first.