If you’re trying to design your own web site, you will eventually have to select which images to choose for your web site. The images you select will share your vision of your company and will often convince customers whether or not to do business with you. Therefore, you will want to select carefully. You may, for example, want to consider the following when making your decisions:

*Advice from your web design company. Hopefully, you have hired a web design firm to put together your professional web site. Your firm may have suggestions about what types of images you can include on your web site, and this can be valuable advice, since web design professionals often know very well what sort of images customers respond well to. You may want to consider these suggestions when making your decision. However, remember that the choice is ultimately up to you.

*Relevance. You’ll want to ensure that any images you select for your web site are perfectly relevant. For example, if you are selling Seiko watches online, you want to not just include images of any kind of time pieces on your web site. You want to include images of the specific Seiko brand timepieces that you are selling now.

*Attractiveness. You’ll want to ensure that every image and every photo on your web site is as attractive as possible. Get rid of images that have poor exposure, blurriness, lack of focus, redeye, fuzzy details, and imperfect color. If there’s a photo that you really have your heart set on that is unattractive, consider getting it Photoshopped to make it more viable for your web site. Just don’t put it up as it is.

*Details of your products or services. If you’re trying to sell something online, you will need to ensure that the images on your web site provide enough detail to allow your customers to make a decision. For example, if you are selling clothes online, you should provide several images of each clothing item from all angles, and you will want to ensure that each image is large enough so that customers can see all the little details, such as hems, zippers, and buttons.

*Size. Your images need to be small enough that they don’t slow down the download of your web page. This can be a challenge, especially if, as described above, you’re trying to give your potential customers a lot of detail about a particular item. One way around us is to use clickable thumbnails. Simply include a tiny thumbnail next to the description of the item you’re selling. This allows your potential customer to click on the thumbnail and get a much larger image.

*Images that help you with branding. Some images do not help you sell your product, but are designed to help you sell your company. These images are referred to as images that improve your branding strategy. For example, if you’re trying to sell something online, you might want to include images of your brick and mortar business, or images of your team or your company president. This will help customers feel as though they’re doing business with a real company and will make them more comfortable about doing business with you.