Images are great to attract attention to parts of our website that we want viewers to look towards. For me, they are also an important consideration when deciding whether to explore the website or not. The factors I take into account are probably subliminal, but the more I think about it the more I believe that I am uncovering what it is that makes a website appeal to me.
I don’t want to go off on a tangent but here are some things that I can’t stand on websites:
My main focus is on the ‘No Pictures’ point. Countless studies are showing that as technology becomes more prominent in our lives, our attention to text is dwindling. Most people are visual learners, preferring videos or images to find what they’re looking for. If I come to a website that has no images or videos I will be very tempted to leave. So there’s at least two very important reasons why images are important on your site.
Another important reason for images which may not apply to everyone is that it allows people to see the before/after shots of your work; or your product.
From an SEO standpoint, Images are great! Google loves websites to be filled with a lot of content and images. Google recognizes that these two features are what makes a website so great.
Anyway, the bottom line is:
Add images to your websites! For a variety of great reasons.