Whether you're on a first date or checking out a new website, first impressions matter. So — what makes a good homepage image?


We’re always talking about the power of images around the office at Infomedia. When a client has great photography and plenty of high-quality images, finding the perfect fit for the all-important front page is easy. When images are low-resolution or few and far between, finding compelling imagery for a website can quickly become an uphill battle. Let’s run through a couple of touchpoints that a compelling image should have.
1. Tell me how you feel.
In the digital world, users are drawn to emotion. What kind of response would you like to elicit from the user if they buy your product or service? Glee? Relief? Satisfaction? Get clear on the message and find images that convey that feeling!
2. Strike a balance.

Find an image that can visually balance what’s on the page. Do you have a CTA (call to action) on the left-hand side of the slider? If so, find images that have a favor the right-hand side. Is there a message in the middle of the page? Try an image that is balanced equally or even slightly out of focus to provide a subdued backdrop to your text.
3. Remember — it’s not about you.
On a date, you don’t want to spend all your time talking about yourself, and the same goes for your website! Your homepage image should focus on the user’s experience with your site. So, how are you solving your customer’s problem? What do you have to offer?

4. Don’t be cheesy.
Stock photos are not evil, but do use some caution. If the photo feels inauthentic, it probably is. Like dating, you will probably have to sift through a bunch of frogs before finding a prince. Need some great resources? Check out our blog on free stock photo sites.
5. Keep looking for the right fit.
While the other rules are important in choosing a photo, the wrong fit can kill a photo choice before it gets uploaded. We recommend saving your image file as a JPEG in order to have the best resolution for your site (ex. yourphoto.jpg). The size of the file for a large homepage slider should be at least 2400 pixels wide. Any smaller and the quality of the photo suffers. And think before you upload a vertical photo onto your site, because most won’t fit into a standard website layout. Prioritize images that look great in landscape layout to find the best fit for your website. Need to resize or crop your images so they work best on your website? Photoshop is the best tool, but here’s our best recommendation for a free photo resizing tool if you haven’t invested in Photoshop. (And here’s our video on how to upload images to your WordPress Media Library once you’ve found the right ones.)
If you want to attract users to stay on your website and get to know your company, you need great images. For many companies, choosing images becomes an afterthought. Don’t let this happen to you! Get clear on how you would like to come across, and you’re already ahead of the pack. Your users will be happy, too!