Where you place images on a website is a critical aspect of any website. Where images fall, how those pictures relate to the text on the website and the overall appearance of the website depends upon how you choose to place your images. Pictures and graphics are always a good addition to add to the appearance of any website.

Below is a list of hints and tips to help you with image placement on your websites.

Hint #1: Make sure your image matches what you are writing about on your site.

Sounds pretty simple right? It really isn’t. How many websites have you gone to and see really nice photographs or graphics but it doesn’t have a thing to do with the text it is sitting next to? There are actually quite a few out there.

When you are talking about a specific subject, you must, I repeat, must use images that have relate to subject of the corresponding text. Not only does this let the viewers of your website know you planned your website correctly, but it also shows you know what you’re talking about. If you are doing a website on health care products, why would you place a picture of a bottle of apple juice? How is apple juice related to health care products? It might actually be related, but your text should back up the image and vice versa, so that your viewer knows why and how the image and the text correspond.

The bottom line on picking images for specific content websites is to be smart about it. Use your search bar and search for copyright or royalty free graphics. There are millions of those graphics out there and available for you to use for FREE! If your site is about health care, do a search for ‘health care product graphics’. You will find hundreds of graphics for FREE! Just be sure to read the terms of use and make sure you provide appropriate credit for using the images.

Hint #2: Make sure your images are copyright free or if not that you have permission to use the images if you are taking them from other sites.

You’d be surprised at how many graphics, photographs and other images that are copyright protected but are stolen every day from websites and used without attribution or permission. This is 100% against the law. People put hard work into either taking those photographs or making those images, it is not right that you just right click and save it to your hard drive and use it on your own site. Like I said above, there are literally hundreds to thousands to millions of copyright or royalty free graphics on the Internet, or copyrighted graphics you can use with permission from the creator. Use those!

To make it easier to find these types of images for your site, simply include some of the following keywords in your search, in addition to the search recommendations above, in order to narrow down and make sure that you are not stealing another person’s hard work.

Keywords: “copyright free” “free” “non-copyrighted images” “free graphics (insert subject)” “royalty free images”

Or use any combination of the words or phrases above along with the type of image you are seeking. These keywords will help you in knowing that the images you are copyright or royalty free.

Also, look for any copyright information located on the page. Most copyright notices are located on the bottom of the page. You can check out www.proawd.com for an example of a copyright notice. These notices will usually tell you exactly how you can use the images, what credit you have to give to the creator, and whether or not the site requires link backs for use of the images.

Hint #3: Use only high quality images.

Do you want your website to pop? Do you want to make people come back and enjoy the site or buy your product or service? I’d imagine so; that’s what I want for my website.

Low quality images or graphics shows your viewers and potential customers that you are (a) cheap, (b) uncaring about your site and/or product, (c) not putting money into your website which falls back on (a), or (d) you just don’t care if customers buy from you or not. Plain and simple, low quality graphics and images look unprofessional, and therefore, you and your website will appear unprofessional too.

High quality images and photographs draw customers to your site. You want to attract your customers and viewers of your websites, not just to look at your photographs and graphics but to look at what you have to say. Quality photographs and graphics show your viewers and potential customers that you are passionate about your website as well as the product or service you offer.

Summary:

Remember these three hints! They will help you attract customers, viewers, and potential higher rankings in Google, Yahoo! and other search engines or directories. While you do not have to pay a lot to find quality graphics and images, you don’t want to appear cheap. Take the time to really search for appropriate images that relate to your content, are high quality, and show your website visitors that you care about your website’s appearance and professional.

Remember, the look and feel of your website is the first contact your potential customer has with your company. These images will be the first thing your website’s visitors see, and first impressions are often the only impression you can make in the virtual world. Statistics say that the average internet user takes about 12 seconds to sum up their impression of your page before deciding to either read further or move on and close that window. Quality graphics and images are just the thing that can keep the traffic that comes to your website from clicking that little X in the corner of the screen.