Integrate photos and graphics in attractive ways. Slideshows, photo galleries, videos and flash movies bring your site to life and stir interest, while reinforcing text.
Images on your website reinforce text for better conversion rates. Pictures, photographs, graphics, diagrams all help visitors more quickly grasp your content.
Slideshows reduce need for scrolling
For your home page or another page that you wish to keep clean and compact, a slideshow is a collection of two or more alternating images. You can incorporate effects to transition from one image to another in a set or random order. Besides showing your story, this is a simple way to bring your site to life with motion. [Sample: http://www.pcvrc.com]
• Display products – show samples of your work
• Examine a process – give a visual tour of each stage of your service
• Text statements / quotes – complementary famous quotes, lists of accomplishments, awards, recognition
• Logos of affiliations – move through logos of your professional affiliations, vendors, partners, customers or any groups that help build your credibility
Photo galleries tell your whole story
Set aside pages or portions of pages to providing enough photos to satisfy visitors and persuade them to get in touch. A slideshow may be best for home page, but details pages can devote more space for all to display together. Make it interactive so visitors can control what they want to view, clicking or mousing over thumbnails of their choice. [Sample: http://www.jmweddingcreations.com/gallery.php]
• Show a process – include a storyboard from step one through step “x”
• Display options – show samples of each color, style, or other variation
• Multiple applications – Show samples of different ways to use the same product
Video can be casual
From a 20 second “Welcome” message to a 30 minute movie, allow the visitor to sit back and relax while you introduce your company or a particular product. Decide whether to upload a movie viewer to your own server or just let the visitor open the movie with an application installed on their own machine. The most common client-side pluggins are Windows Movie Viewer and Quicktime. [Sample: http://www.gndcollects.com]
• Automatically running welcome message on home or about page
• Video clips collection to allow viewing of any particular clip
• Longer movies should indicate their file size and length so the visitor can decide if they have enough time (or fast enough internet connection)
• Humorous video can entertain while explaining your message
• Include link to download (free) movie player in case visitor does not have one installed. Never make assumptions about your visitors.
A good video can convey your ideas and demonstrate your product much more quickly and effectively than lengthy paragraphs of text. Search Engines may reward sites with higher rankings, knowing that you’re more likely to please visitors.
An excellent resource for online video marketing tips is http://www.ReelSEO.com
Flash presentations are fancy
Flash movies can contain a multitude of effects and can integrate video, graphics, still photos and text on a server-side platform, to be independent from the visitor’s computer configuration. But costs can be greater to create and to change. Some web designers specialize in these sites or can create an individual flash movie for inclusion on “non-Flash” sites.