Law firm photos are generally poor in quality and imagination. The gavel has been beaten to death. I have seen enough courthouse steps to build well…a courthouse.
Web sites need creativity. More importantly they need to tie the photos/illustrations into the firm’s message. To help those in need, here is what we try to avoid during our web site design process.
Photos to Avoid at All Costs
- Gavels
- Courthouse Steps
- Handshakes
- Wheelchairs on Injury Sites or Death scenes
Photos that Should be Avoided – Unless for a Specific Purpose
- Flags” (except perhaps on an immigration page to inform you help people in that country)
- Cityscapes (except on the actual contact page of the city)
- Pens, Computers, Mobile phones or other devices.
- Crime Scene Photos on Criminal Sites (I have seen a few sites that are done elegantly, but that is the exception)
What Photos To Use?
It’s simple. The image that you place on the page must enhance the message you are trying to convey. Otherwise, don’t have the image, just for the sake of having an image.
- Find your message first: What are you trying to say?” Your message should always be the main focus of that page. Once your message is established, find a photo to support or enhance it.
- Repurpose: Don’t be afraid to reuse that same imagery on multiple pages to reinforce your message. Your site does not need a different photo on each page, just to be different. This will save time, money and further support your message. It will make for an overall better web site.
- Custom Photography: We strongly recommend getting professional photos taken of your firm and office. Custom photos give your web site viewers a personal look at who you are and what you’re all about, creating familiarity and comfort; a valuable advantage among a sea of stock photo websites.
- Use alternatives: Consider using better typography, instead of photography. Consider using illustrations too, as they are usually unique to your firm.
3 Myths about Photos
- Every page needs its own photo, or my site will be empty. Don’t go for quantity over quality, as then quality always suffers. Many successful sites have no or little photography. For example:
- Google.com – no photos, just links. LOS LINKS!! – as Bing would say.
- Amazon.com – photos of the products only – not generic book photos.
- CNN.com – photos of the actual stories only – not newspaper photos.
- Realtor.com – photos of the houses only – not random fake photos.
- Photos impress clients. Not true, answering the questions and providing information to your visitors impresses them. The photos need to support your information. A gavel, skyscraper, courthouse, or handshake does not impress your web site visitors and sometimes it can detract.
- It’s easy to find photos and they are cheap!” With stock libraries it is easy to find lots of photos. However, finding the perfect message that goes along with the photo takes a lot of time, energy and creativity. Photos can range from $5 to $150 per photo, which means you need to budget $250 to $7,500 for a 50 photo site. Factor in your designers time to find the photos, your time to review/approve and you end up with a time-consuming and expensive task actually. Let your designers be creative on a handful of photos and you will end up with a better site and less expensive.
One Lesson to Take Away
Quality suffers when quantity increases, this is especially true when you are dealing with the creative arts. Let your creative team focus on your message and tie that into a few key photos. You don’t need a different photo on every page of the site – you just don’t.
What are your thoughts?” Let us know other bad photos you have seen and should avoid.
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Mark