Should We Include Staff Photos on Our Website?
Including staff photos on your ‘About Us’ page can have a significant impact on both user engagement and SEO. It’s a common question we receive, so here’s a balanced look at the pros and cons, along with key marketing and SEO considerations to help you decide whether adding staff images to your website is right for you.
Pros of Including Staff Photos
- Humanises the Brand: Staff photos add a personal touch, making the company feel more relatable and approachable. This human element helps build trust with potential clients and customers.
- Enhances Credibility: Seeing real people behind a business adds authenticity and credibility. It reassures visitors that they are dealing with a legitimate company.
- Improves Engagement: People tend to engage more with visual content. Personal photos are known to increase the time spent on a page, which is a positive metric for SEO.
- Boosts Connection: Photos allow visitors to connect on a more emotional level, leading to a greater sense of trust and loyalty.
- Supports Company Culture: For recruitment and employer branding, showing staff helps highlight the company culture, values, and the diversity of the team.
Cons of Including Staff Photos
- Potential Privacy Concerns: Some employees may be uncomfortable with their image being publicly displayed. Addressing these concerns could require obtaining proper consent from them.
- Outdated Images: If not regularly updated, staff photos can quickly become outdated, giving the impression that the company does not maintain its online presence.
- Quality Matters: Low-quality or inconsistent photos can damage the brand image rather than enhance it. Investing in professional photography is often necessary for the brand image to appear good.
- Negative Perception: Depending on the industry, overly casual photos may not align with the company’s professional image, potentially deterring certain clients.
SEO and PPC Considerations
- Improved User Experience: Including staff photos can lower bounce rates and increase time spend on the website, both of which are positive signals for search engines, potentially boosting SEO rankings.
- Rich Media Elements: Images provide opportunities for additional SEO optimisation through alt text, captions, and descriptive filenames, helping the page rank for relevant keywords.
- Impact on Conversion Rates: Personalisation tends to help increase conversion rates in your marketing. If prospects feel a connection with the team, they are more likely to engage or convert as they make more of a connection with you.
- Brand Consistency: If staff photos are professional and align with the brand identity, they can create a more cohesive experience across both organic and paid campaigns visitors to your website.
Best Practices for Using Staff Photos on the About Us Page
- Professional Quality: Invest in high-quality, consistent photos that represent the company culture and values.
- Use Alt Text: Optimise each image with relevant keywords in the alt text to support SEO efforts.
- Diverse Representation: Showcase the diversity of your team to highlight an inclusive workplace.
- Regular Updates: Ensure that the photos are updated regularly to reflect changes in the team or company structure.
- Obtain Consent: Good to make sure everyone is happy and given permission from staff members before using their photos on the website, if you feel this is required.
Best Outcome for the About Us Page
- Combination of Personal and Professional Content: The best strategy is to create a balance where staff photos are integrated with the brand’s story, values, and mission. This approach keeps the focus on the team while still highlighting the company’s professionalism and objectives.
- SEO-Friendly Content: Ensure that the page includes well-structured content that is optimised for relevant keywords, along with photos that have appropriate image descriptions and alt tags.
Overall, including staff photos is beneficial when done thoughtfully. For SEO and PPC, the improved engagement metrics and opportunities for optimisation make a strong case for their inclusion. Balancing professionalism with personalisation can create a powerful “About Us” page that appeals to both search engines and potential clients.
You can boost your brand’s visibility, build trust with your audience, and help drive more sales by adding your team’s pics to your about us page, nad if you need any help updating your website or getting professional images taken just reach out to us for help.
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