How Much Is a Custom Site Worth?

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

It’s not wrong to use stock photos on your website–in general. But Brands beware, where you use stock photos in your website may have a huge impact on how your Brand is perceived. Chris Barton, managing director of PhotographersDirect.com, recently posted a blog entry on this very topic. “Microstock: why would a reputable company do this to themselves?”

In this example, a single image from Microstock is shown prominently on 11 different company websites. Not just in the background, or a side-bar; displayed as their header image, home-page glamor-shot, or even on the company’s team page! The photo is generic and unoffensive, but do you want it assumed that your team moved as a group from one company to another?

When a cheap stock photo is used to represent a Brand, it cheapens the Brand. If that’s not your team on that page, then what else are you lying about? What are you hiding? Or is the nice woman taking your reservation at the Hilton selling Viagra on the side?

In web design, marketing, or anything else, you get what you pay for. Cutting corners on web design may cost millions in lost credibility. Choose your designers carefully and keep tabs on them. Don’t let this happen to you.