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People will ignore generic images and photos in your blog design

November 3, 2010

Lawyers and law firms we work with often spend too much time on pictures and images being used in their blog design.

Rather than focusing on what’s important – learning how to engage their audience, build relationships, and grow one’s reputation through blogging – some lawyers and legal marketing professionals focus too much on getting the right graphic imagery or picture in the header area of their blog. The source of such photos and images? Stock image and photo websites.

Not only is this taking your eye off the ball, such photos and images are ignored. The New York Times’ Nick Bilton shares word of a recent study by Jacob Nielsen, a leading web usability consultant, that shows people ignore such generic photos online.

[Nielsen’s] latest eye-tracking survey found that ‘big feel-good images that are purely decorative’ are mostly ignored online, while stock photos or generic people are also intentionally disregarded. In contrast, when users know that a picture of a person is real they will engage with the image for extended periods of time.

Though you’re not a ‘product for sale’ incorporating pictures of yourself and others in your firm may be more worthwhile than generic skylines, buildings.

In an aspect of the study comparing a set of products on Pottery Barn’s furniture Web site and a page of televisions on Amazon.com, the research showed that users largely ignored the televisions on Amazon because they were generic, and the image on the screens, usually a ‘guy on a canoe’ or a football player, made the product image even less inviting.

In contrast, when people navigated the Pottery Barn Web site, they engaged with the decorative photos of the bookcases for extended periods of time because they were images of the actual objects for sale.

A good example of a lawyer who has incorporated their own picture in their blog design is Bill Marler, who publishes Marler Blog championing food safety. Though I doubt Bill’s head is studied like a table would be on the Pottery Barn website.

No question stock imagery and photos can and should be be used in your blog posts themselves. They take your blog to a new level and really make your RSS feeds pop when they’re being read in RSS readers.

Stock images and photos may add to your blog design (like Wrigley Field above). Just don’t fret about them, they’ll be largely ignored by your readers.

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