In the age of Web 2.0, it’s more important than ever for a writer’s website to reflect a cohesive brand. We know you already nailed website copywriting. And we’ve already discussed how to create great text for your homepage. But creating a strong impression means you’ve got to have great images to go along with your great text.
Here are the five key elements for great images on your author website:
Personality.
Find a way to add personal flavor to your pages using your own images. For example, our client Mary Diane Hausman chose to be photographed for her headshot with her horse in frame. This image captures the viewer’s attention by encapsulating Mary Diane’s personality in a single strong image.
Color.
Don’t be afraid of color! Just be sure you’re using it correctly. If your site’s overall theme is subtle, shake things up with images on your blog articles or pages that have bursts of (matching) color. Or use black and white to create stand-out visuals in an otherwise colorful site.
Just be careful not to overdo it. Too many colors on one page that vie for attention can make your visitor feel like he or she is listening to a band in which every member is playing a different song.
Raison d’être.
A website image is more than a pretty picture. Are your images relevant to the text at hand? Do they provide a helpful context to the bulk of your content?
It can be tempting to upload a mishmash of things that look cool, but remember the needs of your visitor, who has to translate your coolness into a comprehensible message. Make sure each image on your site has a reason for existence.
Stick to a theme.
If your website has been constructed in muted grays to suit your gumshoe noir fiction, it may be a misstep to include that photo of your adorable cat in a pink bow sleeping in the bathroom sink.
Choose images that have depth and movement, but also that correspond with the “mood” of your website.
Keep it accessible.
Now more than ever, it’s important to remember that not everyone views the Web in the same way. Many users browse from the small screens of their mobile phones and might disable images. People with disabilities utilize accessibility software for their browsing, which cannot interpret images in many cases.
Remember to always title your linked images and mark your pictures with alt text (“alternative text”) describing the unseen image. If you’d like to test your website’s accessibility to others, the WAVE accessibility evaluation tool can alert you to any problems that may arise when viewing your site.
These are a mere handful of the elements that Web Design Relief takes into consideration as we create author-specific websites. If you’d like to discuss a plan for you, please check out our packages and feel free to contact us for more details!
For the record, I love Mary Diane’s website! These are all useful and helpful points.
Your comments about website construction are really helpful, especially since I’m such a novice when it comes to web sites. My fear of setting up–or having Writer’s Relief help me set up–a website is I will spend precious time on the website instead of with my writing…
Thanks, Carol! And no worries about losing writing time. We take nearly all of the time-consuming design and set-up tasks off of our clients’ shoulders so that the process is as smooth as possible. And if you don’t have time to maintain a blog, we’d be happy to update your publication credits for you as your work gets published so your site stays up-to-date without taking a bite out of your schedule.
Give us a call and we can answer any questions you have. We’d love to build you a site! 🙂
Very helpful. Thank you!