The majority of business professionals and consumers understand the allure of high-quality images in marketing. An exceptional image catches the eye and captures the attention. However, having beautiful images on a website is one thing, while having a dedicated image gallery is another. Although most creative industries readily accept the benefits of image galleries on their website – especially those who are using image galleries as an online portfolio of artistic work – other business industries are less persuaded on the matter. Whether you are an artist or a business exec., here are the ways in which your website can benefit from implementing an image gallery.

Creating an image gallery

First things first, creating your image gallery is actually quite simple as there are luckily so many pre-designed image gallery templates out there. WordPress specifically has a great selection of paid and free photo gallery plugins to choose from for almost every industry. It is really, then, a matter of deciding what you want your image gallery to do, the goal that you would like it to accomplish, and the type of theme or design that you feel will help you accomplish that goal. Once you decide on the basic design and layout, you can then begin to fill your gallery with the images and photos in question.

What use is an image gallery to you?

So creating an image gallery really isn’t that complicated, but why would businesses or individuals – particularly if they aren’t in the creative markets – benefit from having one? There are three core benefits below that are applicable to all businesses across all industries.

#1: Displaying a commitment to quality

Whether you are an independent entrepreneur, or are a business dealing with a B2B or B2C business model, your clients or customers will want to be reassured that you are their best option with which to do business. If you don’t invest in the digital marketing of your company via a compelling image gallery, or worse, if you include poor quality images and photos on your site, you are not displaying a commitment to quality that this customer base wants to see. People want to do business with companies that they feel can deliver quality work or buy from a company that creates quality products. They want to be able to see for themselves as opposed to merely being told, and they can gain this impression of your company’s commitment to quality right from your website.

Of course having quality photos to include in your image gallery is less about camera equipment and more about implementing some very simple image editing tricks and devoting the time to post-production. If you’re going to go for quality, then you might as well go all the way and invest the time and effort in editing your images.

#2: Delivering a visually compelling user experience (UX)

Often what causes customers to click on your website in the first place, and certainly what keeps them there after they click, is a lot of what they see. Particularly if you are selling physical products, mere descriptions are not always effective at helping your customers actually visualize the product in question. You’ve heard it before and you will hear it over and over again, that a picture is worth a thousand words; however, poor-quality pictures can actually be worth much less, as people usually won’t even bother to read a product description after seeing a poor-quality image of it. Good quality pictures, then, are all part of a compelling UX that will lead to real sales and conversions.

It is important to note, however, that a visually compelling UX still needs to be a fast UX, which is why why it is highly necessary to compress images in your image gallery. High-quality images, as impressive as they are, can take up a lot of space and cause your site to load slowly. Customers visiting your site are doing so with a purpose in mind and will not have the patience to sit around and wait for your site to load. Compressing your images will maintain the quality while reducing the size, allowing for your site to load quickly, despite your use of media.

#3: Branding your business

Finally, quality images play a large role in branding your business. If you merely fill your site with stock images, you can give customers the impression that you don’t really care much about your brand image. Unfortunately, image is everything and customers may quickly assume that if you don’t take your brand image seriously, then you also might not take your work as seriously, or be less qualified, capable, or less professional than other companies who do invest in their brand image. Including quality photos in a dedicated image gallery, then, shows not only the character and individuality that you want to brand your company as, but also displays to your customers that you care about your brand image and company reputation.

Ultimately, a good photo or image gallery speaks highly of your company and its values, as well as displays the quality of your products or services in a way that will engage and persuade your customer or client base.