Images vs. Content: Finding a Balance

Most people will tell you, and we’d generally agree, that images are important on a web page. But is there an overkill with the latest trend of magazine-style websites? It’s one thing when it’s a major powerhouse like BuzzFeed – but the countless homepages that are filled with dozens of different images are often overboard in more ways than one. We don’t want to shade anyone and use examples, but you can find these themes for a dime a dozen on Themeforest.

There’s gotta be a healthy medium between including no images and making your site feel like a crowded subway. Where would we draw the line? Primarily with – drumroll, please – user experience. User experience should easily be 80% or more of your site’s focus. Sure, you want to sell your products or services, but if someone coming to your site is feeling frustrated or confused, they’re going to be less likely to become a customer or fan.

So how do you avoid bombarding your users with either a wall of text or an overdose of images? One easy litmus test is to take your site – particularly your homepage – and ask a friend with an open mind if it’s the type of content/image balance that they’d want to come across while browsing. Asking a more specific question like that will generally get you much more honest results than, “Does it look good?” And if you get criticism in response, remember that nothing is more valuable for making an improvement to your site than identifying the very area that needs it.