Photos that build trust on your website

Why your own photos beat stock images

Stock photos look nice, but customers soon realise it is not you. Smiling people in hard hats on a building site somewhere else entirely say nothing about how you work. And the same photo may well be on your competitor's site.

Your own photos show something a stock image never can:

• That you exist, and that there is a real person behind the business.
• What your work actually looks like, right down to the details.
• That you have done jobs in the area, in homes and premises like the customer's.
• How you tidy up and leave a place.

A slightly uneven photo of a real job often does more for trust than a perfect photo that could have been taken anywhere. Quality matters, but authenticity comes first.

What about AI-generated images?

Images made with artificial intelligence can look convincing, but they do not show work you have done. If you use them as if they were real jobs, you are misleading the customer. If it is discovered, you lose more trust than the image ever gave you.

The photos you actually need

For a typical front page, a handful of good photos is enough:

• A photo of you or the team, ideally at work, by the van or in the workshop.
• A few photos of finished jobs that show the kind of work you want more of.
• One or two before-and-after pairs.
• Ideally a close-up that shows the craftsmanship: a joint, a seam, a clean finish.

Choose the photos based on the jobs you want. If you mostly show small repairs, you will get enquiries about small repairs.

What a good before-and-after photo needs to show

Before-and-after is powerful because it shows the change, not just the result. But it only works if the customer can see straight away that it is the same place.

Same angle and same framing

Stand in the same spot and hold the phone at the same height both times. Pick a fixed point in the frame, such as a window, a door or a corner. Use the same zoom.

Same light, as far as possible

A dark before photo and a sunlit after photo can look like a trick, even when it is not. Try to take the photos at roughly the same time of day, or with the same lights on.

Enough context

Include a little of the surroundings, so it is clear which room or wall it is. An after photo that only shows a tiled surface says little about what was done.

An honest before photo

Do not make the before photo worse than reality to make the after photo shine. The customer should be able to trust that both photos show what was actually there.

And remember to take the before photo before you start. That is the one most often forgotten.

How to take good photos with your phone

A phone camera is more than good enough for a website. What matters is how you use it.

• Wipe the lens. Dust and grease from your fingers give a grey, blurry haze.
• Use daylight. Turn on the room lights as well, and avoid shooting straight into a window.
• Hold the phone straight. Turn on the grid in the camera settings, and make sure walls and frames are vertical.
• Shoot in landscape for the website, unless you know the photo will be used in portrait.
• Move closer instead of zooming. Digital zoom makes the photo blurry.
• Be careful with wide-angle. It makes rooms look bigger than they are and bends straight lines.
• Take several shots of the same subject, and pick the best one afterwards.
• Tidy up before the after photo. Remove tools, packaging and waste, unless the point is to show work in progress.

Send the originals

When the photos are to be used on the website, send the original files. Photos sent via Messenger, text message or social media are often compressed and lose quality. Screenshots of photos are even worse. Use a shared folder instead, or send the files as full-size attachments.

Ask the customer first

Photos from a customer's home or premises show something private. Ask whether it is okay to use them. Avoid house numbers, number plates, faces, family photos and paperwork left lying around.

Photos that do more harm than good

Some photos are worse than no photos. Remove these:

• Blurry, dark or crooked photos. They signal sloppiness, even if the job was good.
• Stock photos that obviously are not from Norway, or not from your trade.
• Photos with a watermark from an image bank. They show the photo is borrowed.
• Messy work sites with waste in the foreground.
• Photos showing poor safety, such as working at height without fall protection. Both professionals and customers notice.
• Heavy filters that give materials and surfaces the wrong colours.
• Old photos with a logo, vehicles or workwear you no longer use.
• Small photos that have been stretched and turned pixelated.

If you only have a few good photos, it is better to use those than to pad out with weak ones.

Next steps

Start by going through the photos already on your phone. Many people have more good job photos sitting there than they think. Pick out the best, and take new before-and-after photos on the next jobs.

Photos are only one part of trust. Also read Why isn't your website getting enquiries? and Local visibility for tradespeople, where photos in your Google Business Profile also play a role. To see how photos can be used on a front page, have a look at the industry examples, or review your own page with the front page check.

If you are ordering a front page from Webbit, your own photos are among the most useful things you can send along. Read how it works in How ordering a website works, or see services and prices.

Webbit builds ready-made front pages at a fixed price. See prices and terms.