About a week ago, we had construction work done in our offices. Once the guys left, we thought maybe we should have the carpeting professionally cleaned.

Since we practice what we preach, we went online and Googled “professional carpet cleaning,” and some other similiar terms. That’s how we found the Stanley Steemer website, and clicked on commercial services.

Here’s a link to the page we were looking at: http://www.stanleysteemer.com/Home/CommercialServicesLanding/CleaningServices.aspx

The image they chose is a stock photo that has nothing to do with … anything. It’s a guy, pumping his fist because he’s so excited. Why? Because his carpets are super clean?

This led to a long conversation about just how many sites we come across that have totally irrelevant images, that do nothing to help inform, educate or otherwise add anything to a user’s experience.

Images aren’t window dressing on a website. They are as important as the words you choose. Pictures help users understand the content they’re about to read. In some cases, users can simply scan the image and not have to read the content to understand what the page is about.

Remember, there’s no such thing as “wasted” space on a website. And so often, these meangingless images take up some of the most important real estate on the site.

Roxanne Lott Website Design Content, Website Design, Website Usability