Quick one this month.
A roofing client called me, frustrated: "the new site looks great but we're not getting more calls." Their site was beautiful — modern design, fast load times, schema markup, all the right SEO foundations. Conversion rate was stuck around 1.8%.
I clicked through every page. Every photo was stock. Generic shots of generic roofers on generic houses. Not a single image of their trucks, their crew, their completed projects.
I asked them to do one thing: take their phone, spend a Saturday morning taking real photos of three completed jobs, their team in front of their actual office, and a few action shots of crew on a roof.
Two weeks later we swapped six stock images for real iPhone-shot ones.
Conversion rate went to 4.3% within 30 days.
No other changes. Same copy, same design, same prices, same SEO. Just real photos of real work.
Why: stock photography signals "this is a template" to visitors, even if they can't articulate it. Real photos signal "this is a real business." Both signals are subconscious and lightning-fast. Both compound across every page they appear on.
The best photographer in town for your business is you, on a Saturday, with the phone in your pocket. Don't outsource this until you have to.
— Devon
Get the next issue when it ships.
One email a month. Quality > consistency.