Website photos: what to use when you have none

Most small business owners hit the same wall when a new website is nearly ready: there are no photos. The good news is that you rarely need a professional shoot to launch. A phone, an hour of good light and a short list of the right shots will cover most pages. Stock images can fill a gap or two, but the pictures that build trust are the ones that show your real place, your real work and the real people a customer will meet.

Why real photos matter more than perfect ones

A visitor uses your photos to answer quick, practical questions. Is this place clean? Is it the kind of shop I want to walk into? Will I recognise the front door when I arrive? What does the finished job actually look like?

A slightly imperfect photo of your actual counter answers those questions. A flawless stock photo of a stranger's counter does not, and many visitors can tell. Google's own guidance for Business Profile photos asks for pictures that are in focus, well lit and without heavy filters, so that the image represents reality. That is a good rule for your website too.

The shot list to take on your phone this week

You do not need everything on this list. Pick the five or six that fit your business and take several versions of each.

1. The front of the building or shopfront. Shot from across the street in daylight, with the sign readable. This helps people find you and appears in more places than you expect.
2. The inside, wide. Stand in a corner and include as much of the room as you can. Tidy first, turn the lights on and open the blinds.
3. Your work up close. A plated dish, a finished haircut, a repaired tap, a shelf of your best stock. Fill the frame with the thing you sell.
4. Hands at work. Someone pouring, cutting, fitting or wrapping. Hands show skill without anyone needing to pose for a portrait.
5. The people. You and your team, looking relaxed, in your usual work clothes. One clear portrait of the owner goes a long way on an About page.
6. A detail with character. The vintage scales, the chalkboard, the view from the window. Small details make a page feel like a place.

Simple phone tips that make a big difference

• Use daylight. Shoot near a window or outside in the morning or late afternoon. Avoid harsh midday sun and avoid the flash.
• Clean the lens. A fingerprint is the most common reason phone photos look soft.
• Hold the phone level. Straight walls and level counters look professional; tilted ones look rushed.
• Shoot both ways. Take a landscape and a portrait version of each shot. Websites use wide images on desktop and tall crops on phones.
• Leave space around the subject. A little breathing room lets your designer crop for different layouts without cutting anything important.
• Take more than you need. Twenty versions of one shot cost nothing, and one of them will be the keeper.

When stock photos are fine, and when they are not

Stock images are useful for things that are hard to photograph and do not need to be yours: a background texture, a generic ingredient, an abstract banner behind some text. They are a poor fit for anything a customer will treat as evidence.

Two cautions apply. First, free does not mean anything goes: every photo library has its own licence, so read it on the library's own site before you use an image, especially for people, logos or anything you plan to print. Second, never use a stock photo of people in a way that suggests they are your staff or your customers.

A word on AI-generated images

AI image tools can produce attractive pictures in seconds, and they can help with decorative backgrounds or illustrations. The same rule applies as for stock: do not use a generated image to stand in for your premises, your team or your work. If a customer arrives and the place looks nothing like the website, the photo has cost you trust rather than earned it.

Getting the files ready for the website

A good photo can still slow a page down or confuse search engines if it is handed over as a raw phone file.

• Rename every file. Google's image guidance suggests short, descriptive file names, for example bondi-cafe-front-counter.jpg rather than IMG00023.JPG.
• Write alt text for each image. Alt text is the short description read aloud by screen readers and used by search engines. Describe what is in the picture in plain words, such as "Barista pouring milk into a flat white at the front counter". Skip it only for purely decorative images.
• Keep files light. Phone photos are often several megabytes. Your web designer should resize and compress them so the page stays quick on mobile data. A slow page loses visitors before they see a single picture.
• Keep the originals. Store the full size files in a shared folder you own, so you can reuse them for social posts, print and your Business Profile.

For your Google Business Profile specifically, Google's help page lists JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, with a recommended resolution of 720 by 720 pixels and a minimum of 250 by 250 pixels. Adding a handful of the same real photos there and on your site keeps your presence consistent. If you are still deciding which of the two to build first, see Google Business Profile or a website.

Where each photo goes on the site

Once you have your set, map it to pages before handing it over. A simple plan:

• Home page: one strong image of your work or your space near the top, plus the shopfront lower down near your address.
• Services or menu: close-ups of the work for each main service or dish.
• About: the owner portrait and a team shot.
• Contact: the shopfront, so people recognise you when they arrive.

If you are not sure which pages your site needs in the first place, start with what pages a small business website needs, then match photos to each one. Cafés can also check the café website must-haves for the shots diners look for.

What it costs with Realtiq

When we build your website, we work with the photos you have, help you plan the few shots that are missing, and prepare every image (sizing, compression, file names and alt text) as part of the build. Prices are the same as on our websites page:

Common questions

Can I launch a website with only phone photos?

Yes. Modern phones take photos that are more than sharp enough for a website, as long as you use good light, a clean lens and a steady hand. Real phone photos usually build more trust than polished stock images.

How many photos does a small business website need?

There is no fixed number. A five page site often works well with somewhere around ten to twenty good images: a few for the home page, one or two per service, an owner portrait and the shopfront. Quality and relevance matter more than quantity.

Is it legal to use images I find on Google?

Not by default. Most images online are protected by copyright. Use your own photos, images you have paid to license, or images from a library whose licence clearly allows your use. If you are unsure, consult your adviser.

Should I hire a professional photographer?

It can be worth it once your site and business are established, especially for food, products or interiors where presentation sells. Many businesses launch with phone photos and book a short professional shoot later, once they know exactly which shots they need.

Do photos help my website show up in Google?

Photos with descriptive file names and alt text help search engines understand a page, and they can appear in image results. They do not replace useful text on the page, and no single change decides where a page ranks.

Can I use photos of my customers?

Only with their clear permission, and it is safest to get that in writing. This matters even more for before and after photos and for anything involving children. For the rules that apply to you, consult your adviser.