Images Can be Clichés Too

A Web Copywriting Tip by Nick Usborne

 

We are all familiar with the use of clichés in text online.

 

If I read one more time about some company’s “integrated solutions”, or hear about a corporation offering “tomorrow’s solutions today”, I think I’ll scream.

 

(Not really. I’ll just shake my head in disbelief.)

 

But here’s a heads-up for the web designers out there...

 

Images can be clichés too!

 

This morning I looked at a site which, on its home page, featured the 10,000th image of a person working on a laptop I have seen this year.

 

Of course, you’ll see a lot of variety in these images. A male or a female working on a laptop. Cropped in tight or a wide view. Shot from above or from the side. And so on. In a hotel room, an airport, in a home office, on the beach.

 

These laptop shots appear on just about any kind of site you can imagine.

 

Software sites. Publication sites. Travel sites. And, of course, about 95% of all B2B sites that sell some kind of service.

 

There are two points to consider here.

First, these images are totally meaningless. They are visual clichés that communicate nothing.

 

Two, they are a wasted opportunity. There will always be a better image to use to help support your web site’s core message or value.

So why do these images keep appearing? Because people get lazy. They don’t think hard enough. They don’t take enough trouble. A photo of yet another pair of hands on a laptop keyboard is the fast, easy and safe way out.

 

If I were boss of the universe I would, henceforth, ban the use of these images in perpetuity. On a good day I might make an exception for one group of sites only: sites that actually sell laptops.

 

Finally, and separately, if you are as fed up with business clichés as I am, you might want to invest in a Business Jargon Protest Mug.

 

Business Jargon Protest Mugs...plenty of choices here...

 

Back to the Web Copywriting Tips Page...

 

 

 

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© Nick Usborne. All Rights Reserved.