The shot list for a service business
Plan a short list before you start. Take a portrait of each person customers will meet, a few of the team working, before-and-after pairs from finished jobs, your vehicle or storefront, and a clear photo of the place where clients come to see you. Add close-ups of tools, materials or products, since details suggest care.
For a professional office, a photo of the entrance helps first-time visitors recognize it. A simple outside shot with the sign visible saves confused phone calls.
Shooting with a phone
Modern phones are good enough. Clean the lens, shoot in daylight near a window or outdoors in open shade, and hold the phone steady with two hands. Tidy the background before you press the button: remove clutter, personal items and anything with customer information visible.
Shoot horizontally for the main images on your site, and take some vertical ones for social media. Take many shots from slightly different angles, then pick the sharpest.
Get permission and respect privacy
If a photo shows a customer's home, face, license plate or documents, ask first and get the okay in writing. Interior shots of a client's property can reveal security details. For employees, a signed release avoids problems if someone leaves and asks you to remove their image.
Photos of minors need a parent's consent. If you are not sure whether a release is needed for your situation, ask an attorney.
Prepare the files so the site stays fast
Large camera images slow a page down, which hurts both visitors and search. Resize photos to the width they will actually display, often no more than about two thousand pixels for the largest, and save them in a modern compressed format. Many website platforms can do this automatically, but check the result.
Give each file a descriptive name like 'kitchen-remodel-after.jpg' instead of a camera number, and write a short alt text describing what the image shows. That helps screen reader users and image search.
Test the page on a slow connection after uploading. If a photo takes noticeable time to appear, compress it further or use a smaller version for phones.
When to hire a photographer
A professional is worth the cost for a headshot, a restaurant or retail space, or a product line where the pictures drive sales. Ask to see full galleries, not just highlights, and agree in writing on usage rights: where you can use the images, for how long, and whether you may edit them.
If budget is tight, hire for a half day to cover the main shots and fill in with your own phone photos later.
Write useful alt text
Alt text is a short description for people who cannot see the image. For a photo on a service page, 'Crew installing new gutters on a two-story house' is useful. Skip phrases like 'image of' and avoid stuffing keywords. Purely decorative pictures can have empty alt text so screen readers skip them.
Common questions
Are stock photos ever okay?
For abstract backgrounds or icons, yes. For people who appear to be your team or customers, no. Visitors notice and it can mislead them.
What size should website photos be?
It depends on the layout, but keep each image file as small as you can while still looking sharp, often a few hundred kilobytes.
This guide is general information. Search engines change how they work and their guidelines; check Google's current documentation for your situation. Nobody can guarantee a ranking.