Do bigger images mean better conversion rates?

Just a quick blog this morning, pretty much because I’m referring to another already well-written and conclusive blog I’ve read; no need to rewrite what has already been written. 

The blog, in eConsultancy, asks whether bigger images lead to better website conversion.

Now before going on, I must hazard that whilst this might seem a leading question and whilst your first inclination might be to say ‘yes, bigger images surely lead to better conversion’, one of the things you quickly learn about websites, users and the tests we run on websites to try and understand how and why web pages perform the way they do, is to challenge every assumption.

And I mean every assumption.

There are no foregone conclusions when it comes to how or why a website should be designed; what works on one web page may well not work on another.

Though ‘bigger images’ specifically, is something that has always interested me if only because a friend who is a car dealer told me many, many years ago when I was working on his website, to make the images bigger.

And bigger.

As he pointed out, the bigger the image, the better the image and the more you have of them, the more cars you’ll sell.

So, do bigger images improve conversion?

According to the eConsultancy blog, across the three tests it reviews, the answer is a yes.

What is interesting about one of the tests is that despite the larger image pushing the product data down the page, enquiries and conversion still jumped considerably; busting the somewhat disproven theory that everything must be ‘above the fold’.

Whether bigger images and buttons work on your website, only you’ll know; it is possibly slightly safer to assume it to be case than some other ‘conversion’ improving theories, though you’ll never know without testing.