A few months ago, I did a second round of my 1,000 website review. I was basically looking at random sites trying to see what got me to dig a little deeper. I am also currently working on decreasing my bounce on my main blog so I am really looking closely at these notes now.

A big winner? Pictures of people. Using this website, BestRateSource.com as an example, you can see the power of people.

Using the topic of mortgage rates you are in for a challenge for keeping your visitors for longer than one page view. The market is competitive, and if left to just written context, pretty boring.

People bring the site alive though, and smiling faces certainly helps the credibility on this site. Another important note here, house in background. A common mistake is to add a picture like this, and miss out on that extra subliminal message. This site helps you get a house. The picture should have people and a house.

Adding pictures to a website is a great way to attract visitors, but they need to keep focused, and they need to be used sparingly. In this particular case it was used fantastically. An example of a big mistake, one that I have seen on another home mortgage site before? Showing a picture of their large commercial building. Home owners are not looking for buildings.

Looking at their sub pages like their best mortgage rates page, you can see less emphasis on the image, they use an icon in this case, and more emphasis on the content. The visitor is now less concerned with credibility, and their interest has already been gained. Now they just want the facts, so give it to them!