A hero image that shows you: Crawl Audit check 117

Short answer: a picture of your actual product, place or work helps people understand what you offer faster than words alone. A generic stock photo can do the opposite. Check 117 warns when the page has no image, picture or video at all.

What Crawl Audit checks

• Pass: at least one <img>, <picture> or <video>.
• Warning: none.

Any image passes: a logo or an icon counts. It doesn't judge quality, resolution or position, despite the catalogue's "high-resolution" wording.

What the research says

Nielsen Norman Group's 2024 homepage guidance shows a site that "featured a generic stock image of water in its hero space, potentially leading visitors to misconstrue the company's offerings." The image should explain the business, not decorate it.

Choosing the image

• Your real product, your real premises, or a screenshot of your real app.
• Real people only if they're your team or customers who agreed.
• Alt text that describes what's shown (check 171 covers alt text).

Keeping it fast

The hero image is often the page's Largest Contentful Paint (check 72). Use a modern format (check 79), the right size (check 106), width and height (check 81), and don't lazy-load it (check 100).

Sources

• Nielsen Norman Group, Homepage design: 5 fundamental principles (2024), checked 6 October 2026.