Your site's images have drifted. A photo from launch day sits next to a screenshot you added last spring, beside an icon set you grabbed in a hurry. You want to modernize the look, but you've seen what happens when people swap a few images at a time: the new ones make the old ones look worse, and the site ends up more mismatched than before.
The fix is to treat a refresh as an audit first and a swap second. Catalog what you have, decide the new direction, then replace in matched batches so the site stays coherent the whole way through.
What this checklist is for
This is a pre-work checklist for an existing site, not a launch guide. It assumes you already have pages, images, and a brand, and you want to update the visuals without breaking the consistency you do have.
The core principle: list, then plan, then replace in batches. Most messy refreshes happen because someone starts replacing images on the homepage, runs out of time, and leaves the rest of the site half-old and half-new for weeks. An audit-first approach keeps every page in a known state and lets you swap whole groups at once.
Use it when you're about to:
- Refresh tired or off-brand images across a site that's been live for a while.
- Move to a new visual style (for example, from stock photos to illustration, or to a tighter color palette).
- Do an image audit ahead of a larger redesign.
Step 1: Audit what's on the site now
Before you change a single image, write down what's actually there. You can't replace consistently if you don't know what you're replacing.
Go page by page and record each image in a simple list or spreadsheet. For each one, capture:
- Where it lives — page and section (hero, feature row, testimonial, footer, etc.).
- What kind of image — photo, illustration, icon, screenshot, background.
- Current style notes — color tone, busy or simple, real-photo or AI-generated, on-brand or not.
- File name and rough size — so you can match dimensions later.
- Keep, replace, or drop — your first-pass verdict.
| Field to record | Example entry |
|---|---|
| Location | Home / hero |
| Type | Photo (background) |
| Style notes | Warm tone, busy, off-brand |
| Size | 1920×1080, large file |
| Verdict | Replace |
That last column is the whole point of the audit. By the end you'll know exactly how many images you're touching and which ones can stay.
Step 2: Decide why you're refreshing (and what to keep)
A refresh without a reason turns into endless swapping. Name the goal in one sentence: the colors clash, the photos look dated, the styles don't match each other, or the images no longer reflect what the business does.
Then protect what already works. If a handful of images are on-brand and consistent, keep them and make the new set match those, rather than replacing everything and starting from zero. Your audit's "keep" column is your anchor for the new style.
Step 3: Pick the new style and check it against your brand
Choose one style and write it down before you collect anything: the type of imagery, a small color palette, the level of detail, and whether you're using photos, illustration, or a mix. A short written spec is what keeps a refresh from drifting a second time.
Check that style against your existing brand before you commit:
- Do the new image colors sit comfortably with your logo and site palette?
- Will text stay readable when it's placed over the images?
- Does the style suit your business type and the tone of your copy?
For a deeper walk-through of locking a style down and keeping it steady, see the guide on how to keep the refreshed images consistent. The same principles that build a library from scratch apply when you rebuild toward one consistent library during a refresh.
Step 4: Plan the swap in matched batches, not page by page
This is where most refreshes go wrong, so it gets its own rule: replace by group, not by page.
Instead of finishing the homepage and moving on, swap one consistent set at a time across the whole site. Group your "replace" items by role and style, then pull a matched set for each group and ship them together:
- All hero/background images in one batch.
- All feature or section illustrations in one batch.
- All icons in one batch.
- All team or about-page images in one batch.
Batching keeps the site coherent at every stage. If you only get through two batches this week, the site still reads as intentional, because each batch is internally consistent. A page-by-page swap, by contrast, leaves visible seams between updated and untouched pages.
When you're ready to pull replacements, work in matched batches rather than one image at a time: image packs explains what a pre-matched set has to contain, and the right-image framework keeps each group on-spec by section, business type and style.
Step 5: Rights, alt text, and sizing before the new images go live
New images need the same checks as anything you'd publish for the first time. Don't carry over the old image's settings and assume they fit the new one.
Rights. Confirm you're allowed to use each new image the way you intend. Picdrome images are free to use for personal and commercial website projects, subject to the Picdrome license terms; read the Picdrome Image License so you know what's covered. If you're pulling images from anywhere else, re-check those terms too. For a fuller pre-publish routine, see how to check image rights before you publish the new ones. This is general information, not legal advice.
Alt text. A replaced image needs new alt text that describes the new image, not the old one. Stale alt text is a common leftover after a refresh, so update it as you swap.
Sizing. Match the new file to the slot. Export at the right dimensions for the section and keep file sizes lean so pages still load quickly. A new image dropped in at the wrong size is a frequent cause of slow or stretched-looking pages after a refresh.
Disclosure. If your images are AI-generated, describe them honestly and never present an AI-generated person as a real customer or team member.
A quick word on results: it's reasonable to expect a cleaner, faster, more on-brand site after a careful refresh, but treat any claim that new images change performance metrics as unverified. Aim for images that fit the section, stay readable behind text, load fast, and match the brand. Those are the things you control.
A short example
Say you're refreshing a five-page consulting site. Your audit lists fourteen images: three heroes, six section illustrations, four icons, and one team photo. You mark eleven "replace" and keep three on-brand illustrations.
You write the new spec: muted blue-grey palette, clean flat illustration, simple icons. Then you batch: pull a matched illustration set that sits next to the three you're keeping, swap all six in one pass, then do the three heroes, then the icons. The team photo, an AI-generated image, gets a clear, honest treatment and updated alt text. At no point is the site half-and-half, because each batch ships whole.
In Plain English
This is an audit-first checklist for updating the images on a site that's already live. It helps non-designer founders, freelancers, and small teams modernize tired visuals without ending up with a mismatched, half-finished look. Use it when your images have drifted in style, look dated, or no longer fit the brand. The move is simple: list every current image and decide keep-or-replace, choose one new style and check it against your brand, then replace in matched batches so the site stays consistent the whole way through. Before each new image goes live, confirm its rights under the relevant terms, rewrite its alt text, size it correctly, and disclose AI images honestly. When you're ready to pull replacements, work from image packs or the right-image framework so each batch stays on-spec.
Where to go next
- The pillar guide: How to build a consistent image library for your website (for free).
- Keep the refreshed images consistent once they're in place.
- Check image rights before you publish the new ones.