It can’t be stated enough how important good images are on a website. They can make pages more inviting, easier to read, and play a key role in SEO. When it comes to getting the most out of the images on your site, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
I’ve blogged before about optimizing images, and some tools available on the web for that. But another key aspect to go along with that, is sizing images to fit what they are going to be used for. For example, if an image is going to be displayed at a size of 100×100 pixels, there’s no need to have that image be 1000×1000 pixels. Even if the larger image is optimized through tinypng.com, it will still be considerably larger in file size than needed. Whether you are using a program like Photoshop or a website like resizeimage.net, sizing the image closer to the actual size that it will be used on the site is the first step.
When you are saving the image through Photoshop, be sure to select the correct file format. Odds are, you will use either JPG or PNG. The key determinant in which to use comes down to the image background. Do you need to maintain any areas of transparency in the image? If so, you will need to use a PNG. While PNG will provide transparency, it is also a larger file size. So if there is no need for transparency, a JPG will work perfectly.
A third point to be mindful of is the name you give to an image. An image might have a name like img123.jpg from the camera, but that says nothing for what the subject of the image is. This is a great chance to use your site keywords as part or all of the image name, and paint a sort of word picture for what the image is of. For example, img123.jpg says nothing about an image, but jane-doe-ceo.jpg will tell that it is a picture of the company CEO, Jane Doe. The same can be applied to any keyword on your site or subject of the photo.
There’s a lot that can go into getting the most out of the images used on your website. But being mindful of the image size, the file type, and the name of the image, will help get the most out of your images. Good images will make your website that much more approachable, and give you the best results possible.