The Ultimate Guide to Website Images

Website Image is the essential element that adds emotions to your website. A single image of your website is responsible for attracting users, enhancing attention spans, and affecting the loading times of the website. 

That’s why understanding website images properly is critical for every developer. 

Read this blog to learn everything about website images and how to optimize them for stunning looks and top performance. So, let’s get started. 

Table of contents:

1. Why are images important on a website?
2. What is the type of image file?
3. What format is used for the website images?
4. What is the size of website images?
5. What images can I use on my website?
6. What Common Mistakes do Web Developers Make With Their Website Images?
7. Where do you get images for websites?
8. How do you optimize a website image to load faster?
9. FAQs

Why are images important on a website?

Here are the answers to all your doubts about the importance of website images. 

#1: Building Strong Brand Identities

Website images are vital for sharing the right business perception. Sharing the same messages with a single image takes less time than a five-line paragraph. Also, with a strong brand, imagery becomes ingrained in memory, making the brand more recognizable and more accessible to recall when reencountering it.

According to HubSpot, “The brain processes visual information 60,000X faster than text, which accounts for 90% of all information transmitted to it.”

Additionally, unique visuals can help a brand differentiate itself from competitors. In a crowded marketplace, grabbing attention with impactful imagery is crucial.

#2: Increase User Experience

Web Images are the best way to add emotions to your website. It breaks the text and keeps them relaxed as well as engaged with the web page. Well-chosen images improve retention, navigation, and overall satisfaction, making the website more enjoyable and memorable.

#3: Refine engagement

By adding images to your website, you can not just capture attention and convey emotions but also enhance storytelling. An informative piece of content and relevant website image can have the power to keep your reader attached to the web pages. 

According to Brent Csutoras, “Images or infographics can boost your engagement by 94%.”

Engaging images pique interest, encourage exploration, and create memorable experiences, driving deeper engagement with the website.

#4: Boost sales

Images are also important for enhancing conversions or sales on your website. If you are an eCommerce business owner, then this is the top thing you should focus on for your website. 

Research by Peep Laja (CEO of CXL) shows, 360° product views can lead to a 22% increase in add-to-cart rates.

According to Etsy’s buyer surveys, 90% of shoppers consider image quality “extremely important” or “very important” when making a purchase decision.

If you compromise your website image quality for performance, think about managing it because it might bounce back at you. 

However, read continues to know the best way to optimize the image for enhancing your website performance. 

#5: Enhance SEO Performance

There are two ways in which website images influence the SEO performance of the website. 

Firstly, we include all the optimization that you add in your images to give the right information to the search engine about the webpage. Optimized images with descriptive filenames and alt attributes enhance accessibility and keyword relevance, leading to higher rankings in search engine results pages. 

Also, by adding images, you can enhance your chances of ranking above other image features of search engines.

On the other hand, website images can also improve user engagement, reduce bounce rates, and increase time spent on the site, which indicates that your site is a useful resource for users. So, search engines appreciate you by giving you more visibility.  

Those as mentioned earlier are a few of the paramount importance of adding a website image to your website. Now, let’s know how many types of image file formats you see and how to identify them.

What is the type of image file?

To determine the type of an image file, you typically look at its file extension, which is the part of the file name that comes after the period (“.”) at the end of the filename. 

The file extension usually indicates the format of the image file. Here are some common image file types and their corresponding file extensions:

1. JPEG: File extension “.jpg” or “.jpeg”.
2. PNG: File extension “.png”.
3. GIF: File extension “.gif”.
4. TIFF: File extension “.tif” or “.tiff”.
5. BMP: File extension “.bmp”.
6. SVG: File extension “.svg”.
7. WEBP: File extension “.webp”.
8. HEIC/HEIF: File extension “.heic” or “.heif”.
9. PSD (Adobe Photoshop): File extension “.psd”.
10. AI (Adobe Illustrator): File extension “.ai”.

By examining the file extension, you can determine the type of image file you’re dealing with. Next, the most common doubt is what kind of images you should put on your website to get top performance. 

What format is used for the website images?

As mentioned above, graphic designers or photographers use various types of images in multiple formats. But you can not add all photos to your website. Here are the top image formats that you can add to your website on a whim.  

• JPEG (or JPG): Ideal for photographs and images with complex color gradients.
• PNG: Suitable for images with transparency, sharp edges, or areas of uniform color.
• GIF: Used for simple animations or pictures with a limited color palette.
• SVG: Perfect for vector graphics and logos, scalable without loss of quality.
• WebP: Provides high-quality compression, reducing file sizes without sacrificing image quality.

What is the size of website images?

After the format, another common confusion arises with the size of the image. According to the Stats, “1920 X 1080 px is the standard size for designing desktop-oriented website images.  

Here is the list of generally recommended image sizes for various purposes of a website. 

What images can I use on my website?

The website design, content, and functionality are effective for your image requirements. So, after finishing your wireframe, calculate all the places where images are needed. 

Typically, these are the following type of images and their most suitable format that a website should have:

#1. Photographs

High-quality images of products, services, team members, or environments can enhance visual appeal and engage visitors. JPEG or PNG formats are often suitable for photographs.

#2. Icons and Logos

Small, scalable images used for navigation, branding, or representing specific actions or features on the website. SVG format is ideal for icons and logos as they can be scaled without losing quality.

#3. Illustrations and Graphics

Custom illustrations or graphics can add personality and visual interest to a website. Depending on their complexity and desired style, they can be created in vector formats like SVG or raster formats like PNG.

#4. Background Images

Images used as backgrounds for headers, sections, or entire pages can create ambiance and visual hierarchy. JPEG or PNG formats are commonly used for background images.

#5. Infographics

Visual representations of data or information can make complex concepts easier to understand and more engaging for visitors. Infographics can be created in vector formats like SVG or raster formats like PNG.

#6. Product Images

If the website includes an e-commerce section or showcases products or services, high-quality images showcasing the products from different angles are essential. JPEG or PNG formats are typically used for product images.

#7. Responsive Images

Images should be optimized for different screen sizes and resolutions to ensure a consistent and optimized experience across various devices. It is crucial to use techniques like responsive design and serve appropriately sized images based on device characteristics.

#8. Social Media Sharing Images

Images optimized for sharing on social media platforms, including Open Graph images for Facebook, Twitter Card images, and other metadata-rich images to improve the appearance of shared links.

#9. Favicons

Small icons are displayed in the browser’s address bar or tabs to represent the website. Favicons are typically small images in ICO, PNG, or SVG format.

#10. Buttons and Call-to-Action Images

The effectiveness of personalized call-to-actions is 202% higher than that of basic CTAs. (HubSpot)

So, when adding visual elements such as buttons, banners, or promotional images, make sure to personalize them to make them more impactful. Understand the place of the CTA and design the images accordingly to attract more audience attention. To get optimal results, it’s essential to consider factors like file size, resolution, format, and relevance to the website’s content and design aesthetic. 

Tips: Optimize images for web use to ensure fast loading times and optimal performance across different devices and screen sizes.

What Common Mistakes do Web Developers Make With Their Website Images?

Adding and optimizing website images might seem like a flawless job, but you still have to keep some sort of things in mind. That helps you to avoid future consequences. Here is the list of the most common mistakes that web developers make with website images:

#1. Not Optimizing Images for Web

Images play a vital role in a fast-loading website. Adding fancy, high-quality images might improve your website’s look. However, using large, high-resolution images without compression leads to slow loading times. Thus, you will lose your many audience members and potential customers. 

According to the studies, “ 1 out of 4 users leave if your website takes more than 4 seconds of loading time.” On Google, the average loading time of top results is 2.5 seconds.

#2. Ignoring Responsive Design

If you are a developer, you are definitely aware of the various devices used to browse the web. Failing to adjust image sizes and resolutions for different devices causes layout issues and performance problems. 

#3. Lack of Alt Text

The search engine crawlers are blind to see the images. So they need alt text to know about the image and index them on the right categories. However, many web developers ignore the importance of adding proper alt text to website images. That highly impacts website accessibility and SEO performance. 

#4. Using Inappropriate File Formats

Earlier, we learned many things about the image format in this blog. Now, you get a clear idea of which image format is best for a particular place. 

Many beginners do not know which is the appropriate file format for images such as banners, transparent background images, CTAs, etc. That’s why they choose the wrong image format for the content, resulting in larger file sizes or loss of quality.

#5. Overlooking Image Caching

Image caching is another factor that you need to focus on during image optimization. Failing to leverage browser or CDN caching for images slows down subsequent page loads.

#6. Neglecting Lazy Loading

Lazy loading is the best way to improve the website speed. Not implementing lazy loading for offscreen images, which increases initial load times unnecessarily. 

#7. Poor image management

Like other elements, poor management of the website image can cause ineffective image optimization, low site performance, resource intensive, lack of compatibility, and many other issues. It is a widespread web image optimization mistake to allow unused or redundant images to accumulate on the server, bloating storage and complicating maintenance.

#8. Ignoring Image SEO

Failure to optimize images with relevant filenames, alt attributes, and captions reduces their visibility in search engine results. In the beginning, many developers miscalculated the image SEO effort, which later impacted their website’s performance in search engines. 

#9. Not Considering Accessibility

Neglecting to provide alternative text or descriptions for images, excluding users with disabilities from accessing content.

#10. Violating Copyright Laws

You are using images on your website for your business, and visuals are also a full-blown industry in the digital world. That’s why when you use images without proper licensing or permission, it means you are stealing their property. So, legally, they have the right to take legal action against your website or even penalize your domain from ranking on search engines. 

Where do you get images for websites?

As you see, adding images without proper licensing and permission can damage your brand value and website ranking. 

So, how do you get permission or a license to use the images? It is imperative for you to know.  

There are many methods for exploring and getting high-resolution, royalty-free images for business use. Some are free, and others are paid. Thus, review your budget and pick the best method for you. 

There are some guidelines. You can obtain images for websites from various sources, including:

#1. Stock photo websites

You can explore platforms like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and Unsplash, which offer a wide range of high-quality images for purchase or free download. They have multiple quality options, so you can delve into the most suitable choice. 

#2. Creative Commons

Websites like Flickr and Wikimedia Commons host images with Creative Commons licenses, allowing free use under certain conditions. If you are looking for free options, explore their sites to learn about their terms and conditions. 

#3. Company or product photography

Typical photos can be explored on the web. But if you want to showcase the real image of the inside of your company or product, then taking a photo shoot can make your website and brand image stand out. Take your own photos of products, team members, or events to personalize your website and showcase your mission in a personalized way.

#4. Design agencies

Hiring a design agency or freelancer to create custom images is another best option. A professional graphic design and web design company holds the experience of designing the top-notch image with clear messages. 

Additionally, they also know the benchmark of the industries, what audiences live to see, and what they hate. So whether you want illustrations or graphics tailored to your website’s needs, you just need to hire a designer and leave the rest. They will give you suitable, high-quality, customized graphic design services that look stunning and deliver a clear message.

#5. User-generated content

Encourage users to submit photos or images related to your products, services, or brand and obtain permission to use them on your website. Many eCommerce businesses allow their users to share their feedback with images to influence potential customers’ purchase decisions. 

#6. Public domain

Access images in the public domain, which are not subject to copyright restrictions, from websites like Public Domain Pictures or NASA’s image gallery.

These are some of the best and legal ways to explore high-quality images without worrying about royalties. Now, let’s understand how to optimize images before using them on the website. 

How do you optimize a website image to load faster?

The ultimate goal of optimizing the file size of website images is to improve loading times and overall performance. These are some effective strategies to optimize image file sizes for websites:

#1. Choose the Right Format

Select the most appropriate image format based on the content and characteristics of the image:

• Use JPEG for photographs and images with complex color gradients.
• Use PNG for images with transparency, sharp edges, or areas of uniform color.
• Use GIF for simple animations or images with a limited color palette.
• Use SVG for vector graphics and logos whenever possible, as they are scalable and have small file sizes.

#2. Resize Images

Scale down images to the appropriate dimensions needed for display on your website. Avoid using larger images than necessary, as they will increase file size and slow down loading times.

#3. Compression

Compress images to reduce file size without significantly sacrificing image quality. There are two types of compression:

• Lossy Compression: in this method, you can reduce the file size by discarding some image data. Use this for JPEG images, adjusting the compression level to find the right balance between file size and image quality.
• Lossless Compression: As the name suggests, this method reduces the image file size without sacrificing the quality of an image. It is used for PNG and GIF images. Tools like PNGGauntlet, OptiPNG, and TinyPNG can help with lossless compression.

#4. Optimize for the Web

Use image optimization tools or software to automatically optimize images for the web. These tools apply compression algorithms and strip unnecessary metadata from image files to reduce file size while maintaining visual quality.

#5. Use Responsive Images

Use responsive design techniques to serve images that are appropriately sized depending on the screen size and device used by the user. As a result, users will be able to see bigger images on smaller screens without having to load them unnecessarily, resulting in an improved mobile experience.

#6. Lazy Loading

Implement lazy loading for images to defer the loading of offscreen images until they are needed. This method significantly improves your initial page load times, especially for pages with multiple images. In the end, your visitors instantly see your website. 

#7. CDN Integration

Utilize content delivery networks (CDNs) to cache and deliver images from servers located closer to your website visitors. CDNs can help reduce latency and improve loading times for images and other website assets.

#8. Image Sprites

Combine multiple small images into a single image sprite to reduce the number of HTTP requests required to load them. This can be particularly effective for icons and tiny graphics used across your website.

#9. Monitor Performance

Regularly monitor your website’s performance using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or WebPageTest. These tools can provide insights into image optimization opportunities and help identify areas for improvement.

#10: Use CSS Effects

Instead of using images for simple design elements like gradients, shadows, or borders, consider using CSS effects. CSS can achieve similar visual effects with less overhead, resulting in smaller page sizes and faster load times.

#11: Minimize HTTP Requests

Reduce the number of image requests by combining multiple small images into a CSS sprite. This always reduces the number of HTTP requests required to load the page for a faster loading site.

#12: Progressive Image Loading

Opt for progressive image loading, where an image starts loading in low resolution and gradually improves in quality as more data is received. This provides users with a sense of faster loading times and a smoother browsing experience.

By implementing these additional image optimization techniques, you can further enhance the performance, accessibility, and user experience of your website.

FAQs

Here are some related frequently asked questions (FAQs) about website image optimization:

#1. What is the recommended image resolution for website images?

The recommended image resolution for website images varies depending on the context and use case. However, a standard guideline is to use images with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch (ppi) for digital display. For high-resolution displays (e.g., Retina displays), you may want to use images with higher resolutions or employ techniques like srcset to serve different image resolutions based on the device.

#2. How can I check the file size of an image?

You can check the file size of an image on your computer by right-clicking on the image file, selecting “Properties” (Windows) or “Get Info” (Mac), and viewing the file size information. Alternatively, you can use image editing software or online tools to check the file size of an image.

#3. What is the impact of oversized images on website performance?

Oversized images can negatively impact website performance by increasing page load times and consuming more bandwidth. They can lead to slower loading speeds, higher server costs, and a poor user experience, especially on mobile devices with limited bandwidth.

#4. How can I optimize images for SEO?

To optimize images for SEO, use descriptive filenames and include relevant keywords in the alt text and image captions. Additionally, ensure that images are correctly sized, compressed, and have appropriate aspect ratios. Optimizing images for fast loading times and mobile responsiveness also indirectly contributes to SEO.

#5. What are the best practices for optimizing images for social media sharing?

When optimizing images for social media sharing, use recommended aspect ratios and dimensions for each social media platform to ensure that images display correctly. Additionally, include engaging visuals, compelling captions, and relevant hashtags to encourage interaction and sharing.

#6. How do I ensure accessibility for images on my website?

To ensure accessibility for images, provide descriptive alt text that accurately describes the content and purpose of each image. Use proper HTML markup, such as the alt attribute, to convey information about images to users who rely on screen readers or have images disabled. Additionally, ensure that images are accessible to users with color vision deficiencies by using sufficient color contrast and avoiding relying solely on color to convey information.

#7. Where to store website images for effective performance?

Most web hosting providers offer enough space to store website images. You can organize them efficiently using folders for different sections of your website. For an extra performance booster, you can also consider a Content Delivery Network (CDN). CDNs store your website’s static content (including images) on servers around the world, delivering them to users from the closest location for faster loading times. For more details, you can contact any web development company for professional support. 

These FAQs cover various aspects of website image optimization, including resolution, file size, performance impact, SEO, social media sharing, and accessibility.

Wrap Up

Optimizing images for your website is essential for improving performance, user experience, and search engine visibility. By following best practices such as choosing suitable image formats, resizing and compressing images, implementing lazy loading, and optimizing for SEO, you can ensure that your website loads quickly, looks excellent on all devices, and attracts more visitors. 

Share this to support beginner web developers looking to improve their skills and job prospects.

However, if you have any more questions or need further assistance in the future, feel free to ask. You can also explore our site to learn the latest web design trends by reviewing the projects of skilled web designers and developers.

At TopCSSGallery, we offer a platform to inspire the designers and developers to get inspired by designs. If you have any designs to showcase your expertise, then reach out to us. We would love to list your designs to inspire many folks.