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May 8, 2019 by Emilie Toll
The adage of “A picture is worth a thousand words.” still holds true. Graphics can transform an otherwise bland site into a striking and powerful communication channel for your brand. They are also the first thing that visitors notice, they help to visualize a concept, message, or product, and they also give credibility. However, there are risks with images. Keep reading to learn how to be successful in adding images to your website.
Adding images to your site should be used to help evoke emotion or action from your visitors, break up text for better readability, and provide a context for the content.
Now that you know the reasons to include images, here are the file types for website image application.
.jpg – A “JPEG” is the most common form of file format for photographs because it handles thousands of colors with a reasonable file size. A drawback of using JPEGs is that they force a white background, and should not be used for images with text.
.png – a PNG is great for photography, images with text, and images with parts that are clear or transparent. This file type has mostly replaced GIF images as a web standard, but are often larger in size.
.gif – a GIF has animation capabilities. These are slowly being replaced with more modern formats like gifv, animating .svg, and videos. However, they are still great for short images with large blocks of color or placing an image over a photographic background, but are not good for photography.
Probably the most important thing to remember when adding images to your website is to ensure you legally have rights to use the photos you are adding. Images from the internet are often copyrighted, and you should understand the three categories of licenses.
Finding Images to Use
There are different ways to acquire images.
Using too many or uncompressed images on your web pages can slow page load times. Not only does this cause visitors to leave because they become impatient waiting for the page to load, search engines take the load time into account for their rankings. For more information on how to speed up your site, including how to optimize images, read 5.5 Easy Ways to Speed up Your Website without calling Your Developer.
Content on your website is not only the text, but also the images. Provide your visitors with relevant, useful, and engaging content to keep them on your site longer and increase conversions.
Related Tags: CMS Tips & Best Practices, Marketing, Website Speed Optimization, Website Tips & Best Practices
Emilie serves as the Marketing Project Manager for Marketpath. She obtained an M.B.A. in Marketing and International Business from the University of Indianapolis. She enjoys every aspect of marketing, and finds the analytics just as fascinating. As a former restaurant owner, the entrepreneurial spirit lives on in her, and she wants to help others establish their ideal online presence.
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