Help for Website Images

Elevate Your Website with Stunning Visuals: A Guide for New Clients

Welcome! High-quality images are the heart and soul of a captivating website, playing a crucial role in attracting visitors, conveying your brand message, and enhancing user experience.

To ensure your new website project shines, I've put together this guide to help you obtain the best possible visuals.

Why High-Quality Images Matter:

  • First Impressions: Compelling images grab attention instantly and create a positive first impression of your brand.
  • Brand Storytelling: Visuals can effectively communicate your company's values, personality, and story in a way that words alone cannot.
  • Enhanced Engagement: High-quality photos and graphics keep visitors interested and encourage them to explore your content further.
  • Professionalism and Trust: Sharp, professional imagery builds credibility and trust with your audience.
  • Improved SEO (Indirectly): While not a direct ranking factor, engaging visuals can lead to longer time on page and lower bounce rates, which can positively influence your search engine rankings.

Best Practices for Obtaining New Images:

  1. Define Your Visual Needs:
    • Consider your brand: What kind of aesthetic aligns with your brand identity? (e.g., modern, classic, playful, professional).
    • Think about your content: What types of images will best support your website's text and messaging? (e.g., product photos, team headshots, lifestyle images, location shots, abstract visuals).
    • Identify key pages: Which pages will benefit most from impactful imagery (e.g., homepage, about us, services/products, contact)?
  2. Explore Your Options:
    • Professional Photography: Hiring a professional photographer is often the best investment for unique, high-quality images that perfectly capture your brand. They can handle lighting, composition, and post-processing for exceptional results. A professional photographer is recommended for your head shots – typically placed on the About page.
    • Stock Photography (Use Judiciously): Stock photo websites offer a wide variety of images. If budget is a concern, these can be an option, but choose carefully to ensure the images feel authentic and don't look generic. Be sure to check licensing terms.
    • Illustrations and Graphics: For certain sections or to convey abstract concepts, custom illustrations or high-quality graphics can be very effective.
  3. Planning Your Photoshoot (If Applicable):
    • Develop a shot list: Work with your photographer to create a detailed list of the specific images you need.
    • Location scouting: Choose appropriate locations that reflect your brand.
    • Model selection (if needed): Decide if you need models to represent your target audience or showcase your products/services in use.
    • Branding elements: Incorporate your brand colors, logos, and any other relevant visual elements into the photoshoot.
  1. WHERE to get photos and images:
    • My first recommendation is canva.com. Even with a free account, searching through Elements and then filtering down to photos orrgraphics typically yields great results. These images are already royalty free and free to download. Just be careful about what size you set your custom project.
    • Other than canva, I recommend taking a look at this article for additional photo sources: https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/questions-answers/buy-images-for-websites.html.

Image Size Recommendations:

  • To ensure your website loads quickly and your images look crisp across various devices, please aim for the following minimum recommendations. Choosing high-resolution (hi-res) images ensures your images look sharp even on larger screens.
  • Minimum Width for “banners”: 1200-2000 pixels is needed for any full-width images, typically placed at the top of a web page, and known as hero image banners. Hero images need to be long and skinny.
  • Sizes in General: This depends on where the image will be used on the website. Shape may also matter; square, or rectangular in either portrait or landscape. A good, basic minimum would be 1000 px x 800 px, or 800 x 1000. However, the ideal height will depend on the specific image and its intended use on the page. Keep in mind that your website designer will probably need to crop some images. If the images need to be optimized for use on your web pages, there may be an additional cost.
  • Consider Aspect Ratio: Think about how the image will be cropped or displayed on different parts of your website. Providing images with some extra "breathing room" around the subject can be helpful.

Image Backgrounds:

  • Ideal: For many website elements (especially product photos, logos, and graphics intended to overlay other content), transparent backgrounds are highly recommended. This allows for seamless integration with different website background colors.
  • Acceptable: If transparency isn't possible or desired, true white backgrounds are generally a clean and versatile option.

Image File Types and overall sizes:

  • What I use on the website need to be .jpg or .png. Images come in other types and if you send them to me in these types: HEIC, SVG, AVIF, PDF and others, I will need to convert them, and doing this will make these images lose quality.
  • Ideally, by the time any image gets used on a web page, the OVERALL file size is less than 500 kb, and 300 kb is better. Large image files are a drain on your website’s speed and performance. Your website designer can optimize large image files, but there may be an additional cost.

Logos:

  • If you are having a new logo designed, keep the following in mind:
  • Provide them to me in both the ‘regular’ background color, and a ‘transparent’ background. Ensure your logo looks good with a transparent background while you’re working with whomever is designing it. Transparent backgrounds are essential for placing your logo effectively on various backgrounds throughout your website.
  • Ask the designer for very large files of logos. This allows for scalability without loss of quality. Your website designer allows for having to optimize logos.
  • Ideally, think about other ways the logo will be used, such as on social media. Consider asking the logo designer for optional ‘shapes’ of your logo to meet other possibilities.
  • View this page for official social media image sizes. (goes to a different website)

Submitting Your Images:

Once you have your new images ready, and depending how many there are, I will provide you with clear instructions on how to submit them to me. Please ensure the files are clearly labeled.

If there are more than a few, I will most likely ask you to add them into a folder on Google Drive or Dropbox, or similar, and then ‘share’ that folder with my gmail address.

Summary

Investing in high-quality visuals is an investment in the success of your website. By following these guidelines, you'll be providing me with the materials needed to create a stunning and effective online presence for your business. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out!