Best Practice For Using Images

byRobert-A

10.9K followers

7 years ago

Presenting Images Effectively

Hi Folks

This is a follow up to my last blog on images.

So you have figured out what images to use you need to get your presentation right. Presentation matters not only from the user experience standpoint but also from a technical standpoint. They also have to look good on all devices from a Desktop PC to a Smart Phone.

Here are the four main points you must bear in mind:

Correct Aspect Ratio - Depending on where on the page you want to place your image its best to stick to a specific aspect ratio so that it looks good. Google is known to prefer certain aspect ratios for the images it favours, so try to stick to a fairly standard ratio.

The Right Format - Different image file types are good for different things. JPGs are good for very complicated images such as photos. PNGs are excellent for cartoon type images that need to be ultra sharp. Pick the right format for your image to keep the size down and keep it looking good.

Right click image and open in new tab to enlarge

Scaling The Image - Because you may ultimately need several different sizes of an image across different platforms, you should start with the biggest image you can get and then make scaled-down versions to suit your needs. For instance, if your featured images are always 1240x wide, don’t use a 2400px-wide image. This will surely slow the page down.

Image Position - There’s a fairly standard page format that sees images used to lead into content and break up blocks of text. Try not to deviate from this by having several images in quick succession or anything similarly unusual. It will confuse the reader and thus damage your rankings.

These are the four points I myself follow and so far they have served me well. They will also do the same for you. Of course its a personal choice but don't say you have not been told the correct way.

Onwards and upwards folks and have a great weekend.

Robert Allan