When posting images on websites, two things are of utmost importance – image quality and website requirements. The balance between them dictates website image optimization. This type of image would load in websites very fast, not keeping you waiting at all.

According to studies, many people leave entire sites just because the image took a second too long to load. It is also because the image dimensions do not match the website, resulting in weirdly cropped or stretched images. In addition, low-quality images can negatively hurt the company and site as you can lose sales and views.

Correct dimensions for each website, load times, and image quality are essential to keep the viewer on your site. Good images catch the viewer's attention immediately; low-quality images would make people leave your site. Optimize website images for your site to make your sales and views grow and decrease bounce rates.

Luckily, retouching services know how to make images look their best and load their fastest on your website to give your viewers a great impression. Let's see how they do it.

Things We Will Cover

In this article, things that are crucial for optimizing images for the web will be discussed. Depending on the website, photos would be viewed differently and have different criteria for processing it. We would go through the following:

1. Image Format

2. Image Size

3. Image Dimensions

4. Image Quality

With all of that being said, let's get started!

Image Format

One of the core aspects of website image optimization is the format of the image. On the web, the most popular image formats are JPEG, PNG, and GIF. However, some formats are better than others under specific circumstances.

• JPEGs are the de-facto for most of the internet's photos. It's like the image standard for the web. This is because of its excellent compression capabilities (which results in compressed file sizes) while retaining decent picture quality.

• PNGs are higher quality than JPEGs but cannot be compressed as much as JPEGs. Thus, the file size is larger. The PNG-24 file format is much larger than the PNG-8 format. Cannot retain colors as well as JPEGs under severe compression.

• GIF images are often used to show animations. Unfortunately, GIFs don't show colors and PNGs or JPEGs, so it is only suitable for producing simple images with few colors.

Image formats are essential to do their own thing. For example, using JPEGs for logos is a big no-no because of the white background that they would leave. On the other hand, PNGs have transparency, so logos go best with this format. GIFs also have their place in showing animations.

Similarly, JPEGs are used to load picture content fast, which can be a major convenience for customers, especially on e-commerce platforms. However, a second too late, and you may just have lost a sale.

The retouching service professionals know what image formats you need to optimize website images depending on how and where you want to use them.

Image Size

Now that we know about the file types and their differences, it should come as no surprise that lowering its size – a.k.a. compression – will make it quicker to load. But how small should you go?

Making the image too small makes the colors all weird. You don't want that for your site because it will scream low quality. Some formats handle compression better than others, like JPEGs. Even if you shrink a JPEG image to, let's say, 25 KB, it would still retain some quality compared to PNGs and GIFs.

Using images with mangled colors will undoubtedly make people not want to visit your website a second time. If you sell products online, what will people think about your company if you upload unedited images? They may also get the wrong idea about your products.

Optimizing website image size is crucial because finding the delicate balance between quality and size is what photo editing experts know the best.

Image Dimensions

In layman's terms, the resolution is basically how sharp and detailed the image looks in general. The aspect ratio of pixels makes the image dimensions, as the length and width form its composition. The ratio of the length and width is the aspect ratio.

These two are essential to optimize website images for the end-user to give the best experience.

• Resolution:

Pictures with high resolutions will appear sharp and detailed even when you zoom in, compared to lower resolution pictures. Most of you may have already figured it out – higher resolution equals a bigger file size.

A bigger image file will take longer to load and can likely tarnish your site's reputation if you carelessly put the highest resolution image.

Also, many websites have specific resolution requirements. For example, Amazon’s highest resolution cap is 10,000px and lowest is 500px. A 10,000px resolution image will have an extreme level of detail. Facebook's cover photo resolution cap is 640 x 480 pixels.

• Aspect Ratio:

Aspect ratio is the relationship between an image's width and height. It is often denoted in ratios following the size of each size. For example, if the image is a square, the ratio is 1:1. If the image is twice as wide as its height, the ratio would be 2:1.

Many websites denote aspect ratios by its resolution, as in 1920 x 1080 pixels for a 16:9 aspect ratio. This is especially important in places where a specific size of the image needs to be placed. Images that are accurately produced and placed on websites look excellent and appealing.

The images would look like they naturally belong on the website, making viewers want to consume the website's contents longer.

For example, Amazon prefers square 1:1 images, whereas a Facebook cover photo's aspect ratio would be 16:9.

This is complicated stuff, as we can see. However, having a reliable retouching service to optimize website images is the easy way out.

Image Quality

Technicalities aside, let's talk about image quality.

Having good quality photographs is the most important thing – the sizing, formatting, and other things can come after the best shot has been picked for processing. Good photography is well appreciated, but that alone is not enough.

• Photography:

Many things in photography need to be accounted for. Luckily some photographers are capable enough to take the right shots. However, what comes after photography is post-processing. This is where you should look for professional photo retouching services to get the job done.

As we all know, retouching services provide outstanding quality photos in bulk and get done with their job very fast at affordable prices.

• Vectors:

On websites and many places, vectors work better. These are primarily used to make illustrations and drawings to make your site look more attractive. You have most likely noticed many different kinds of illustrative and stylistic drawings on sites. Vectors are one of the best ways to make your site look good and optimize website images.

You could use vector designing software or a graphics designer to help you with this for vectors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we would like to highlight the things you need to optimize images for the website. This guide should successfully open the doors to knowing what you need to have web-optimized photos.

We have shared the four things: image format, image size, dimensions, and image quality. With this knowledge, you should have known how to know which image would work best for your site.