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Images contribute to your overall website presentation. Often referred to as the "character" of your website, the way you use graphics will make the visit more memorable.
Issues around graphics...
Read this article to become familiar with the two types (formats) currently in use on most websites. Inside we give away handy tips, information about them and how to optimize your images!
What will earn you points...
- Use original graphics wherever possible. They will add a much higher degree of characteristics to your site, and most certainly earn you a higher score. If you use someone else's graphics - give credit where it's due!
- Only use graphics and images that will enhance your website theme, purpose and content. Example: Don't use a back flourish background if your site is about history.
- Maintain a good balance between your graphics and site content. Always try to keep the focus to your site content. Graphics should be used to compliment your content.
- Proper spacing between graphics and content - make use of horizontal and vertical spacing tags.
- Use compression utilities to reduce the size of your images.
- Apply "alt" tag codes to images of importance. Linked images, for example, could be described by using these tags. Move your cursor over the images on your left-hand side to see the effect of "alt" tags!
- Pre-loaders: A good incentive and may drastically improve the load time of your website. However, warn your visitors beforehand. Keep in mind that some browsers may not support this feature.
Thing you should avoid...
- Animations should be avoided where possible - not only are they annoying and distracting, but much larger in size.
- Avoid using large, bulky images.
- Avoid using too many images on a single page. If you want to display an online gallery, use thumbnails, and link them to your larger images on new pages. Don't forget to apply a good navigation structure.
- Avoid the use of clipart images.
- Most known browsers only support *.jpg or *.gif . formatted images. Avoid using other formats, as they will appear as "broken" on your pages.
TIP: Use *.jpg formats for photos or images that requires more than 256 colors. Use *.gif for vector type of graphics which don't require the use of 256 colors.
Read this article for more information.
- Borders around images should be avoided. Set the border size value to "0" to avoid ugly blue borders around your images.
- Content or images "jumping" into place as your images load. The primary cause for this is the lack of properly assigning values to the "height" and "width" tags of your images.
TIP: Properly tagged images will reduce download time of your images.
Related Reading Material:
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