27 November 2024

Optimizing Images for Your Website: A Professional Guide

Image Sources and Quality

Stock Photos vs. Professional Photography

While stock photos can work as placeholders, professional photography of your actual business provides authenticity and trust:

Stock suggestions for layout:

Hero image: People using your product/service (Shutterstock's lifestyle category)
About section: Team collaboration shots (Unsplash business collection)
Product pages: Contextual usage images (iStock product mockups)
Blog posts: Relevant industry imagery (Pexels professional category)

Professional Photography Tips

When scheduling a photoshoot:

Capture horizontal and vertical variants
Include negative space for text overlay
Shoot wider than needed for cropping flexibility
Get detail shots and broad context shots
Ensure consistent lighting across series

Technical Specifications

Optimal File Formats

JPG: Photos and complex images with many colors
PNG: Images requiring transparency
WebP: Modern format offering best compression (with JPG fallback)
SVG: Logos, icons, and simple illustrations

Image Dimensions and Resolution

Homepage and key pages:

Hero images: 1920x1080px
Content images: 800x600px
Thumbnails: 400x300px
Blog featured images: 1200x630px

Product pages:

Main product images: 1000x1000px
Gallery thumbnails: 300x300px
Detail shots: 800x800px

File Size Guidelines

Target sizes for optimal loading:

Hero images: Max 200KB
Content images: Max 100KB
Thumbnails: Max 30KB
Product images: Max 150KB

Delivery Requirements

When sending images:

Provide highest resolution originals
Include both landscape and portrait orientations
Name files descriptively (e.g., "team-meeting-2024.jpg")
Avoid spaces in filenames
Send via cloud storage (not email) if over 10MB

Image Rights Documentation

Include:

Photographer credits
Model release forms
Property release forms if needed
Usage rights documentation
Stock photo licenses

Common Issues to Avoid

Screenshots from phones/websites
Images with text embedded
Low-resolution social media downloads
Heavily filtered photos
Inconsistent aspect ratios
Blurry or poorly lit images
Copyrighted images without permission

Future-Proofing

Keep original high-resolution files
Store RAW format if available
Document image sources and rights
Maintain consistent style for future shoots
Plan seasonal/campaign updates ahead

Note: We'll handle all optimization and formatting for web use. Just provide the highest quality originals possible.

Address

Mayfair and Marbella

Contact

stephen@microwebpro.com

+447532700118
+34604427505