Web Design

Photo Size In Web Design

Website Design Tips | Website Design Services

When designing a website for your company, your photos should never be so large that they slow the loading time down to a crawl. Is there any set size that you always make your photos? Not really, we have outlined some pointers.

Keep photos on your homepage to a minimum and small. This will help get the visitor interested in what you’ve got to offer and hopefully get them in a mindset that will make them wait for additional slower pages.

Use clickable images where possible. That means creating a ‘thumbnail’ for the page, and creating a link to the larger version of the picture. That way, if they aren’t interested in seeing the big picture, they don’t have to wait for it to load.

If you are going to have a large photo, make sure it is a good photo. Not out of focus, bad color, or of your family dog. You get the idea.

Here are two examples of download speed at 28.8 modem speed. Most of the world is still at 28.8. I know you can’t believe that, but it’s true.

The download speed for a text based page with no images that is 8.6 KB will take 3 seconds to load. That’s good. A page with a few photos that is 60 KB will take 21 seconds to load. Count it out, 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand and so forth… pretty long. If it’s your homepage, most people will be gone at about 8 one thousand. It’s my 7-second rule. No more for a homepage.

The times when a longer load time is ok is when the visitor is leaving your homepage to go to a product page or photo gallery. Here they are expecting to get information that they want or looking to see a series of pictures. However, it is best to use thumbnails that click to larger photos. And if at all possible, have a statement that reads, ‘the image may take a moment to load’ or something to that effect.

For a quick loading website, call us today at 888-324-4091 to get a quote from our team of design professionals.

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