Let’s dive into the world of website design and explore an often-overlooked aspect —image sizes. I know what you’re thinking: “Why should I care about image sizes? Can’t I throw any old picture onto my website?” Well, my friend, hold your essential oils because the answer might surprise you!
At our design studio, we believe in the power of a less-is-more approach, which includes optimizing your website’s images for a seamless user experience. Seamless, meaning… it loads fast.
Let’s explore three go-to image sizes for any website project to help your website load fast.
Size Matters, Seriously!
Picture this: You stumble upon a beautiful website with slow-loading images that make you question the existence of time itself. Frustrating, right? Well, a large portion of a website’s loading speed is… you guessed it, image sizes. Large, uncompressed images can slow down your website, leading to higher bounce rates and missed opportunities to connect with your ideal customers.
1920 x 1280 for Horizontal Images
The landscape orientation perfectly showcases wide, panoramic shots of your holistic wellness haven. This image size can be handy for hero sections or as background images on call to actions. Side note: these are a great option for your featured images (the image showed when sharing your website link) and a great choice for your blog posts.
1920 x 1280 for Vertical Images
Vertical images, also known as portrait orientation, are ideal for capturing the essence of your team, clients, products, and more. The best situations to use 1920px x 1280px would be for about sections or sections that have a decent amount of content that needs an image alongside it. Vertical images allow the content and image to feel more aligned, whereas a horizontal image will feel like the text is overpowering the image. We prefer the sections to have a good balance to them.
1280 x 1280 for Square Images
Ah, the classic square image. It is one of the easiest to remember and know when to use. If you want an image to be the same width and height (equal on all sides), we always size the image to 1280px x 1280px.
The Magic Behind Consistent Image Sizes
Now, you might be wondering why we’ve chosen these specific dimensions. Well, we’re glad you asked! By sticking to the same three image sizes, you will always know what size an image needs to be. If an area needs a vertical image, size the image to 1280px x 1920px. If the image needs to be horizontal, size the image to 1920px x 1280px. For a square, automatically size it to 1280px x 1280px. Using the same three image sizes eliminates a lot of the guessing game when determining what size an image needs to be.
But wait, there’s more! It’s not just about the dimensions—it’s also important to compress your images without sacrificing quality. By reducing file sizes, you can maintain visual integrity while giving your website the boost it needs to load like a breath of fresh air.
Putting It All Together
We like to stick to using the same three image sizes as a foundation if you don’t feel like those image sizes work for you. Feel free to set your own go-to image sizes. Don’t feel obligated to use ours. We wanted to provide an example of how we stay organized with our images. We aim to help you save time when it comes to managing images for your website. Using the same three images from the beginning can make your life easier when you need to add more images in the future, even after several years.
P.S. If you need a helping hand in designing your website or crafting your holistic brand identity, reach out to us. We’d be delighted to join you on your wellness journey! Get started here if you are ready.
