Size Matters: How to Choose the Right Image Dimensions for Your Website

Size Matters: How to Choose the Right Image Dimensions for Your Website

When it comes to creating an impressive website, the size of your images plays a crucial role. Whether you’re designing a custom website from scratch or using a pre-designed theme, it’s important to choose the right image dimensions, aspect ratios, and file sizes to ensure your website looks great and loads quickly.
To help you get started, we’ve put together a cheat sheet of standard image sizes for web pages that are best suited for a desktop with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which is the most popular according to statistics. Here are the generally recommended image sizes for websites:
  • Background Image: 1920 x 1080 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio
  • Hero Image: 1280 x 720 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio
  • Website Banner: 250 x 250 pixels, 1:1 aspect ratio
  • Blog Image: 1200 x 630 pixels, 3:2 aspect ratio
  • Logo (Rectangle): 250 x 100 pixels, 2:3 aspect ratio
  • Logo (Square): 100 x 100 pixels, 1:1 aspect ratio
  • Favicon: 16 x 16 pixels, 1:1 aspect ratio
  • Social Media Icons: 32 x 32 pixels, 1:1 aspect ratio
  • Lightbox Images (Full Screen): 1600 x 500 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio
  • Thumbnail Image: 150 x 150 pixels, 1:1 aspect ratio
It’s important to note that not only image dimensions are important, but also the image file size. Make sure to compress your website images to reduce the file size and ensure quick loading times. You can try TinyIMG online image compression tool for free to compress your website images.

When it comes to website image guidelines for 2023, image sizes greatly influence the user experience, search engine optimization, and overall website performance. Here’s a detailed overview of the guidelines for general image size specifications across websites:

Website Background Image Size:
  • Height: 1080 pixels
  • Width: 1920 pixels
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • PPI: 72

Website Hero Image Size:
  • Height: 720 pixels
  • Width: 1280 pixels
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • PPI: 72

Website Banner Size:
  • Height: 250 pixels
  • Width: 250 pixels
  • Aspect Ratio: 1:1
  • PPI: 72

Website Blog Image Size:
  • Height: 630 pixels
  • Width: 1200 pixels
  • Aspect Ratio: 3:2
  • PPI: 72

Website Logo Size:
  • Height: 100 pixels
  • Width: 250 pixels
  • Aspect Ratio: 2:3
  • PPI: 72

Website Favicon Size:
  • Height: 16 or 32 pixels
  • Width: 16 or 32 pixels
  • Aspect Ratio: 1:1
  • PPI: 72

It’s important to consider the area above the fold (the visible part before scrolling) when choosing the size of the image. If the image is important, a larger image size should be used. If the text is important, the size of the image can be sacrificed.

When it comes to choosing the image format to use for the web, there are several options available. JPEG is one of the most common image formats used for images, and it’s a lightweight lossy compression image format. PNG is another popular image format that uses lossless compression and allows for background transparency. GIF is a nifty image file format that can be used for short animated clips with small file sizes.
In conclusion, choosing the right image dimensions, aspect ratios, and file sizes is crucial for creating an impressive website that loads quickly and provides a great user experience. By following the guidelines and recommendations provided in this article, you can ensure that your website images look great and help your website stand out from the crowd.
Optimizing Images for WordPress: Photoshop vs. an Innovative Online Tool

Optimizing Images for WordPress: Photoshop vs. an Innovative Online Tool

Are you tired of slow-loading images on your WordPress website? If so, you’re not alone. Visitors expect fast-loading pages, and search engines prioritize sites that load quickly. Fortunately, optimizing your images for WordPress doesn’t have to be a tedious task. In this post, we’ll show you how to optimize your images using both Photoshop and an innovative online free tool.

  

Option 1: Optimize Images with Photoshop

Photoshop has long been the go-to tool for image optimization and for good reason. It offers a wide range of features and customization options. Here’s how to optimize your images for WordPress using Photoshop:

  1. Open your image in Photoshop.
  2. Click on “File” and then “Save for Web”.
  3. In the “Save for Web” window, select the file format you want to use (JPEG, PNG, or GIF).
  4. Adjust the quality slider until you find the right balance between image quality and file size.
  5. Click “Save” and save the optimized image to your computer.
  6. Upload the optimized image to WordPress.

   

Option 2: Optimize Images with an Innovative Online Free Tool

If you don’t have access to Photoshop or prefer to use an online tool, there’s a new innovative option available. Meet Squoosh, a free online tool developed by Google that allows you to optimize your images quickly and easily.

  1. Here’s how to use Squoosh to optimize your images for WordPress:
  2. Go to the Squoosh website.
  3. Drag and drop your image onto the website.
  4. Use the slider to adjust the image quality and file size.
  5. Preview the optimized image to ensure it meets your needs.
  6. Download the optimized image to your computer.
  7. Upload the optimized image to WordPress.

Optimizing your images for WordPress doesn’t have to be a chore. With Photoshop or the innovative online free tool Squoosh, you can quickly and easily optimize your images for fast-loading pages and improved search engine rankings. So why not give it a try and see the difference it makes for your website?

What’s the Best platform for your online store WordPress, Square space, or Shopify?

What’s the Best platform for your online store WordPress, Square space, or Shopify?

You can read all this info or take the quiz?

What’s the Best platform for your online store WordPress, Square space, or Shopify?

When it comes to building an online store, there are plenty of options. Three leading platforms dominating the e-commerce space are WordPress, Squarespace and Shopify. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Cost and maintenance often seem to be significant deciding factors, though others prefer having complete ownership/control of their website. No matter your priorities and needs, there’s a platform out there for you and we are happy to assist you in making an informed decision.

WordPress

WordPress is the most popular platform for bloggers and small businesses. It’s one of the best website builders, with unlimited possibilities and customizations. Free and easy to use, it’s one of the best website builders, with endless options and customizations. WordPress was initially designed for bloggers but is now a leading option for online sales. The function of wanting to add e-commerce is as simple as clicking a button.
Base cost:
  • Registering a domain and hosting from a third-party provider, such as GreenGeeks or SiteGround hosting, from $5 – $35/mo
  • WordPress platform and WooCommerce plugin are fully open source, meaning they are entirely FREE for download and use. I’m telling the truth; they’re absolutely free!

Square space

Square space has made a massive leap with its latest offerings. They are well known for their clean, out-of-the-box, clean templates with a modern feel and look. Originally they were a website builder for portfolio creators but have now branched out and strained to send their e-commerce more recently. It offers unique features like built-in analytics and e-commerce capabilities that make it easy to build an online store without hassle. Squarespace has over 50 templates to choose from when building your site; however, customizing it to fit your brand’s style can be limiting.
Base cost:
  • Their most popular plan business is $23/mo, allowing you to sell fully integrated e-commerce with a 3% translation fee.
  • Their basic commerce plan is $27/mo, fully integrated e-commerce with a 0% translation fee, check out on your domain, and powerful merchandising.

Shopify

Shopify was initially designed to help merchants build and launch their online stores. It’s built on a store perspective, an overall e-commerce system, and an online editor to help develop your site straightforwardly. It offers hundreds of themes to help customize the look of your store, and it also integrates with all major payment processors so that customers can quickly check out.
Base cost:
  • Their most popular plan, Basic, is $51/mo, giving you everything you need to start creating your store, from shipping products to processing payments. Also, up to 45% shipping discount.
  • Upgrading to Shopify or Advance plan starting at $132/mo up to $517/mo will lower credit card rates and advance reporting.

——————————————————————

Here’s the run-down

WordPress
Pro – free, best customization, shop + services
Con – harder to manage and requires maintenance
Shopify
Pro – e-commerce specific, built-in marketing and analytics options
Con – hidden fees, not ideal for service-based businesses, more expensive than other options
Squarespace
Pro – easily set up
Con – Not easy to customize

 

Still not sure which platform is best for your business? Book a meeting with us and we would be happy to help you.

Logo File Formats Explained + FREE Cheat Sheet

Logo File Formats Explained + FREE Cheat Sheet

Branding kit logo file formats explained

The most essential components of your business are your logo and brand. They’re both integral to how people see you and what they think about when they hear your name. In fact, a survey showed that 92% of consumers could recognize the Coca-Cola logo faster than any other brand logo. That’s pretty amazing, considering there are millions of companies out there!

But it’s not just a good logo that matters — you also want to ensure it is displayed correctly across all devices. Many different file formats can be used for displaying graphics or other visual content on websites and in applications (websites).

If you are a client of ours, your branding kit package includes the following file formats:

A logo is a visual representation of your brand, so it’s important to know which logo file formats are best to maintaine brand consistency.

A brand is how your company is remembered, but a logo is a visual representation of your business. It’s what people see first and last when they interact with you or think about using your product or service. A good logo should be recognizable, memorable and stand out from the competition so that people can easily recognize it when they see it later in their lives (or even in passing).

While there are many different file types available today–some old school like PSD files, some new school like SVG vectors–there are also many ways to misuse them, which could lead to distortion or blurriness when scaled down onto smaller devices such as phones or tablets where screen resolution tends not be as high as desktop monitors these days.*

The name “zip” (meaning “speed“) (ZIP)

A ZIP file is a compressed folder that can be opened using any program that supports the ZIP format. Zipping a folder allows you to reduce the size of the contents, making them easier to email or upload to a cloud service.

If you are trying to download and unzip the brand kit package, please note that many computers should have this feature built-in.

How to access files depends on the model of your computer, however, we recommend double-clicking or option-clicking on the file once unzipping.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Use a computer, not your phone. Downloading files to your phone will not work.

2. Download the entire zip file to your preferred location on your computer (for example, Desktop or Documents).

3. Double-click on the zip file to open it; if this does not work, try right-clicking or option-clicking and look for the ‘un-zip’ or ‘de-compress’ option.

4. If you cannot unzip, you may need to install software on your computer to unzip files. However, most standard computers should have this feature.

5. Once unzipped, access files! You’re done!

Vector Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is an XML-based vector graphics format. It’s resolution independent, meaning it can be scaled to any size without losing quality. It also supports animations, interactivity and other features not available in different file formats.

SVG files are viewable in any modern browser and exportable to PNG or JPEG for use with non-SVG software programs like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.

Portable Network Graphics (PNG)

PNG is a lossless format, unlike JPG. It’s great for images used on the web because it can hold transparency, and the file size will be smaller than other formats. In your branding kit, it looks like an image without white space around it.

JPG/JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)

JPG/JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is a lossy compression format used to compress photos. JPEG has become the standard for online images, as it’s suitable for uploading to online platforms such as social media, google and Gmail etc. However, it’s not ideal for printing because of its lossy nature – this means that some information is lost when compressing an image into a JPG. The main advantage of using JPGs over other formats like PNGs is their ability to reduce file size without degrading quality too much; they can also handle millions of colours without affecting how clear your images look when viewed on screen by others who don’t own high-end monitors capable of displaying lots of different shades at once.

Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)

TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format, a popular format for print designs. Because of their high resolution, these files are ideal for printing photographs on glossy paper or large posters, but they are not so suitable if you want to put your logo on a t-shirt or street sign.

Portable Document Format (PDF)

PDF is a file format created to allow documents to be shared over the internet. It’s an open standard that can be read by many programs on any operating system. Because of this, PDFs don’t need to be compressed to reduce their size. This makes them ideal for logos and other images with lots of details that would be lost if compressed (such as photos).

Please Note: 

  • You can’t change or edit a PDF document once it’s been saved as one; you’ll have to create a new one from scratch instead!
  • Some people may find it confusing when working with these types of files.
  • Printers often request this file format to create promotional materials such as shirts, signs, and bags because a PDF file is also a vector.

This article covered the file formats we include in the custom branding kit packages we provide for our clients. Hopefully, you now understand what each one is used for and which is best suited to your needs. If you have any questions regarding the file formats and how to use your logo please reach out to info@zestydesign.co.

Boost Your Traffic by Creating Effective Headlines

Boost Your Traffic by Creating Effective Headlines

That’s correct. All of the hard work, research, time, and passion we put into our articles, blog posts, ebooks, podcasts, webinars, and other content can be undone by one “meh” title.

 

But, before we overcorrect and enter the realm of clickbait (please don’t), let’s take a step back and examine the headlines that entice people to click in the first place.

 

  • Helpful Headlines: “Browsing” is a cliché. We’re actively looking for answers or information whenever we search online. Making headlines that are valuable to your readers can help you capture their attention while they search for information.
  • Urgent Headlines: People are compelled to click on urgent headlines because they are afraid of missing out on something they desire or need.
  • Unique Headlines: Headlines with a twist stand out and make it nearly impossible for your readers to resist clicking.
  • Long & Descriptive Headlines: These headlines inform you precisely what to expect in very particular ways. If they frequently contain an odd number, you’ll get bonus points.

 

How to Compose a Punchy Headline

 

Figuring out what types of headlines cause people to click is half the battle.  The other is writing it.

 

  • Summarize the information: Use the headline to give a taste of what the rest of the content has to offer.
  • Make it crystal clear: To be unusual or attract attention, don’t forsake clarity. Before they invest time in your material, people still want to know what they’ll receive out of it.

 

Need more assistance? You can install the FREE chrome browser Headline Studio by CoSchedule