It’s often said that a picture speaks a thousand words, and this is no truer than in marketing. Top-quality visuals are a vital element of effective digital marketing. Images are used throughout websites, social media outlets and many other marketing aspects. Often, they’re the primary contact point for potential consumers, meaning their presentation can significantly impact whether or not the customer chooses to engage with your brand.
That’s why we decided to look into the importance of optimising images from a marketing perspective and explain why image size matters in web design. To begin, let’s take a look at what’s happening right now.
Images in 2023
Photos have come a long way since Daguerre captured Boulevard du Temple in what’s widely considered the first ever photograph back in the 1830s. The easy access to cameras through smartphones has resulted in an astounding statistic; five times as many images are captured every day than in the first century of all photography.
Image Credit: Fstoppers
From a marketing perspective, this shows consumers are far more engaged with images than ever. Anyone can upload or download an image from anywhere in the world, leading to the prominence of picture-focused platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. It also means that, according to Trend Reports, up to 85% of people describe themselves as visual learners.
So, with such an oversaturation of images for consumers to engage with, your company images must stand out. The importance of image sizing forms a significant part of this.
What do we mean by image size?
Before we explain why image size matters, let’s cover the basics. Essentially there are two ways to measure the size of an image:
Dimension
The dimension of your image is the width and height of your picture, measured in pixels. This usually determines the size of the image as it appears on your computer, smartphone or tablet.
File Size
This is the number followed by KB (kilobytes) or MB (megabytes). It’s a metric linked to the dimension of the image in question, but it also considers other factors like bit depth: the number of bits needed to store colours.
Another important factor to consider in image size is Resolution. This represents the number of pixels in an image and, therefore, the image quality. Once again, this is linked to file size and dimension, too, as images of larger dimensions require a greater number of pixels to avoid blurring which increases the file size.
Why image size matters in web design
Both measurements we mentioned above are crucial when designing a website. Regarding dimensions, it’s essential to consider that the different parts of your website will have different scale requirements for images. For example, a background image might need to be substantially larger than a gallery photo which, in turn, would need to be larger than a thumbnail or avatar.
With the gradual shift towards smartphones and tablets, responsive web design is gaining traction, too. This eases the burden, as image areas can change shape and size to account for the platform they’re viewed on.
File size is also key to why image size matters in web design. Each time a new visitor reaches your website, the data that forms the images and text needs to be downloaded from the internet and onto the viewer’s screen. This means the larger the file size, the longer the loading will take.
There’s no inherently right or wrong file size to fit all situations. In general, most web images should be comfortably below 500KB to facilitate fast loading. Larger background images designed to fill an entire screen will likely fall on the higher end of the spectrum. Conversely, icons and thumbnails are unlikely to take up more than 10KB.
The importance of image sizing in social media
Any business with a website almost always has some form of social media presence. Whether this is on image-heavy sites like Instagram or on more text-based platforms like Twitter and Facebook, posts with images usually perform better than those without.
It’s important to optimise your images depending on which social media platform you prioritise, as algorithms tend to prioritise optimised images over others. Simply put, this means that images correctly sized for the platform will be pushed out to a greater consumer base.
Naturally, this translates to more exposure, as audiences are more likely to take a closer look and engage, increasing social media exposure.
Optimising your images for social media can include ensuring they’ve got the right dimension and file type, and size. It’s also important to get the correct aspect ratio: the comparison between width and height. This can range from 1:1, in which equal height and width create a square, to, for example, 16:9, mainly seen in presentations or on widescreen TVs.
Picture perfect with One2create
At One2create, we understand that your website needs to capture the attention of all internet users. That’s why we offer intuitive and creative web design to enhance the customer journey. All of our websites are tested on real tablets and smartphones, and computers to ensure they’re fully optimised and responsive on all screen sizes.
Working alongside our tech heads, our team of creatives and marketing experts can help you to make the most of your image optimisation, giving support and advice on all things web.
Don’t hesitate to drop us a line to find out more about what we offer.
