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Increase Web Traffic
Better Web Site Images

Have you ever wanted your site to look more rich while maintaining a fast-loading, search engine friendly site? Here are some steps to make sure your images work the best for your site.

Image Compression
Ask Goode Design to spend some time re-compressing your site images to limit bandwidth usage while the site loads. Sometimes site designers ignore image compression with our current glut of bandwidth. However, with all the image-rich sites that are on the web now, the bandwidth speeds are only moderately helping site performance. By limiting the file size of your images, you are able to benefit your site's performance and your users. It's a Win-Win scenario!
Image Quality:
Some images simply need to be recreated. Whether this means having Goode Design schedule a new photo shoot, compress a cleaner copy of the file from an original or simply regenerate the graphic from scratch, we are certain we can help your site's image needs.
File Type:
Know when best to use a .GIF, .PNG or .JPG file. By using all three filetypes in the appropriate places, you are able to generate the best image for the need. Goode Design offers a 6 hour training session that helps your staff know how to best prepare images and graphics for your web site. Feel free to schedule your training session.
The Right Tools:
The best tools to use for creating amazing web graphics are: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator & Adobe Fireworks. These applications allow you to create and save compelling & compressed graphics for your site.
File Names:
Be sure to name your files with hyphens (-) rather than an underscore (_). By using a hyphen in the file name, you will benefit your site's search engine keywords as most search engines read hyphenated file names as a list of keyword search terms. This isn't fool proof and we highly recommend reading more on Search Engine Optimization & Marketing, however, it is helpful.
File Size:
File size affects every file that is uploaded to your site. Anything the web has to access to deliver content to the user is fair game. However, being mindful of the file size of your graphics is especially useful. Your goal is to minimize the file size while maximizing image quality. On JPG files, you should test your image compression between the 40 to 85% range (levels 5-10 of 12). Your GIF files should use the least colors necessary which does not detrimentally affect the image quality. PNG files are pretty much you get what you get. The one benefit to a PNG file: True transparency. This allows you to have cast shadows, clear glass effects, and so on, but you'll pay for it with file size.

If you'd like more specific, focused training on creating the best web images for your site, feel free to inquire about our 6 hour training session on Preparing Web Graphics. Call us at 704.969.4391.