1. Use images that are meaningful
Images should be highly related to the content. Don’t insert images only to decorate your pages or fill empty space. Image and text should complement one another.
2. Be honest
Stock art images look nice, but they don’t show reality. Be honest with your customers and show them real life photos. Also, use colourful images instead of black-and-white images.
3. Add a caption
Add a caption near the image if its meaning is not instantly clear to everyone.
4. Make images accessible
Describe the content or functionality of images with the alternate text “alt=”. Thanks to this description in the alternate text people with visual impairment will be able to understand the meaning of your images.
5. Use images sparingly
Don’t overfill your website with images. A single meaningful image will create more impact than 10 useless images.
6. Offer a gallery or slideshow for more pictures
If you want to show a lot of pictures of a place or location create a photo gallery or a slideshow.
Gallery
- Weebly.com: http://kb.weebly.com/image-gallery.html
- Wix.com: http://support.wix.com/index.php/The_Wix_Editor/Galleries
- WordPress.com: http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/gallery/
Slideshow
- Weebly.com: http://kb.weebly.com/slideshow.html
- Wix.com: http://support.wix.com/index.php/The_Wix_Editor/Galleries
- WordPress.com: http://en.support.wordpress.com/slideshows/
7. Offer a zoom-in option for product details
If you want to show details of a product you should offer a zoom-in option:
- Put your high quality photos online, for example on www.flickr.com.
- Copy the URL of the image.
- Go to www.zoom.it, insert the URL and click on the “Create” button
- Copy the embed code from http://www.zoom.it.
- Go to Weebly.com, Wix.com or WordPress.com and insert a custom HTML element on the page you want to offer the image with zoom-in option.
- Insert the embed code in the custom HTML element and save the page.
8. Be original
If you want to play around with images and create something funny try the sites below. But don’t exaggerate. The images should still be meaningful and understandable.
- Create images with rounded corners: www.roundpic.com
- Add special effects to your images: www.photofunia.com
- Create pictures from letters: www.typorganism.com/asciiomatic
- Create a Photo Mosaic: http://beta.picartia.com
- Create images with interactive notes: www.speakingimage.org
Related links
- Edit images for the web.
- Find out more about how choose meaningful images.
- Find out more about where to find images.
- See some examples of image use.