Website image size

How to optimise website image size without losing quality

Are you not sure on how to resize and optimise images for your chiropractic website? Publishing the right image size and format can help out your chiropractic SEO and website performance. Large image files can slow down your chiropractic website, leading to higher bounce rates and possibly impacting your search engine rankings.

This blog post will give you everything you need to know on how to optimise your website image size without losing quality.

Only use free or properly licenced images

Finding an image on the internet and uploading it to your chiropractic website isn’t the only thing you need to do. First, make sure that any image you publish has the right permissions. This means that you either bought it from a library like Shutterstock, own the pictures, or need to give credit in some way. To stay out of trouble with the law, always check the licencing standards twice.

I know small business owners who have been fined by stock libaries for simply copying an image from the internet and uploading it to their website. Stock libraries use advanced algorithms that can detect if their images have been used.

You can take a look at the range of chiropractic images on paid stock site Shutterstock here.

Why image optimisation is important

Getting your chiropractic website images right is an often overlooked part of website design. Where you are designing your site yourself or paying a web designer to create your chiropractic website, here’s why getting image optimisation is important.

• The right sized images improve load times. Faster loading times enhance user experience and reduce bounce rates.
• Boosts SEO. Search engines favour fast-loading websites, improving your site’s ranking.
• Saves bandwidth. If any of your patients or new patients are visiting your chiropractic website, you want their experience to be efficient and pleasant. Smaller images save server bandwidth, which is especially beneficial for mobile users and those with limited data plans.

So, what are the different image formats?

There are different image formats, but what ones should you use?

• JPEG. These are most common image formats and are best for all your chiropractic photographs and images with many colours. Use the JPEF format for your head shots, clinic images and website background images. JPEG files can be compressed significantly without losing much quality.
• PNG. Ideal for images with transparent backgrounds or when you need high detail, such as graphics, icons, or symbols. PNG files are typically larger but offer higher quality.
• GIF. Suitable for simple chiropractic animations and images with limited colours.
• WebP. A modern format that provides superior compression and quality compared to JPEG and PNG.

How to compress your image files

It’s best practice to ensure any image you upload to your website is compressed first. This helps to make it as small as possible, making it faster.

You can compress images using tools like Compress PNG or Squoosh to reduce file size without noticeable loss of quality.

How to use responsive images

Implement the srcset attribute in your HTML to load different image sizes based on the user’s device. This can be technical, and it may be best to ask a web developer for help here.

Manually resize images

Ensure the dimensions fit your website’s layout to avoid unnecessary scaling. I use Canva and often set my images to a size of 1200 pixels x 800 pixels for landscape images. For a head shot of your team members, you may want to use an image size of 600 pixels x 800 pixels.

You can also use tools like Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, or online resizers to adjust the dimensions appropriately. Avoid uploading images larger than necessary.

Use lazy loading

Lazy loading is a feature that many WordPress optimisation plugins have. It allows images to only load once they come into the viewport, which means your entire webpage doesn’t have to load all elements at once.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

A CDN stores copies of your website’s static content, such as images, CSS files, and JavaScript files. When a user accesses your website, the CDN delivers the content from the server that is closest to the user’s location.

This results in faster load times, giving you an extra edge over the local competition.

What are the best image sizes to use?

Different parts of your website will require different image sizes. Here are some common dimensions:

• Full-width banners and headers. 1920px wide for large screens. Ensure the height is proportional to the design, often between 500px and 800px.
• Content images. 800px to 1200px wide for blog posts and articles. This ensures clarity while keeping file sizes manageable.
• Profile photos on team pages. Dimensions: 300px by 300px to 400px by 400px for a nice square, or something like 600px x 800px for a portrait.  If you find your head shots are a little blurry, try using PNG format for better quality and transparency.
• Thumbnails: 150px to 300px wide. Thumbnails should be small and quick to load.

Examples of good image optimisation

Here are some examples of good image size optimisation.

Assist Group

The image on this page is optimised with the keyword ‘audiometric assessments’. It contains the following features:

• Reduced file size of only 45 KB
• Dimensions of 1170px × 450px – good for a feature image at the top of the page
• JPEG format, helping to keep image size low

Aurum Health Care

The image on this page is optimised with the local suburb keyword ‘chiropractor Bella Vista’. It contains the following features:

• Reduced file size of only 61 KB
• Dimensions of 500px × 600px – good for a feature image at the top of the page
• JPEG format, helping to keep image size low

Marrickville Chiropractic Care

The image on this page is optimised with the keyword ‘Paediatric Chiropractor Sydney’. It contains the following features:

• Reduced file size of only 53 KB
• Dimensions of 800px × 500px – good for a content image to showcase what the page is about
• JPEG format, helping to keep image size low.

Key points

• Ensure you have the legal rights to all images you use.
• Smaller images on chiropractic websites improve load times, user experience, SEO, and bandwidth, benefiting mobile users and those with limited data plans, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.
• Selecting the right image sizes is essential for maintaining a balance between visual appeal and website performance.

By following these image size optimisation guidelines and using responsive images, you can ensure your site looks great on all devices while loading quickly.

If you are short on time or just want to skip the tedious part, contact Premier Practice. Not only will you get help with chiropractic website design, but also with many other SEO aspects including content creation, link building, etc.