The best way to add images to your website

If you want to make sure your website is fast, Pinnable, and ranks high in search engines, this post is for you!

This is something I talk about every time I teach people how to create their website, or how to add blog posts, or even make simple changes to a website.

You have to resize your images BEFORE you upload them to your website.

(It’s a good idea to name them well too, but resizing is critical.)

When you resize your images before you add them to your website, these 3 magical things happen:

• Your website loads faster. Big images slow down your website, so when you resize your images before you upload them, you’ll make your website load a lot faster.

• People will be able to share your blog post on Pinterest. If you resize it and give it a good name and alt text you create a very Pinnable image.

• You rank higher in search engines like Google. Google likes fast websites and the name of your image actually improves your SEO. If you resize and name your images before you upload them, more people can find your website, sign up for your newsletter, and become a client.

Wait, did I just say that resizing your images can help you get clients? Yeah, I think I did!

So, what size should they be and how do you resize them?

Most images on your website don’t need to be any wider than 800 pixels. It doesn’t matter how tall. Just keep that magic “800 pixels wide” rule in mind.

If it’s a big banner image like on your homepage, then it can be 2400 pixels wide. Everything else can be 800 pixels wide.

FAQ

Can I just make it smaller after I upload it?

Unfortunately, no. It looks smaller to you, but your website still has the big image. In order to speed up your website, you have to resize it before you add it to your website.

How do I know how big my image is?

If you look at the image on your computer, you’ll see some details about it and one of those details is the dimensions. Make sure it’s 800 pixels wide, or less.

How do I resize images?

I use Canva. I make all my images the same size to keep it super simple, so I’ve created a few templates that I use over and over.

I’m not using Pinterest. Why should I care?

Even if you’re not using Pinterest, your readers might be. They might want to Pin your blog post to read later or share with their followers. Make it easy by sizing and naming images for Pinterest users.