How to add pictures to a website
First you need to know that you mustn’t put a full-size photo on your website. Digital cameras take photos at something like 2400 x 1800 pixels. On your website you would want to have your pictures maybe 200 x 150 pixels – even less if you have several images on the one page.
So, the first thing you need is a program to resize photos. Having tried more than one technique for this, I now favour Irfanview. It’s a free program (I can hear you smiling already) and Google will show you where to download it from.
If you have a site about a particular subject you may need to take your own photos. For example, one of my sites is about trees so I need to take photos of particular species. However, if you are writing about a non-technical subject you are probably better off with stock photos.
Most sites charge for stock photos, but again I’ve found a free source that I’ll share with you (again I hear those smiles). It’s sxc.hu and it’s very good for website photos.
Some of the photos require a backlink to the photographer, but few. Most have no restrictions. Make sure you check. A few also have no backlink condition but require that you inform the photographer.
If you aren’t satisfied with the quality of their photos or you want some that aren’t in their portfolio, please consider ours. iStockPhoto.net is another great site.
I don’t backlink for photos; I’m just not willing to share my linkjuice when I can get most photos for free. I’m happy to let the photographer know, however. It only takes a moment on this site to click on their name and thank them.
After downloading you will want to save the photo to a folder (make sure your files are well organised if you work online). Then open Irfanview, open the file and click on edit > resize to change it to something like I mentioned earlier.
I remember reading another website builder saying that he liked to limit his pixels on a webpage to all the sides not adding up to more than a thousand. I’ve found it to be good advice.
If you make the pictures too large it slows down the loading of your website. Remember, that will drop your rankings. On the other hand, visitors love them. I do too, it makes you feel like you’ve done a professional job. Just keep a good balance.