A graphic image allows a person to quickly receive and understand a large amount of information. Visual presentation is more effective than text. Photos, video and sound instantly attract attention. The textual presentation of information allows you to transfer more data in less time - this is one task. But the question of understanding by the recipient is a completely different time of “solving” a completely different problem and a completely different perception algorithm.
A reasonable composition of graphics and text, in the context of psychology and logic of perception by the visitor, combined with the convenience for the hardware and software of network communications gives: quality of comfort for the person and speed of the site.
Basic presentation options
Text is a formalized set of symbol images: letters, numbers, signs and codes. A very small number of characters in any set is visible (has its own graphic image), but each character has its own graphic designation (at least the code).
All that can be displayed on the monitor screen is graphics. The browser is just one of the graphic windows on the monitor screen. Text is an extremely “notorious” graphic, which provides the possibility of its coding and strong compression. Text is small volumes to convey "big" meaning at high speed. The optimization of symbol images over the entire period of development of information technology has been performed almost impeccably, although the likelihood of new ideas in text graphics is not so small.
Photos and video content are powerful streams of information. A person perceives and understands any picture instantly! Recognition of a drawing for its “understanding” by a computer program to this day is zero, despite remarkable advances in the fields of recognition of images, texts, tables, formalized documents, barcodes.
The sound version of the presentation of information is a real irritant. It used to be a tradition and a sign of a highly skilled developer to voice and animate the content of a site. Today, even pop-ups, flickering buttons, and floating text are considered a sign of bad tone.
When a site imposes on a visitor a sonorous or distracting element in the format of a “charming” announcer, a “chic” game, a “generous” casino or other creator idea, this is a guarantee of an instant loss of interest from the visitor. Sound and excessive "amateur activity" on a web resource gives a big negative effect.
The systemic consensus of graphics and text in the style familiar to the mass visitor is ideal. But image and content optimization is a non-trivial and unique task in each case.
Navigation among optimization ideas
Orientation to authoritative opinions of SEO-specialists, tools and ideas of Google or Yandex for a mass developer is like navigating the stars in the ocean of information, visitors, customers, website owners and other objects of the Internet space. Desired goals are always dynamic, and the possibilities of achieving them are twice as dynamic.
In each case, the problem should be solved qualitatively and objectively, with a binding to the scope, the contingent of expected visitors and their psychology of perception of information.
It is noteworthy that the search selection for the phrase “image optimization” fixes the emphasis on SEO, and not on the task of graphical website solution. Each search engine interprets this key phrase in its own way, takes into account the query time, source, current information flows and other circumstances. But the fact of the high importance of the graphic solution for all the images on the site is not in doubt.
Visitor, search engine and web resource - all three positions should be in mutual agreement. The more a site meets the expectations of a person and a search engine, the faster the information will find its consumer and will be perceived optimally.
Systematization of information
Web resource development is not a friendly team of managers, programmers, designers and other specialists. Website development is a process:
- solving a specific problem;
- in a specific subject area;
- by applying the available knowledge and skills of a team of specialists.
Any development of a web resource is a dynamic sequence of actions in which neither the goal nor the ways to achieve it are initially clear. In the process of work, both the statement of the problem and the team solving it will change. In this context, image optimization for a site can be considered as a function of time, as an important additional procedure for actions at one or another stage of work.
When setting the technical specifications, there may be a set of pictures to be displayed. As a rule, this is usually not the case. At the beginning of all work, there may be a layout of the site being developed, and its graphic design. But the optimization of images for the site at the beginning of all the work does not make any sense.
Any work develops, and understanding of the original goal is improved. Web programming has brought even greater momentum into this logic of creating a product of human intellectual creativity.
The desire to systematize information, to determine the graphic and textual component is the main goal in matters of image optimization. It does not apply to every picture, photograph or design element. This goal rests on indicative ideas about the quantity, quality and formats of the required graphic elements.
Graphic Element Formats
Images can be represented by full-fledged photographs, small graphic images, vector data, or HTML tag compositions in combination with CSS rules.
The tradition of creating graphics using letters, numbers, signs and symbols of pseudo-graphics in programming is already as pronounced as it was in the 80s of the last century. But some designers (especially former programmers) consider it correct to express graphic decisions as non-graphic elements.
On the other hand, the development of mobile devices, numerous models of smartphones and the struggle of various browsers for priorities, have led to new graphic formats.
Old, reliable and faithful JPEG, PNG and GIF - remain the main formats, and image optimization issues for WEB focus on them.
Using image formats
In the modern dynamic world of technology, it has become customary to use JPEG for high-quality photos, PNG and GIF for website elements - bricks of a web resource.
JPEG is believed to provide the best quality. It is used for complex images with a large number of colors, halftones and complex graphic elements. Although in the context of raster graphics, all this is not much different from JPEG from PNG or GIF.
All three formats are in demand, convenient and practical. All of them provide high-quality graphics. Of course, JPEG is better than the rest, but we should not forget that not all devices provide the browser with the ability to display the perfect photo.
The use of a particular format can be considered in the context of adaptive layout and orientation to the business use of a web resource: simple, beautiful, clear and the same on any device. You can focus on Google: “image optimization” for getting into the indexes of this search engine or be guided by Yandex technologies and recommendations.
A developer’s focus on maximum visitor comfort rarely requires first-class graphics. You just need to make a beautiful and comfortable design. You can have a high-quality picture in miniature, and, if necessary, display in the desired format.
Ideas, algorithms, and image optimization programs cannot be considered unambiguously. Accumulating tons of photos and creating page loading algorithms in full and right away is not the most practical idea.
Time and Logic
Typically, graphics are stored on a web resource. If we are talking about a store with a warehouse for hundreds of thousands of goods, it is doubtful that the owner will be engaged in the storage of all images. The issues of optimizing the image of each product, each product model will definitely not worry him.
The logic of the developer will be aimed at creating links: any product that a visitor wants will be displayed from the manufacturer’s website. This is the classic idea of optimizing the logic of a store.
The issue of optimization is to improve both images and text descriptions. The developer focuses on the form of information and a stable communication channel with the supplier (manufacturer) for each product.
In this logic, the time for submitting information is transformed into two options:
- show a thumbnail by product group or the first product in the model line;
- show the manufacturer’s logo and use its graphics.
In both cases, the choice of the store visitor allows the site to instantly load the desired image and occupy the channel for transmitting information for the minimum time required for a particular need.
CMS and image optimization
Using graphics in a CMS (Content management system) for images is always a time-consuming option. From the point of view of the procedure: everything is simple, but according to the provided tools, the images are loaded, optimized and used “manually”.
Actually, it is difficult to propose another. In any CMS, the ideas on how to make a site and how it should function are the ideas of the development team and the opinion of the community of this CMS.
Work with images "in bulk" or by topic is not possible. In addition, CMS focuses on a simple developer with the motto: "a site from scratch without programming knowledge." By providing a development environment, CMS hides the use of graphics and paths to image files in its bowels. The task of inserting your own code with links to the necessary pictures rests on a long search for the folder where the graphic files are placed.
For example, image optimization on WordPress is done automatically. Any picture can be uploaded. Size and quality does not matter. WordPress will crop or reduce the drawing for a specific application.
For a business card site, this is not bad. A dozen pictures plus the right text and the site is ready. For a store that has hundreds of products and assortment changed every month, this is a real problem: you need a content administrator.
Algorithms and optimization programs
From a technical point of view, specialists can do graphics. The site developer in this area is the user. Simple - apply the picture in the right place. It’s hard to optimize the picture. Own program for optimizing images for a site is a laborious and difficult task. To use the accumulated potential is the most reasonable way.
The Internet offers numerous image optimization services. You can upload a JPEG, PNG, or GIF file to the online service and get a reduced, enhanced, or otherwise optimized image.
When it comes to a dozen files, using online optimization resources is convenient. When you need to manipulate hundreds of files per day - this is a laborious and complex problem.
Some offers are designed as an API or a local program. The developer writes his own algorithm, which interacts through the API with the site for optimization and automatically processes hundreds of images. This is a good solution, but site performance will depend on site optimization.
There are many scripts or programs that can be downloaded and adapted to the needs of the site. Then solve the issue of automating the processing of large amounts of graphics locally or directly on the hosting.
Suggestions for optimizing images are dynamically changing. When creating a new resource or modernizing an existing one, it is advisable to analyze the relevant and most popular ideas.
Plugins and extensions for the site
Popular content management systems do not bypass the tasks of image processing . Simple, fast and popular CMS is the basic functionality and the ability to connect plug-ins for all pressing issues of website development.
Image optimization for WordPress is done automatically by dozens of different plugins. They are constantly improved, updated and enable the developer to create image processing algorithms automatically.
For the store’s website, this solution is convenient. For the site, drama and ballet theaters are not. When you want to offer a visitor high-quality photographs, you will need manual work with each image and specific algorithms for navigating through it.
A boutique for the sale of women's clothing assumes the presence of drawings of the model and navigation on them: the visitor may wish to see the whole model and consider individual sections more carefully.
A “window or balcony” site requires beautiful pictures of houses, windows or balconies, but it will definitely have technical graphics: how windows are installed, how gaps are filled, what is the texture of the material, etc.
A site for the sale of woodworking machines is likely to be focused on the use of graphic material from a supplier.
Appropriate Optimization Strategy
A web resource always pursues a specific goal, which is represented by a set of urgent tasks. Separating image optimization as a separate task is not the right way.
A site is a comprehensive solution in a specific subject area and optimization issues are systemic in nature. Optimizing images for a WordPress site using a popular plugin is a good solution, but it is possible optimization is not needed at all, and it’s not advisable to load the site with additional code. You can use links to someone’s drawings or develop your own algorithm for supplying a graphic component.
Graphics without text does not make much sense. A picture always has a name and a text description. The site page contains a certain number of drawings and specific text.
It is believed that the name of the figure matters to the search engines. Search robots analyze tags by attributes, by the names of files or links. Considering these features is desirable, but not necessary.
The logic of the search algorithms is always a secret behind seven seals and a lot of opinions of authoritative experts. It is difficult to say exactly what will raise the site in search results to the first positions.
Beautiful and comfortable, or practical?
Creating a high-quality web resource rather than optimizing it is a practical task.
To create a beautiful and convenient site is a good plan. When it is systematized in the minds of developers, this is the best optimization strategy, the purpose of which lies outside of complex algorithms, smart CMS and their plug-ins.
The owner of the resource gets what he wants, and does not deal with problems that lie outside the scope of his interests. To sell a women's dress with diamonds and gold embroidery, it is not always necessary to show how a diamond sparkles or a gold seam is made. Often enough to show a photograph of a beautiful woman and only a piece of her dress.
Opinion and Perception
To bring the optimization task to the field of our own competence and psychology of perception of the site visitor is the ideal solution.
Developing a site for windows and balconies will be faster and more effective if you take a couple of photos of beautiful buildings on an autumn or winter background, rather than spend time optimizing hundreds of designs for specific windows or balconies.
A person who is starting a repair in an apartment or building a house is interested in the quality of the manufacturer, a reasonable price and technical specifications. He is least interested in optimizing images on the site.
The speed of loading the site and the dialogue on it is important. Convenient navigation and systematic information - relevant. Fast ordering, easy payment and instant execution are the best criteria for an optimization task.