As a business that runs a website and has an established social media presence, you know too well that besides the quality of text content, you should also pay attention to formatting the images that you upload.
When we talk about formatting your images online, you can think of it as making sure that the images:
- Look good
- Load quickly; and
- Are easily indexed by Google
Because humans are visual learners—meaning they can identify and remember images seen within as little as 13 milliseconds—it’s safe to say that images are an essential part of your digital marketing strategies. You not only have to make sure that they’re of high-quality but in the right sizes as well.
In a previous post, we talked about the ways to optimise your images for search and today, we’re focusing on the recommended image specs & sizes for website and social media.
How To Format Images For The Web
There are several areas on your website that require different image sizes, and the following are some of the recommended, retina-friendly sizing options for the majority of devices used to browse the web:
Full-Width Images – 2400x1600px, JPEG
There are specific sections in your website that will require full-width images to fully cover the screen from left to right. These can be anything from hero images, full-screen slideshows, and banners.
Inside Content Images – 1500px horizontal max-width; 1000px vertical max-width, JPEG
On your web pages, there will be sections where images are within the content. In these cases where full-width images are not applicable, you should follow the above recommendations.
Slideshow Galleries – 1500px, JPEG
For images that will be used for slideshow galleries, it’s a must to make sure that they’re all the same height. You can follow the recommended max size of 1500px, horizontally or vertically. The same goes for blog post images—those that are uploaded inside a blog article.
Featured Images – 2400x1600px, JPEG or 1500px x 1000px, JPEG
There are at least 3 types of featured images: portrait, landscape, and hero images. The first two follows the same recommendation of 1500px horizontal and 1000px vertical as inside content images. Hero images, on the other hand, can do with full-width dimensions.
How To Determine The Correct Image Sizes For Your Web
There will be cases when these recommended sizes will not match your needs. Good thing, there are tools that can help inspect your website images to identify the correct sizing required for the specific pages in your website.
Browsers like Chrome and Firefox, for instance, have built-in inspector tools that let you check images for your website.
How To Format Images For Social Media
1. Facebook
With over 1.56 billion daily active users, Facebook continues to be the most widely used social media channel worldwide. Therefore, the images you publish here is crucial as they have the most potential to reach a wider audience.
Image Dimensions & File Sizes
- Profile Photo: ≥180 x 180
- Cover Photo: 820 x 312 (minimum 400 x 150)
- Shared Photo: 1200 x 630
- Event Photo: 1920 x 1080
2. Instagram
Being a photo and video-sharing platform, you’ll want your images to look their best on Instagram. Although this channel scales photos down to 612×612, you’ll want to set your shared posts to 1080×1080.
Image Dimensions & File Sizes
- Profile Photo: 110 x 110
- Shared Photo: 1080×1080
- Shared Video: 1080px wide
- Instagram Stories: 1080×1920 max, up to 4GB
3. Pinterest
Although Pinterest Pins primarily consist of external links, they still have to catch your audience’s eyes through high-quality images.
Image Dimensions & File Sizes
- Profile Photo: 165×165, up to 10MB
- Board Cover Photo: 222 x 150 max
- Pinned Image Preview: 236px wide
4. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is also a good vehicle for traffic and discovery, particularly if you’re within the B2B industry. Because the network is composed mainly of professionals, you’ll want to present your business in a good light.
Image Dimensions & File Sizes
- Banner Image: 1584×396, up to 4MB
- Profile Photo: 400×400, up to 10MB
- Cover Photo: 1536×768
- Company Logo: 300×300, up to 4MB
- Company Cover Photo: 1536×768, up to 4MB
- Company Banner Image: 646×220
5. Twitter
Image format and display on Twitter have changed several times in the course of its existence. But, as of this writing, below are the image dimensions you have to know.
- Header Photo: 1500×500, up to 5MB
- Profile Photo: 400×400, up to 2MB
- In-Stream Image: 440×220
To help you further with your social media marketing strategies, why not partner with a digital marketing agency in Singapore?
OOm has a team of digital marketing professionals who have expertise in image specs & sizes. Talk to us today!
