Effectively Using Graphics on Your Website

Graphics are a wonderful addition to any website. In fact, they can serve a number of important functions for your website. At the same time, there are a few rules you should follow in order to get the most out of graphics and to prevent them from causing more harm than good.

One purpose of graphics on a website is to make it more attractive and appealing to your site visitors. Overuse of graphics, however, can have the opposite effect. If your site is crowded with graphics, it will be over stimulating and your site visitors will not enjoy spending time on your site. Your graphics should be inviting and should be used as a part of the overall look and feel of your site rather than being overwhelming.

Another purpose of graphics is to help your site visitors better navigate through your site. Placing graphics in certain locations can help break up the content on your site so that it is easier for site visitors to bounce from once piece of information to the next. Similarly, specific graphics can be selected to go next to certain types of content in order to help provide the visitor with a general idea of what the content will be about.

While graphics can help make your website more appealing, care must be taken when adding them to your site. Including graphics that are very large and that take a long time to load can be frustrating for site visitors. Remember, all of your customers do not have high speed Web access. Keep your dial-up customers in mind as well and create a website that is easy for them to load and to explore. If you really have your heart set on some mind-blowing graphics that are too big for dial up, you might want to consider offering two versions of your website.