5 Essential Best Practices for Website Images in 2026

Images are often the heaviest part of a webpage. If optimized poorly, they can kill your load times, frustrate users, and hurt your SEO ranking.

To help you build faster websites, here are the 5 best practices for website images that every developer and site owner should know.

1. Choose the Right Format

Gone are the days when JPEG and PNG were your only choices. In 2026, modern formats rule the web.

Use AVIF: For the absolute best compression and quality.
Use WebP: For excellent compression with universal browser support.
Use SVG: For logos, icons, and simple illustrations (infinitely scalable).

Pro Tip: Use the <picture> element to serve AVIF to modern browsers while providing a WebP/JPEG fallback.

2. Implement Responsive Sizing

Serving a 4K desktop image to a mobile phone user is a huge waste of bandwidth. Use the srcset attribute to let the browser choose the appropriate image size based on the user's device.

<img src="small.jpg"
     srcset="small.jpg 500w, medium.jpg 1000w, large.jpg 2000w"
     alt="Responsive Image">

3. Lazy Load Off-Screen Images

Lazy loading delays the loading of images that are not currently in the viewport (the visible part of the screen). This dramatically improves the "Initial Page Load" time.

Most modern browsers support native lazy loading:

<img src="image.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="Lazy loaded image">

4. Compress, Compress, Compress!

Never upload raw images directly from a camera or stock photo site. They contain meta-data and excessive quality settings that bloat file size.

Aim for: 80-85% quality.
Removes: EXIF data (GPS, camera model) to save space.

Use tools like our Image Converter to process your images before uploading.

5. Don't Forget Accessibility (Alt Text)

Search engines (like Google) and screen readers (for visually impaired users) cannot "see" images. They rely on the alt attribute.

Bad: alt="image1.jpg"
Good: alt="A golden retriever puppy playing in the grass"

Proper Alt Text improves your SEO and makes your website accessible to everyone.

Summary

By following these 5 rules, you'll ensure your website is fast, accessible, and ready for the modern web.

Use AVIF/WebP formats.
Use Responsive Images (srcset).
Enable Lazy Loading (loading="lazy").
Compress every image.
Always add descriptive Alt Text.