Choosing a Voice for Your Website & Blog: Should You Write from "Me" or "We"? My first job in publishing was copy editing peer-reviewed papers on chemical physics. The redesigned interface, which is more pared down, focuses on WYSIWYG controls. Millions of people use screen readers to convert online content, including images, to audio. We know, stock images are nice, easy, and free.
If youre like me, one of my favorite jobs is culling stock photography for the perfect photo that match my clients vision and brand. JPEG (or JPG) is the best option for larger photos (like banners). For banner images, youll need to re-upload the image with the new name. The absolute maximum width should be 2500px. Now that youve selected the correct file extension and scaled your image, its time to compress it.
Alt Text is the description of the picture that appears on the screen if the image itself doesnt load.
Its also quite simple to set up. In your Squarespace image editor, you can also search for Getty images by clicking the Premium tab in your Image Search feature (which you can find in any image block, banner or blog post image editor). If you use a printer that can fit more dots inside of an inch, the quality of the photo will be much higher. Simply click on edit image and enter the file name. Just click Search for image in any image block or image editor.
Hiring a professional photographer and using unique, high-quality images is ideal, but not always practical.
Reduce file sizes to make your website load faster.
How to name your images so Google can read them. You can omit words like a, and, the and refrain from using hyphens in your Alt Text.
Researchers created several brand spanking new websites using stock images on some of the sites and original images on others.
Images add to the aesthetic, but words are always more important.
Having images is important in breaking up content and keeping readers engaged.
All that being said, its okay to mix in stock and original photos if you do it right. Its definitely okay to use larger images on your site if they are optimized properly (see Chapter 1 and Chapter 2) but make sure your content is easily readable when first landing on your site.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. As always, these are products or services I personally use & love! Second, when your images are optimized properly its yet another way to tell Google what your site is about. Youll never reach your full SEO potential if you dont use original images. But if you really want to step up your SEO game, taking beautiful, original photographs is in your best interest. It helps Google crawl and rank your site. DPI isnt relevant when it comes to computers as they measure in pixels, not dots.
", With Squarespace 7, the company's prices have not changed, with, For more web hosting and site building advice, see, PC Magazine Digital Edition (Opens in a new window), How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad, How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill, How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files, How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac, WordPress Starter Offers Web Hosting for $5/Month, Web Hosting Provider Namecheap to Ban Russia-Based Users, Citing Ukraine, The Best Shared Hosting Services for 2022, Start Your Day Right With These 5 Highly Productive Habits, It's Time to Digital Detox: How to Put 6 Feet Between You and Your Tech, 6 Simple Ways to Cross Stubborn Items Off Your To-Do List.
All materials you submit to Be Aligned Web Design for use on your website shall be obtained legally and not infringe on any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights. After I select the photos I always have my clients license the images themselves. (Lots and lots of time!)
Know your photography aesthetic and stay consistent in it across your website. The longer a visitor stays on your page, the lower your bounce rate becomes, and the more points Google gives your website. So Annas photos on her Squarespace website will never display the Google Licensing badge in Google Images until and unless Squarespace makes that necessary changes to their API, and Anna uploads the photos again. Best Duda business websites in 2022. Fix8 Media top Colorado Duda website designers build websites for local Colorado businesses. Re: If You Dont Want Your Photos Stolen, Dont Post Them on the Internet, EliteDaily Sued by Photographer for Sharing Photos in Blog Post Without Permission, 10 Bogus Excuses People Use When They Steal Photos from the Web, Photographer Suing Pinterest in Federal Court Over Repeated Copyright Infringement, 10 Helpful Websites for Protecting Your Photography Copyrights, GFP-GAN is a New Free AI Tool That Can Fix Most Old Photos Instantly, Photographer Follows Pregnant Homeless Woman in LA Over 4 Years, Anti-Instagram App BeReal Soars to Top of Apple Charts, Canon EOS R10 Review: Powerful Performance at an Affordable Price, AI Image Generator DALL-E is Now Available in Beta.
In this bonus section, well go over what kinds of photos are safe to use, and which ones are off limits. Your content will move seamlessly within the container so your text will never be cut off, no matter what device your visitor is using. Armed with more knowledge than I ever thought I needed to know about metadata, I contacted Squarespace customer service via their website.
It can be helpful to develop a brand style guide to outline the imagery aesthetic youll be using for your brand. Its the best thing thats happened to photographers in a long time. Thankfully, its not as hard as it sounds.
Up until recently, the workaround was to simply add the Alt Text to the caption or title field. monkeys arsenal islands
The first rep did not know much about it, saying only that, this is not something that we would do and that it sounds like an issue somewhere. He said he would look into it, responding later with an inconclusive email.
Theyre more focused on making sure the image stays 500KB or smaller. The same thing happens on Squarespace. Photographs are protected under copyright law and should not re-used without the owners consent (even if you give them credit). The better indexed your image is, the better your SEO will be.
The more content you have, the more images youll need to use. 
They responded by telling me how busy they are in the customer service department due to COVID-19, and that we have not received any specific updates as to when or if this functionality will be implemented on our platform., They did, however, leave me with a glimmer of hope: they said that feature requests are often approved based on the volume of requests we receive. SVG is how most graphic designers save logos because they can be increased to any size without being distorted or pixilated. Optimizing your site for SEO is highly technical and can be a pain-staking task.
Its important to keep the file size as small as possible without compromising quality (more on that to come in Chapter 3) and the JPEG / JPG format will produce the highest quality image with the lowest file size. Sourcing appropriate stock photography can take time.
First, we must choose the correct file extension (Chapter 1) and select the correct settings (Chapter 2).
That said, Squarespace does not support SVG files so youll need to convert the file to JPG or PNG. If it helps feel free to add something similar, checking of course for local and state laws first.
When you upload a photo, the websites CMS will strip out your copyright notice unless you know to check the Enable Image Metadata Importing button before you upload.
So what the heck is it? I understand that with the launch of this new Google feature (I see it is still in Beta), it would be very useful to have more information import along with the images you upload. https://www.pcmag.com/news/squarespace-7-adds-getty-images-google-apps-more, Read Great Stories Offline on Your Favorite. Augmented reality startup InterApp raises $1.2 million to expand marketing outre.. "China's Digital Economy Panorama White Paper" New Marketing Chapter: What is th.. Trip.com Group pushes ahead with green tourism goals, OhContent New feature: Uniqueness Level Setting, OhContent New feature: Autoblogging via RSS feed, How To Get Unique Fresh Content With OhContent on Autopilot. Create a professional website to grow your business & brand. Get It On OhContent, 7 Best Squarespace Alternatives for Your Business (2022).
20 years ago, we photographers hoped for a better, more equalizing Internet futurea chance to level the playing field. Take Instagram for example. It can be a tedious task to scale and compress images through the compression tool but Ive found the effect is nearly invisible and really does a great job of decreasing the file size.
This means if you added words to your image via a photo editor they would most likely be cropped off on a smartphone or tablet, which makes up for over 50% of web traffic. If you can highlight the text with your mouse Google will be able to read it.
DESIGN CUSTOM DEVELOPMENT SEO STRATEGIC WEB MARKETING. "Building a great website, finding and licensing top-notch imagery, setting up domains and emailthese all remain difficult tasks for many people today," Casalena, 7, we're taking another huge step in helping our customers bring their ideas to life. After nearly a month and six different reps in the Customer Service department, I havent gotten very far.
Though it can certainly change over time, at any given time the imagery on your site should feel relatively cohesiveand should contribute to the overall look and feeling of your brand. Meanwhile, a different rep replied to my first message, asking me to send the image file for them to take a closer look and giving me hope by saying that, I can send this as a feature request to our developers. Two days later, a different rep followed up, saying, Im going to escalate this ticket for review. Since Squarespace doesnt resize banner images, its up to us to make sure its right. This in-depth Squarespace guide for adding Alt Text will show you everything you need to know for adding Alt Text. Though youll be required to purchase licensing for an individual Getty image to use it on your website, youre able to preview the image on your site to determine if it works for you before you purchase. Add an image block, click search, and enter a keyword.
Having leads come to you instead of hustling for them will free up time and energy so you can focus on serving your clients instead of growing your business.
Keep an eye on your inbox! And definitely use PNG if you need a transparent background such as logos (see SVG below). You can use a free online file extension converter or do it on your computer. One big feature in Squarespace 7 is that users will be able to license high-resolution images direclty fromGetty Images for only $10 apiece. Shortly describe whats in the picture without going overboard by using a long name. Also, banner images in Squarespace are cropped depending on what device visitors use so the text may be completely cut off the screen. A huge revamp of the Web publishing and e-commerce platform SquareSpace brings new tools and a fresh look, plus Getty Images for $10 a pop. Naming your photos correctly will help them get indexed into the right searches.
My daughter, Anna, is a photographer living in Brooklyn. I cant stress how imperative it is to only use images that you can have the rights to. First, images play a vital role in breaking up your content, increasing the chance of holding your visitors attention longer than 8 seconds.
If you can, please contact Squarespace and say, pretty please, to stop stripping the copyright data from our photos.
While I only dabble in technology for health and fitness these days, I had the pleasure of writing a review of the original Fitbit Ultra and similar products that came after it. Provided you embed the required metadata in your image files, its a label that will be added to your photos in Google Images, with links to a page that includes your Web statement of rights and a link to license the photo. One of the many reasons I love Squarespace is because the platform magically creates seven versions of every image we upload (except banner images), each with a different width: Squarespace automatically displays the corresponding image on the user end depending on their browser size.
Additionally, as you resize the browser window to make it smaller, the preview automatically adjust to show different mobile device screen sizes. climate change: Advertising, a climate criminal?
Thank you for supporting a Veteran-Owned Business, Be Aligned Web Design | Professional Copywriter, Strategic Website Designer & SEO Expert Located in St. Louis, MO serving clients worldwide, Be Aligned Web Design | Professional Copywriter, Strategic Website Designer & SEO Expert. Should you obtain images or other material illegally you shall be held liable for any damages resulting from infringement of such. One of the things I love about Unsplash photography is that it is notably non-stock-y. As youve likely seen, much stock photography looks a bit staged and fake, which is usually not the branding aesthetic youre going for. Once added to your website you can crop or add effects to the image as desired. DPI is only used to measure the resolution of an image when it comes to printing.
Instead of using the default file name use a short description about the image, incorporating your keyword into the name when appropriate. Squarespace very excitingly added the capability to enter Alt Text for images.
Its always best to use custom images rather than stock photography (Chapter 8) but if you cant swing your own personal and unique images, its better to use a paid site because less people are willing to buy photos when they can get them for free.
On average, people wait around 3 seconds for a website to load before finding a faster one.
As you design and edit a website, you can see the changes on the preview in real time. Top Duda web designers Fix8 Media work with Colorado businesses. Users who have been waiting for better integration with their email accounts, calendar, file storage, and other business tools will be able to connect their Google Apps for Work account directly to Squarespace in version 7. When optimizing images we need to ensure were using the correct file extension. Less people will be inclined to pay for stock photos over using free sites, decreasing the chances of your photos being used on thousands of other sites. This chapter will break down which file type to use and when to use them.
Now that youve successfully identified which file type to use, its time to move to Chapter 2: selecting the correct photo settings. This helps Squarespace websites load faster BUT we still need to set our site up for success by reducing the file size.
), Chapter 2Correct image settings(rbg, dpi, ppi, etc. In fact, its so important I felt compelled to add a bonus section to this post explaining why. Weve listed some of our favorites below by budget. My column, Get Organized, has been running on PCMag since 2012.
But theres a catch. Bad Alt Text example: alt="This is a picture of a desk with a computer water flower and other decor on it that displays a website and has a keyboard and chair, A good example of Alt Text is: alt="organized desk with feminine decor and computer displaying a beautiful Squarespace website", Keep the Alt Text to a maximum of 125 characters and dont start off by saying this is a picture of.. Images change size depending on which browser screen a visitor is using so images can either get so small text becomes unreadable or blow up so big it looks disproportionate to the rest of your site.
So, if you know anyone else who uses Squarespace and would like the same feature, you can encourage them to write in and let us know..
), Chapter 3Size matters!
This integrationsmeans businesses and individuals who use the service to build their websites will have access to around 50million images (a mere slice of Getty Image's total database) that they can easily and legally use on their sites.
How do you convert an image from one file extension to another? When using stock photography on your Squarespace website, youll want to be sure to follow a few important legal and aesthetic guidelines: Borrowing photos you like from Google image search is a no-no.
Unless youre a professional photographer (or are best friends with one, or have the funds to commission regular photoshoots!
As you design and edit a website, you can see the changes on the preview in real time.
Best Duda website designers Fix8 Media builds online stores and marketing websites for small businesses across the United States.
Especially if youre working solely with free imagery, which is more limited. "With Squarespace 7, we're taking another huge step in helping our customers bring their ideas to life.".
Name your image files using lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. DONT USE A PHOTO EDITOR TO ADD TEXT TO YOUR IMAGES.
Using an image that has text is both bad for SEO and for UX (user experience). This post contains affiliate links through which I may earn a commission if you choose to purchase, at no additional cost to you.
Follow me on Twitter @jilleduffy or get in touch via my contact page. Which isnt the worst thing. Below it Ive given examples of what bad alt text looks like. About the author: Penny Gentieu is an award-winning photographer and the founder of BabyStock, one of the first single-photographer photo licensing websites in the world. Additionally, as you resize the browser window to make it smaller, the preview automatically adjust to show different mobile device screen sizes.
Were going to walk you through the process of making a Getty image selection for your Squarespace site in the video below. Hover over Mode, and from the options select RGB Color. If you found this list valuable, or you have any questions, leave a comment below , Cut through the noise and create site content that converts with our proprietary Be Aligned Guide (20+ pages) that will help plan your website with purpose. Squarespace isnt too concerned with the PPI though. (Extra sweet!).