Decide what each picture contributes
Give every proposed image a job: identify the owner, show a type of work, explain a process or help a customer recognise the location. Our recommendation is to remove decorative repetition before searching for more aggressive compression. A twelve-photo gallery is not automatically more persuasive than three well-chosen images with useful captions.
Keep an original image safely available for future edits, and create a web version for publication. Name files in a way your team can understand later. Check permissions and inspect the background for faces, addresses, paperwork and vehicle plates before upload. Performance improvements do not solve a photograph that communicates the wrong thing or exposes unnecessary customer information.
Prepare for the space the image actually occupies
web.dev explains how image dimensions, compression and formats affect delivery. Ask your website provider which formats and automated resizing your platform supports. Do not assume uploading a full camera image into a small card makes the downloaded file small. Review the published result at its actual display size for both clarity and file weight.
Illustrative workflow: a photograph destined for a small work-example card is cropped to focus on the work, exported in an appropriate web format and served in sizes suitable for the layout. A full-width project image needs a different treatment. There is no single file-size target that fits every image; compare appearance and loading behaviour rather than chasing an arbitrary number.
Distinguish the main image from the rest
web.dev’s responsive-image guidance describes serving alternatives for different screens and advises against lazy-loading the prominent hero image. Images farther down the page can often load later. Ask your developer to reserve image space using appropriate dimensions so the surrounding text does not jump when a picture arrives.
Check the actual mobile crop. A landscape photograph may put the useful detail outside the visible area on a narrow screen. If a different crop communicates better, supply it deliberately. Avoid embedding your headline or phone number only inside the image: changes then require image editing, and the text cannot behave like ordinary readable page content.
Describe the information and check the finished page
W3C’s alternative-text decision tree distinguishes informative, decorative and functional images. Use that purpose to decide the text alternative. Our illustrative informative description is “Freshly restored timber gate with replaced lower boards.” A purely decorative texture may need an empty alternative instead. A linked image needs an accessible description that makes its function understandable.
Test the finished page on a phone connection as well as office Wi-Fi. Watch whether the main message appears promptly and whether the page shifts while loading. Open a few work examples and confirm images remain useful when enlarged. Keep a short upload procedure so the next person adding photos does not undo the improvements by publishing untouched camera files.
Your practical checklist
- Give each image a clear purpose.
- Keep originals and publish prepared web versions.
- Check crops on desktop and mobile.
- Use responsive delivery where supported.
- Avoid delaying the main visible image unnecessarily.
- Write alternatives based on each image’s role.
Written with AI-assisted research and drafting, with source checks and editorial review for this guidebook. Platform facts link to official documentation. Examples and recommendations are our own; no client results are implied. Sources reviewed October 8, 2026. About Getting Found Local