How to Choose and Optimize Images for Your Wix Website

Images do two jobs on your website. They tell people who you are, and they decide how fast the page appears. Get the first job right and visitors stay. Get the second right and they never leave while a hero photo is still loading.

This guide covers both: how to choose images for your Wix website that fit your brand, and how to resize, compress and name them so your Wix website stays quick. If you only have ten minutes, skip to the checklist at the end.

Start with what your brand needs to say

Before you open a photo library, write one sentence about how you want a visitor to feel on your homepage. Calm? Energised? Looked after? Every image either helps that sentence or argues with it.

Then think about who is looking. If you serve mostly women, choose pictures that show their world and their ambitions, not a generic person laughing at a salad. A yoga teacher's visitors want to see a room they could walk into. A coach's visitors want to see someone they could talk to.

Keep one visual style

A page full of mismatched pictures feels like a group chat with too many people. Pick three to five colors that belong to your palette (our color palette guide can help), and choose photos that sit comfortably inside them. Mixing black-and-white shots with bright ones, or warm filters with cool ones, makes the site feel less certain than it is.

Choose images for your Wix website that tell a story

A good image answers a question the visitor has not asked yet. Who is behind this? What does it feel like to work with you? Where does it happen?

• Show people doing something, not posing for the camera.

• Show your work, your space or your clients' results (with their permission).

• Make sure the image and the words next to it agree with each other.

  
  

Use your real surroundings

Stock photos are fine for filling gaps, but they are easy to spot. Candid shots of you at work, your desk, your city or your local market make a site feel like a person built it. If you can only do one photoshoot, spend it on the pictures visitors see first: your homepage and your About page.

When you do use stock, choose pictures that show a mix of ages, backgrounds and body types, so more of your visitors can see themselves in the page. Free libraries such as Unsplash and Pexels are a good place to start.

Place images where they help

An image should support the text next to it, not compete with it. Use pictures to break up long stretches of text, give your key section a full-width image, and leave enough space around each one to let the page breathe.

Optimize images for your Wix website: know your file formats

Not all image files are equal. Here is your cheat sheet:

• JPEG: best for photos. Small files, with a slight quality loss.

• PNG: best for logos and images with transparent backgrounds. Crisp, but heavier.

• GIF: simple animations, like a small accent sparkle.

Canva or Adobe Express can save your pictures in the right format in a couple of clicks.

Resize before you upload

Uploading a 3,000-pixel-wide photo to fill a 700-pixel space is like wearing heels to a hike. It works, but nobody enjoys it. Resize each image to roughly the size it will appear in your layout. Pixlr and Fotor are free and easy, and Photoshop works too if you have it.

Use larger, sharper versions for hero sections, portfolio pieces and feature graphics. Smaller versions are fine for blog thumbnails, background textures and accents.

Compress, then compress a little more

Even resized pictures can be heavier than they need to be. TinyPNG, JPEGmini and Squoosh trim the file size while keeping the image crisp. Think of it as tidying your suitcase before a trip: same clothes, less weight.

Name your files properly

Instead of "IMG_4321.jpg", save the file as something like "woman-working-at-desk-with-tea.jpg". Descriptive file names help Google understand what is in the picture and keep your Media Manager easy to search.

Write alt text that makes sense

Alt text describes an image to anyone who cannot see it, such as screen reader users, and it tells Google what is on the page. It takes about ten seconds per image. Compare these two:

• Not helpful: "IMG 4321"

• Helpful: "Woman smiling while holding a glass at a white desk with a laptop and flowers."

  
  

Wix lets you add alt text right in the Media Manager, so it is easy to do as you upload. Our guide to making your website more accessible covers more of this.

Let Wix do some of the work, then check the rest

Wix handles part of the loading for you, including lazy loading, which means images load as a visitor scrolls to them. It cannot rescue a 6,000-pixel photo you never needed, though. Resizing and compressing first still makes the biggest difference.

Keep your Media Library tidy

Create folders such as "Homepage", "Products" and "Blog banners", and add tags like interiors or client work. Future you will be very grateful when something needs updating in a hurry.

Test and refine

Picking images is partly trial and error. After a few weeks, look at which pages visitors stay on and which they leave quickly, then try a different hero image on the weakest page. Our 7 signs your website is losing you clients is a good place to start if a page is not performing.

Your 10-minute image checklist

• Does each image fit one visual style and colour palette?

• Is each file resized to roughly its display size?

• Have you compressed it?

• Does it have a descriptive file name?

• Does it have alt text?

• Does it support the words next to it?

  
  

Want the short version on one page? Grab the free Image Optimization Cheat Sheet.

Would you rather hand the whole thing over? Starter Shine gives you one custom page, and Growth Glow redesigns a site you have outgrown.