SEO and Image WIDTH and HEIGHT

[johngwms]

I am using the Web CEO tool for analysing my web site for SEO and download speed/broken links etc.

The tool has thrown up a number of issues relating to the slow downloading of pages and many of these seem to be related to the lack of WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes for the images on each page. It states that having these attributes can significantly reduce the load time for a page.

Can Actinic be made to insert these attributes for each image displayed?

[leehack]

Actinic adds size attributes in most places already, have you got an example URL, perhaps your layouts have been altered or changed.

[johngwms]

Thanks Lee.

I have just checked and some of my custom code for buttons etc have no size attributes - I can change these.

Looking at a few product images, only the width attributes are included, not the height.

Here is an example page:

http://www.thedebugstore.com/acatalo...ter__1570.html

[leehack]

That product has both width and height specified, the payments one in the side does not though, perhaps you need to correct all that you have added and then rerun the report. Remember to add 'alt' and 'title' attributes, 'width' and 'height' and border="0". You may want to check your site in Firefox too, it's a little borked and around 20% of people now use this browser.

[johngwms]

Thank you Lee.

The preview images at the side seem only to show the width - maybe I should ask Actinic about that.

Thanks for the suggestions re the custom changes.

I use Firefox all the time now. My web stats show a 36% useage of Firefox, double that of one year ago.

[jont]

The preview images at the side seem only to show the width - maybe I should ask Actinic about that.

As the side bar images are scaling the originals you can only declare width OR height - if you set both the image would distort unless all product images are the same aspect ratio.

[Duncan Rounding]

I think it's questionable whether adding H & W to images slows page downloads. It does affect browser rendering but not really the download speed.

Image size optimisation is much more important for download speed.

[jont]

I think it's questionable whether adding H & W to images slows page downloads. It does affect browser rendering but not really the download speed.

Exactly - adding the dimensions to an image increases the page weight very marginally (additional code) but is does mean with large pages a blank space holder of the right size is added temporarily to the page - this can help with formatting and may be the difference between someone not wanting to waiting and clicking the back button.

More important is the actual file size of the image in terms of download speed.

Always treat these automated programs with a pinch of salt and as a nudge in the right direction - your own knowledge and common sense is by far a better tool to use.

[johngwms]

Thank you for all your comments and the benefit of your experience. They have all been taken on board.