Whether you’re running an eCommerce shop or a service provision business, the last thing you want to use to attract online customers is a dull-looking website. It’s a sure way to lose the interest of visitors and discourage them from engaging with your business.
Having an appealing look for your site’s home page or landing pages, however, can help increase visitor engagement and dwell time, both of which are crucial in driving sales and encouraging referrals.
And if you guessed right, images are one of the best things you can use to make a website more appealing to its intended visitors and target audience. More specifically, adding a textured background image to your website can be a great way to give your web designs a unique, rustic feel.
Whether it’s a subtle checkerboard pattern or a bold, eye-catching image, textured background images can go a long way in drawing attention to your website and making it stand out from the competition.
In this post, we’ll discuss some basics on how to go about adding a textured background image to your entire website, from choosing the right image to creating the perfect coding setup. Read on!
So, why exactly should you consider adding a background image to your web pages? Well, here are three concrete reasons to consider doing so:
Textured background images can add depth and complexity to a website’s design. Moreover, they help create a sense of tactile sensation even on a digital medium, which further helps to make it more captivating and engaging for visitors while increasing user experience.
Textured backgrounds can help to break up large areas of negative space, a crucial element considered when creating an inspiring website design. Especially for pages that do not have much content, background images can make the website feel less empty and barren.
Yes, it’s called “brand image” for a reason, and your website is one of your best branding tools in this age and day. Since they attract interest and communicate professionalism, textured backgrounds can be used to reinforce a brand’s aesthetic and overall popularity. They can help set your brand apart from the rest.
Lastly, textured background images can go a long way in boosting your content marketing efforts. They can provide a nice contrast to text, making it easier for users and visitors to read regardless of the device they use to access your site.
A textured image background can undoubtedly be a great addition to a website. Nonetheless, it should be used in a way that complements the overall design, rather than overpowering it. For instance, the images shouldn’t be too busy or overwhelming.
Also, using images that are too heavy (in size) could slow down the load time of your website, which could ultimately affect user experience, dwell time, and conversions while increasing bounce rates.
With the above potential downsides in mind, it is paramount to have several considerations in mind before adding background images to your entire site.
From choosing the right image to image optimization and adjustment, below are a few crucial tips you could use to ensure the textured images you add to your site work to your needs.
Simply put, not just any image will precisely be a good fit for your site’s page’s background! When it comes to choosing a textured background image, there are a few things to consider. Some of these include:
To serve its ultimate purpose of drawing attention and setting your brand apart, the textured image you choose for your site should be unique and eye-catching, yet subtle enough to not detract from the content on your website. While at it, make sure to pick a high-resolution image that will look crisp and clear on any device.
If you’re not sure where to start, there are plenty of free texture resources online, such as TextureHaven or Subtle Patterns. You can also purchase high-quality textures from stock photography websites such as Shutterstock or Adobe Stock.
Next, the image you choose shouldn’t clutter your site or mess up the fonts, or make text hard to read. For a subtle, textured effect a semi-transparent image is always recommended. While you can always add a white background, a background image with a light color, or one that’s muted in tone can help ensure the text stands out more.
With the aesthetics and readability of text out of the way, you will also want to:
Needless to reiterate, not all images may make great images for use as background images on web pages… at least not without a few adjustments and modifications. The image you chose should be properly optimized for web use.
Optimization may involve compressing the image to reduce the file size, which will help to ensure that it loads quickly and looks great on any device. It may also involve utilizing image filters to adjust brightness, and contrast, or as well as crop out unnecessary parts of the image.
While premium image optimization tools like Adobe often have more features and promise better results, you can also use an online image optimization tool such as TinyPNG or Compressor.io.
These tools also come in handy when you need to keep the size of your background image in proportion to the size of the text.
Once you have the perfect, optimized textured background image for your site, it’s time to upload it to your website’s file directory and test it out. To make sure the image appears across your entire website, you’ll need to add some HTML and CSS to your pages. This is also where the services of a good coder or web designer come in handy!
But if your HTML skills are anything close to reliable, here’s what you can do.
First, you’ll need to add the image to your website’s file directory. Then, add the following HTML code to the body of your website’s HTML file:
`<body style=”background-image:url(‘[image name].jpg’);”>`
Finally, add the following CSS code to your website’s stylesheet:
`body {
background-repeat: repeat;
background-size: cover;
background-position: center;
}`
With this code in place, the textured background image should appear across your entire website. However, it is important to note that the process or code may also vary depending on various factors, including your web design platform, theme, and
Finally, it’s important to test the background image on different devices and browsers to ensure it looks good on all platforms. This could mean taking a screenshot and conducting an A/B test in a testing tool like Google Optimize.
It could also mean conducting a survey experiment with two versions of your website, with half of your visitors seeing the original website and the other half seeing the website with the textured background image.
Setting up metrics to track the performance of each version of the website could provide you valuable insights, such as what you should do to make the version with the textured image background perform better.
All in all, adding a textured background image to your website can be a great way to make your designs stand out. Hopefully, the pointers in this post will help make sure you have no problem getting the perfect textured background image set up on your website. Good luck!
