Choose photos for the space they will occupy, not only for how they look at full size. A strong avatar needs a recognizable subject, a cover needs room for its crop and nearby text, and a thumbnail needs to remain understandable when small.
You do not need a new shoot for every section. Often the better result comes from selecting fewer images and preparing a useful crop for each role.
Give each image a specific job
Before uploading, label the intended role: identity, atmosphere, evidence, or destination.
An avatar usually establishes identity. A cover can introduce a setting or style. Portfolio images provide evidence of the work. A link thumbnail helps identify what someone will find after tapping.
When the role is unclear, it is easy to use a beautiful photograph that does little for the page. A wide landscape might express a photographer’s style, but it may not identify a small portrait-session link as clearly as a recent portrait would.
For a fictional outdoor illustrator, Fern Hale, a recognizable studio portrait could serve as the avatar, a wide view of the workspace as the cover, and tightly framed artwork as collection thumbnails. The images belong together without doing the same job.
Choose an avatar that survives being small
Test the avatar at roughly the size it appears on the page. Look for a clear face, mark, or silhouette that remains recognizable without zooming.
Allow some space around the subject because the image may be displayed in a rounded shape. A logo with important lettering at the outer edge can lose meaning when cropped. A face placed very close to one side can look accidental inside a circle.
If you use a brand mark, choose a version designed for small use rather than squeezing a full business card into the avatar. Keep fine text and decorative details in the page itself, where they can be read.
Do not over-sharpen an image in an attempt to restore detail that is not present. Start from the best available original and judge the result at its actual display size.
Compose the cover around the mobile crop
A cover image can look spacious on desktop and much tighter on a phone. Check what remains visible in both shapes before deciding where the subject belongs.
A central subject is a useful starting point, but not a universal rule. If text occupies one side of the design, a quieter region of the photograph may be needed there. If the introduction sits below the cover, the image can carry more detail without competing directly with words.
Avoid placing the only important detail at the extreme edge. The person’s face, the product, or a distinctive architectural feature should remain understandable when the viewport changes.
When the available crop controls cannot produce the composition you need, prepare another crop of the original before uploading. Do not change the entire page’s typography just to rescue a photograph that does not fit its role.
Make thumbnails informative rather than miniature posters
A link thumbnail is small. Crop around the thing that distinguishes the destination: the product, a sample result, or a recognizable scene.
For Fern’s print shop, a close view of the artwork may communicate more than a photograph of an entire room where the print occupies a tiny corner. For a workshop, a clear view of the technique can be more useful than an event poster with unreadable text.
Keep essential words in the link title. If the image contains a date or price, repeat the important information as page text and maintain both when it changes. Otherwise the thumbnail can quietly become a second, outdated source of information.
Use a consistent approach across related rows. Similar framing and visual weight help a group feel coherent even when the subjects differ.
Protect the subject when adding text
Check whether text overlaps a face, product detail, or bright region that makes it hard to read. Changing the text color alone may not solve a busy background.
Try a calmer crop, move the text into its own area, or choose an introduction style that separates copy from the photograph. A subtle treatment is useful only if the words remain readable across the actual image, not just in one corner.
For broader contrast and readability considerations, see beautiful design without sacrificing accessibility.
Describe meaningful images appropriately
W3C’s images tutorial distinguishes informative images from decorative ones. Write an alternative description that reflects what the image contributes in context, rather than filling the field with promotional keywords.
A portfolio image might identify the type of work and a relevant visible detail. A functional image may need to explain its destination. Do not claim a whole page is accessible merely because a few images have descriptions; labels, layout, contrast, and interaction still need checking.
Also confirm that you have permission to use the images. A photograph available to view on a social platform is not automatically an asset you can reuse for a business page.
Run one final phone review
Open the public page on a phone and check the avatar, cover, first group of links, and any image-led actions. Look for cropped faces, cut-off marks, repeated images, tiny text inside photos, and subjects that no longer read at thumbnail size.
Then inspect a wider screen. A mobile improvement should not turn the desktop cover into an awkward crop in the other direction.
This guide focuses on composition. If images are also making the page feel heavy, the companion article on why a link-in-bio page feels slow covers performance decisions separately.
