Why should you bother using images on your blog?

I think a lot of entrepreneurs, CEOs, and general experts assume that a thorough knowledge of their chosen subject matter is enough to keep their blog interesting. It’s not. A successful blog post should not only be informative and accurate, it has to be engaging, captivating, and friendly to the reader’s eye. To not include those objectives in your blogging strategy could seriously be a turnoff to potential readers. By using images on your blog to tell your story, you can reiterate your point, invoke emotion, and add visual appeal. Delivering your message and information without images will appear like nothing more than a wall of text to your reader, much like this plain, ordinary wall below. You don’t want your content to leave this impression, do you?

Begin with a Featured image.

In WordPress, the Featured image is the main image of your blog post, normally placed at the top. Consider it your intro image. As an example, see the image at the top of this blog post, behind the title and my author image and name? It’s my featured image.

Depending on your editor (Classic Editor or Block Editor) and your theme, how you add your Featured image (sometimes called the Header image, again, depending on your theme) will vary. Whatever you do, don’t avoid the opportunity that using a Featured image offers your blog. It sets the tone. So, be sure to select one that complements your blog post topic. This article you’re reading right now is about blogging. As such, my chosen featured image includes a person typing on a laptop while drinking coffee, because who isn’t drinking coffee while blogging, right?

Consider placement.

Don’t scatter your images haphazardly. Think of the presentation of your blog post much like your living room. When you invite someone over, you clean it up and make it look neat, don’t you? (Your mom certainly hopes you do!) Keep your blog posts looking tidy by considering where and how you place your images.

When using images on your blog, be thoughtful. Center the image if you’re trying to emphasize a point, but to support one, think about placing the image within a paragraph and wrapping the text around the image. Wrapping text around an image sounds tricky, I know, but WordPress makes it super easy. When you add media to your blog post, you can select to align left or align right and the text will automatically wrap around your image. That’s it! Super easy.

Create a gallery.

Photo galleries seems a little weird and intimidating. For me, I’ve found the most appropriate time to use one is when I’m referring to several different people within a blog post, but if you have a series of photos from an event you would like to share, WordPress’ Gallery option could also come in handy then, too.

Below is a photo gallery example of our WebDevStudios (WDS) leaders. All I did was use WordPress’ Create Gallery option, then continued to Add to Gallery, and selected my amount of columns, based on the amount of photos on my gallery. Voila! I have a nifty photo gallery.

Identify people.

Let’s go back to that Gallery I just inserted into this blog post. Below each one, there is a caption that includes the name of the person and their title. Don’t just insert a person into a blog post without identifying who they are and what they do. You can’t assume the person reading your article will put two and two together and understand that when you mention Jim in your content, you’re referring to the guy in the photo. Identify the people in the photos as though you’re introducing them to your readers.

Keep your images accessible by using Alt Text.

Alternative Text (aka, Alt Text) is the description you write for each image you use in your blog post. This is not the same as the WordPress Caption. A caption identifies the image. Alt Text describes the purpose of the image. Moz breaks down Alt Text like this:

• It aids in web accessibility by providing your website visitors who use screen readers to access the web with information about that image. For example, the Alt Text I wrote for the image of the wall above literally says, “A photo image of a red brick wall and nothing else.” This lets the blog reader who is reading this blog by using a screen reader understand the purpose of that image.
• The Alt Text will appear in case you have an issue with a broken image. (Please try to avoid that error!)
• Alt Text also helps search engine crawlers index the image appropriately.

Still images are more than photos.

I, personally, prefer photographic images for blog posts, but icons and illustrations can complement your content just as well as photography. However, pick one category of imagery and keep it consistent per blog post. Don’t mix it up. Charts and graphs are images, too, and they may do a better job at conveying your message than a photo of a cup of coffee can. So, just stay consistent within a blog post but don’t limit yourself, either.

But, where do you find images?

When it comes to charts and graphs, you may have to make your own, and that’s not a bad idea. Branded infographics can go a long way, especially if that image is shared by others in your industry. However, when searching for photographic images, icons, and/or illustrations, there are websites available that allow you to use uploaded images free of charge. We have a tendency to use Pixabay and Unsplash for our blog, but at Buffer’s blog, they wrote up a list of 24 places to find free images. You will never be at a loss for images.

Size matters.

Don’t bloat your WordPress website by adding 16MB images. Images that aren’t optimized are a real website speed killer. I prefer to compress and optimize images before loading them to the WDS media library. My rule-of-thumb is to keep them under 1MB each. However, there are WordPress plugins that can help, too. Read this article at WP Beginner for best practices for image optimization.

Speaking of size…

The sizes of the images displayed within your blog post matter, too. Generally, WordPress gives you the option of inserting an image that is Thumbnail, Small, Medium, Large, or Full Size. Choose what works for you, but keep it consistent. As I said earlier regarding placement, remain tidy. Varying the sizes of your images within a blog post could come off sloppy. Be thoughtful.

With WordPress, your media options go beyond still images, but if you haven’t been using images before in your blog posts, hopefully this article will help get you started. Looking to hire a team to add a blog to your current website? Contact us! We’ll even show you how to use your new WordPress site, including adding images to your media library and blog posts.

The post Tips for Using Images on Your Blog appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Despite an internet of resources, most websites don’t use imagery well. Considering the quality of these images, chances are that most companies just haven’t given imagery as much thought as it needs or deserves. With platforms like Wix or Squarespace putting so much emphasis on website building, it’s difficult to fully comprehend the need for stunning imagery online. What they forget to tell you is that with great imagery comes great responsibility: write good content and use in moderation.

There is an extensive list of dos and don’ts when it comes to website design and content creation, but we’ve narrowed them down to a few that will immediately improve your online presence.

Do tell a story.

Don’t regurgitate details, but do craft a narrative. There is a place for more more information or specifications—products. Craft a story and punctuate them with images to help guide your user. Don’t just tell them how you do a thing; you need to tell them why and sell the idea.

Do use your images as needed only.

Content should be the focus; images should help illustrate the narrative. You want to tell your company’s story or any story, but like any children’s book, your audience needs visual stimulation to prevent reader’s fatigue. Highlight those key points in the story with some visual dynamite. A purposefully used image will engage your readers and keep them wanting more. Not enough imagery leaves the reader bored and willing to bounce. Too many images overwhelm them. It’s a delicate balance.

Don’t put your images on the back burner.

The biggest problem I see in sites is that images are often an afterthought or used only as design elements. We’ve all seen those sites with parallax animations and video backgrounds with very little text. Not only are you leaving your audience with a need for more information, but you’re also effectively confusing them. Without content to inform your image choices, you have only visual fluff that can alienate some users, or at the least, restrict discovery of your content. The primary goal of any website is to keep people engaged and well-fed. Any hurdles put up to the contrary affect that bottom line.

Do focus on the details.

This is important, especially if you sell products. One of the biggest downfalls of corporate sales is poorly photographed product and lack of detailed imagery. Anyone who compares products online expects to see items at 360 degrees, and in some cases, a look at the inside. Just because the back or side is unimportant to you as a company doesn’t mean it’s not important to your users. Apple, and recently Microsoft, are fantastic at exploring the ins and outs of a product visually. Though it’s always best to A/B test product pages to increase conversions, I venture to guess that you’ll find people convert better when given a detailed look, empowering them to make an informed decision.

Don’t rely too heavily on stock photography sites.

Your website’s imagery should be authentic and personal. I can’t stress this one enough. Stock photos have their uses, but your site isn’t one of them. To be successful online, you need to be seen and heard and stand out above the rest. Stock photos, if anything, tend to throw up a red flag for me; and I expect this is probably true for most people. Stock photo-heavy sites tend to feel fake or staged. Remove your stock photos and replace them with pictures of your actual company, product, story, or location. You’d be amazed how quickly you’ll improve the feel of your website.

If you have to rely on stock photos for some reason, look toward options like Unsplash or Pexels, which provide a source of professional, crowd-sourced images. To your users, these images will appear far more honest than the traditional stock photo site.

Do have an image hierarchy or focus.

Like content, images carry varying weight, some more significant than others. I like to tell people to refer to The New York Times or any newspaper to see how images are used.

You’ll find that the more relevant the content, the larger and more powerful the images. This should be true for websites, as well. Featured or focus content should be more important or more focused, supporting images next and so on.

Do take advantage of the GIF format (if it makes sense).

When most people think of GIFs I imagine they’re also thinking about memes, but the file format works informatively as well. From Amazon to Google and Apple to that app that just launched, companies are utilizing GIFs to help bring life to their products. The most common use of GIFs in this way are screen captures―desktop or app-specific animations to illustrate a feature or highlight a function (see below). Windows users could use an app like LICEcap. And while Mac users can also use it, I prefer Recordit.

Whether taking advantage of the meme craze to have a little fun, or showing a short repeating clip of video (or more likely a screen capture), a GIF is sure to help give your page a little pizzazz.

Summation

Websites are an expression and extension of your brand and your images are a direct representation of the quality of your work. Your users expect you to be authentic and they’re smart enough to know when things aren’t, in reality, how they appear online.

Trust us. This is what we do.

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