If you are a blogger, then you know that great images can give your blog posts a real boost, helping them to stand out from all the other online content and getting you more views and engagement. Adding relevant, original and striking visuals is a fantastic way to make your blog posts more attractive, interesting and compelling. But how do you make sure you are using images in the best possible way?
Fortunately, there are several ways that you can use images to enhance your blog, and this article will explore some of the best practices that you should follow in order to ensure you get the maximum impact from your visuals. Continue reading to discover some of the best practices for using images on your blog and how to ensure your blog posts look as good as they can.
Choose Compelling and Authentic Visuals
The first thing you are going to need when you want to add visuals to your blog posts is a selection of great images to choose from. In order to get more value out of your visuals, make sure you choose visuals that are both eye-catching and unique. It can be tempting to use stock photos to fill up your blog posts, but it is much more important to have visuals that are genuine and authentic if you want to attracted engaged readers.
For the best results, take your own photos or source visuals that have been professionally photographed. Don’t forget that videos and GIFs can be an invaluable asset too. Don’t be afraid to get creative and add a touch of personality to your visuals to make them more emotive and memorable.
Employ a Variety of Images
When using images on your blog, it is always a good idea to have a variety of different visuals and not rely on the same image types each time. A collection of different images will help to keep your blog posts looking unique and interesting and it will also help to keep readers engaged.
You can use products images of course, such as those you have made yourself or ones you have purchased from good stock image agencies. But you can also select illustrative visuals such as infographics and diagrams to highlight points, statistics and information in an interesting way.
Don’t forget you can also add meaningful symbols and icons to your visuals to help your readers get the full picture. It is always a good idea to match these up with the text, so use caution when trying to make your visuals overly symbolic. Plus, if you do opt for this route make sure that one element of your visual is immediately recognizable, so your readers can easily identify it and make the connecting between your visuals and its meaning.
Organize Your High-Resolution Images
Now that you have your visuals picked out, make sure you save them in the proper resolution format in order for them to show up properly on your blog. High-resolution visuals look much better and can have a positive effect on your readers’ engagement. Plus, if you are using your own visuals make sure that you save them in the largest resolution format available.
However, make sure you don’t get too carried away with file sizes as well, as large images can make your blog stop loading quickly and cause frustrating frustrations. When adding visuals to your blog post, create a folder for each post and add the visuals into there so that you can quickly access them and easily update them without having to keep going back and forth between posts.
Compress Images for Speed
The speed of your blog post is also very important if you want engagement. If your post takes too long to load, then people will quickly leave and go elsewhere. This is why it is essential to compress your images before adding them to your posts. This will help not only with the speed of your blog, but also the size of the images themselves.
You can use a range of tools to compress your images before you upload them, such as Adobe Photoshop, Compress JPEG and ImageOptim. All of these tools offer great options for reducing the size of your images, while still keeping your visuals looking great in quality. You can also use CDN (Content Delivery Network) services such as Akamai or Cloudinary, which allow you to reduce the size of your images and serve them up quickly.
Include Captions and Image Descriptions
Adding captions and image descriptions to your visuals is another great way to make them more engaging to your readers, as it gives them a glimpse into the story behind the visuals. Including captions and descriptions also helps to give your visuals more context and background information, helping them to become deeper and more meaningful to your readers.
Be sure to include captions and image descriptions that are relevant to the visual and have an impact on the readers. This will help to give your visuals an extra layer of meaning, making them stand out and stand apart from the text.
Do Not Forget About SEO
If you are going to use images on your blog, it is also important to remember that you should be focusing on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in order for your visuals to be found. Using images in the best way for SEO requires both creativity and caution.
When using images on your blog, it is important to give them SEO-friendly titles and proper keyword terms, as this is an essential part of SEO optimization. In addition, be sure to assign correct ‘Alt’ tags to your visuals as well, as this helps Google and other search engines to recognize them.
Adding visuals to your blog can give it a real boost, making your posts more appealing, interesting and engaging. However, if you want to get the best out of your visuals then you need to make sure you are following the best practices. From choosing compelling and authentic visuals to compressing your images and adding captions and descriptions, these are all essential steps that you need to take in order to make your visuals really pop. Remember too that SEO plays a huge role in ensuring that your visuals are found and appreciated by your readers, so make sure you are taking the necessary steps to properly optimize your images for the search engines.
By following these best practices for using images on your blog, you will ensure that your visuals look great and that your posts get the maximum level of engagement. So, why not give your blog posts an extra edge by making sure that you are taking advantage of the power of visuals?
