A picture could really be worth a thousand words and that’s completely up to you.
Let’s say you visit a website and you read the first two sentences. Then you read the next two. You are way into two paragraphs when you realize that there are more words, so you scroll down and there is not one image in the entire post. What do you do? You close the site and go somewhere else.
Visuals are the food to your website’s soul. They are like magic potions that draw visitors further into your site. They have a lot of advantages for your site and you want to make sure to optimize them as much as possible. Images bring your site alive and also help with its search engine optimization. You always need images; an article, blog post or website without images will be bland and unappealing to your audience and that is not good!
Here are some tips that will help you utilize your images the right way:
Keep away from stock images
You know that one black lady that pops up everywhere when you search for a black “corporate” woman’s pictures? She’s the perfect example of a stock image. Things become even weirder when stock images are used in contradicting articles or blog posts because of the person’s expression in the image and the same set of readers come across them. Stay away from images like these!
Originality is always better
Try as much as possible to take your own pictures. You have the utmost control over them and will ensure they are as high quality and as crisp as you would want them. Having your own pictures also helps you to avoid any copyright or legal issues regarding using images without authorization.
Title your images appropriately
Tailor your image title to meet whatever SEO keyword you are using, so it comes up when people search for similar keywords. Do not just leave generic image titles like “IMG_009” on your pictures. You can use any free keyword research tool to make a list and then use these keywords to make your website and images more visible.
Tell a story
Let your images match your paragraphs. Allow your readers the ability to see an appropriate visual representation of your message. Images that do not match your articles are as insignificant as non-existent images. Don’t forget to use quality pictures to tell your story; only makes it juicier and drives it home better!
Respect the copyright police
Looking for images can be quite tasking. Sometimes you even find the most appropriate images but can’t use it because they are protected by copyright! These kinds of images are the types you want to stay away from. Imagine doing a lot of hard work on your SEO and making your posts visible to the average Google visitor and you start having copyright issues because of the image(s) you used? You don’t want that kind of extra baggage.
Not a bad idea to edit
Other times, you will come across the kinds of images you want. The only issue might be that they need a few tweaks here and there. Not to worry! Simply use free sites like Canva or Picmonkey. They are amazing sites with really nice color palettes and fonts that you need for the edits your pictures deserve. Editing doesn’t also necessarily have to do with images that need tweaking. It is also not mandatory but will be an extra effort on your part.
Also, do remember that compressing images or reducing their sizes helps your site load faster.
Use the appropriate image formats
You want to make sure to stick with JPEG, PNG or GIF file formats. They work well with retaining the quality and good properties of your images without compromising on anything. Your images could have gone through the process of resizing and they will still make it just as good regardless of what happened during any conversion processes. Make sure your images have proper sizing though! Additionally, while the first two work best for pictures, the third one isn’t a still image. However, it could be inserted into your post with proper captions and correct keyword.
Adopt proper captions
Captions should also be carefully and creatively curated to meet your SEO goal/needs. There’s a high chance that they might get attention even when a visitor skims through the rest of your article. You want to make sure that your caption is something that makes your reader revisit the article or post they might have missed.
Perfecting your SEO is a very tasking process and a quite crucial part of your web success. Readers’ attention span is reducing these days, so you want to make the same stories you tell with words available with imagery too. Let readers that are attracted to images see your images and their captions and have an idea of what your article is about.
Images make everything better and also increases traffic to your site. Be sure to put a lot of thinking and careful strategy into the kinds of images you optimize for your site. They can make or mar the success of your website’s visibility and conversion.
Author Bio –
Sameer Panjwani is the Founder & CEO of Mondovo, an online marketing toolset that helps you track your rankings, monitor your site stats, and research your competitors. A man of many talents, Sameer is currently on a mission to help 1 million businesses grow organically through his products and services.
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