Are you planning to use images in your blog posts? Great idea! In this article, we explain point by point, through the 10 best practices to know, why integrating images into your blog posts has become both fruitful and essential today.
What makes a good blog post?
A well-written text (with a catchy title) that addresses a topic relevant to your readers while being optimized for organic search. Certainly, but the other common denominator of all successful articles is that they contain one or more images.
Here’s a shocking revelation: words are boring. No matter the quality and depth of what you write, text alone is rarely enough to hold a reader’s attention to the end.
This is where various techniques aimed at make your texts easier to digest, but also and above all images, essential to keep the reader alert.
Of course, we are not talking about literature here (most novels lack images). But on the web, users’ attention spans are particularly short, hence the need to regularly rekindle their interest.
Indeed, several recent studies converge to estimate the average sustained attention span of an internet user at around 10 seconds. It’s striking! And you should know that this span is even shorter when browsing on a smartphone, which particularly encourages rapid switching.
At a time when the “mobile first” trend shows no sign of stopping, you absolutely need to take into account this central notion of your potential reader’s attention. Images, because of their synthetic nature (while text is always analytical and only reveals its meaning once a reader reconstructs the meaning of each sentence) and because of their potential emotional impact, both attract and help maintain your reader’s attention.
Because what good are excellent texts if your visitor tires of them quickly, sometimes even unconsciously, within the first lines, to the point of preferring to visit a competing site of lesser quality but cleverly illustrated? The importance of images for capturing and keeping your readers’ attention is therefore truly crucial to boosting traffic to your blog.
So, how can you use images effectively in your blog posts?
Whether they are photographs, original graphic designs, word clouds or other types, here are 10 best practices you should know and apply immediately.
1. Use images to structure the text
Using line breaks and subheadings is the basics of writing airy, well-structured text.
Line breaks, paragraphs and systematic subheadings for long paragraphs (generally a subheading is recommended beyond 300 words in a single block) of course contribute to the logical structure of your article: they effectively highlight the path of your reasoning.
But it must be said that they also fulfill a less objective but equally important role: line breaks, paragraphs and subheadings exist to let the text breathe, to insert pauses—like silences and sighs in music—that are necessary to bring out the melody. Images can likewise play this role of “breathing spaces” brilliantly.
Indeed, by placing images strategically you can “pace” your text and make it more pleasant. As logical connectors they can serve as transitions between sections; as reading enhancers they increase the immersive feel of the world you’re trying to portray. When readers are “captivated” by an environment, they’re more likely to stay, since in addition to their analytical brain (needed for reading text), their emotional brain is engaged by your blog post.
2. Take screenshots
Screenshots are a simple, fast and very effective way to illustrate your points.
For example, if you mention a website or online service in your article, a screenshot of the homepage will make an effective illustration.
This helps your reader imagine themselves there automatically, as if they had already visited the site. If you capture a homepage that clearly displays positive customer reviews, a photo of the team and an automatic callback offer, that will speak volumes to your reader. It will be evidence that strongly supports your textual description: the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” still holds true in the age of the internet.
3. Use high-quality images
Imagine: you type a query into Google. Among the results is a blog article that looks very interesting.
So you decide to click. That’s when you run straight into this:
No matter how good the article is, a pixelated or blurry image will quickly put you off, or even make you leave (even if it’s a photo of a cat).
So don’t make this mistake on your own blog and pay attention to the quality and readability of your visuals.
More and more queries come directly from "Google Image search": therefore, the quality of the image you choose for your blog becomes crucial because it acts like a business card, the first impression you make on your reader.
4. Pay attention to reading direction
What do we look at first in an image? Well, your brain will first try to identify a human figure or a living being. The more a person is positioned to the right or left of the image, the more the reading direction will change.
The direction and placement of your main subject must be taken into account when integrating it into your article. Be careful not to create an unfortunate misunderstanding!
Common sense is usually enough to avoid this: once the image is inserted, reread your article with fresh eyes, as if discovering it, to check that the chosen photo reinforces the meaning of your article and does not raise doubts about its content. If the chosen image and the blog article subject are particularly complex, it can be useful to use some image-reading notions from art history, such as identifying the chosen perspective or determining the vanishing point of an image (the direction and focal point to which our eye is drawn because of the composition of a painting or photo).
5. Embed social media posts
Social networks are an almost endless source of quality visuals. You just need to use the "Embed" feature, present on most social media platforms, to include a post in your article.
While classics like Twitter and Facebook are still effective, also consider Pinterest, which is an inexhaustible source of images. Also consider embedding YouTube videos them in your posts when relevant.
The dynamic aspect of videos is a significant asset, capable of overtaking images, which themselves can overtake text. However, once again, you must pay attention both to the intrinsic quality of the videos (forget shaky selfie clips or rushed, handheld reports without editing) and to their absolute relevance to the textual content of your blog article.
You like a certain video, it is of good quality, but it doesn't quite match your article's topic? Then one piece of advice: forget it. The overall coherence of your blog article must take precedence over everything else.
6. Humanize your visuals
A "human touch" is always much appreciated in a blog's visuals. Why?
Because human faces naturally attract our gaze, and they also allow us to identify with what is being told to us.
This creates a certain closeness between the reader and the author (and shows that there is indeed a human being behind each article).
This humanization immediately creates a certain warmth in the relationship with your reader, and that's valuable because it's exactly what's missing in online communication, which is often accused of being impersonal.
7. Optimize your image sizes
When you download a photo from the internet, you may end up with an image measuring something like 2750 x 1569 pixels (or much more).
Nothing stops you from uploading these images directly to your blog. That doesn't mean you should... On most websites and blogs, there's no need to have images with such high resolution.
Unless you are a photographer who wants to showcase your creations in very high quality, get into the habit of resizing your images.
- 600 pixels wide is generally an appropriate size, but you should test on your site to find the ideal format.
- By resizing your images, or even compressing them afterwards, you will significantly lighten your articles, reducing their loading time: good for your readers and for your SEO. Keep in mind that a loading time that’s too long means an impatient user… who will go elsewhere.
8. Respect copyright
This is worth repeating: Not everything on the internet is freestarting with images.
Using a photo without the author's permission exposes you to many complications (including legal action). To avoid this, you can use the tricks mentioned earlier, but also free image libraries and royalty-free such as Pexels or Pixabay, or Unsplash.
But free photo sites have their limits, and you won't always find what you need there.
Warning: whether photos are royalty-free or not, they often display a visible mark of their origin. This can take the form of a logo watermark in the middle of the image or a side signature. Integrating an unintended watermark or signature can harm your blog's image: not only because it alters the appearance of the photo, but also because it may show that you are unknowingly not respecting copyright. From there, a potential client might assume you won't respect the confidentiality of their data either…
9. Leverage the emotional potential of images
An image should serve your text!
For example, a photograph of a steaming cup of coffee will stimulate a consumer's desire far more than a descriptive text without an illustration.
Make the most of your visuals by showcasing them: large on your homepages and on your landing pages. And also remember to include plenty of effects: the parallax effect or even an animation…
10. Tag your images
Finally, one last thing not to forget. At a time when visual search has grown to unprecedented levels, remember to optimize your images' content to help your articles rank higher in the SERPs.
Be sure to rename your files and fill in the image description and alt attribute, including your keywords when possible.
This will already be an opportunity to check how well your images match the textual content of your blog post. If you struggle to insert the post's keywords into an image's HTML description, that image is probably not very relevant to illustrate your point. A carefully thought-out alt attribute has a twofold benefit. On the one hand, it facilitates image search, creating an additional channel to reach your blog. On the other hand, this attribute allows crawlers to take your images into account, thereby improving your site's crawling and, ultimately, your position in search results.
Our tip
With these few best practices, you can get the most out of your images and multiply the effectiveness of your blog posts. That said, illustrations do not replace relevant, well-written text.
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