What if I told you that one tip will increase your article views by 94%, would you be interested in that tip?
According to one study – articles with images get 94% more views that articles without images.
If you are going to take the time and effort to write that killer article you should also add a few minutes to find a great image(s) to accompany it.
So without further adieu here are my..
6 Tips For Using Images In Your Blog Articles
1) Optimize Your Images For Fast Loading.
If you are including images in your article make sure they are optimized for fast downloads. There is no point in having that killer image in your article if the visitor left your website because they were tired of waiting for the image to load. There are free tools available that can help you out with this simple task. There are online tools like https://tinypng.com and http://media4x.com (Thanks Serg) or you can download small programs for use on your computer like ImageOptim.
2) Use High Quality Images
Pixelated images, stretched images, blurry images. These types of images are sending messages to your viewers. The messages include;
“I am cheap”
“I am lazy”
“Mr or Mrs reader you are not worth me taking an extra minute to give you quality”
“I am an amateur” and …well you get the picture (pun intended)
Ensure you are sending the right message by using good quality images. tweet this
Looking for sources of free images?
3) Use a good ratio of Images to Text.
1…3…4 images ? How many images are ideal ? According to one study 1 image per 350 words is a good guideline.
When we live in a world of constant information bombardment peoples eyes tend to skim webpages rather than read them in depth. While the process of skimming is occurring our eyes tend to gravitate towards images first, so take advantage of this and use images where appropriate to enhance your text.
4) Consider Using Graphic Elements
While you article may contain awesome and valuable content. Using graphic elements such as images, arrows and infographics can greatly help you get your key messages across at a glance. Carefully created images can send a message in a fraction of a second where with text it might take someone 5 or 10 seconds to read a text line to obtain the same information. Another valuable tool is Infographics. Instead of presenting your data in boring ole excel charts – why not jazz it up with a well designed Infographic image.
5) Names Matter
While it may not matter to you if your image file name is IMG_0006 it definitely matters to search engines like Google. Images are unreadable to search engine spiders and because of this make sure your images are labelled and named correctly.
- Rename Images BEFORE you upload them using your keywords
- Use the Alt tag. It is basically a text description of you image – Always give your images an Alt text.
- Captions – many people skim content and pick up captions
6) Have your Main image to the right or left of the first paragraph.
According to Buffer (a social media accounts management organization/tool) people are more apt to read an article with an image to the right or left of the opening paragraph.
For example:
Why? Because an image positioned in these areas will invite the eye paths to the image and any text in close proximity. It also has the effect of making the opening lines of text shorter and easier to read and process.
There is no denying it, we live in a visual world. Hey you are looking at a screen right now! So take full advantage of our visual nature when crafting that perfect article. How are you using images in your content ? What do you find effective ? Any hints or tips you can share? – I would love to hear them below.
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