Those of you who know me know how much I love to take photos and videos. Photos, images, illustrations and videos should be an important part of every blog post, press release, Facebook post, etc.. We live in a world where photos are a major form of communication. Today, there are more than 2.5 billion camera phones in use.
Images have become a universal way to tell a story or add to content. It has also become an important tool to help your content get higher positioning from Google and other search engines. If you choose to play on the Internet, why not use every way you can think of to get the best position and ranking?
Seeing fuzzy photos on the internet is not what you want clients and prospects to see. Don’t put junk up there. You can get great photos and/or videos just using your smartphone if you work at it.
Photos are not just a pretty add on. Did you know:
- Articles with images get more views
- 60% of consumers are more likely to contact a business when an image shows up in a search result (according to Jeff Bullas, author of Blogging the Smart Way)
- Facebook posts that have less than 80 characters with a photo get the highest engagement (according to a recent Hubspot survey)
Now, let’s take about the how-to secrets to successfully use photos online:
- Make sure your images are the correct size (1600 x 1200 is optimum.) Remember that the larger the photo, the slower it is to load.
- Do not set your website to auto adjust the size of your photos.
- Always include a photo, illustration or video with every post or article.
- If you did not take the image, be sure you have the rights and paperwork to back up its use. Often, the best option is to use public domain photos if you didn’t take it yourself (or purchase photo rights from websites like iStockPhoto.com).
- Places to find free photos:
- FreePhotosBank.com
- FromOldBooks.org
- OpenPhoto.net
- FreeImages.com
- Be sure to add an Alt Tag with each photo. An Alt Tag is your caption that will get the attention of search engines and lead to a higher ranking. Alt Tags should always contain a relevant keyword. They need Alt Tags to know what your photo is about.
- Make sure that your photo is relevant to the article.
Using a photo without making it user friendly for the viewer or readable for the search engines will not yield the results you want from including a photo.
Now that summer is here go out and take some photos… and use them to your advantage!
