How to Add Search Optimized Images to Blog Posts in Wordpress
Once you have one a website up and running for your business, it's time to add blog posts—and that also means adding search optimized images! Adding images to blog posts and pages is simple and is very important to improve the appearance of your website. If you make your images SEO friendly it also helps to get organic traffic to your website.
1. Find Images For Your Website
It's usually best to use your own original images or photographs to create a more personal feel to your website. You can also enlist a photographer or designer to make unique photographs or graphic designs for your blog posts so you have complete control of your business branding. If you don't have the time or budget yet, there are also royalty free image on websites like Pixa Bay and Wikimedia Commons.
2. Change the File Name
Instead of file names like "0343.pdf," make sure to change the file name of the picture to something more descriptive. Ideally they should be your SEO keywords of your blog post, from your SEO plan. Separate the words with a dash and put the main keywords first. For example if your blog post is about how to video edit on Final Cut Pro, your file name may be something like: how-video-edit-final-cut-pro.jpg This also helps people to find your blog post when doing an image search.
3. Reduce the File Size for the Web
A lot of free image websites give you the option of "web sized images" so select this option. You can also ask your photographer to give your web sized photo files with your high resolution copies.
If you already have your images downloaded, you may need to resize them for the web. To find out the size and dimensions of your images:
PC: right click on the image and select properties.
Mac: Click+control and select Get Info.
Images for the web should be below 1920×1200 in size, otherwise the loading time of your website will be very slow. This can lead to a decrease in your organic search page ranking. Visitors to your website are also less likely to stay on you blog if the loading time is too slow.
For Wordpress websites, if you have the Wordpress plugin WP Smush, an image well under 1MB is okay, as the file will be further reduced without losing quality. For Squarespace the recommended image size is 1500 and 2500 pixels wide and around 500KB.
4. Upload the featured image and post images
Most WordPress themes require you to upload a featured image. This image doesn't usually appear in the actual blog post (depending on your theme) but it does appear on your blog list or homepage as the thumbnail to your new blog post.
Take note of the shape of the featured image on the blog page, as this will help you decide on the dimensions that will look best.
5. Write the title and alt tags
Another important part of the image's SEO is to write a clear title and Alt text (alternative text) for the image. Make sure to use the keywords you used for your blog post.
6. Repeat steps 4 &5 for the blog's images
In your blog post you also need to add a few photos. Search optimized images also helps your blog post's overall SEO. Use the Add Media button to add images the same way as the featured image and follow steps 4 & 5. If you have a few images you could always create a gallery (the same way you add an image.)
7. Add Social Media Buttons
Make it easier for people to share your photo/image on Pinterest or Facebook by adding social media sharing buttons to your website. More sharing of your content will help indicate to Google that your website is important!
