Now that your image is properly named and sized, it’s time to add it to your post or page. If you haven’t already named and sized you image, please take the time to do so. It will save you a lot of time down the road when your site loads slowly, and you wonder why people aren’t coming to your site… or should I say leave your site immediately.
You are adding images to your posts, aren’t you?
There are several reasons for adding images to your post. Let’s dive in!
Why Add an Image
- Having an image makes your content look visually appealing, but only when you are using the right image to convey your message. Your image should be relevant to the context of the article and should be somehow related.
- Blogs with images get shared more on social media.
- Images break up the text into smaller, digestible chunks. A block of text, without at least one image, is psychologically like a wall. You hit it and leave the site. Am I right?
In Neil Patel’s article 11 Best Practices for Including Images in Your Blog Posts, he asks which of the two images below would you rather read?
I don’t know about you, but I definitely vote for the one with the photos! Call me a lazy reader, but I am much more inclined to read the smaller blocks of text, and ultimately stay on the site longer.
Search Engines Index Images
Images also help you grab lots of traffic from image search engines. Don’t pass up the opportunity to draw more viewers in!
But for this to work, you will need to optimize a few things like the Alt text and image description.
Alt Text and Title Text
The Alt (alternative) text is added to an image so that if the image can’t be displayed for whatever reason, it can still be read by visitor. Equally important, it can be read by the search engines (they can’t ‘read’ images). The Alt text is basically a text description of your image. It can be the same as the Title. It should explain what the image is, but it can also be an opportunity to enter key words.
Wikipedia describes it best:
In situations where the image is not available to the reader, perhaps because they have turned off images in their web browser or are using a screen reader due to a visual impairment, the alternative text ensures that no information or functionality is lost.”
Be sure to add an Alt text to every image you use, and make sure the Alt text includes the SEO keyphrase for that page (if appropriate). Most importantly, describe what’s in the image so both search engines and people can make sense of it. The more relevant information surrounding an image has, the more search engines deem this image important.
The text should be descriptive, concise and use focus keywords. Search engines can’t read images, so one of the ways they determine what an image is about is by reading the Alt text.
Captions
People use the captions of an image (the text below the image) when scanning an article, as well as the headings in an article. You don’t need to add captions to all images, only when it makes sense to the visitor for it to be there.
Look at the image above. Between the Title and the Alt Text, you will see an area that says Caption. Whatever you enter into this space will show below that image.
How to Add an Image
Here’s the nitty gritty. The steps to adding an image.
First, let me say that the steps changed with WordPress version 5.0, unless you have either Classic Editor or Disable Gutenberg plugins installed. The steps I am about to show you are the ‘new’ way, i.e. using Gutenberg. If you have a new site, the odds of it using Gutenberg are high. How can you tell? When you click on New Post, do you see something similar to the image below? In other words, do you see a + sign in a circle for adding a block? If yes, then you have Gutenberg.
1. Click on the plus sign to add a block.
2. A menu will appear. Click on the Image icon.
3. Choose the method from which you wish to acquire your image. If the image is
- on your computer, select Upload.
- already in your Media Library, select Media Library.
- from an outside source, select Insert from URL.
4. With the image selected (just click on it to select it), a menu will appear in the right side bar.
a. Enter the Alt Text information
b. Select the Image Size – the drop down will show 3-4 sizes to choose from. Don’t worry, if you select the wrong one, you can always come back and change it. Or, you can drag it to make it larger or smaller.
c. Alternatively, you could enter the specific dimensions you want, or a percentage.
d. At the top of the image, you can see options to Preview or Publish. There’s a third one to the left of those two that says Save as Draft. If you’re not ready to Publish, choose Save as Draft and come back to it later.
e. If this is a post that you already published, but just wanted to change out the image, instead of Publish, it will say Update.
f. If you are ready to Publish, hit the Publish button.
Now click on the image. (Notice that there is text in the block below. It’s called Lorem Ipsum and is just place holder text for this demonstration.) A menu will appear. The first icon shows that it is an image. Click on the second icon and alignment options will appear.
Click on Align Left and presto change-o… The text moves to the right of the image (the image is left aligned, but you could just as easily say that the text is right aligned).
Be sure to preview the site before hitting the Publish button.
Follow these simple rules and you will be on your way to better ranking.
Don’t want to do this yourself? I could do it for you, but will it keep you from blogging? Your knowledge is important to the world, so don’t let that keep you from getting it out there. That being said, I would be happy to get on Zoom with you to walk you through the steps. If you’re already a client, there’s no charge.
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