So, you’re starting a blog! All prepped and ready to rumble! However, you know your first post is the hardest part and can determine the trajectory of your blog itself. Tone, topic, audience … you have a lot to consider. Of course, you will be able to refine it as your blog gains traction and readership, but for now you’re here. In front of a white page, scared and insecure like a high school girl on prom night.

What Do You Mean by “visuals”?

For starters, avoid those jitters by developing a few good habits. One to adopt right away is building posts with great visuals. But what are visuals, you ask? Don’t worry, sailor! “Visual” is just a fancy term for anything related to images that you can find on the Interweb! Here a few “visuals” you can insert in your blog posts (lmk if I missed some others):

• Images
• Pictures
• Infographics
• Gifs
• Videos
• Memes

Done the right way, you can brighten any post with visual attributes that will leave your readers coming back for more.

What do visuals bring to my story?

“Why should I add visuals to my post?” you may ask. Good question. Why would you if you are only here for blogging tips and have no interest whatsoever in photos? Well, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you CAN’T avoid visuals. Especially in this day and age. Our society consumes information like no generation before it. To catch readers’ attention, you better wake up early and start crafting coffee-fueled awesomeness for your blog with images in tow. Text is great, but it needs visual support.

Visuals convey power that reinforces the strength of your words. Visuals build a level of trust with your readers that supports the overall content of your blog. Especially if the visuals are yours.

Just Trust Me!

Visuals can offer proof to what you are saying. For example, if you are sharing a yummy chocolate brownie recipe but leave out any pictures, no one will appreciate their yumminess until you snap a picture and put it above the recipe! Proof=Interest=Trust.

Another advantage of visuals is that they catch the eye! Marketers understood it way before you and I were born – images sell. They can retain the attention of a reader who is briefly scanning your page and can determine whether or not that reader will take the time to read what you have to say.

What else can visuals help with? They give the eyes break! For readers who have committed themselves to the journey of reading your whole post, inserting an image or gif can prove to be an incentive for readers to continue reading. Quick relief may keep them engaged long enough for you to get your point across.

One last argument: visuals elicit emotions in your readers. Are you writing about babies? Bring it on! Drop a picture of a cute baby and welcome the “aww’s.”  And if you want to positively torture your readers with cuteness, make sure to add a puppy to the mix! Simple as that, you will bring happiness and joy to your readers.

I’m SO Emotional Right Now!

 How should I choose them?

Now that you understand the importance of visuals in your blog posts, the question is how to choose them. A lot of common sense must come into play here, but just as a reminder, here are some non-exhaustive tips to reference when choosing your visual material:

• The right visual material is:
  • Of decent quality and definition (Except gifs, where quality is not always of utmost importance.)
  • Clearly related to your blog topic (If you’re writing about chocolate brownies, don’t include a bunch of pony pictures. Just saying.)
  • Adding value to the post (If your visual doesn’t serve any other purpose than filling space, just don’t do it.)
  • Emphasizing a certain section of your post
  • Not too small
  • Not too big
  • Not too weird
• 

  Wait! What?

   

• Not too offensive (I won’t put a picture here!)
• Not too nude (Unless this is what you’re going for …)
• Not too awkward (think photos of strangers in faux natural poses)

We Have No Idea Why We Are Smiling! 

• Not from your phone (unless your phone takes quality shots)
• Not Wordart

Seriously? Wordart?

• Not too large (in terms of file size) or your site will take too long to load and this can hurt your ranking (page-load time matters for SEO)

 Where can I get them?

Now that you have mastered the rules of visual content, another question may arise for those of us who are NOT talented photographers/videographers. Where can I find these pictures?

• Though you may strongly doubt your aptitude in photo-taking, with a few hacks and tips you can easily utilize pictures from your Camera (phone or otherwise).
• Creative Commons : here, you can research images that are free, reusable, and shareable.
• Other blogs: images from other blogs can be used if the blogger agrees to share his/her images and you give proper credit.
• Getty images or another stock photo website
• Wikipedia: most pictures used on Wikipedia are free to share and reuse.
• Gifs: these can be easily found by searching by topic + “gif” in Google (e.g., “Gross Gif”).

Gross!

• Infographics: these can be found online. Just make sure you source the original image on the site where it was posted. Infographics are usually created with embed codes that can be found on their host sites. E.g.:

With this information, you should be able to find an image that will work for you and your post.

How do I utilize them?

To wrap things up, let’s chat about how to utilize images and best insert them into your blog posts.

• Use images with care. Don’t photo-stuff your posts. That’s what Pinterest is for.
• Speaking of Pinterest – if you think your pictures are share-worthy, why not pin them? With the success many bloggers have already seen on this social platform, Pinterest provides an opportunity to drive traffic back to your site!
• Don’t forget to add captions to your pictures and give credit where credit is due.
• Don’t forget the SEO best practices!  Make sure to optimize your “alt” attributes to describe the picture in code. This can help for you to rank for that term in image search!
• Here’s the code to create “alt” attributes for your images:

<IMG SRC=”theimageyoulike.gif” ALT=”text to describe your image” WIDTH=number HEIGHT=number>

• Want to make your image a hyperlink? Try this:

<A HREF=”http://www.urlyouwantheimagetolinkto.com”><IMG SRC=”homepage.gif” ALT=”text to describe your image”></A>

With these tips and tricks, you should be ready to add great visual content to your already awesome blog posts!

Of course, if you only remember one thing, just remember this: ADD VISUAL CONTENT!