3 Beginner Tips for Adding Images to Articles
Picture this: you’re a content marketer who just got an email newsletter from one of your favorite industry resources. There’s a link inside to an article about a tool that might help you with your work. Naturally, you click on it and give it a quick scroll before diving in. What do you see? Blocks and blocks of just text. Do you stick around to read it or do you bounce away quick? Images and text work together to make content clearer and easier to read. That’s why we’re giving you three beginner tips for adding images to articles that all content creators can use. They are:
1. Consider the Image Subject
What’s your article about? One of the most important things to remember when picking images for articles is to include ones that are relevant. Don’t just throw in any image so that your article has one. Let’s say you’re a real estate agent writing a blog post about parks in your selling area. It would make sense to include some shots of the amenities, like a playground or basketball courts. It wouldn’t make sense to add a picture of a car dealership or a space shuttle.
It’s also important that you choose images that don’t misrepresent your topic. For example, you wouldn’t want to include a picture of New York City’s Central Park in an article about parks in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suburb. It’s misleading. If you have the resources, consider taking your own photos or creating your own images for an article. If not, stock photo websites like Unsplash or iStock have detailed search features to help you find pictures and graphics that match your article. Type in relevant keywords to get pages of results to choose from.
2. Choose High-Quality Images
Image via GIPHY by @nbc
You hold your written content to high standards. Make sure the images you choose to go with them are high quality, too. There are some characteristics you can look for to decide if an image is of high quality. They include:
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- Is the original image clear, not blurry?
- Can you change the image size without distorting it?
- Does the image look good on both desktop and mobile devices?
- Is the file type compatible with your website or content management system (CMS)?
- Does the image come from a reputable source, such as your own archives or a stock website?
Just like with quality writing, quality images increase trust in your brand. They make your content look polished. That contributes to the perception that your company is thorough and capable in everything you do. Your leads and clients transfer that belief from reading your content to working with you as a partner for their needs and solutions. It builds bonds of trust and increases customer loyalty.
3. Check the Image File Size
Have you ever clicked on a web page or an article that takes a long time to load? What usually happens? Do you click away and move on to something else? Most people do. Don’t give readers that chance to click away from your content. One of the most common culprits for slow page load times is an image file that’s too big. Images take longer to load by nature because they have more pixels than font type. But there are a few things you can do to help.
Consider cropping the image to show only the primary subject. For example, if you’re including an image of a team holding a meeting, you can crop out additional background elements like the office or the windows. This also helps bring the subject into better focus and really conveys the right message for your audience. You can also resize the full image to make it smaller, though this can sometimes affect the quality. Using an image-editing program like Photoshop or Photopea can help preserve quality while changing file sizes.
But here’s some good news about choosing images to accompany your articles. When you work with CopyPress to create your articles, you can leave the image choices to us. Typically, for blog posts and articles, you don’t need more than one image to complement your text. Leave the hunting, resizing, and selecting to our creative team. With our proprietary content management system (CMS) Dante, we can upload images for each article for your review. Ready to learn more about the other perks of working with CopyPress to develop your content? Schedule a free introductory call with us today.
CopyPress writer
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