Visual Content: Are your images optimized for maximum effect?

A picture is worth a thousand words… and tens of thousands of clicks.

Statistics like the ones below from Hubspot highlight the value of using images with visual content marketing.

Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites, and 150% more retweets.
A scan of Facebook brand pages showed posts with images accounted for 87% of page engagement.
Images are the most important tactic for optimizing social media posts.

Photos and images have always been a powerful means of communication. We see this especially with the latest trends in website design, where there is a focus on less text and more images. And more so with the introduction of each new social media channel, where most are now image-based.

So, maybe you’re convinced that using more images and the RIGHT images in your content is the way to go. Don’t stop there. If you want to gain the most impact from your images, take time to fully optimize each image using these three steps.

Step 1: Optimize images during the ‘Save As’ for full SEO impact.

Maximizing SEO benefits for images begins way back to when you title the image on your computer and get it ready for upload to your webpage, blog post, or social media channel. Choose a title that relates to the content of the material where you are featuring the image. Take a moment to add tags to the image that relate to the content.

Step 2: Optimize images when uploading to webpages and blog posts.

There are more opportunities to optimize an image during the upload process. The example below is a screenshot of our WordPress site and the areas we optimize when uploading our blog images.

If you haven’t fully optimized the images already used in your website content, it’s never too late to edit web pages and articles, even if you just tackle a few each day.

3. Create a Feature Image that transitions across social channels.

The images in your blog post or on your web page tell the story of the page’s content. When it’s time to share this story across social media channels, don’t leave it up to the channel to choose your image. Use your website’s Feature Image function for social sharing.

Begin by preparing the feature image. A recent post in Social Media Examiner shares step-by-step how to optimize an image for use across social channels. The article shares a few tools you can use, and myMarketing Cafe recently posted about how to use a simple PowerPoint template to optimize images for social channels.