As a blogger, it’s easy to focus on the writing and formatting your blog post. But many bloggers forget a crucial blogging aspect – visuals, specifically pictures.
And you shouldn’t ignore this aspect. Over 40 percent of marketers say visual-based content performs best.
While great writing is at the forefront of every blog posts, quality pictures will help entice your readers and strengthen your message. Images add personality and fun to your blog posts.
And do you enjoy looking at big blocks of text on a web page? If you don’t, then why would your readers appreciate it?
Here’s how a blogger can post images and follow some (legal) best practices.
Let’s Get the Legal Stuff Out of the Way
You’re a writer. Unless you’re the content creator of all trades and you just so happen to have mad photography skills, you probably can’t even take a picture on your smartphone without it turning into a blurry mess. Because of this fact, you’ll probably have to use images posted online.
But there’s a huge legal barrier you need to remember. Photographs are copyrighted.
Photography copyright is separated into different categories, but let’s focus on the main two:
- Copyright
- Creative Commons
Copyright means the content owner (or photographer) owns the image. You can’t use the image without their permission. “Permission” usually means you pay the photographer.
Creative Commons is another term you should know. This is a licensing that some people can use the photograph in a certain way. The most common example is letting a blogger use your photograph in their blog without pay.
But the Creative Commons license doesn’t allow all free use. For example, say you want to use a Creative Commons licensed image for an ad. You’ll likely have to pay because the image is being used for a commercial purpose.
If you want to use quality images for ads, seek help from a source such as https://dticreative.com.
Blog Image Best Practices
Now that you know the legal implications of images, you should know how to use them in your blog. Here’s some advice.
Break Up Text With Images
When formatting your blog, white space is key.
Most readers skim content and white space helps them retain more information. To make the blog-reading process easier, break up blocks of texts with images. Adding an image to text will better represent your message.
Use High-Res Images
High-res, or high-resolution, is an industry term for a crystal-clear image.
Photographs are made of a combination of pixels. The pixels should blend together and make the overall image. Images that look blurry or pixelated don’t have enough pixels, meaning they’re not fit for publication.
SEO and Images
SEO has just as much influence over images as text. Google crawls websites and looks for snippets to include in SEO results. You can help out Google by using keywords in file names and in alternative text.
Time to Post Images On Your Blog
When you blog, do you only focus on writing? Your writing should be high-quality, but don’t forget to post images!
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