Images are crucial to a post. Not just to it’s performance with SEO (Seach Engine Optimisation), but to UX (User experience). They help guide the user and give more information on the topic.
It’s recommended that you have an image in every post. Two if possible, but one will suffice. Images need to be optimised both off page and on page. It may sound complicated, but once you’ve read this guide, it should all become very easy.
Off Page Optimisation
First, we need to make sure the sizes of images are correct. Not too big, not too small. For standard 16:9 format screenshots, such as those taken from a game, you should aim for an image size of 1280×720. That way, if an image is opened by the user, it isn’t bigger than the screen space.
If you aren’t going for the 16:9 format, you should still aim to make sure your images have a width of at least 1280px. This allows them to fit the full width of the post and not being too small to see.
Finally, you should look at the file size of images. You should try and keep your file size low by saving as JPEG. Images that are too large increase page load time which is harmful for SEO, and may lead to your post being ranked lower on Google. If you use Adobe Photoshop, you can use the ‘Save for web’ option by going to File > Export > Save for web.
In the Save for Web window, you can check the file size in the bottom left, and adjust the percentage on the right to lower the quality. Once you’re happy with the result, save the image with a relevant name.
If you don’t have Photoshop, there are other tools available. As long as you have the image at suitable dimensions, the site will automatically optimise them when they are uploaded.
Uploading Images
Now that your images are ready, we can upload them to our posts. You can upload an image to your post by pressing the ‘Add Media’ button, located just above the post area. In there, you can choose ‘Upload files’ and choose an image from your computer.
Now you can either adjust the image properties now, or do them later. We’ll cover it in the next section. If you want to do the properties last, you can just press the ‘Insert into post’ button.
On Page Optimisation
We can start editing our images by selecting them in the post and hitting the ‘Edit’ button, which looks like a pencil. You will see a lot of options on the screen, the main two we need to worry about are the ALT-Tag and Image Caption.
Both of these are crucial to SEO, as Google uses them both as ranking factors. The Caption is a small snippet of text that appears under the image. You can just set this to ‘Screenshot from X Game’, or some useful information that the user will find useful.
Whilst the alternative text is visible when hovering over the image. The ALT text is useful to people who may be blind, and will use a reader which will read out the ALT text. Therefor, have the Alternative Text explain what the image is of, for example ‘Lighthouse location in Witcher 3’.
Finally, you can change the size of the image in the ‘Size’ drop-down. If required, you can set this to custom and choose the dimensions yourself. Before publishing a post, make sure to preview it so that your images are working as intended, and look great on your post.
