Use of Images for SEO

Image credit to Startup Grind

The use of pictures on blogs has become a common practice. If you look up any professional blogs, you'll find that graphics usually accompany the textual context. But there are good ways and bad ways of incorporating images into your blog. 

I follow the blog I Heart Planners, well, because I do heart planners. Below is an example of a great blog post. The blog is short and concise. Images are used to illustrate what the context of post entails and the image style matches the personality of the blog.

Laura uses her own photography to illustrate what she blogs about. This is great because her content is 100% original and she can rest easy knowing no one else will have the same pictures.

But what happens when a blogger, like me, is not a photographer, doesn't have the skills or equipment to take well-lit photographs or create graphics? Well, for that there are stock photos. I love using stock photos because you can find quality images from a plethora of photography styles. There are multiple sites that offer free stock images, such as Pixabay and Freepik. I have personally used stock images for this blog, other marketing homework assignments, and club flyers. Using free stock photos usually required you to credit the author. You can also purchase the rights for the image, which will grant you the right to publish graphics without the need to credit the authors.

The downside of using stock images is that you run into the risk of having multiple people use the same image to advertise or add value to their content and blogs. Personally, I don't mind knowing that multiple people might be using the same image as me. The main reason is that I can take stock images a step further and customize them to better fit my purpose. I use Canva to edit images, create banners, flyers, and pretty much anything in between. For my last post, I used a stock image I found on Freepik and edited it on Canva to be my banner.

I am a marketing student, not a graphic designer, so having tools like this really helps because they are free and easy to use.

However, there is a negative about using photos in your blogs if you are using them wrong. If you are using graphics as a way to break up the lines, think again if the image will add value to your context or if it will just be wasted space.

Other resources:
8 Effective Image SEO Tips Every Digital Marketer Should Know
Image SEO: Optimizing images for search engines
21 Amazing Sites With Breathtaking Free Stock Photos (2019 Update)