Placing photos in your articles has long been a trick to ensure extra visitors and more engagement but are they important?. There are many Bloggers that spend hours working and searching for photos for blog posts. But are photos in blog posts that important and do you even need a photo in your articles.I admit that sometimes a photo can make a blog post look great but why to waste countless hours searching for a photo to suit what you are writing also it can happen that the wrong alt text is in the photo and you are making an extra D.N.S request by using the photo in your post.
Linking to photos in your articles and hotlinking
Then there is the problem that you have the photo and the owner decided to disable Hotlinking or just removes the photo from the Server or their Picasa Account. Then the photo is gone and you only have your plain text once again. I must admit that I do not use photos in blog posts very often because, I think that they are just for show, most of the time it will be hard to find a photo for the topic of the post that could be better spent looking for related posts and building links to that post or commenting on related blogs.
Photos in your articles can bring image search traffic
While photos are also a good way to get results from Google images these visits are of not much value sometimes and the image seekers will rarely take a look at your text or buy your product if you are writing for a business blog. Do you think that photos are important in blog posts? besides the images of your products.
There are some Bloggers that Think Photos in your articles are Important while others prefer not to use images in blog posts then there is the problem of advertising Plugins covering the Images there are many Pros and Cons of Having Images in Blog Posts. So do images help or destroy your content and why do you think that it is a good or bad idea to use photos in blog posts
I believe if the photo inspired the post then it is worth placing in the Blog post or if the post is about a place or person then this is very important but otherwise, photos are not that Important in blog posts and I would not spend much time looking for a photo for your Articles that could be spent doing much more productive things.
Places to find photos for your blog posts
Pixabay
Creative commons search
Getty Images
Hi Roezer, I like to use images in my posts. I try to use my own images when I can. Well to be honest, what I really love to use in my posts is video. I think this is a visual element that I find really important. But for the posts where a video is not appropriate I will try to find an image. I’ve been using the Zemanta plugin to help with that.
However, you are bringing up a good point about the images being removed by the owner. It has happened to me once already. The good thing about Zemanta is that I find a lot of Wikipedia images and I don’t think those images change often. But I will keep an eye on this. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. There are so many things that a blogger needs to consider so it’s nice to have help.
@Ileane
.-= Ileane @Blogging´s last blog ..What’s More Important? Your SEO or Your Readers? =-.
Well Ileane since you are using WordPress you can use the Broken Link Checker plugin which is also a good pluging to have if you use especially if you are using Zemanta Related Articles because when I imported this Blog from Blogspot to WordPress where I was often using Zemanta there were many Broken links especially from Wiki because as you know wiki pages are often Edited.
I think it is always good to have an unique image rather than copying someone else. I had to face that issue couple of times as my blog will not display the image as they have removed or changed the original image location. So now I try to publish one of my own image or not adding an image.
Another thing is that if you are not having a image gallery or something related to images visitors coming though image search will not stay much longer in your blog.
Hi Roezer, the great image debate. Personally I prefer using images with blog posts but it would be interesting if someone tested the use of images. I think appearance carries a lot of weight when it comes to blogging and images are a way to enhance our blog’s image. With that said, I’ll be the first to admit that content is the most important part and images are secondary at most.
As far as hotlinking I try to host all images on my own server to prevent problems later on.
.-= Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Do Banner Advertisements Work On Blogs? =-.
Here is where I will disagree. The only reason bloggers feel like images aren’t worth it, is because they don’t know how to use them effectively. 50% of my traffic comes from image search. I believe images are just as important as great content.
The problem is, you can’t use generic images that are meaningless. This is where people fall on their face. You have to spend time and create great images that will drive people to your site. I custom make all my images for all my sites. I make sure they look good, will stand out well in search and will even say what they are. I’ll give you an example. Do an image search for “vvs clarity”. I show up number 1. And when you look at all the other images for vvs clarity, it’s easy to see why I get clicked on. My image says vvs clarity right on it. It’s smart and it works.
Try another example. Type in “si3 clarity” in images. See why people would click on mine? Doing an image search for “fake pandora” brings up 3 of my images on the first page.
How about this? You know how you do a regular search and it also shows a couple images as well? Do a regular search for “cz vs diamond” 727,000 people search for that a month. I show up number one. I also show up in the 5 images on that page. And if you go to image search, I show up number 1.
I’ve been telling bloggers for months to not discredit images. No one listens. If you slap up a generic image, that doesn’t show anything or doesn’t say anything right on the image, then you’re doing yourself an injustice.
The point is, you are totally missing out on a huge traffic bringer by treating images as nothing. Use images smartly and you will see your traffic double! 🙂
Thanks Jewelry Secrets getting the right ALT-Text and Caption in the Image can Really help especially when you use such examples as you have mentioned. Most of the time the problem is Acquiring the Right Image for your Content.
This is also a problem that people put images that are just say a width of 530 pixels and their content wrapper is only 500 meaning that the Image covers the Sidebar and spoils the whole look of the Article even though it’s the Perfect picture for the Article
Thanks sjay that is a Good Idea to Have an Image Gallery I think the Best way is to upload to picasa and embed a slideshow of your Images on a page. I have a photoblog but not many photos but do not want to use other peoples photos
As a small blogger who handle personal blog (riwayat terakru) i think the need of photo based on the story. if the story about people or place, it would be better to have the related photos together. Sometimes photo used as an attraction. If in a page full of words, it will look better if there are one or two photo attached there.
Just one thing always disturbing, when we took the photo from others web. Even we put the link to the real owner but we still not sure whether they happy or not for their photo being used by us.
Yes it’s hard to know can we use the photos of other people and when they uploaded the photo did they understand the creative commons license and know that other people can use it on sites. The licenses are sometimes hard to understand especially with noncommercial Attributions
That’s the problem. There is not a creative common license for the whole web. When we create our pictures and images for our website it is copyright by us automatically. Plus, most sites have disclaimers on their websites that state the content and images are copyright, do not steal or hotlink. I put copyright directly on my images and people still steal them. Just because we put it on the web does not mean it’s fair game. You should not use any images on any website unless it actually states that the image is free to use. Always assume it is copyright and off limits.
The only places that you can get free images from are places like flickr and photo galleries that do allow these sorts of things. And only if the creator of the image says you can use it.
Flickr states: Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, and you can browse or search through content under each type of license.
If you don’t check or don’t get permission to use the image first, then you will tick off website owners, like me, who custom make my images and don’t want the whole wide world to take.
I find this just as rude as the people that steal my content. It’s not cool. Check the copyright first. It’s the right thing to do.
I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree. I really believe that judicious use of images can greatly enhance a blog post. And it doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, especially if you use Zemanta blog assistant, which is available for most major blogging platforms or the Photo Dropper plugin for WordPress. These make adding relevant images quick and easy. I guess in the end each blogger must decide for themselves if and when to add images to their blog posts.
My post on adding images to blog posts: Adding Images To Blog Posts Can Make Them Yummier.
I guess my opinion is simpler, I just like them. An image is simple to add to a post and I think it adds aesthetically, so I purchased a set of clipart that I draw from often or use photos I took myself and sized to fit.
That’s a great Idea Warren I never thought of using Clip Art for Post Images.Also as you said some people like images in posts so it’s a good reason to put them in there.