A Beginner’s Guide to Adding Images to Articles

Adding images to articles and websites is imperative to making your content stand out from the crowd. There are plenty of benefits to be had by including pictures throughout your content, but if you’ve not done it before, it can be daunting to know where to start. So we’ve put this guide together for you to follow should you be sure as to how and why you should add images to your online content.

Why are images important?

It’s important that you’re including images in your content for a number of reasons. The first one being that it looks better. It can add a focal point to your article or website without being too overboard. It is also a useful and effective way of adding colour and structure to your content. 

As well as that, it can break up your content, which is especially useful for long-form content with streams of text. It also gives business owners the opportunity to show visual examples of their work or of the products they have on offer. In a way, it can increase the trustworthiness of your site without being too over the top. 

Size, quality, orientations & formats: where do you start?

Ok, so you know you want to include images without your content, or to go alongside it, but what do you do from there? There’s more to choosing and adding images to your content than you might otherwise think. It’s not always as simple as choosing a stock image from the internet and including it in your website or article. You might need to alter things like the size, the format, the orientation or the compression of the image. Let’s discuss those things in more detail so you know what to do when the time comes.

Image orientation

Depending on the layout of your website, you may need to alter the orientation of the images you choose. For example, a header picture would fare better in a landscape orientation as opposed to a portrait orientation. You’ll also find that landscaped photos look and perform better on social media sites like Twitter (now X) and Facebook. However, portrait images are better on Instagram Stories. It’s more about using your common sense when it comes to choosing the orientation of your images.

Size & compression

The size of your images could hinder your site speed. Generally, the image size takes two different things into account: the actual size of the image and the file size in bytes. If you take an image from your camera or a stock image from the internet, you’ll have a high resolution picture, because they’re generally higher and larger than they actually need to be for the internet. This is where the image size could affect your site speed.

If you take a digital photo, they’re generally made up of pixels, which are essentially tiny squares of colour. These pixels come together to form one entire image. If you have a picture that is 800px by 600px, for example, then it just means that it’s 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels tall. The more pixels there are, the higher the resolution of the image itself. 

Quality & size: finding the balance

The size of your image could hinder its quality. For example, if you have a small image, it will likely be high-quality in its original size. However, if you take that original file size and make it bigger, you could end up with an image that is low in resolution and is incredibly pixelated, causing you to seek out another alternative. 

The same goes for reducing image size. Making it far smaller than the original could mean you end up with a fuzzy image by the end of your editing. Make sure you find the right balance between the quality and the size of the images you choose. It might take some time as it will require some trial and error, but it’s worth the effort if you’re wanting to ensure you end up with a quality image.

JPG, GIF, PNG & SVG: which do you choose?

The format of the images you add to your website or blog matters, believe it or not. So which format is best? Let’s first discuss JPG or JPEG; it ensures quality images even at a small file size. JPG or JPEG picture formats are the most common, especially for those with a blog. A GIF on the other hand is ideal for small graphics, animations or videos. They also have transparent backgrounds. 

A PNG is perfect for graphics that are exceptionally-detailed, or for images where there’s a lot of text present. A SVG format is a scalable vector, meaning it will stay high-quality at any resolution. Despite all of the different image formats you can use, JPEG and JPG options are the most popular, simply because it’s an easy solution if you want to add, generally, high-quality images.

Tips for choosing the right images for your content

It might not sound like a huge job, but choosing the right picture is paramount to making sure your content looks clean and professional. From unrelated pictures to low-quality images, it has the potential to make your website look unprofessional, leading your prospective customers to give your competitors their custom, instead of you. With this in mind, here are a few tips for choosing the right images for your content:

• Image subject – don’t choose a picture that is completely unrelated to the content you have produced. You need to ensure that your images are related and relevant so as to avoid confusion
• Quality images – no matter what, you need to make sure that your images are high-quality. Pictures that are low quality will make your website look messy and untrustworthy, so choose an image that is of good quality
• Image size – images that are too big will hinder the time it takes for your website to load. On the other hand, if it’s too small, it will look pixelated and low quality. Choose an image that is as close to the size you need as possible to avoid either problem

Kumo is a highly-experienced digital marketing agency with over two decades of knowledge and expertise to draw upon. If you’re looking for sterling SEO, PPC, content writing and website design services, then get in touch with a member of our friendly, professional team today – we’re always pleased to hear from you.