It is good blogging practice to use images to break the text in your blog posts. The images you use on your blog could either be taken by you or borrowed from the internet. And unless you are a photographer by profession, it is difficult to find a photo in your possession that speaks for every blog post you put up. That is why we find ourselves most times looking for suitable images to use from the internet.
About that image, caution has been sounded time and time again about the images one uses on their blog. As you go about borrowing that image from the internet make sure you:
– Do not infringing on copyright while using images
– Attribute the image to its rightful source.
– If copyrighted and you discover this early enough or are informed of this fact, it is prudent to remove the image immediately to avoid any lawsuits coming your way.
Some of the sites that you can find free images to use on your posts include; Picjumbo, istockphoto, Flickr, stockfreeimages, shutterstock among others. While these sites have free images, be cautious which images you choose to use as there are some that are charged.
Once you are sure that the image that you are using is not infringing on copyright, try these tips while uploading the image to your blog;
1.Rename the image to reflect the keywords used on your post. This will help with SEO
2.Fill the Alternate text (or ALT text) field when uploading your image. This is basically the text description of your image and it helps with SEO as well. This video will help put this attribute into perspective:
3.Always add a caption to your image. Not adding captions to images has been termed as the biggest mistake made by bloggers. This is based on a study conducted that proved that people read image captions twice as much as they read the body copy of a post.
4. It is good practice to resize your images before you upload them. This helps to maintain a standard image size for all your posts. Your blog does not look good if you are inconsistent and mix small images with very big images in various posts. Also make sure that the size you settle on is not too big as to slow the loading time of your website.