Featured Images Matter for Traffic and UX, Not Only SEO

Featured images have always been important for getting traffic and not just SEO.  Social media is visual, affiliate websites need to attract attention to calls to action just like publisher, YouTube has thumbnails, and emails have to be relatable.

Image optimization shouldn’t be up for debate if the goal of your company is to make money.  This is especially true as search engines like Google have gone all in on rich results (non-blue link listings) to compete with social media.

If you want the traffic and brand building that comes with the rankings, optimize your images by:

• Naming them properly.
• Including alt text and descriptions that match what is on the image and also the section of the page the image is a part of.
• Having them sized properly so they can display correctly on the channels you need them for.
• Placing wording directly on them, not just in the code.
• Making them understandable visually by a consumer so they know what they’ll find or learn if they click to your site without reading the title below.

Before jumping into the bullets above, here’s some of the results from Google where images are the top result.  They’re all roughly the same, but some could pop off the page if optimized like below.  Properly optimized images can get the click, even if they’re not the first result in the grid.   Also note that the results are a mix of blogs, ecommerce stores, listcicles, and social media or YouTube videos.

Pro-tip: If you add text to your YouTube thumbnails and featured blog images, the text becomes a visual call to action that stands out against everything else that are images alone. 

I test this strategy with clients, so the four screenshots are from niches we are not currently working in and have not done any work on within the last few years.

Pro-tip: Almost all images are green and yellow in the soccer search results, so the blue filter with strong vignette second from the left pops off the page.  Try mixing yours up to contrast against what everyone else is doing.  If someone used purple with an orange or red border, it would stand out like crazy.

Now that you’re seeing how images can be displayed above the top result in the search engines and get a click, here’s some tips on optimizing them.  This works for all types of sites from niche and affiliate to service providers, ecommerce stores, and content creators on YouTube and social media.

Name Them Properly

First is naming your images to match the purpose of them.

• Featured images should be named similar to the H1 or Title of the page because they represent the main theme.
• Sub section images and visual breaks should be named to complement that section or the sub-header (h2, h3, etc…).
• Informative images can be named for the information they provide:
  • steps to complete a task.
  • the name of an equation or formula if it is demonstrating a math problem or a reaction or calculation.

One mistake that happens a lot is naming a demonstrative image too similarly to the title.  Let’s pretend we have a post called “how to solve the Pythagorean theorem.”  The featured image for this page should be the “how to solve…” name and the alt text, the sub sections should be examples and named for the example of the equation and not a generic “how to solve…” phrase.

If the post was instead called “what the Pythagorean theorem is” and had a subsection about how to solve it, this is where you’d want to name the image halfway down the page “how to solve the…” This happens a lot in content, you want to name things for the sections they’re in, not for the main title of the post.  The sections on a page are supposed to complement the title, not compete with it.

Alt text, Titles and Descriptions

These are the elements that make it easy for search engines to understand what the images are about, and may help them know when to use them in search results.  Just like the image name, you want their titles, alt text, and descriptions to match the section they’re a part of.  Don’t keyword stuff these elements.

Match these image elements to the content around them so search engines and users with assistive technology can understand that portion of the page.  The easier it is to use and understand the page, the better the experience for algorithms and humans.  The better the user experience and easier you make it to absorb the content, the more likely it is to get shared, linked to, and for conversions to happen.

Size Matters and By Channel

If you don’t care about SEO, cool, your audience may be Pinterest, Facebook, and social platforms.  Each one has different image size needs.

For SEO you’re going to want at least 1,200 PX wide and high-quality for potential inclusion in Google Discover and Google News which only requires 60×90 (I don’t recommend this size), whereas Facebook desktop has a landscape orientation need.  Meta’s other major platform Instagram has a square dimensions so the landscape from Facebook will get cut off on the sides if used there.

Pinterest on the other hand can handle vertical infographic pieces and you can gain more visibility with them.  This can work incredibly well for recipe and crafting sites.

Pro-tip: If all the results are a single image of the final product, show the steps and put a numbered list on each one to show your pin is a demonstration.  You’ll stand out from the crowd and maybe get more engagement.  And if it is valentine’s, everything will be pink, red, and white, add a green border or contrasting colored font to pop out from the crowd.

Read the documentation for images by platforms that matter to you, and use their meta data to serve the URL for the correct size, name, etc… to them.  Facebook is open graph, rich pins for Pinterest, etc… If a channel or platform doesn’t matter to you, let them use your basic meta data.

Add Words and Titles

This is one of the most overlooked optimizations for images.  Place text on the image and in positions where it can render properly.  If you put text on the top or bottom of an image, it gets cut off when a rectangle becomes a square for a platform.  And if it is off to the side vs. center, only some of the letters will show.  You can see this in the examples above.

Make the text something short, simple, and be very specific to what the person will learn if they click through.  If everything showing up is visual and equal, and yours has wording that can be easily read, some visitors will be drawn to your image because yours is the one that stands out and engages with them.

Match the Visual to the Content

The last optimization is matching the visual to the content it represents.  If images are showing up and the platform is writing their own titles and descriptions (like some search engines are known to do, cough cough), make sure the image is visually descriptive of what the person will learn.

If the content is baking sourdough bread, don’t only show the loaf or a person smiling in an apron, show its a process with a solution.

• You could have the wording saying “how to bake sourdough bread” and three sub images showing three steps with a photo of each one vertically on the side or across the bottom.
• Try showing a person kneading the dough and also a finished result, and have them smiling or making it appear fun and easy.
• Do a split image with the person baking it, and then a second shot with them enjoying it and giving a thumbs up.

There are tons of ways you can make featured images represent the content visually.  When the subject of your image matches the user’s need, it may become relatable and they may click through to your content over other image and webpage results.  Now look at where you have image results and see how you can improve the user experience, stand out from the crowd, and begin getting that traffic by channel.