When writing for the Web, most of us know that recent, fresh marketing content is essential for your site to place well with search engines, such as Google. However, many of those same content managers that labor over just the right adjective and struggle to write three new posts a week for their blogs will turn around and use a stock image to illustrate the post. Such images are often used dozens, if not hundreds of times, around the Internet. So much for that original content!
If you’re never stopped to think about the images you use on your Web site as content, it’s time to start. Just as you wouldn’t post the same article as a dozen other marketers, don’t use the same images. You don’t have to be an expert photographer. You just need to make the images you use unique. Here’s how:
1. Take your own photos. The easiest way to have original images is to take your own photos. You don’t need an expensive, difficult-to-master camera. A middle-of-the-line digital camera will suffice. As for technique, spend an hour or so reading about composition and lighting and you should be ready to go. Taking your own photos has an additional advantage. By using your own images, you’re not trying to shoehorn your vision into someone else’s illustration.
2. Make stock photos original. If taking the photo of the image you want isn’t possible or practical, then choose a stock image with a license that allows you to modify the image. You’ll need a photo imaging software program. There are several free ones, including Photoscape. You don’t have to change much. You could reverse the image; you could change the background color or you could add words to the image, for example. The trick is to make it your own.
3. Give them a unique name. The name you give your images helps to tell Google and other search engines what the image is about (and also if the same image name appears elsewhere on the Internet.) So, get credit for your efforts by creating a unique name for your modified image that describes your topic. Even if you took your own image, it’s still important to give the image a file name that describes your site as well as the image.
4. Don’t forget SEO with your images. Don’t stop with re-naming your files when it comes to optimizing your images. According to Pamela Vaughn on Hubspot.com, what you put in the image <alt> tag is just as important as the file name. If you’re not using this tag, you’re missing another opportunity to tell search engines what your page and/or post is all about.
What’s the bottom line? While it makes sense to concentrate most of your efforts on creating interesting, informative, useful written marketing content for your Web site, don’t let the images you use sabotage your efforts. Those few minutes you spend on images just might give you the competitive edge you need.
Sandy M is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.