How to format images for your blog: wedding pros’ edition
As a wedding professional, your blog content should be 3 things to really sell your gorgeous services to your dreamy couples: valuable (couples can learn or get help with something), fun to read, and easy to read. Adding images to your blog posts is going to help you tick all those boxes; giving value by showing couples what they can expect from working with you, making the page more fun and interesting to look at, and breaking up chunks of text to make it all more digestible. Before you dash off and start uploading galleries you need to know how to format images for your blog, otherwise you could negatively impact your SEO.
This is your straightforward guide to formatting images for your blog - wedding business edition.
Why is it so important to format images for your blog properly?
There are a few reasons, most of which link back to SEO:
1) Formatting your blog images correctly can actually help boost your SEO, by placing your keyword in strategic places that help signal to Google what your blog is about and who to show it to
2) By uploading your images properly, you’ll also ensure you don’t slow down your website. Slow websites are bad for user experience, which means your dream clients might not even stick around long enough to figure out that you’re perfect for them! Google also hates slow websites for this very same reason, which negatively impacts your SEO success
3) Nobody wants to look at a clunky, funky web page with images and text all over the place. It’s even worse if you’re visually impaired and using a screen reader, and having to listen to a clunky, funky web page with images that don’t translate for you. Formatting your images properly means your blogs are more inclusive and accessible, and look profesh.
Tick, tick and tick. So, let’s get into 3 things you’ll need to be doing:
How to format images for your blog: renaming
The first thing you’ll want to do is rename your images for your blog. Instead of IMG_2439.png, use your keyword as your image name. If your keyword is several words long (likely), separate with hyphens. Examples could be:
yorkshire-wedding-florist.jpg
blue-and-white-wedding-invitations.png
You’ll probably have multiple images, so you can number them to make each file name different - ‘bespoke-gold-bridal-earrings1.jpg’ and so on.
Why do we love this?
Renaming your blog images helps your SEO, by giving Google more clues as to what your blog is about. The more information it has on this, the more likely it is to do its job of showing it to the right people when they search for it. Renaming your images is a quick and easy SEO win, and you can also go back and retrospectively do this for your existing blog content.
How to format images for your blog: resizing
So, you’ve renamed your images. Your next job might be to resize them. If you’re consistently uploading images to your blogs that are over 1MB in size, you risk slowing down your website. Instead, compress them so your speeds stay up and they load properly when your dream couples want to look at them.
There are lots of websites and plugins where you can quickly and easily compress your images (for free!).
Why do we love this?
Web pages that are quick to load get a big thumbs up from Google, and from your viewers and readers. Even if you think you’ve got the patience of a saint, I’d bet you soon click away from a website if you can’t get the information you’re looking for quickly! Don’t do all that hard work prepping a blog only to have nobody read it because the page won’t load…
Ready to hand over your wedding business’ blogs to a pro? Discover my blog writing services: build a blog library or opt for complete management at the Blogging Beach Club.
How to format images for your blog: alt text
Ahh, alt text. It’s the one you mostly pretend doesn’t exist because you’re not really sure how to use it properly, right?
The purpose of alt text on your images is to help people using screen readers understand the content on your page. The screen reader reads out the alt text, helping paint a picture of what’s there for those who can’t actually see it. If you keep this in mind the next time you’re writing it, it should help you understand what to put in there.
However, there’s a little SEO trick we can add which helps boost those Google rankings at the same time.
Adding your keyword into the alt text of some of your images is great for your SEO, because Google can read it too - the important thing is to do it naturally, in a proper sentence. JUST adding your keyword as alt text might seem like a good SEO strategy, but it’s really unhelpful for those using the screen readers - so, we need to find a balance.
Want an example?
If you’re a wedding florist writing a blog with the keyword ‘Hedsor House wedding flowers’ and you’re uploading a (suitably renamed and resized) image of a bride holding her bouquet, your alt text could look something like this;
‘A smiling bride holds her Hedsor House wedding flowers. She stands in front of the grand Georgian wedding venue with her bridesmaids, all dressed in peach gowns.’
We’re painting a picture of the image and including our keyword, ticking all our boxes.
Why do we love this?
It’s a quick SEO win and helps our blogs be really inclusive and accessible for everyone to read.
Now you know how to format images for your blog, you’re ready to start filling your website with all those gorgeous galleries you have to hand. Looking for some support with your blog content? You might be interested in: