Adding an image in a post not only makes it more attractive but users tend to read posts with images as well. To me image is as important as a good title because both can lead to visitors reading the rest of the blog. Problem with Images is that they can reduce the load time of your blog making it less appealing to people with slow connections and people browsing through mobile devices. With new technologies introduced everyday more and more people are browsing the web through mobile devices so its always a good idea to keep your blogs load time at an acceptable level.
How to Maximize ?
- Try to save your images in a low file size format , for example saving as JPG is much better than saving as a bmp.
- Use online tools to optimize the image , This free tool might come in handy.
- You can also insert the image as a thumbnail, but this should be done according to the situation and always add a note saying click to enlarge with it , not all your visitors are internet savvy people.
Things to avoid
- When saving the image in another format be mindful about the quality of the image , your fast loading image is worthless if readers cant view it properly.
- Adding irrelevant images for the sake of adding images
Conclusion
Adding images can improve the quality and the attractiveness of your post , but you should be mindful of the load time of your blog because researches have shown that 1/3 of visitors leave a blog if it takes around 6-8 seconds to load. If you know of any other method or internet tool that can optimize your images feel free to share them in the comments.
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I have a question regarding this. Well, I know that for photos with rich colors I need to use Jpeg format and for logos and other images with few colors GIF is a good choice. My question is on what property of an image(s) do I use the PNG format?
Just a little tip from experience. Stumbleupon users love images. I have a couple of image rich posts generating traffic from Stumbleupon for months now after its first stumble. Every once in a while I gather a list of images that I think stumbleupon users might find enjoyable and rate a thumbs up.