5 Important Reasons to Share Stunning Blog Graphics

Stunning blog graphics are paramount to your content being noticed and shared. It all comes back to the quality of your blog images.

If you go to the trouble of getting a business blog up and running and stocking it with great written content, then don’t skip the last step – great blog graphics.  Don’t let your ideal customer might miss what you have to say.

Here are 5 reasons why you need to include great blog graphics and tips for creating blog images that wow them!  

Images are a critical part of any website.  But blogs in particular can really benefit from including custom graphics and photos. In an age where just about every company has a blog, you need to go above and beyond to set yourself apart from your competitors.

Blog Images or graphics are an easy way to create that advantage and this post will help to take your blog to the next level with blog images.

Not Creating Blog Graphics Yet? Here’s 5 Reasons You Should Start

If you’re not convinced yet, we have laid out 6 excellent reasons to start creating custom blog graphics for your blog – and some tips you can apply straight away to DIY some stunning blog images.

1. Tell Your Story More Effectively

A lot of people are visual learners. Words can glide right off of the consciousness, whereas images stick in your memory and help foster understanding. If you’re trying to convey a concept or tell a story, blog graphics can be your best friend, as they break down the topic in a way that anyone can understand.

Additionally, it’s been proven that using multiple learning methods at a time can foster comprehension. Combining words and pictures ensures that you’re getting your message across to a wide variety of readers, and that they’re retaining that information for later use.

Infographics are a great way to tell your story and they are highly shareable on Pinterest.

Creating stunning infographics used to be the work of designers but now you can create some pro-quality longer images that don’t look “DIY” (if you use the right tool and template). Here’s an infographic template from Easil that showcases some of the ways in which you can share your story with behind-the-scenes images:

Click here to edit this Template in Easil

It’s easy to edit this template to create a custom image. Simply switch out the text and images at the very basic level. Or for more customization, change the fonts and filters as per the instructions in this post.

Quick Tips for Creating Blog Images:

To tell your story more effectively:

1. Add text to your image if you want people to share it more readily, especially on Pinterest.  Adding some text gives context to your image, and to your story.
2. Use real, relatable images of your team – the best way to tell your story is to be real with your imagery.  Stock photos are great if you choose fresh, interesting, real-life images. But sometimes you need something a little more real.  Take photos of your team, your products, behind the scenes.  Get your team onboard with taking photos of interesting “stories” in your business.
3. Invest in a photographer – If you don’t feel comfortable taking photos, maybe bring in a professional photographer a couple of times per year to take some candid, fun, “behind-the-scenes” shots.  You’ll love having a bank of images you can use in your blog graphics later on!

2. Give your SEO a Boost

While you may have thought that SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is all about keywords, it’s so much more!  Images can help improve your SEO as well, as the tags associated (and even the names of the files themselves) help Google detect your page’s relevance to the search in question.

In fact, it’s important that you don’t omit the meta data on your images, as it can make it harder for Google to rank you because Google can’t tell what the images mean. Every small change you can make to boost your SEO is important. Adding images in an easy adjustment that can take your blog far.

Quick Tips for Creating Blog Images:

1. Label the image with a relevant title before uploading it.  Include your keywords in the title if you can.
2. Add Alt-text to each image you upload.    It’s easy to add the alt-text or “alt-description” in WordPress or most blogging tools.  Your Alt-Text should contain an interesting, descriptive sentence about the image.   You are writing this to allow Google to “read” the image and better index it.  It also shows up on the Pin description for Pinterest, so it gives your content more reasons to be shared.

3. Make Your Content More Shareable

People enjoy sharing the things they love.  The downside for businesses doing online marketing is that unless your content is outstanding and relevant, you can resign yourself to not making the “shareable” list.

In an age where people are flooded with information on a minute-by-minute basis, consumers are becoming more selective about what they click on and subsequently share. After all, there are a limited number of hours in the day!

The solution?  When you include blog images, you make your posts engaging and exciting and more relatable,  and thus more shareable.

Easil has many templates that enable you to create tall, engaging images that get shared easily on Pinterest, like this one:

Find out more about Easil’s tall Pinterest images here.

Quick Tips for Creating Blog Images:

1. Use Stunning templates. Good graphic design can be the deciding factor that brings a halt to the scroll-cycle. It incites more readers to pass your content along.  If you use a design tool that has loads of professionally designed templates, you can create visuals like a pro with ease. You can easily switch out the image, font/text or content to create something unique. You don’t risk creating something that isn’t eye catching while still making it your own.
2. Use the Right Size –  Blog images are shared a lot (a lot!) to Pinterest.  It’s the perfect way to have your content shared in a visual sense. But in order to take advantage of all the Pinterest users who love sharing content, you need to be adding vertical images to your blog post.

4. Set Yourself Apart with Branding

That flood of information that consumers are receiving daily? A good deal of that info is sales-oriented. So if your target audience is continually being inundated with products similar to yours, how do you stand out?

Branding is more important than ever. Especially where your blog is concerned. A site with custom graphics and photos captivates readers and allows you to show how unique you are.

Creating branded images is a smart way to stand out because your audience start to recognise more than your logo. They recognise your overall look and feel. When this happens, if they love your content, they will stop the scroll and click through (from an image!) to read your posts.

Which is why we have a variety of branded blog header images on each post – like this landscape sized image, optimised for Facebook or Twitter:

Quick Tips for Creating Blog Images:

1. Even if you’re not skilled in graphic design, you can use Easil templates to create and customize blog images. This is an easy way to make a distinction between you and your competitors, and you don’t have to be an artist to do it.  Hot tip:  Stick to the template for best results and only change font, text, images (and not the core elements of the design).
2. Stick to one “style” of design, in terms of the color, font or borders you use. Have something across your images that stands out as being “you” on your blog graphics, and even your social media graphics. It could be as simple as your logo or a color scheme or a particular font combination.  With a few simple adjustments, your image will be totally unique and tailored to your purposes, furthering your brand and increasing interest in your blog.
3. Don’t forget to think about different sizes. The obvious thing may be to think about Pinterest or tall images that your blog visitors can share.  But what about landscape images (perfect for sharing to Facebook and Twitter) or even square images to share to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.  Add at least 2 images to your blog that can be shared.

Here’s a square version of our header image that could be shared to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter:

… or what about a Pinterest-optimized image:

5. Free Marketing for your Products 

Got something to sell?  There’s no better way to promote it than through an image. But guess what?  Many brands don’t realise the power that exists in merely showcasing their products in the right way on their blog.   Tall, relatable images are more likely to get shared by Pinterest users from your blog.

As Donna Moritz from Socially Sorted says, it’s like having an army of marketers doing your marketing for you – for free!

There’s an army of marketers on your website, looking for visual content to share – Donna Moritz

And added to that, it’s often reported that 80% of content shared on Pinterest is actually shared content. be in the 20% that is creating content for others to share. If you are, you’re already ahead of the pack!   Adding great images of your products, that are tall, and optimised for Pinterest is a great way to start.

Here’s an example of just one of our Pinterest Extra-tall templates for you to create an infographic about your products.  

Add your product information and images to this template – click to start designing.   

Click here to edit this template in Easil

Then, consider these tips as well:

Quick Tips for Creating Blog Images:

1. If you are showcasing your products, consider how you can share them in a way that is Pinterest friendly. This might include adding them to an infographic and showing how to use them in a tall image. Or, perhaps combining them into a group of products on a tall image.  Create images that show how to use your products and not just the products themselves.  This takes the focus away from being sales-oriented to being customer-oriented (ie how can your product help them).
2. Don’t delete old “pinterest-friendly” blog images without redirecting the page first. If you delete a landing page and the pin or image link still “goes” there, then that link is now essentially broken if someone clicks through from an image.  You’ve just lost your free marketing. For instance, say you have an annual event at your venue.  If you have finished the event for the year, don’t delete the old content. Instead redirect it to the new event landing page for the following year.  That way, the old pins will send people to the new event.  Win!

Use a Tool to Help You

Images are a powerful way to increase your blog’s visibility and your following. And with easy-to-use tools like Easil, there’s no reason not to start creating blog graphics that excite and invite people to take action and share your content.

If your blog is sleek, well-crafted and professional, you’re far more likely to gain people’s confidence and for them to relate to you.   Sophisticated, relatable graphics can contribute to how polished your site is. And thus, how likely your audience is to buy from you.

Your Turn

What has been holding you back from creating awesome blog graphics and blog images?