Featured images - When they matter and how to stand out
Alexandra Cote, PhD
Empathic SaaS Content Marketer | Writer | YouTuber | Growth Consultant
When you look at a blog’s homepage you tend to see either stock photos or illustrations. None of these situations make brands stand out.
At least in most cases.
Even when using illustrations, these tend to be pulled from Shutterstock or one of those free illustration libraries everyone’s already using.
So who’s getting their featured images right?
Slab - highly symbolic images with a consistent style
Grammarly - simple cover illustrations that match their brand
ClickUp - custom and sometimes funny
Pitch - diverse images but all owned and brand-friendly
Reply - pick a style and stick to it
Help Scout - choosing images from different illustrators and making sure they match the overall brand and theme
But beyond branding and possibly making your post stand out on social media, the featured images you have don’t matter that much.?
So should you dump all of your money into top-notch designs from day one??
领英推荐
Nope. There’s lots of other ways to make your imagery stand out:
Lokalise - reusing the same elements
HelpCrunch - take a fun approach with the stock pics you have
Tettra - use templates and simple elements you can create them yourself
Further reading:
Remember that featured images can appear in the SERP on the following instances where having an image that pops out will matter:
Further reading:
NOTE:
Some blogs also add the featured image at the very top of the post. Make sure you properly size it and include an ALT tag. Refer to the previous edition on ALT tags for more details. If you enjoyed this edition, don't forget to?send it to a friend!?
Until next time,
Alexandra Cote
Ecommerce Analytics Consultant | Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager & Looker Studio since 2016 | Question E-commerce Newsletter | A very special coworking Podcast
2 年Love the examples! I'll look at mine now...
Uncovering stories on Ship it and Sip it | Maker @ Paralect & ClipWing
2 年admittedly biased, but I really enjoyed this one from our design team — matches the theme with clever simplicity.