You Should Read This Before You Select An Image For Your Next Online Content

The subtle art of feature image/thumbnail selection. With picture samples

By Oly AwambaPublished 2 years ago • 3 min read

This Photo by Pixabay from Pexels depicts how your readers will be in awe of your work after you apply these tips.

“One look is worth a thousand words.” — Frederick R. Barnard

'Ol Freddie did not exaggerate when he made this statement. It is tried and true.

Your feature image can increase the clicks on your story. It can also make people scroll past it.

It seems YouTubers have learned and mastered the importance of thumbnails more than writers have learned the importance of their feature image.

Sharing content online means it goes into the pool of millions of content released by millions of creators daily.

When you have this in mind, your mindset about feature image selection will change. Your feature image is for your audience. Not you. It should not be what you like. It should be what speaks to your subject (in some way) and is eye-catching.

“Featured images (also sometimes called Post Thumbnails) are images that represent the content, mood, or theme of a post, page, or custom post type.” — Wordpress
Featured images can transform long, content-heavy blogs into visually appealing posts. They add elements of:
Clickability: getting people to click on the link and look at the post
Readability: making the written content interesting and easy to process
Shareability: appeal that encourages readers to share the post socially. — Mito Studios.

Look at the image you want to select for that story again. Go peer at it; I’ll wait. Does it have even one of the elements stated?

Would you click on it if you saw it in another story?

Hold that thought of “Yes” in your head and look at these for a bit.

You are evaluating your image in isolation.

You should imagine it in this large pool of other images in a fierce battle for readers’ attention, instead. Your image is good. Like others are. But, is it great?

Your “Yes” is not so confident now, right?

You see how different it is when you see it through your readers' lens. How you’d hesitate to click on your story because of that bland image you’ve chosen. That’s the dilemma you put your audience through. They love your headline and want to click but the image makes them rethink that decision.

Will this writer live up to the promise in this headline when they chose this image?

Your thumbnail/feature image is your gateway to views and potential followers — Kelechi Mgbemena.

Choosing an image for your content should be more art than science. It should evoke emotions in your readers rather than explain your content.

Sample Images

What do you search for when your story is about Writing?

If you have written a terrific story about writers or writing, your headline already gives that promise. It is unnecessary to use an image that depicts writing again. Don’t overflog it.

Instead of searching for writing, do this — search with the overall theme of the story.

If your story is about writing making you/your audience happy

If your story is about writing making you/your audience tired and frustrated

Faces are attention-grabbers in feature images.

“Including a face in your featured image plays a huge role in marketing your content. Photos on Instagram with faces receive 30% more likes than those without. Humans are hard-wired to seek out faces, even in manmade objects.” — Angela Giles.

In Summary,

Featured images have the hard job of getting the clicks in a pool of other great headlines. The best way to maximize their effort is by:

Thinking about your audience during selection.
Imagine your photo in a lineup of other brilliant pictures. Not in isolation, during selection.
Using them like headlines. As attention-grabbers more than a description of your content.