Featured images

When they matter and how to stand out

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?

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:

How to make your blog images stand out & reflect your identity [this is the best blog post on Earth]

Remember that featured images can appear in the SERP on the following instances where having an image that pops out will matter:

When you get a featured snippet
Within the image search results
Under the News and Top stories sections [not applicable for B2B blogs]

Further reading:

SEO for Google Images | Search Central Lightning Talks

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

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