10 Reasons WHY Readers Need Images

Sometimes that first sentence is just not enough to grab a reader’s attention. Today, you must grab that attention in 8 seconds or less. How, you ask? Images. Yes, images are great tools which can build interest and keep the reader on the page.

Whether you write a blog, generate a website, or create social media posts, images are how you create that friendly, emotional connection with your readers. You need images when you write.

There are at least 10 different reasons WHY you should use images within your work:

1. Short reader attention spans: experts claim we writers have less than 8 seconds to

attract and hold a reader's attention. This is a shorter attention span than a goldfish-— Uck. Images will tempt your readers into delving deeper into your work.

2. Expressive relationship with your readers. If your posts are pretty, friendly, positive, your readers will tend to connect with your words. Images add that extra layer of goodness over the wisdom of your words.

3. Search engines love images. To fully benefit from

this, you must be sure to add tags, descriptions, alt text, titles, keywords, and anything your website might require. Just don’t stick an image on a page. Google’s visual search is only getting better, so you can benefit by adding images.

4. Great first impression. What does your post/blog/website, etc. look like? Images bring

the eyes of the reader through and across the page. Those images attract and therefore, that reader will stay longer.

5. Good graphics. If you spend time choosing, cropping, saving

for web devices, etc., your work will acquire a professional look rather than an amateur effort.

6. Understandable. Good, appropriate graphics make your text much easier to understand.

7. Images become a stop sign. Social media scrollers tend to stop at posts with images. Consider your own behavior when on Facebook or LinkedIn: aren’t you drawn to posts with images?

8. Images make content memorable. A good image will help your readers to remember

and understand your content.

9. Visually appealing. Your content, sprinkled with interesting images, will become much more appealing to any of your readers.

10. Longer posts. Images extend the length of your posting, which is something that search engines love. You don’t increase the number of words; you have just physically lengthened your post.

How to Manage Images for Publication

1. Choose well. Your image should enhance the content of your post.

2. Use high quality images.

3. Crop, compress, and do any other manipulation necessary to make the image properly

fit and load quickly.

4. Only use photos which are yours, free, royalty free, creative commons, or those you

have written permission to use.

5. When possible, cite the photographer.

Sources for Images

I personally like and use two websites in particular:

Unsplash.com and pixabay.com

Each serves a different purpose for me, and believe me, I am most grateful to the wonderful photographers who support those sites.

I have also developed a list of 82 Image sites, mostly free, which I am giving to my subscribers. This is a FREE PDF intended to give a multitude of resources to my readers. Subscribe and you will find it in your email box! Thanks!