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A picture's worth a thousand words; “Read more” with a good header image

It’s a big place out there online. Each screen we open provides infinite opportunities to scroll, click and find just the answer we’re looking for. In an age of fleeting attention spans, making your business stand out amongst the crowd is increasingly important.

When publishing a press release your choice of header image is just as important as the story to help people find your business online. It’s the first thing people see and is a determining factor in whether someone clicks through to read what you have to say. Once you’ve written your press release on the Bdaily publishing platform you may be eager to share it with the world and get your company name out there. However, the significance of fine-tuning every aspect of your online content, including your header image mustn’t be underestimated.

In this article, we will delve into the crucial role header images play in grabbing your audience’s attention and discuss how your header image can significantly elevate the overall impact of your content. Even more crucially, we’ll cover how to optimise your header image to ensure it compliments your content marketing efforts.

Why is it important to optimise your header image?

Making a good first impression

You may have heard the saying; you never get a second chance at a first impression. That’s just as true for your online presence as well as in person. Whether someone is actively looking for your business or stumbles across you when searching online, every place your business appears - in a news article, social media post, advertisement or elsewhere - builds a picture of who you are and what you stand for. Therefore, to maintain your brand’s credibility it’s important to refine every aspect of your digital footprint.

Adding visual interest

As humans, we’re naturally drawn to visuals. They’re both a quick and easy way to communicate our ideas across the internet. Visually rich media shouldn’t be an afterthought when crafting compelling content as it’s usually the first thing that catches someone’s eye. Photos, images, videos and graphics all play an important role in the success of your written article, PR efforts and overarching content marketing strategy by encouraging viewers to take action and read on.

Providing context and relevance

A press release does more than inform the world what your business is doing; it tells a story and imagery plays a vital role in the plot. A good image will give additional visual information that is distinct and can’t be assumed from the text. This information puts your article into context. Hence logos tend to make bad header images. Whilst they are a visual representation of a business, they don’t tell a specific story.

Shareability

When readers find your header image visually appealing or thought-provoking, they are more inclined to share your post. This extends the reach of your article beyond your immediate audience. Each share exposes your content to a new audience, increasing the visibility and impact of your content marketing efforts.

Improved visibility in search engines

Once your press release gets published on Bdaily News it doesn’t just stay there. It gets added to search engines index ready to show up in search engines like Google and Bing for anyone to find. Search engines consider the relevance and quality of content and images when ranking pages. A unique, well-optimised header image can enhance your article’s SEO performance and make it more discoverable to search engine users.

Accessibility and improved user experience

A well optimised header image does more than just reinforce your brand identity and establish your business as a trustworthy source of information. It also helps with the accessibility of your content. This in turn improves your overall user experience as it allows screen readers, keyboard navigators and other accessibility devices to understand your image.

How to optimise your header image

From choosing the right image to fine-tuning its technical aspects, let’s explore some effective ways to optimise the header image of your press release and make a lasting impression on your audience.

Tell a story

Selecting an image that directly relates to the article you’re publishing will significantly help the viewership. As previously discussed, your image provides additional context to your article. This is why using a logo for a header image doesn’t work so well; It doesn’t give any additional or novel information specific to your news.

When choosing your header image think about the central message or story of your article and use this to guide your choice. A good starting point is to consider the who, the what and the where of the article.

Who is involved in the story?

Is there someone that’s quoted or commented on the matter? It could be the CEO, a team or a range of individuals across multiple organisations. These are all significant people and including their image adds vital context to your news.

What is the story about, or what does your business do?

This should be accurately reflected in your header image to avoid your article being perceived as misleading or clickbaity which can frustrate readers.

And finally, where is this all happening?

Photos taken outside or inside your business premises are a great example of this. Something more creative could be using landmarks and skylines or artistic interpretations.

Keep it real

As standard all news content should be rooted in objectivity and accuracy. In an era of fake news and digital manipulation, photos edited using filters and effects blur the boundaries of fact and fiction. To maintain a neutral position, it is best practice to use unaltered images for your press release. In doing so you provide accurate representation of the subject or event, which in turn enhances the trustworthiness of your business.

Add clear alt text

What is alt text?

Alt text, short for ‘alternative text’, is a small but crucial piece of information added to images on websites. It’s a short description of what’s in the image, designed to help search engines find your images as well as support people who have difficulty seeing the image.

How to write alt text

Well crafted alt text not only makes your press release more accessible for everyone, it also helps search engines index your content, creating more ways for your business news to be discovered. Getting started with writing alt text is simple;

• Be Specific - Describe exactly what you can see, use the subject and the context of the image to guide you.
• Keep it short - Be concise and avoid keyword cramming as this can damage the user experience. Stick to more aesthetic descriptions and aim to use fewer than 125 characters.
• Write only the description - There’s no need to use “picture of…” or “Image of…” at the start of your alt text as this will be obvious to the SERP and user. Jump right in with writing your description.
• Review for spelling errors - Misspelt words in image alt text could damage the user experience or confuse search engines crawling your site. Review alt text like you would any other content on the page.

Adding alt text in the Bdaily Publishing Suite

When you’re adding an image to your article in the Bdaily publishing platform, filling in the Image Description box in the Set Image Details window will update the alt text.

Priortisise high quality images

First impressions count. And when you’ve got an out of focus, blurry or pixelated image representing your business it makes a pretty poor impression. Especially as anyone who sees it is a potential new client. You don’t need any photography skills to take a good photo. A well framed photo taken in good, natural lighting with a phone will gain attention just as much as professional imagery.

Landscape imagery is standard across most online news outlets however dimensions can vary from site to site. We suggest a minimum of 1860px x 870px for publishing to Bdaily. You should also aim for a file size of under 1-2 MB to ensure a quick loading time for your image. Free image compression tools are available to reduce the file size without compromising quality.

In Conclusion

A good header image adds more than just visual interest to your article. It elevates your brand’s story and supports accessibility, improving the overall user experience. Choosing and refining your header image plays an important role in assisting your content marketing efforts and overall discoverability online. It is a strategic tool that should not be underestimated as it can be used to influence engagement and overall perception of your business.

If you’re looking to regularly share your company’s or client’s news with an audience of business interested readers our PR Subscriptions have you covered. From £100 per month, you’ll get access to publishing rights for multiple profiles across the members news section of Bdaily. Plus you can add up to five advertorial links that drive traffic through to your website. Take a look at the packages available here or contact the team at marketing@bdaily.co.uk to find out how to get your news in front of a business audience.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Bdaily Digital Marketing Team .