how to add a picture to your blog header

This looks like a really nifty, easy way to get your photo on your header...

Optimizing images for SEO

f you are for instance a blogger or write articles for an online magazine or newspaper, you encounter this question on a probably daily basis: should I add an image to my article? The answer is “Yes”. Images make an article more vivid and can actually contribute to improving the SEO for your article. In this post, I’d like to explain the steps that should be taken to fully optimize an image for SEO.

Use images

Images, when added with a certain consideration, will help understand your article a lot. “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Yeah, well, probably not for Google, but it can for sure spice up a 1000 dull words, illustrate what you mean in a chart or data flow diagram, or simply make your social media efforts more attractive.

It’s a simple recommendation: use images to every article you write online. It’ll make it more appealing.

Finding the right image

If you have the opportunity to add your own image, please do so. Your team page needs pictures of your team, not this dude on the right or one of his stock photo friends. Off topic: let alone that the dude might need a haircut.

Your article needs an image that has the same subject as your article. If you would use an image, just to use an image and get a green bullet in our SEO plugin, you are doing it wrong. The image should reflect the topic of the post, or have illustrative purposes within the article, of course.

There is a simple image SEO reason for that: an image that is surrounded by related text, ranks better for the keyword it is optimized for. More details on image SEO later.

You might have seen the images we are using for our posts (the ones with the titles). We have added these for a number of reasons:

• They emphasize the title or subject of the post
• It’ll trigger a visitor to read the post, as the first view isn’t just text
• These images are used in OpenGraph tags and Twitter Cards, which will add the image to our social shares.

Just another way to go about adding images. By the way, most of these ‘featured images’ are stock photos. We have made them our own by adding the title in the same way over and over, making the actual image subservient to the text in the image. That goes against a much heard recommendation to not add text in images, but as mentioned, we use that specific image for other purposes, not per se for SEO.

If there is no way to use images of your own, there are other ways to find more unique images and refrain from using stock photos. Flickr.com is a nice image source for instance, as explained in this article: How to Use Creative Commons Images from Flickr. I also like the images provided by sites like freeimages.com (formerly known as sxc.hu). Check here for more image resources. You should stay away from the obvious stock photos, and rather pick the ones that look (ok, just a bit) more genuine. It almost seems like images with people always look like stock photos, unless taken by yourself. In the end, that is still the best idea.

Obvious alternatives for photos could be illustrations, like we sometimes use, or graphs, of course. An honorable mention should go to animated GIFs, as these seem to become more and more popular these days.

Animated GIFs are very popular these days

Don’t go overboard. It’ll make your post less attractive to read, as your reading will be interrupted by the movement in the image, of course. Like in the post where I found the above image.

Preparing images for use in your article

When you have found the right image to use, either an illustration, chart or photo, the next step is to optimize that image for use on your website. There are a number of things to take in consideration:

Choose the right file name

Image SEO starts with the right file name. Of course this is the first location to use that keyword. Without even looking at the actual image, you want Google to know what the image is about. It’s simple: if your image is a sunrise in Paris showing the Notre Dame, the file name shouldn’t be DSC4536.jpg, but notre-dame-paris-sunrise.jpg. The main keyword would be Notre Dame, as that is the main subject of the photo, that is why I added that at the beginning of the file name.

Scale for image SEO

Loading times are an important UX and therefore SEO aspect. The faster the site, the easier to visit and index a page is. Images can have a huge impact on loading times, especially when you load a huge image and show it really small, like using a 2500×1500 pixels image and showing it at 250×150 pixels size. The entire image will still have to be loaded. Scale the image to the size you want to show it. WordPress helps by providing the image in multiple sizes after upload already. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean the file size is optimized as well, that’s just the image size.

Reduce file size

The next step in image SEO should be to make sure that scaled image is served in the smallest file size possible. There are tools for that. Of course you could just export the image an test what percentage of quality is acceptable, but I prefer (especially with retina and similar screens) to use 100% quality images.

Optimize image file size for instance using JPEGMini

You can still reduce the file size of these images by for instance removing the EXIF data. We recommend using tools like ImageOptim or websites like JPEGMini or PunyPNG. I’ve also heard great stories about Kraken.io, but I haven’t used that myself, to be honest.

After you have uploaded the image, tools like YSlow can tell you if your image optimization succeeded.

Adding the image to your article

Don’t just stuff it in somewhere. I already mentioned adding it near / at / in related textual content. That simply helps a lot. It makes sure the content is relevant for the image as well, as it is the other way around.

Captions

The caption of the image is the text that accompanies the image. At most images in this article, it’s the text in the gray box below it. Why is that text important for image SEO as well? People use that text in scanning an article. Next to headings, people tend to scan the image and include the caption as well in that scan. Nielsen actually wrote back in 1997: “Elements that enhance scanning include headings, large type, bold text, highlighted text, bulleted lists, graphics, captions, topic sentences, and tables of contents.” In 2012, KissMetric even stated that “Captions under images are read on average 300% more than the body copy itself, so not using them, or not using them correctly, means missing out on an opportunity to engage a huge number of potential readers.”

Do we add captions to all images? No. As mentioned, sometimes images just serve another purpose. Decide whether the image at hand is an image you want to use for SEO as well or not. Keeping over-optimization in mind, I’d say you should add a caption if it would make sense to the visitor if that caption is added. Think about the visitor first, don’t add a caption just for image SEO.

Alt text and title text

The alt text is added to an image so there will be a descriptive text when the image for whatever reason can’t be displayed to the visitor. I can’t put it any better than Wikipedia: “In situations where the image is not available to the reader, perhaps because they have turned off images in their web browser or are using a screen reader due to a visual impairment, the alternative text ensures that no information or functionality is lost.” Be sure to add alt texts. Make sure the alt text includes your SEO keyword and relates to / describes the image. DigitalSherpa did a nice article on How to Write SEO-Friendly Alt-Text For Your Images.

When hovering an image, IE shows the alt text as a ‘tooltip’. Chrome show the title text,like it was intended. Title text for images is similar and a lot of people that use these simply copy the alt text. More and more people simply leave these out. What is it for? “The title attribute can be very useful, but it is not a safe way of providing crucial information. Instead it offers a good way to provide non-essential information, for example the mood of the image, or what it means in context.” it’s nice to have information indeed, and isn’t taken in account for image SEO.

OpenGraph

I mentioned using the image for social sharing. If you add the right image tag to your <head>section like this:

<meta property="og:image" content="http://example.com/link-to-image.jpg" />

That will make sure the image is included in your share on Facebook (and OpenGraph is also used for Pinterest, for instance). Our WordPress SEO plugin has a Social section where you can set this image. Make sure to use a high quality image, like the original image you use in the post, as higher quality / larger images tend to be used by the social platforms more often. If you have set this up correctly, and it doesn’t work, try to flush Facebook’s cache in the URL Debugger.

Twitter Cards do the same for Twitter, and are also generated by our plugin.

Alignment

Let me be honest, this is a pet peeve of mine. Images shouldn’t break the left reading line. I’m sure there are studies about this but I’m taking full responsibility for this myself: I just really don’t like it when text starts on the right of an image, only to jump below the image later:

Maintain the left reading line; don’t align images to the left

If an image is used that is the same width as your textual column, that would be no problem. It will even help emphasizing the image more.

Note that this has absolutely nothing to do with image SEO, but I saw an opportunity to express my opinion and used it :) I think it’s bad for user experience. Just to please me: don’t. Thanks a lot for that.

XML image sitemaps

If you are a web developer, you might wonder about XML image sitemaps. I’d rather say: images in XML sitemaps. Google is pretty clear about this:

To give Google information about images on your site, you’ll need to add image-specific tags to a sitemap. You can use a separate sitemap to list images, or you can add image information to an existing sitemap. Use the method works for you!

Every now and then, people ask us about XML image sitemaps. We don’t generate these in our plugin, but as Google states, instead these images are included in the page or post sitemaps. Just scroll down in our post sitemap and find that we have added images to all our latest posts (there is a column telling you that). Adding images to your XML sitemaps help Google index your images, so be sure to do so for better image SEO.

TL;DR

Image SEO is the sum of a number of elements. With Google being able to recognize elements in the image better every day, it makes sense to make sure the image and all elements contribute to user experience as well as SEO. It would be foolish to try to fool Google.

Take these things in mind when adding an image to an article:

• Use a relevant image that matches your text
• Pick the right file name for your image
• Make sure image dimension match the image size as displayed
• Reduce file size for faster loading
• Add a caption for easier scanning of the page
• Use an image alt text, title text is optional
• Add OpenGraph and Twitter Card tags for the image
• Don’t break the left reading line using an image
• Use images in your XML sitemaps

Next to image SEO and using images for user experience, images can also play an important role in conversion. If you like to know more about that, be sure to read Thijs’ post: Visually direct and captivate your visitors

Source https://yoast.com/image-seo/

Frank Kern's Secret to Success Is Simpler Than Expected

Success seems to elude many people, like fog when you grasp at it with your fingers. You come away empty-handed.

I sat down with the celebrity entrepreneur known as the "President of the Internet", Frank Kern. We talked about how he progressed from a "How to Train Your Parrot" ebook, to being the highest paid internet marketing consultant, and working with Tony Robbins in very short period of time.

Early in his life, Frank Kern was like most of us. He couldn't seem to get a handle on becoming successful, earning a good living and, most importantly, loving what he did.

Sure, he worked hard - at times, harder than most. As a young salesman, he hated what he was selling and didn't enjoy the prospect of cold calling and going door-to-door to face rejection. Of course, who would?

One thing, however, that makes Frank Kern stand head and shoulders above the rest of us is that he took the time to notice when someone else was being successful - and he learned from them.

I'm not saying he immediately stopped struggling. Most importantly, and this is a common trait of successful people, he had the perseverance to doggedly keep going when all was lost. And you'll find that not everyone will do that.

To say that Frank Kern has figured out the secret to success is an understatement. He's living proof that the great Zig Ziglar was right. According to Ziglar, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

According to Kern, "There's a misconception among business people that it's about the 'thing' they're selling or it's about the marketing they're doing to sell that 'thing.' It's never about the thing you're selling (which, of course, should be excellent). The most important thing is the market, the people that the thing is going to be sold to."

Further, he goes on to say, "There must be an existing market of people who are intensely interested in getting the result that the thing promises and that the thing must deliver. Without the focus on that first, all is lost."

He believes that all marketing should be about that customer. It should be about providing the solution to a problem or need they have. In other words, it should be about helping those people.

One of the downfalls many business people have is that they have a great idea they're passionate about. The problem becomes when they fail to determine if others feel the same way about their idea. If there is no demand for your product or service, you're going to have a very difficult uphill battle which is likely going to end in defeat.

The guiding focus that has made Kern successful in recent years is his deep-seated belief that the amount of income you're going to generate in any market is directly proportional to the amount of goodwill that you have in that marketplace.

Kern further believes that you create goodwill by providing value to others from the very beginning of your relationship with them. In other words, he provides results in advance.

He has found that when you provide value to others without the expectation of anything in return - when you provide results first - eventually, others will be happy to provide value back to you in terms of income. You find a market, create an appetite for what you offer and they will buy it.

He shares, "Metaphorically, if you have someone who's hungry and you give them a little bit of food, you've only whetted their appetite and they're going to be hungrier. So the methodology I like to use is pull, instead of push. You make your marketing itself valuable to the end user and when you do that, they come to you. You don't have to chase them. You don't have to use the hype. You don't have to bash them over the head or any of that. Just demonstrate you can help them by actually helping them. It's a novel concept."

Kern has a lot of fun engaging with others and helping them as much as he can. From the stage, with video and the written word, he has a history of regaling others with entertaining stories and a fun approach to doing business.

As a result, he has built a loyal audience of raving fans who listen to him with rapt attention, end up buying the programs he creates and ravenously beg for more.

Help others and become successful? Yes, it truly is as simple as that.

Source

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-horn/frank-kerns-secret-to-suc_b_5785006.html

Making Money With Internet Marketing - Where to Start

By Trung Seng

Making money with Internet marketing (IM) can be daunting at times, there are times when you just want to destroy your computer. There are also times when you are desperate and find sites that offer you quick moneymaking schemes overnight. Many of the websites out there to offer this are completely BS! All they are doing is stealing money from you. The truth is making money with Internet marketing takes time and dedication, if you do not have this do not continue reading.

Firstly what is internet marketing? It can be defined as marketing of products (digital and retail) and services over the Internet, it can also be referred to as online marketing or e-marketing. It can include various online activities such as promoting websites, blogs, articles, press releases, e-mail marketing, paperclip marketing, self-promotion and branding.

Secondly it is for people who have a passion to strive to be better than middle-class, it is for people who do not want to depend on their jobs as the only source of income. Making money with Internet marketing is not for people who want to get rich overnight, and is not for people who do not bother to put in time and dedication to see results. There are many ways that you can earn money online through IM, two ways are article marketing and pay-per-click.

So a lot of people wonder which technique to start with, this solely depends on you. If you don't have much money and that's okay, Internet marketing I believe it is only business that offers you the opportunity to make money without spending money legally. To do this the Internet marketing technique that you would pick would be article marketing, this is a type of advertising by writing short articles related to business' respective industry. Once the article has been written, the author makes these articles freely available for distribution and publication in the marketplace by posting them in article directories such as this one. I suggest for the new people who decide to make money with internet marketing, to pick this technique because your mistakes will not cost you anything.

Pay-per-click is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites/blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser' websites. I recommend using this technique after you have familiarized yourself with article marketing this technique can be quite costly if you do not have a strong foundation.

If you want more information on how to Make money with Internet Marketing [http://www.squidoo.com/MakingmoneywithIM] please visit the link!

Making money with Internet marketing can be challenging but if you're dedicated and patient you will succeed. For the people with no knowledge of Internet marketing, article marketing is the way to go, use this to your advantage to build up your foundation and then move on to pay-per-click.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2077560

Get Facebook Traffic to Your Website

Here's a great webinar replay about getting traffic to your website using Facebook ads with Anik Singal. Loads of great content. Not sure how long the replay is up, so enjoy it while you can...
Here's the link
http://www.aniksingal.com/ipro2replay/

How to Create a Website - Tutorial for Beginners

If you want to use Twitter as a means to get exposure for your online business, the following article has some really pertinent advice.