August 12, 2010 11:30 AM

mWhen it comes to writing engaging blog posts, having optimized carefully selected images can be a good way to engage your readers and encourage interest in your posts. Images are also an important aspect of a business blog's SEO strategy and can help bring in readers based on organic search. There are several ways to optimize your images and this post will hopefully help give you some tips on how you can find the best images you can and then how you can optimize them.

First things first, why are images important?

1. Images add visual interest to your posts and can help illustrate your point
2. Images are one of the  first things people look at when they come to your blog post and can help draw a reader in 
3. An intriguing image can help create curiosity about the content of your post
4. Interesting images are easy to remember and can help your readers memorize the subject or key point in your post
5. Having optimized images is essential for helping you get found in Google Image Search

1. Flickr. We're sure that most of your have heard of Flickr, one of the most popular video and photo sharing sites on the internet today. Flickr can be a great place to find interesting blog images. By choosing the "Only search Creative Commons-Licensed Content" under the "Advanced Search" section, you can search thousands of photos licensed specifically for shared use.
2. Webshots. Webshots is another popular video and photo sharing site. The site has free account sign up, similar to Flickr, but it doesn't have a Creative Commons search option so to use images you need to send a message to the user who owns the photo and request permission to use the image. This might seem like a little bit more work, but if it's the right image, it's worth it!  
3. Stock.xchange. This is a photo sharing database, where you can search and download free stock photos uploaded by other users.
4. Flickr.

Blogger Profile: Marqui Web Marketing Blog
Marqui's Web Marketing Blog is brought to you by their marketing and consulting team to share ideas, best practices and trends from the world of web marketing. The blog aims to cover a broad array of topics relating to web marketing including content management, conversion optimization, SEO, email marketing and lead nurturing.

Posted by Sue Ansell at August 12, 2010 11:30 AM

Categories: General Sales and marketing

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