Images – Hugh's Views & News

How To Make The Images In Your Blog Posts More Powerful

Published on June 7, 2021June 7, 2021 by Hugh W. Roberts68 Comments

Did you know that you can make the images on your blog posts drive even more traffic to your blog, book page or your online store? They’re not there just to be looked at and admired.

Usually, when I click on an image or a photo on a blog post, all I get is a duplicate version of what I’m looking at. I feel like I’ve been taken down a dead-end road!

What could have happened is that when I clicked on an image or photo, I’m taken to another blog post, website, or even where I can buy the book of the cover I’m looking at.

Adding a pingback to images or photos is the answer. But how do you attach a pingback to an image?

Banner for the blog post 'How To Make The Images In Your Blog Posts More Powerful' — How To Make The Images In Your Blog Posts More Powerful

Not sure what a pingback is? My post ‘How To Create A PingBack On A WordPress Blog‘ gives full details.

Let’s get started.

As I use WordPress, I’m detailing how to do this using the Block editor. However, it should be a similar process on other blogging platforms.

Using the Image block, add a photo or image from your WordPress media library. As June is Pride month, I’m using the following image from a blog post I published last June.

Banner for True Stories: Gay Memories - rainbow-coloured paint in the background

Once you’ve place the image on your post, click on it to open up the toolbar of the Image block and click on the PingBack button.

Screenshot highlighting the 'PingBack' button. — PingBack button

A small Media File window opens.

Screenshot showing the Media File window that opens when clicking the pingback button — Media File

The media file is where the address of the webpage is pasted that you want readers directed to when clicking on the image. As I mentioned earlier, this can be one of your blog posts, the blog post of another blogger, or a website.

Copy the URL address of the page you want readers directed to and click the Edit button (pencil icon) in the media file window.

Screenshot highlighting the edit button on the Media File window when creating a pingback — The pingback edit button

In the top box of the new window that opens, paste the URL address you’ve copied.

Screenshot highlighting the 'Paste' box when inserting a pingback — Where to paste the URL address

If you are directing traffic to one of your blog posts, you can also search for the post by adding some words from its title in the same box.

Screenshot highlighting where to search for a blog post and to select it when creating a pingback — How to search for a blog post when creating a pingback

Click the arrow in the Link Settings box (see #2 on the next image) and switch on the ‘Open in a new tab‘ option (see #3 on the next image) so that the pingback opens in a new window. This is important, as it means your reader won’t lose the page they’re reading and be taken away from your blog.
Finally, click the Apply button (see #4 on the next image) to secure the link to where readers clicking your pingback will be taken.

Screenshot outlining the final points of creating a pingback on an image — Completing a pingback on an image

The image now has a pingback attached to it. Anyone clicking the image will be taken to the post/page/site you’ve created the pingback to.

Do the same for other images on your post. You can either create pingbacks to different locations, or to the same location. For example, for a photo on a Wordless Wednesday post, you can create a pingback to a previous Wordless Wednesday post, thus creating a new route for traffic to that post.

If you’re including an image of one of your books in a post, create a pingback to where readers can buy it.

Advantages of having pingbacks on your blog posts.

Creates traffic to your blog.
They are SEO friendly.
Blog posts that include pingbacks are ranked higher by search engine optimisations (SEOs) such as Google and Bing.
Bloggers, whose blogs you link to, may link back to one of your blog posts.
They are a great way of promoting older blog posts you have published.
You can use a pingback to direct traffic to where readers can buy your books or other goods.

Let’s wrap it up

Pingbacks help drive traffic to your other blog posts, the posts of other bloggers, or any website.
Pingbacks are easy to create.
Pingbacks can be attached to words, images or photos in a blog posts.
Don’t make your images a dead-end rote. Make them work by attaching pingbacks to them.
If you have an image of one of your books on a blog post, attach a pingback to it so that anyone clicking on it will be taken to where they can buy the book.
Always switch on the ‘Open in a new tab‘ option so that readers don’t lose your post. Some may not bother coming back to it once they’ve lost the page.

Do you have any questions on creating pingbacks or attaching them to images on your blog posts? Leave them in the comments section.

Looking for more blogging tips? Check out these recent posts from Hugh.

These 7 Methods Will Help Get More Readers To Your Blog

Searching for ways to get more people to your blog? These are seven methods I implemented to get more readers and followers to my blog.

by Hugh W. Roberts May 17, 2021May 17, 2021

5 WordPress Photo Editing Tools Available To Use On The Block Editor

Have you discovered these 5 cool photo editing tools on WordPress?

by Hugh W. Roberts May 27, 2021May 27, 2021

Are These The 7 Main Reasons Why Your Blog Is Losing Readers?

Are people unfollowing your blog for any of these reasons?
Why would you unfollow a blog?

by Hugh W. Roberts April 29, 2021April 29, 2021

How To Access And Use The WordPress Free Photo Library

Published on May 4, 2020June 7, 2020 by Hugh W. Roberts142 Comments

If you don’t know anything about the WordPress free photo library, it contains thousands of free images that can be used by all WordPress users.

#bloggingtips #blogging #WordPress #images #photos #Howto — The WordPress Free Photo Library

I’ve been using the feature ever since it first became available. I can’t remember when WordPress first launched it, but it was certainly more than 18 months ago.

I’ve been surprised by the number of WordPress users who didn’t know about the WordPress free photo library.

It got me wondering why they hadn’t found it. I think the main problem may have been that to access the library, you had to know where to look for it.

Now, ever since WordPress mentioned it on the new ‘My Home‘ page we all see on our blogs, it’s become a lot more visible.

#bloggingtips #blogging #WordPress #photo #free #library — See it on the home page of your blog

Not only does the photo library include hundreds of free photos, it’s also easy to use.

And when you factor in that a blog post that contains images is 70% more likely to get read, it makes sense why WordPress created a free photo library for all its users.

Here’s how to access and use it.

In the draft post below, I want to insert an image of a dog between the first and second lines of the post.

#blogging #bloggingtips #WordPress — This is a draft post on the WordPress blogging platform

Click the ‘+‘ add block symbol and click on the ‘image block.’

#bloggingtips #blogging #images #WordPress #Howto — Finding the image block

You can also use the ‘search for a block‘ bar to find the image block.

Inside the image block, click on ‘Media Library.’

#bloggingtips #blogging #WordPress #images #Howto — The Media Library

In your media library, click on the box in the top left corner (just above the ‘Add New‘ box.

#blogging #bloggingtips #Howto #images #photos #media #library — The WordPress Media library

On the small dropdown menu that opens, click on ‘Free photo library.‘

#blogging #bloggingtips #wordPress #media #library — Free Photo Library

You will now have access to the WordPress free photo library.

In the search bar of the library, type in ‘dogs.’

As you type, images will start appearing.

#blogging #bloggingtips #photos #images #WordPress #Howto — Type in a word associated with the images you are searching for

Select the image you want to add to your blog post and click on the ‘copy to media library‘ button (in the bottom right corner). In the image below, I’ve selected a photo of a corgi.

#blogging #bloggingtips #images #photos #Howto — Select the image you want to use and click on the ‘copy to media library’ button

The image now appears in your media library.

Make any edits to the image before adding it to your blog post.

#blogging #bloggingtips #WordPress #Howto #editing #images — Click the edit button to edit an image

Edits include –

Alternative text for the image.

Adding a title to the image (to make finding it easier).

A description for the image (so it’s easy for you to find).

Checking and editing the dimensions of the image. Click here to find out why and how to resize the dimensions of an image to help save storage space in your media library.

Once you’re happy with everything, click on the ‘Insert button.‘

The image will appear on the post.

#blogging #bloggingtips #WordPress #media #library #dogs — The image you selected will now appear on your blog post

Any credits are also added just underneath the image. This means you don’t need to worry about not giving credit to any owners of the images you are using. WordPress takes care of this for you when you use their free photo library.

Remember – you should always give credit to the owners of any images you use in your blog posts. Failure to do so could result in you being prosecuted and/or fined for copyright infringement.

Where I can, I prefer to use my own images on my blog posts. However, where I do not have a suitable image to use, the WordPress free photo library is a fantastic source for finding that perfect image to help compliment my post.

What about you?

Did you know the WordPress free photo library existed?

Are you using the WordPress free photo library?

Do you find it easy to use?

Have you encountered any problems using it?

Join the discussion by leaving your comments.

Did you enjoy reading this post? Then you may also like…

Blogging

How To Check That Your WordPress Blog Is Mobile-Friendly

Is your WordPress blog mobile-friendly?
If it’s not, here’s what you need to do.

by Hugh W. Roberts January 27, 2020June 7, 2020

How To Centre Captions Under Blog Images On The Gutenberg Editor

Published on December 2, 2019June 7, 2020 by Hugh W. Roberts78 Comments

Are you having problems getting captions under the images on your blog posts to align centre when using the Gutenberg editor?

When previewing the post, although captions looked centred, when a post is published, captions are aligned to the left under images, photos and pictures.

Up until a few weeks ago, I was having the same problem and was having to centre captions by creating a new paragraph block under images, photos and pictures, and centring the text from there.

However, this meant that if I used the same image again, I had to hunt down copyright notices because if I added details in the edit area of an image, the text always aligned to the left.

The result was captioning looked out-of-line, which in-turn spoilt the look of the images, photos and pictures, as well as the whole post. It wasn’t a look I liked.

However, with the help of the friendly folk at WordPress, I found a way of centring all captions when using any of the gallery or image blocks on the Gutenberg editor.

Let’s get started

Click on ‘My Site‘ or ‘My Sites‘ in the top left of your blog.

Click on Design, then on Customise.

In the new menu that opens, click on the CSS Panel.

Add the following code into the CSS box.

/* align caption on center-aligned images KG-15020525-hc */ .wp-block-image .aligncenter> figcaption { text-align: center; } /* KG-15020525-hc */

Click publish.

You’re done

Captions under images, photos and pictures on all your blog posts will now be centred.

A happy ending for this last blogging tips post from me for 2019.

Don’t worry; I’ll be back with lots more blogging tips posts in the New Year and a few more other blog posts before the end of 2019.

How To Add An Image To A Comment On A WordPress Blog

Published on April 25, 2019June 12, 2022 by Hugh W. Roberts83 Comments

Thank you to Chuck Jackson, who blogs at ‘The Many Pieces of Chuck Jackson’, for asking me a question about blogging after reading my blog post ‘Do You Have A Question About Blogging?‘

#bloggingtips #blogging #WordPress — Ask Hugh

Here’s Chuck’s question in full.

#bloggingtips #howto #blogging — Chuck’s question

When it comes to adding images and photos to comments, we have to be careful with what we add. We should always ensure the photo or image has a connection to the subject of the post we’re leaving the comment on.

I’ve added images and photos to my comments on my blog posts and the comments I have left on the blogs of other bloggers. However, not everyone likes photos or images left in comments, so I’d recommend you first ask the blogger concerned if they’re happy for you to add a photo or image to the comment.

Many bloggers will be happy for you to leave images and photos, but it’s always polite to ask. Of course, if the blogger has invited readers to leave a photo or picture, there is no need to ask.

For the question Chuck asked me, I will show you how I inserted an image into a comment when I responded to a comment left on one of my blog posts.

Adding images to your comments

Author and blogger John W. Howell left me a question on a recent post. He asked me how he could switch to the block editor. I thought adding a screenshot to my response would help John (and other readers) find the answer.

Here’s John’s question.

And here’s my response.

The image shown had to be split into two to capture all of it.

However, how did I get the image inserted into my comment?

First of all, I took a screenshot of the image I wanted to capture. On my iMac, I do this by pressing Shift-Command-4.

The screenshot was automatically saved to the desktop of my computer.

Next, I opened my WordPress media library and dragged the image to it. You’ll find the button to your media library on the dashboard of your WordPress blog.

Once the image had been added, I clicked on it and then clicked the edit button to open it.

On the righthand side of the screen, you’ll see a window where you can add a caption or description for your image. We’ll ignore these for now as we need to find the URL box.

Click the ‘copy’ button on the righthand side of the URL box, and paste the URL address into your comment.
Do not, at this stage, submit your comment as you need to edit one part of the text within the link.

Carefully delete the ‘s’ from the ‘https’ at the beginning of the link address, so it reads ‘http’. (If you do not delete the ‘s’ the image will not show in the comment).
Ensure you link ends with ‘.png’ or ‘.jpg’. If it doesn’t, delete any text after ‘.png’ or ‘.jpg’.

You can now submit your comment.

The image will now show within the comment. However, remember that if you are leaving an image in a comment on another blogger’s blog, they may have to approve it (and may even remove the link to the image) before it shows up.

I’ve only found this to work on WordPress.Com blogs. On self-hosted blogs, only the link to the image is visible rather than the image appearing. However, those clicking on the link will see the image.

I want to thank Chuck for asking his question and hope my answer has helped.

Meet Chuck

#author #writer #blogger #books — Author, Writer and Blogger, Chuck Jackson

Connect with Chuck.

Chuck is a retired accountant living in South East Florida in the U.S.A. He graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a B.B.A. in Accounting.

Chuck spent the last 25 years working as the Budget Manager for a Special District in Palm Beach County. He was a member of the Government Finance Officer’s Association (GFOA) and Florida’s GFOA.

Since his retirement, Chuck has spent his years studying and enhancing his writing. He currently has three published books available.

When not busy writing, Chuck loves to play golf and is a member of a local country club.

Want to give inserting an image or photo into a comment a go?

Leave me a comment with the link to your image. Perhaps it can be a photo of your latest book cover or of a family pet. I’ll leave it up to you, but family-friendly images only, please.

If you have any further questions about inserting images or photos into the comments, leave them in the comments section.

Don’t forget that if you have any questions about blogging, leave them in the comments section. I’ll feature you in the post I publish that answers your question.

Update – since publishing this post, I’ve discovered that not all images and photos will show if the security settings on your web browser are set high. However, this does not affect the images or photos you leave in your comments on your own blog posts. I recommend that you not change the security settings on your web browser.