I have struggled many a time to find the right image for my website or a clients. Despite the fact Images are crucial to breaking up long blocks of text, conveying ideas or adding visual appeal they are still a pain in the ass to find. They are also a pain to make match your website brand and vibe.

As an SEO nerd and not a designer the struggle is extra real because I don’t have the deep skills that design wizards have to turn stock images from places like unsplash into something interesting or fun.

Even worse, when I do write I like data and images that need to help convey complex ideas like infographics or charts convey a ton of information but no vibes. A vibeless site is a forgettable site – in other words – my site images should reflect my site as well as the information I am writing about.

“A vibeless site is a forgettable site”

So, my challenge has been this – how do I create images that are interesting for my site that are engaging?

Ironically while I am still working on it for this site every day I found it to be easy for my pool builder website Crazy Creature Pools. Lets come back to that in a minute. First lets look at why we should focus on creating some custom images (outside of them just being better).

Enhanced Visibility in Image Search Results

Designing your own images for your blog can help your rank. Sounds counterintuitive, because Google doesnt make aesthetic judgements but there are more than just the aesthetics of an image that are important to SEO. Custom images allows you control over the minutiae of image file SEO for example.
Image File SEO
Creating custom images means complete control over how you are seen visually and how Google reads your image metadata. As we’ve already asserted – what gets seen gets clicked. But, first we need to get to those top spots in Googles results.

Any image you don’t create yourself comes with metadata that Google uses to understand its relevancy. Some of the metadata that Google has been shown to review are things like image file name, tags and meta title. Google also uses machine learning to understand the context of what is in the image to back up the meta data they review and vice versa.

[IMAGE OF AN IMAGES META DATA]

When you create an image yourself from scratch by doing your own photography or taking inspiration and editing other photos in tools like Photoshop you are able to craft image metadata to better rank for your chosen topic. This metadata is embedded in the image itself before you even get to optimising it by including keywords and phrases in file names, alt texts, and descriptions for onapge SEO.

Onpage SEO Boost

Onpage SEO is easier when custom SEO optimised image files are added to your content and the extra layer of SEO that you add to that for onpage SEO is more effective.

For example, if your blog post is about “infinity edge rectangular pools,” a you can see here. I have created a custom designed image in Canva that uses a seed image of a pool (lifted from Google search but attributed fairly to the owners). To make the image both branded but interesting in the SERPs i have used Canva to add custom colours and wording that both Google and social media sites like Facebook can read with their algorithms.

I set the alt text for the image to say;

Custom meta data from your custom images enhance your onpage SEO by aligning the clues Google sees from the onpage data with what your image is claming to represent in its alt text and description.

Stand Out for Clicks

Eye-Catching Visuals

ngaging and unique images are more likely to catch users’ attention in search results and on social media. When your images stand out among a sea of generic stock photos,your more likely to get a click.

No matter where you are on the web images are a large part of how we browse, learn and share information. Custom images are going to attract the eye more than another post with the same generic stock image sourced from unsplash.
Improved Engagement

Custom images can also improve user engagement by providing a more immersive and enjoyable reading experience. When users find your content visually appealing, they are more likely to stay on your page longer, explore other content, and ultimately take action, such as sharing your post or subscribing to your newsletter.

A custom infographic that summarizes key points from your blog post can make complex information more digestible and engaging. This can encourage users to read the entire post, interact with the content, and share it with others.

Social Media Impact

When you post content to your website most CMS will give you the option to set a social sharing image or will default to one from the page you post. These images have an impact on social media also as the same image is used when you share your post as a link to Facebook, LinkedIn or wherever.

Custom designing images and setting those as your main image for when your link is shared on social media can improve the attention your site when people post your link in comment sections or to their feed. Click rates on social media sites for external links are already dismal so equipping your site with cool custom images can draw more attention.

Custom images are also great for reposting and sharing on the various sites. When you publish something for your website one of the hardest things to do can be to promote it. While automation using things like ChatGPT and Zapier can help you to decide what to say about the post you will still need a visual. Repurposing those unique visuals you’ve come up with into a size and format friendly for each of the popular social networks is an easy way to get a base level of content out.