One of the many benefits of using WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system, is featured images.
Once you add a featured image in WordPress, that image will be linked to your post & indexed in the search engines like Google.
This will send you a regular amount of free traffic depending on:
- How well you design your images
- The relevancy of the image and how well it paints a picture of your pages content
- Uniqueness of the image and how much it stands out from the other images indexed
A poor quality image reflects poorly on your site resulting in minimal click thru’s.
The solution to creating high quality, unique featured images which represent the content on a post is to use some of the best web design tools.
Firstly, lets take a quick look at what featured images are and how to easily add them in WordPress.
What Are Featured Images
Each edit post/page screen displays a module for adding featured images in your WordPress dashboard.
The image you add here should be unique to each particular post/page and paint a picture of what the content in that page is about.
It will be displayed as a post thumbnail next to the short description or teaser for each post listed on your home, blog and/or author archive pages.
It’s linked to the post that you attach it to and sized depending on your theme’s thumbnail image settings or what you choose when you add it as a featured image.
Adding Featured Images
Scroll down to the featured image module below the tags module in your edit post/page screen.
Click the set featured image link and add an image you want to featured for that specific post or page.
Choose the size, click the use as featured image link and save the changes.
Your image will then be added to the featured image module in your edit post/page screen.
You can easily change the image by clicking the remove featured image link in that module.
Web Design Tools
In this section of the post, i’ll show you 3 of the best desktop web design applications i use to create featured post thumbnail images in WordPress.
Paint.net
This is an application which is a bit like Adobe Photoshop but far easier to use.
Its an advanced version of MS paint which makes it very easy to add image layers and make unique images.
You can edit images like a Pro graphic designer and put them together on the one canvas quickly and easily.
Paint.net works on Windows so if you’re a Mac user try Gimpshop, the best free photo and image editing application.
Snagit
Possibly the best premium screen capture tool you’ll find.
This app makes it easy to capture parts of a page and add design so it looks professional.
There’s several free screen capture tools available as browser eextensions but they don’t come close to Snagit.
Snagit is made by the same company as Camtasia.
Pencil
One of the free wire frame apps which you can install as a browser or desktop application.
This tool has been specifically designed for web designers however you can use it to create featured images for use in your posts and pages.
Theme Specific
Different themes use and display featured images in different ways.
You can also use the featured image function in WordPress to display rotating/unique header images on different posts & pages depending on which theme you are using.
If you know of any good web design tools for Mac users, please leave a comment and share your tips. Thanks
pinterest.com/pin/2740159585… Web Design Tools for Creating Featured Images in WordPress
— Brad Dalton (@wpsitesdotnet) August 5, 2012
Brad Dalton
@wpsitesdotnet
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