Optimizing Images For Best Social Sharing
In this latest blog post, I am sharing my ultimate cheat sheet on how to properly optimize images for best social sharing.
There comes that moment when you discover great content and want to Pin it and share it with your fellow Pinners. And then you click to pin and the completely wrong image comes up if any for you to pin… what a bummer!
From small content creators to major influencers, I’ve seen it time-to-time this dilemma of incorrectly optimized images for a blog.
Or better yet, you’ve spent time and energy creating and or outsourcing your optimize image creation, and by the time you published and shared this content, this image shows incorrectly in your sites.
Not only is this issue annoying but a bad thumbnail or any optimize image could seriously hurt the performance of your post on social media networks.
Images play a vital role in garnering social engagements and research show that having correctly optimized images can help to generate more social shares, likes, and comments. A very good example is that you get 98% more comment rate on LinkedIn when you add an image to your post. But your images should have the right image – not just your company logo, a cut-off photo or even a call to action button or even random images pulled from your website.
A very good example is that you get 98% more comment rate on LinkedIn when you add an image to your post. With that, your optimized images should have the right size image, your logo or a signature, and call to action button or even random images pulled from your website.
How do you ensure then that you can pull the right images for each social network that you have? Make sure to apply correct and to optimize images for best social sharing with the simple and easy to keep Infographic I created, for you to PIN and keep near.
The Best Optimized Image for Social Sharing
The impact of social media optimized images for engagement, clicks and more are rather phenomenal. I found out that tweets with images on them can gain at most 150% more retweets as compared to those that don’t have images.
In my search for the easiest and fastest way to create optimized images that will work best for your social feeds, I came across two image sizes which became my go-to image sizes:
Vertical (portrait) – 800 x 1,200 pixels
Horizontal (landscape) – 800 x 1,200
You’ve all been asking the right optimized images size for best social sharing – and I am giving you my ultimate cheat sheet in this post + you can PIN Infographic I created for you to KEEP absolutely FREE, which can be your go to cheat-sheet when comes to Optimizing your Images!
Here are the best, optimized images sizes for best social sharing (everything is in pixels):
Apart from the best image sizes for social media sharing, I also came up with the list of ideal image sizes for each social network, which you can see just above this sentence. Use the above image as your cheat sheet for optimizing correct size for your social sharing.
The orientation of your images – whether it’s vertical or horizontal, will be the always be the deciding factor with which Facebook uses to show your image. For a square image, the maximum allowable size in Facebook feeds is 470 pixels. If you are to upload smaller images, chances are these images will appear a bit blurry when resized to 470 pixels square.
- Cover 851 x 315
- Profile Photo 180 x 180
- Link Images 1200 x 627
- Shared Images 1200 x 900
On a desktop view, images in Twitter appear on the timeline at 506 x 506 pixels. The images are sized to an aspect ratio of 2:1, meaning for every 2 pixels wide, the image you upload will be 1 pixel tall. Images will appear fully intact in Twitter streams when you create images at 800 x 400 and 1,000 x 500 pixels.
- Cover 1500 x 500
- Profile Photo 400 x 400
- Shared images 506 x 506
Instagram is a lot easier than any other image sizes! Photos in Instagram feed appear at 640 pixels wide by 640 pixels tall and in recent time Instagram is now allowing for square, landscape or portrait images to be posted in your feed. Thumbnail photos on Instagram, on the one hand, appear on your profile page at 161 pixels wide by 161 pixels tall.
- Profile photo 110 x 110
- Square Image in Feed 510 x 510
- Landscape Image in feed 600 x 450
- Portrait image in feed 1080 x 1350
Pinterest is quite complicated as there are a few different places where your pinned images may appear.
- Pinterest feeds have an image width of 235 pixels. Again, the height of the image scales accordingly. Upon clicking the pinned image to expand, the expanded image will have a width of 736 pixels. And same as above, the height is scaled accordingly.
- According to Pinterest, they have suggested that the best aspect ratio for pinned images in their site is between 1:3.5, 2:3 and with a minimum image width of 600 pixels.
As stated in a Pinterest bookmarking tool which can help you discover and save ideas for all your Pinning projects and ideas.
- Profile Photo 165 x 165
- Cover Images for the Boards 1024 x 768
- Pinterest Graphic 735 x 1102
- Infographic 800 x 2000 +
LinkedIn shares and posted articles will always have thumbnail photos that will appear at a maximum image size of 180 x 110 pixels. If you attempt to directly upload an image, this will appear at a maximum width of 350 pixels. The height of the image will always, and I mean always be scaled to fit the ideal image width. Linkedin recently introduced a new way to highlight individual brands pages.
- Profile Photo 400 x 400
- Company Logo 100 60
- Company Banner image 646 x 220
- Career cover photo 974 x 300
Optimizing Images for Search
Let’s admit it. It is a given fact that images are essential for both social media marketing and search visibility. Images are nonetheless a growing popularity when it comes to the social media asset.
There are numerous ways to improve your rankings when it comes to search. Here are the top 6 tips I can help to ensure that your images are SEO (search engine ready):
Image Description
The caption for your image can help search engines associate the image with the keywords you have used in the surrounding text.
- Image description. The caption for your image can help search engines associate the image with the keywords you have used in the surrounding text.
- Image Linking. You can embed links from other pages to the image you are posting to help search engines find the image when Google bot crawls your website.
- Filename. Make sure to save your images with keywords that are associated with your post. This will give accurate information to search engines and readers on the image topic.
- Alt Text. Never forget to add an alt attribute to your image as this is helpful for both search engines and readers. Do not, however, in stuff your alt text with long tail keywords as this will simply eliminate the meaning and usefulness of the image.
- Image Sitemaps. Add image-specific tags to a sitemap that will simply help Google crawl your image and help it appear on search results.
- Using Focus Keywords. A good example is when your image is a flower, it is best that you write the specific name of the flower in your image name and alt text.
Bonus Tip for Image Social Sharing
One of the best ways to gain access to useful images is to get your social network involved. A great idea is to try to run a contest on your website or social media channel to encourage potential clients who are interested in your brand to create images to promote your contest.
I would also recommend that you go forward when you try to optimize more of your digital assets and image content. There are endless possibilities you can to optimizing your image assets and I hope this blog post will be your ultimate guide that will help you grow not only your social visibility but also convert those social engagements into viable leads.
Share your content that shows you’re a giver, not a taker.Click To TweetLastly…
I did create a simple and easy to keep near you a Checklist infographic, which you can PIN for any of your Social Sharing Optimized Sizes.
Just click on Sharing Buttons to Pin! Or you can Pin this!
Vinma says
Great to know about different sizes.. I am trying to understand Pinterest more, so this post definitely helps. Thank you!
Vinma says
Great to know about different sizes.. I am trying to understand Pinterest more, so this post definitely helps. Thank you!
Anna Zubarev says
Glad this was helpful to you Vinma!
and while you’re learning Pinterest, my blog is filled with all the great tips and tricks about that.
Feel free to ask away any question.
Anna Zubarev says
Glad this was helpful to you Vinma!
and while you’re learning Pinterest, my blog is filled with all the great tips and tricks about that.
Feel free to ask away any question.
Janet says
Thanks Anna for this content. I am always trying to figure out what’s the best size for my images. Now I can bookmark this for future reference.
Janet says
Thanks Anna for this content. I am always trying to figure out what’s the best size for my images. Now I can bookmark this for future reference.
Anna Zubarev says
It’s my pleasure to translate my passion to my readers Janet!
Thanks for stopping by and leave your feedback.
Have a great the rest of the weekend!
Anna Zubarev says
It’s my pleasure to translate my passion to my readers Janet!
Thanks for stopping by and leave your feedback.
Have a great the rest of the weekend!