How to Optimize Social Media Images

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How to Optimize Social Media
Images
By Dustin Stout
Published April 2, 2015
Do you create your own images for social
media?
Are you happy with their performance?
With a few simple tweaks, you can optimize
images for greater visibility on social media
and in search engine results.
In this article you’ll find three tips to optimize your social media images for
better online performance.
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Discover how to optimize social media images.
#1: Optimize Images for Social Networks
Every social network has a different way of displaying visual content. Some networks
have restrictions, while others cater to specific dimensions or orientations.
Accordingly, the audiences on each platform have certain expectations for images.
Understanding these expectations boosts the chances that your images will be well-
received and grab the attention of your target audience.
Pinterest
On Pinterest, tall images perform best. The optimal size for images is 735 pixels wide
by 1102 pixels tall.
With Pinterest’s layout, use taller images to grab significantly more screen real
estate than square or landscape images. They also give you more room for eye-
catching visuals and text.
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Pinterest

Tall images perform best on Pinterest.
Instagram
On Instagram, your only option is to use square images. If you’re creating your
images outside of Instagram, make sure they’re at least 900 pixels wide by 900
pixels tall.
I recommend using large image sizes because image quality won’t be affected when
Instagram resizes the image for the device it’s being viewed on.

Instagram uses square images only.
When creating any visual content, bigger is always better. The networks will resize
your images as needed, and there is no quality loss when the image is scaled down. If
your image is too small and needs to be scaled up, there will be a significant loss in
image quality.
Facebook, Google+ and Other Networks
For all other social networks, the optimal choice is to use horizontal images. You’ll
want your images to be 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels tall. This is a perfect 16:9
aspect ratio, which is the same aspect ratio for HDTVs.
For Facebook, square images work fine, but wider images have a more sophisticated
look. Our eyes are accustomed to seeing professional photographs, movies and
television shows in a widescreen format.
On Google+, wider images are likely to go full stream, meaning they may spread
across multiple columns, giving you lots of screen real estate. This is huge—both
literally and figuratively.

On Google+, w ider images sometimes span tw o columns, giving them more exposure.
Think of this multi-column effect as placing a giant billboard right in the middle of your
followers’ streams. This is the best possible exposure you can get on Google+.
Wide images are also perfect for YouTube video thumbnails, making them the most
versatile social images.
With this one image dimension, you can effectively reuse one visual across
multiple social networks.
#2: Optimize Images for SEO
Image-based search engines like Google Images can generate a significant amount of
website traffic. Communicating important details about your images will improve a
search engine’s understanding of your images and boost your image search
performance.

Show ing up in a Google Images search can increase w ebsite traffic.
Follow these simple guidelines to optimize your images for search engines.
File Name
It’s important to have a clear idea of what your keywords are and include them
in the file names of your images. The file names provide information that helps
search engines understand what the images are about.

When naming your image files, separate words with either a hyphen (-) or an
underscore (_). If you simply use spaces, hyphens are likely to be added
automatically.
So before you upload your image anywhere on the Internet, make sure your file name
is appropriate and contains your keywords.

Separate w ords in a file name w ith a hyphen or
an underscore.
File Size
Website speed is a recognized Google search ranking factor, so the speed and
responsiveness of your web pages is important. The fewer bytes a browser has to
download, the faster the browser can download and deliver your content.
Optimizing images often yields significant performance improvements for your website.
If you’re creating images in Photoshop, use the Save for Web and Devices option. If
you’re saving a file as a .jpg (recommended), you can tweak the quality of the image
to reduce the file size. Find a good balance between quality and file size.
If you don’t have access to Photoshop or graphic software that allows you to control

file size and quality, use an image size shrinker. Here are a few suggestions:
Kraken
Smush.it
JPEGmini
Image Optimizer
Compress Now
Regardless of your software, always use lossless compression and avoid what’s
known as lossy compression. Lossless compression maintains all of your image
metadata, and lossy compression usually wipes it out.
Image Details
Google recommends that you supplement a picture’s alt tags (which I’ll get to in a
moment) with additional information in other tags, such as the title tag. All of this
information gives Google a better understanding of the image.
Photoshop makes it easy to add meta data to your images.
If you’re using image editing software such as Photoshop, you can easily add meta

data to every image you create, which is a good habit to get into.
Another way to detail a picture’s properties (on your website) is to use schema
markup for images. This is an effective method of providing specific information
about the content of an image.
The Alt Tag
Because search engines can’t see images, they rely heavily on the information in the
alt tag to help them understand the image.
The alt tag is used as an accessibility tag. It defines what alternative text will be shown
in place of an image when the image itself can’t be displayed. Sometimes an image is
not shown by error, and sometimes by choice (when a person is using a screen
reader, for example).
Alt text appears onscreen w hen a device is unable to display the image.
The recommended length for text in the alt tag is no more than 125 characters. So
keep the text short, be descriptive and remember to include the same
keywords you added to your file name.
WordPress
If you’re uploading an image to a WordPress website, the Media page offers a number
of fields for adding descriptive information. Use this opportunity to communicate
additional information that will help search engines better understand your image.

Add descriptive data w hen uploading images to a WordPress w ebsite.
This information includes:
Title (maximum of 60 characters)
Description (maximum of 155 characters)
Caption (optional)
Alt tag (maximum of 125 characters)
Depending on your content management system, you may not have these same
options. In that case you can look at the raw text version of the page you’re creating
and add the alt and title tags yourself.
#3: Streamline Image Creation
The best way to streamline image creation is to use predefined image templates.
This way you don’t have to fuss with sizing and setting up guidelines every time you
create visual content.

Use image templates to save time w hen creating social images.
Using the three predefined dimensions above is also helpful when a team of people is
creating visual content. If they’re all working from the same templates, the image sizes
will be consistent.
With templates, you don’t have to waste precious time trying to find the exact pixel
dimensions of every display scenario.
Conclusion
The more you practice these image optimization methods, the easier they’ll become
and the more momentum you’ll build with your visual content.
Have you used any of these image optimization techniques? Which tactics
work best for you? I’d love to hear and respond to your feedback in the comments
below!

Related Posts
Tags: create image, create social media image, dustin w stout, image tool, optimize image, social media image, social media
image optimization, social media image tip
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Dustin Stout
Trained actor turned digital strategist and CMO of Weal Media.
Currently teaching individuals and brands how to tell more
compelling stories online through branding, design, social media and
digital marketing. Othe r pos ts by Dustin Stout »
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Content to Drive More
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44 Comments Social Media Examiner
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Join the discussion…
• Reply •
Crystal-Marie • 2 days ago
Agree with all of these except the Pinterest dimensions. Hogging real estate may seem like a good idea, but it doesn't
translate well on all devices and it can frustrate the end user to deal with several of these in a row. Love the
'streamline through templates' and 'optimize for Google' tips. More conscientious of these, now.
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Crystal-Marie
Thanks for the feedback @Crystal-Marie! Actually this pinterest image size should be optimal for most
smart phones. And when I studied this particular dimension usage, click-throughs are what I was after as
testament of whether or not the idea was good. Based on the data I was able to gather (and seeing it's affect
on my own site, which I recently wrote about) click-throughs and overall Pinterest traffic was astounding!
Hope you find the workflow that works best for you!
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• Reply •
Christian Karasiewicz • 2 days ago
Great post Dustin! I was looking forward to reading this after you mentioned it to me last week. I especially love the
advice at the end - practice.
Right now, this might seem like a lot of work for people but the more you do something, the faster you get at it and
the more it becomes second-nature over time to where you don't have to think about it.
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Christian Karasiewicz
Absolutely right @Christian Karasiewicz! If you want to win in the online world it's going to take consistent
effort. No free lunch! :D
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• Reply •
Crystal-Marie • 2 days ago
Cool. Thanks for sharing, Dustin.
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• Reply •
Ben Requena • 2 days ago
It's important to distinguish between "most efficient" and "most effective" when discussing optimizing images. It is
certainly more time efficient to create your images in the fewest sizes as necessary, but that doesn't mean the
resulting median sizes are the most effective.
If you take a look at Post Planner's Viral Post feed you'll see that very few of the most popular photos on Facebook
are sized to the horizontal 16:9 ratio that is mentioned above.
This is because using an optimal image size isn't a prerequisite for success, great content is.
However using an efficient image size does give you the ability to create and publish more visual content across
multiple platforms in less time and if the quality of that content is moderate then the sheer quantity could drive decent
results. But if the quality of the content is exceptional, using an optimal image size like those listed above could be a
massive accelerant to your success.
Disclaimer: Dustin and I are peers in the visual social media space.
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Ben Requena
If I'm hearing you right, you're saying that quality is likely the most important factor. For most of us, that's a
no-brainer. In fact, I think few would disagree with that. (Though I do know a few highly successful
entrepreneurs who put quantity first, and it's worked out great for them.)
What this post aims to solve for people is how to set up a framework that makes the creation process both
efficient and effective on more levels than just "it looks good". For me and the clients I've served, whether the
image is 16:9 or 2:1 hasn't made a difference in Facebook metrics, but having 3 go-to templates has saved
them countless hours, which directly affects the bottom line of any business. That's a measurable ROI.
So... I guess you need to first define what success is for your business/brand and align your content creation
processes and products to meet those goals.
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• Reply •
Ben Requena • 2 days ago> Dustin W. Stout
Thanks for the reply D. That's pretty much what I'm saying. :)
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• Reply •
Liz • 2 days ago
Thank you for the updated image size information! I'm glad I can make one image for many platforms....its helping to
streamline my efforts for sure. Love all that you contribute!
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Liz
My pleasure @Liz! Glad you found it helpful! :D
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• Reply •
Hassaan Khan • 2 days ago
Dustin,
Great Post. Especially for those who are starting up and never look seriously towards image-optimization. Even, I
haven't added captions to my WordPress Post images since I started off, I've been using this CMS for last 6 years,
but I'll next time. I know caption is an optional thing, but some optional things shouldn't ignored.
Right?
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Hassaan Khan
Absolutely! Always try and give the user (and Google) as much information as you can, as long as it's
relevant and aids in communicating the message. :D
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• Reply •
Yosh • 2 days ago
Great post! I'm going to implement these techniques starting today. Thanks!
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Yosh
Awesome @Yosh! Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
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• Reply •
Ronnie Bincer • 2 days ago
Great article on optimizing images for social media Dustin. I really like your suggestions on using good keywords for
all the aspects of image creation that help the search engines (and people) understand the images better.
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Ronnie Bincer
Thanks @Ronnie Bincer! Hope it helps all your future visual creations! ;)
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• Reply •
Sara • 2 days ago
What if you are creating images in Canva? How can you optimize them other than the file name?
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Sara
If you're using Canva, there aren't as many options. However, you can still optimize the file name and once
you download the image you can put it through an image optimizer such as the ones I listed in the article.
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• Reply •
Ben Requena • 2 days ago
Another thing I'd recommend our mutual audience keep in mind is how their images will appear on mobile devices.
The 16:9 size is very versatile if you're posting across multiple social platforms but it is nearly half the pixel area of a
square of equal width.
On desktops (Facebook & Google+) this doesn't make much of a difference because of how each social network
resizes images in an attempt to display images equally. However it is especially noticeable on small screens like
smartphones where those same social networks do not handle images the same way on mobile as they do on
desktop.
For example, a 1280(w) x 720(h) image posted to Facebook or Google+ and viewed on an iPhone (5s) is almost 1/3
the size of a 400(w) x 600(h) image.
So if there is a correlation between maximum screen real estate and engagement rate perhaps the optimal image
sizes for desktop and mobile aren't the same.
And with around 30% of ALL active Facebook users ONLY using Facebook on their phones, this is pretty important
for everyone to consider when creating any visual content.
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Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Ben Requena
Good point. But Facebook is ONE medium. And the majority of the brands I work with realize that it's not the
most important medium. You seem to be highly interested in Facebook-- and that's fine-- but the conversation
is much larger than that one medium.
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• Reply •△ ▽
• Reply •
Ben Requena • a day ago> Dustin W. Stout
I referenced Google+ as well which has ~25 Million unique mobile users every month. But you're
absolutely right that the conversation is so much bigger than one network or one screen size.
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • a day ago> Ben Requena
Right, you did! My bad. And where'd you get that number from? lol - it's WAY off!
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• Reply •
Ben Requena • a day ago> Dustin W. Stout
It's from Nielsen and admittedly it's from 2013, approximately a millennium in internet
years. Which means the number of monthly Google+ mobile users is probably higher
and thus creating images for mobile more important, right? ;)~
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • a day ago> Ben Requena
Haha! Yea, I'd be willing to bet that number is just a tad outdated. And... it depends on
your audience and goals. After numerous tests and loads of data, I found that wider
images get higher views, more shares, and more click-throughs than the other sizes.
So go ahead and test yourself and see what results you get!
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• Reply •
Amandah Tayler Blackwell • 2 days ago
Nice post!
I optimize file image names. I'll use Canva and don't have to worry about the image sizes because they've taken care
of this. The one tip I missed was optimizing photos while in Photoshop. Doh! Lesson learned.
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Jamie • a day ago
This article refers to situations in which you are uploading an image to a social platform, and it does a good job of
that case. But the issue that most troubles me at the moment concerns the creation of a blog post image in such a
way that it will look good when other people pin it to a Pinterest board, share it on Facebook, etc. Since I can only use
one image on my blog, how can I optimize the dimensions so that it will look good on the shared platform?
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• Reply •
My current thinking is to focus on Pinterest, since that is where the image itself matters most, but I've noticed that
most bloggers make their main image horizontal rather than vertical, suggesting Facebook is a bigger concern.
Or perhaps I'm totally confused about the whole subject!?
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • a day ago> Jamie
You're not confused at all Jamie! I expect you just haven't seen enough good solutions to the problem of "how
do I create a blog post image that looks good on my blog AND on Pinterest?"
I talked about that in my recent Pinterest article - http://dustn.tv/increase-pinte.... If you use the templates I've
made you can easily create the same graphic in two different sizes. I use a plugin (which I helped to create)
that allows me to upload a separate Pinterest specific image that only appears when someone hits the "Pin"
button on my blog.
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• Reply •
Ben Requena • a day ago> Jamie
Hey Jamie. Dustin's WordPress social sharing plugin called "Social Warfare" is what you need. You can
specify different images to be used for each social network. Horizontal for Facebook, Google+, Twitter,
LinkedIn and then a Vertical image for Pinterest. Works like a charm.
I'd link directly to the plugin but comments with links go into pending and sometimes take awhile to publish. :/
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• Reply •
Jamie • a day ago> Ben Requena
Hey Ben, thanks very much. I'll check it out right away. One question about this plugin though. Are the
images selected from the blog page or can I upload arbitrary images to the plugin so that they are not
displayed on the blog page itself?
Thanks again for your advice!
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• Reply •
The later. You upload the images to your media library and select which applies to which
social network. You don't have to place the images within your blog post. Easy-peasy.
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Jamie • a day ago> Ben Requena
Wow! Why haven't I heard of this plugin before? Is this what most internet marketers
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• Reply •
are doing?
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• Reply •
It's relatively new but I noticed quite a few SM bloggers picked it up right away.
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• Reply •
Jamie • 21 hours ago> Ben Requena
Looks like I got excited too soon. First I didn't realize it was a paid plugin, so it took me
a while to find it. I bit the bullet and paid for it ($24/yr) only to install it and find I couldn't
get it to work. Some registration glitch or something. I tried contacting support but I
don't even get an acknowledgment of my support request. Not impressed so far I'm
afraid!
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 17 hours ago> Jamie
Hey Jamie! I'll go in and find your support ticket myself. We're a small team (3 of us)
and we don't automate our support system.
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• Reply •
Jamie • 13 hours ago> Dustin W. Stout
Thanks for the offer Dustin but I still haven't heard anything from anybody. Looks like a
cool plugin but at that price I expect it to be supported.
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 12 hours ago> Jamie
That's interesting Jamie, I went in to find your order and couldn't find your name. I also
looked through our emails and couldn't find anything from you. Feel free to contact me
privately so I can take care of your needs.
△ ▽
Jamie • 12 hours ago> Dustin W. Stout
OK, I have used your About Me link at the bottom of this article to contact you with the
full name and email I used to purchase the plugin, so I very much look forward to a
response.
I realize this is the wrong place to deal with support issues, but if you don't respond to
support emails and don't offer a public FB support page, there's not much else I can do
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• Reply •
except complain to PayPal about an unfulfilled order, which I'd prefer not to do.
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• Reply •
JoAnne Funch • a day ago
Dan, what a fantastic article. I had just started learning the value in optimized images for my website during a recent
web redesign, you just confirmed how important this is, so thank you!
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 16 hours ago> JoAnne Funch
You're quite welcome JoAnne! :D
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• Reply •
Salman Sharif • a day ago
Thanks Dustin for this amazing guide about optimizing images, but there is a thing that I would like to share with you.
Descriptive Alt text seems to have worked quite good for me as compared to two/three words alt text people typically
use
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 16 hours ago> Salman Sharif
Yep, being descriptive is always best rather than just keyword stuffing.
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• Reply •
Clarence Alvares • a day ago
Thank you for sharing your insights @Dustin W. Stout....will try and see how this works out for me...cheers!
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 16 hours ago> Clarence Alvares
Awesome Clarence! To your success!
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• Reply •
Dustin W. Stout • 2 days ago> Guest
Awesome! Glad you liked it! Templates have helped cut my creation time tremendously.
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