Not so fast!

Did you know that your images affect your SEO and website performance? They definitely do. Constantly adding oversized, heavy images will eventually affect your site. Let’s nip it in the bud now and learn the easiest and fastest way to upload web-optimized images.

1. Check your image size

Photos taken on your phone (sometimes even a screenshot on your desktop!) need to be sized down. You are aiming for around 800 KB or less per image. Remember this will vary depending on the size of each image, but the lighter the photo weight the better!

Right click on your photo and click “Get Info” to check the file size. This screenshot of a photo of me with a book is 2.3 MB! Too big to upload.

2. TinyJPG

TinyJPG.com is my secret weapon for image optimization. It is fast and free as long as you upload 20 images or less and they are under 5 MB. Simply drag and drop your images, wait for them to be optimized, and then download them again. It takes no more than 2 minutes and in my experience gives you high quality, optimized photos.

There are other web compression websites and plugins, but this one is my favorite. If your images are larger than 5 MB, you will need to use a program such as Photoshop or Lightroom to help bring your image size down. (Even then, I still drop them into TinyJPG to get optimum compression!)

Now stop uploading images that are too large, and start compressing! Happy uploading.

The post Image Optimization: TinyJPG appeared first on Binge Studio.

WordPress is used by more than 60 million websites, making it the most popular web builder around. Today it’s used by developers and designers to create large scale commercial websites, online stores, and more. But its initial purpose was the humble blog, which brings us to today’s post: How to Create a Blog Post.

(Over the years I’ve seen too many people create a new Page when they should really be creating a new Post. See my post about Pages vs. Posts for more on that.)

1. Add New

To add a new post, navigate to the main menu on the left-hand side of the page and click “Add New.”

2. Start Writing

Avoid using any page builders when writing a blog post. This will only complicate and add unnecessary hours to your schedule. Use the text editor to either write or paste in your blog post.

3. Title/Permalink

The title, of course, is the title of your post! The permalink is the URL users will see when they visit your post. After the title is filled in, the permalink will populate automatically. This can be edited for various reasons (length, SEO, etc.). Edit if you must, but try not to stray too far from the original blog post title.

4. Excerpt

Many themes today will feature a spot to add an excerpt. This is a small portion of text that serves as a summary for your blog post. Keep it short and use it to inform users of what the post is about.

5. Featured Image

A featured image is the image that appears with the excerpt of your post. It is often seen as a thumbnail in a list of posts. To set it, simply scroll down on the right hand side and click “Set featured image.” To remove it and set it again, click ‘Remove featured image.”

6. Categories/Tags

Each blog post requires at least one category. Starting out, I would create 4-5 general categories for your posts. Tags can be used to get very specific about the content of your posts. Categories are upper-level organization, tags are micro-level organization. Use each tool to help your user find your content.

7. Publishing Options

The publishing box offers several options for how and when you’d like to publish your blog post for the world to see. Let’s talk about your two most important options:

1. The Save Draft button will save your post as a draft. This can be found under All Posts and edited again and again unti you’re ready to make it live.
2. You can either push the Publish button to have your post published immediately, or you can schedule when you would like the post to go live. Simply click “Edit” and choose the date and time. Once you hit Publish, it will go live on your selected date.

These seven steps will get your words to the people quickly and efficiently! As with anything, the more you use WordPress, the more comfortable and natural its interface will become. Now start writing!

The post How to Create a Blog Post appeared first on Binge Studio.