Featured image wordpress what is

For example, you can go with realistic images:. You can even use certain colors , or focus on particular subjects. However, make sure that if you have multiple authors writing posts, everyone is clear on the style for your featured images. Alternately, you could put one team member in charge of finding and editing a WordPress featured image for each new post. This makes it a lot easier to ensure they all look good when placed next to one another.

To save time, you can create a template with Canva that you use for each post. This brings us to our final tip. The answer is to optimize each WordPress featured image , before uploading it to your site or during the upload process. Plus, with the right tool, you can compress images without a noticeable reduction in their quality.

Featured images are a vital WordPress feature, one any blog owner can benefit from becoming familiar with. Adding a WordPress featured image to each post or article helps you visually represent the content for your readers. It can even be an essential part of your branding strategy. Adding featured images in WordPress is simple. Do you have any questions about the best way to use featured images on your blog or website?

Ask in the comments section below! Image credits: Pxhere , Wikimedia Commons. All Rights Reserved. Where to Find Suitable Images Take care when selecting images to use on your website.

This is what we use for the WPBeginner site. Unsplash , a popular online resource publishing high-resolution images that you can use on your website and other projects. Negative Space , a well-organized collection of copyright-free images. New Old Stock , a collection of vintage photographs from public archives.

Download Now. Featured in. Again, this is easy to do in WordPress — let's learn how. To change the sizes of your featured image, the first place you should look is your theme. Many themes add their own featured image dimensions to be used in place of the WordPress defaults. Check the options under the Appearance tab in your WordPress admin dashboard, and look for options to toggle the featured image size within your specific theme.

If no option exists in your theme settings, you can change the default featured image size in your WordPress settings. Default image sizes are only applied when you upload images to WordPress, so the new dimensions will only apply to images uploaded after you change these settings.

To resize your old images to the latest specifications, re-upload them manually or use the Regenerate Thumbnails WordPress plugin to handle this for you. Also, consider cropping featured images to the WordPress thumbnail dimensions before uploading to avoid issues with auto-cropping. But, again, some experimentation will probably be necessary here to achieve a good fit. Featured images have the potential to attract not only readers but search engines too. You just need the right alternative text and title.

The chances of your content showing up in search results is higher if you use clear alt texts containing relevant keywords. Similarly, putting relevant keywords in the featured image title also helps search engines index your pages. Note that all non-decorative images on your website should have alternative text and descriptive titles, not just your featured images.

For most WordPress websites, featured images are a no-brainer. They engage and inform your visitors, unify your brand, provide a professional look, boost SEO, and increase the overall value of your website for your leads and customers.

It might sound nit-picky, but the look, layout, and meta-details of your featured images matter a lot. How can you show the value of your content if you don't nail the first photo? Editor's note: This post was originally published in July and has been updated for comprehensiveness. Originally published Nov 9, AM, updated November 09 Logo - Full Color.

Contact Sales. Overview of all products. By default, every WordPress installation works with just four image sizes:. Once you upload a new image, WordPress will store the original file without modifications done to it.

After the data transfer, the system will take that original file and make all the extra dimensions that you have set up in the Media Settings.

It can also add a few extra sizes that are registered by the theme that you are using which might not be visible in the media settings.

The thumbnail image is somewhat unique. It is squared, and no matter the dimension you have set, WordPress will center on the portion of the picture and crop it to get needed dimensions.

Some themes may use this preset as a featured image. When it comes to medium and large sizes, WordPress works a little bit different. These are usually images that you will use inside posts and pages. The alternative would be having the same image size throughout your site or designers would have to work much harder to set the dimensions of each and every image through the code. This option would also make it much more difficult to customize.

Imagine how much time would you need to open every file in a photo editor, set a custom dimension, and then upload it to WordPress? Do you know that WordPress themes can use the same image in several different dimensions depending on the location? No one would have time for that. Obviously, not all WordPress themes use the same featured image size. So, when switching between themes or simply when you want to modify one to your needs and likings, you might want to adjust the featured image size.

Maybe a smaller size will look better an accentuate the title? Maybe you want your featured image to be wider? We are about to show you a fantastic free plugin that will help you. Before installing any additional plugins, you should thoroughly check your theme settings. In the last few years, theme developers have been allowing modifications of many theme features.

So, depending on a theme that you have, there is a chance for finding a featured image size option right in the theme settings. Also, some themes will have additional settings that can usually be found in the Appearance menu. When you install Simple Image Sizes, the basic media settings that we just talked about will instantly get expanded.

The plugin will recognize all other image sizes from the currently active theme, and it will also allow you to create custom sizes on your own. Here you can easily set a custom width and height for featured images. For example, a theme might show featured image on the front page, single posts and some widgets as well. In that case, three sizes would be needed to make the best out of the feature. Depending on how you want to personalize the featured image, change settings accordingly.

Usually, when changing image dimensions, WordPress makes changes just to the new ones that you are about to upload. But what about the old ones that you are already using? Fortunately, the developer of Simple Images Size was kind enough to introduce a feature that will fix this problem. On the same Media Settings page, just scroll down through the list of image dimensions.

You will find a Thumbnail Regeneration feature that lets you select which thumbnails you want to rebuild. If you want even more control over thumbnails, scroll a little bit more and select a post type on which you want to rebuild. While setting up the new image dimensions is quite easy with Simple Image Sizes, be careful when modifying your pictures. But note that there are sites with hundred thousands of images.