What Is a Featured Image? How to Set It Up for SEO

Besides optimizing the title and meta description, the Featured Image is also an important part of drawing viewers' attention so they click into the post. So what is Featured Image, and how do you set up an SEO-friendly Featured Image ? That is a question many people ask. In the article below, MONA Media will share a detailed, up-to-date guide on how to set it up.

What is Featured Image?

Featured Image is the image that represents a blog post, a website article or a custom post type. Among them, Post Thumbnail is the most common kind. It is an important concept because it catches the attention of visitors right away, before they read the post content.

When you click a representative image in a post (Thumbnail) the featured image also appears in the most prominent position, usually at the top of the content. Besides representing the content clearly, a featured image is closely tied to the whole theme and supported by it. However, each theme displays it differently and uses different sizes.

How to set up an SEO-friendly Featured Image

Add a Featured Image to a regular post

After finishing create a post in WordPress, you can start by adding a Featured Image before you publish the post to readers. The steps are simple:

• Step 1: Open the admin page of WordPress.
• Step 2: Click the Post button on the right and then click “Add New Post”.
  • The Featured Image panel will appear in the right corner of the screen.
  • If you can't find it, click the Screen Options button in the right corner of the screen.
  • Next, tick the Featured Image box and click “Set featured image“. A Media Library window will open for you to add an image.
• Step 3: Choose an image already in the WordPress media library, or use the “Upload Files” button to upload an image from your computer.
• Step 4: Choose the right file, fill in the requested information such as Caption, Alt text and Description, and click “Set Featured Image” in the right corner.

Use the first image in a post as the WordPress Featured Image

Instead of spending a lot of time choosing, editing and adjusting images, you can also use the first image in the post as the Featured Image. There are several ways to set this up.

Use code to create a Featured Image from the post's first image

• Step 1: Open the functions.php file and insert the code below above or below the file's existing code.

• Step 2: Go to index.php and content.php (if the post has a thumbnail image) and add this code: <img src=”<?php%20echo%20catch_that_image()%20?>” />

Plugins that make the first image in a post the featured image

Besides the methods above, you can also use the following plugins to take a post's first image as the Featured Image in WordPress.

Auto Post Thumbnail

Auto Post Thumbnailallows posts to choose a featured image automatically, whether you copy an image from another site or upload one from your computer. This plugin automatically sets a featured image for posts, saving time and reducing manual steps. When you use it, the system automatically links the post's first image to the Featured Image, so you don't need to do anything else.

What is Autoset Featured Image?

Like Auto Post Thumbnail, Autoset Featured Image works on a very simple, stable and convenient automatic mechanism, and errors rarely happen.

Video Thumbnails

This is a plugin for websites that share videos. With it, you can upload videos quickly, and it supports the major video sites worldwide. It can also automatically capture a video's thumbnail image in the post as the Featured Image.

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How to change the Featured Image size in WordPress

Many people run into trouble when adding a Featured image. They feel the image doesn't look as good as the demo image. But keep in mind that each theme has different image size requirements. To get the best result, adjust your Featured Image size to match the theme's specified dimensions.

However, you can still change the Featured Image size in WordPress by using the theme's functions.php file or a plugin. Below is an effective plugin method you can use as a reference:

• Step 1: Download and install the plugin Simple Image Sizes
• Step 2: Go to “Settings”, then click “Media”.
• Step 3: Fill in the values under “featued_image_size” hay “thumbnail size”.

With this plugin, users can change the default image sizes of a WordPress website. Simple Image Sizes is simpler and easier than editing the theme's functions.php file.

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Other plugins that support Featured Image in WordPress

Quick Featured Images

Quick Featured Images is a plugin that saves time and effort when managing post images. It lets users automatically pick a featured image from images already in the post. You can also edit and add featured images automatically, or add new images in bulk.

Drag & Drop Featured Image

Drag & Drop is a plugin that replaces the default metabox and lets you upload images faster and more conveniently. You can drag the images you have chosen into the “Drop” box to save time.

Regenerate Thumbnails

Regenerate Thumbnails is one of the most important plugins for your website. When you update your website, you need this plugin to regenerate all the thumbnail images of older posts so they fit the new theme.

Featured Image Reminder

Featured Image Reminder works like a “reminder”. When a post has no featured image or the user forgot to add one, it shows a pop-up window right before they click the “Publish” button.

We hope what MONA has shared about what Featured Image is and and how to set up a proper Featured Image SEO will help you see how important it is to every post on your website. Choosing and optimizing images properly not only increases traffic, it is also a strategy that many keyword SEO companies use to improve the content quality of a website effectively.