Step 8 Add Photos and Featured Image

Task Library

Add real photos – never stock – and set a unique featured image so the article carries visual proof instead of decoration (Blog Posting Guidelines Step 8).

Category: Content Factory – Process

Use this when the article text is complete through the hook (Step 7) and needs its imagery before linking and embedding.

Inputs

  • The drafted article
  • Real image sources: stills from the source video, client/job-site photos, screenshots of real dashboards or results, event photos from the Content Library
  • Image editing/compression tool access
  • The brand's WordPress media conventions (file naming, alt text)

Steps

  1. Inventory image needs: every major section should have a relevant visual; no text-only stretch should span a full viewport (per the Website QA Audit content checks).
  2. Pull candidates from real sources only – video stills, the client's actual photos, screenshots of the actual work. Stock photography is banned: it signals fake experience and fails the audit.
  3. Choose or create a unique featured image for this post. Never reuse another post's featured image; uniqueness is checked at audit.
  4. Crop and compress every image for sub-3-second mobile load (web-sized files, not camera originals).
  5. Name files descriptively (marko-sipila-hvac-quote-jobsite.jpg, not IMG_2041.jpg).
  6. Write descriptive alt text for every image – what is actually shown, useful to a screen reader, naturally including the keyword only where true.
  7. Place images at the sections they evidence; add captions where a sentence of context helps (who, where, what result).
  8. Update the tracker ("Step 8 done") and hand off to step-9-add-internal-links-with-proper-anchor-text.

Definition of done (QA checklist)

  • Zero stock images – every photo traceable to the real person, job, or screen
  • Featured image is unique to this post
  • Every image has descriptive alt text
  • Files descriptively named and compressed for mobile speed
  • No full-viewport text-only sections remain
  • Linked back to the definitive article and relevant siblings

Example(s)

  • The no-stock and unique-featured-image rules are enforced on every run at /blog-posting-guidelines and re-verified by /website-qa-audit checks.
  • Example needed as a standalone meta-article – run the Meta-Article Prompt after first documented run.

File in the zip: skills/content-factory-process/step-8-add-photos-and-featured-image.md. Download the Task Library zip.

Index: Task Library. Article guidelines.

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